%20(Webrip)%20(The%20Last%20Kryptonian-DCP)-0171.jpg "Absolute Batman")
Absolute Batman #1
You absolutely have to buy it.
Scott Snyder writer | Nick Dragotta artist
Frank Martin colourist | Clayton Cowles letterer
Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson creators
DC Comics, October 2024
DC Comics’ new Absolute line takes its three most iconic characters and has top talent reimagine them, but keep the same framework. Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta have given fans a far more identifiable, grounded Batman for the our time (and an undeniable homage to Frank Miller‘s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns).
To start, Bruce Wayne isn’t an philantropic industrialist with an unending supply of cash and high-tech. He’s an engineer and the son of a murdered school teacher, living in a simple apartment in Gotham, He’s also far more imposing, bulkier, more stern than the DCU’s Bruce Wayne.
Scott Snyder has laid the groundwork for a totally new take on Batman, his supporting cast, and rogues gallery (which we won’t give away here). All the same, he does pay homage to Frank Miller‘s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (read our tribute here) in setting up Absolute Batman’s Gotham City.
Gotham is under siege by a well-financed gang of psychopaths called The Party Animals. Panels of TV newscasters giving headlines of the gang’s atrocities: an unmistakeable nod to the Dark Knight mini-series. However, that’s where Absolute Batman‘s connection to the past ends.
Snyder has made Alfred Pennyworth a far more compelling, necessary character.
Alfred as a tough, crafty, grizzled operative for a secret organization with its own agenda is a much more relevant than a butler. Instead of a father figure, he enters Batman’s world as an adversary. Again, we won’t spoil it here.
One the things that really makes Absolute Batman an absolute hit is Snyder‘s much tighter scripting. The pages aren’t full of cramped word-balloons or lengthy captions which made the New 52 Batman series laboursome to read.
Snyder is economical and concise and allows Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin show the story he’s telling. Dragotta I first saw in his and Jonathan Hickman‘s sci-fi, western-fantasy series East Of West.
Dragotta has a clean, kinetic line with just enough detail. His Batman is huge, but athletic and fast – plus, he’s bad-ass. Take a look at the page below. This is THE page that tells us Absolute Batman will be one of the most talked-about Batman series for years to come.
You absolutely have to buy it. We got our copy at Myth’s, Legends, And Heroes in Canada’s national capital. Find your LCS on Comic Shop Locator.
