The following contains spoilers for Batman #126, on sale now from DC.
The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, a bizarre backup personality Bruce Wayne designed for himself in times of crisis, makes an unexpected resurgence in the final pages of Batman #126.
Most of Batman #126 sees the Dark Knight taking a severe beating from Failsafe, a mysterious mechanical foe who easily overpowers most of the Bat Family and gives Bruce a concussion. After Tim Drake helps Bruce escape via Batmobile to the Batcave, Bruce remembers that the word "Failsafe" is familiar to him, yet he can't remember the exact details. Asking Tim to leave him alone, Bruce retreats to a dark corner of the Batcave, sheds his costume and leans over a trunk. When he next emerges, he's clad in the fanciful colors of his Zur-En-Arrh suit and brandishing a decidedly more aggressive personality.
Who is the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh?
The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh originally debuted as an obscure Silver Age character in the story "Batman -- The Superman of Planet X", which appeared in 1958's Batman #113. Written by France Herron and penciled by Dick Sprang, the tale was a fanciful romp which saw the Dark Knight teleported to the planet Zur-En-Arrh. There, he met a local Batman wearing a purple, red and yellow costume who asked for his help in repelling alien robots. Blessed with incredible abilities in Zur-En-Arrh's atmosphere, Batman defeats the robots via flying and super strength, taking inspiration from Superman. The story ends on an ambiguous note, with Batman wondering if he dreamt the whole experience.
Grant Morrison penned his epic "Batman R.I.P." storyline decades later, which took inspiration from a number of Silver Age stories, including Batman #113. Morrison revised the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh as a split personality Bruce Wayne fashioned for himself in the rare event he was ever mind-controlled or brainwashed. The personality was defined by its unhinged, colorful manner and the phrase "Zur-En-Arrh" was a slurred memory of a sentence Bruce's father Thomas Wayne said after watching The Mark of Zorro: "The sad thing is they'd probably throw someone like Zorro in Arkham."
Over the course of "Batman R.I.P.," Batman used the Zur-En-Arrh personality to recover after he was mentally manipulated by Doctor Hurt. The personality's more sadistic sides were tempered by Bat-Mite, another fragment of Bruce's psyche inspired by the comic relief character of the '50s. Considering the nature of Failsafe -- who appears to be some sort of mechanical creation from Bruce's earlier crimefighting days -- it appears the Zur-En-Arrh persona is needed once again.
Batman #126 comes from writer Chip Zdarsky, artist Jorge Jiménez, colorist Tomeu Morey and letterer Clayton Cowles, with cover art by Jiménez and variant cover art by Jock, In-Hyuk Lee, Alex Garner, Guillem March and Arif Prianto. The issue is on sale now from DC Comics.
Source: DC