Warning: Spoilers for Batman #130 ahead!Batman's crest - a black bat over a golden circle - is a cultural icon, but recent events have given the symbol a deeper, more sinister meaning. Rather than a symbol of hope or a way to draw enemy fire, the golden background is actually a reminder of Zur-En-Arrh: the violent identity Batman once buried in his head as a fallback should he ever fall prey to a psychological attack.
Zur-En-Arrh has a tumultuous history in the DC Universe, starting as the Batman of a distant planet in the Silver Age of comics before being retconned into an alternate personality for Bruce Wayne based on one of the last things his father said ("they'd probably throw someone like Zorro in Arkham"). During the storyline "I Am a Gun" by Chip Zdarsky, Batman cultivates this alternate personality into his mind, with disastrous results: he begins blacking out, and his more violent impulses start taking over. A tense encounter with the Joker proves to be too much, and the personality fully takes control.
In "I am a Gun: Finale" by Chip Zdarsky, Leonardo Romero, Jordie Bellaire, Clayton Cowles and Dave Wielgosz, we see just how far down the Zur-En-Arrh personality has suppressed Bruce's morals: it tells him to kill the Joker, to kill every criminal, until "the threat of death sends them scurrying like the cowards they are." It's only through the memory of his mother's kindness that Batman is able to pull himself back from the brink, and although he regains control and ultimately spares the Joker, he's visibly shaken by the encounter through the rest of the issue. Although Bruce modifies the Zur-En-Arrh personality to never cross those lines again, Robin notices that Batman has added a yellow background to his symbol - a design shared by the Zur-En-Arrh outfit. In Bruce's words, it serves as a reminder that "there's something lurking behind the bat."
DC Confirms The Violence Behind the Bat Symbol.
This plot twist is very cleverly implemented. The first appearance of The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh was in 1958, in Sheldon Moldoff, Charles Paris, Pat Gordon and Jack Schiff's Batman #113; it's shortly after this in 1960 that Batman's primary design began using the black-and-yellow logo. With Zur-En-Arrh retconned into being Batman's alternate personality, DC perfectly threads the needle in presenting Batman as having adopted this logo shortly after first dealing with the brutality of this new personality.
Although Batman tells Robin that the yellow behind the bat is to draw enemy fire (a trope justifying many ridiculous costumes) to the heavier parts of his armor, we now know that it serves as a reminder of the truly brutal rage that lurks in Bruce's mind. The cheerful, Silver-Age smile that Zur-En-Arrh wears as he talks about killing as many people as it takes is downright terrifying - and that dark impulse is now always behind the drive for justice that the bat is meant to symbolize. Batman has always struggled with his worst impulses, but the chilling meaning behind his symbol makes it a sinister reminder of just how close he is to snapping on any given day.
Batman #130 is now available from DC Comics.