In Absolute Batman #1, we meet a very different Bruce Wayne, Agent Alfred Pennyworth, and a slew of rogues in this new “Absolute Universe.”
Absolute Batman #1 main cover by Nick Dragotta. Image: DC Comics
Absolute Batman #1
Writer: Scott Snyder
Art and Main Cover: Nick Dragotta
Colors: Frank Martin
Variant Covers: Wes Craig, Jim Lee, Mitch Gerads
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Page Count: 48 pages
Release Date: October 9, 2024
A new version of our dear Dark Knight is here as Scott Synder and Nick Dragotta’s hotly anticipated Absolute Batman arrives! Are you ready? Absolutely!
We open with a young Bruce Wayne at the zoo looking at a sign about a bat exhibit. That leads to a voiceover of a man riding a motorcycle on his return to Gotham City, talking about how much he has missed it but notices a big change in the city. He takes his helmet off, and it is Alfred Pennyworth with a salt-and-pepper beard.
This Alfred is a secret agent of some kind. Think of an older James Bond who was given orders to run surveillance on a gang known as the Party Animals. He was also given orders to engage with another figure who has been circling the gang as well.
Next, we head to Croc’s Gym and meet our new Bruce Wayne. This Bruce Wayne is built like a 6’8 NFL tight end. He is putting a beating on the punching bag while thinking back to that day at the zoo. He remembers having a conversation with his father, in this world his teacher, on a field trip with the rest of his class. They talk about seeing a movie later that night before hearing gunshots.
Bruce talks to Waylon Jones (known as Killer Croc in other DC Universes), who owns the gym. They are old friends, and Waylon is trying to get Bruce to come to poker tonight. Eddie, Harvey, Oz, and Selina are in, but Bruce refuses and hurries off.
Cut to Black Mask talking to a Mr. Maroni and a Mr. Falcone. Maroni and Falcone are telling him about the order and the way things are done in Gotham. Black Mask shows them his “death masks” and lets them know he has two more spots just for the two of them and promptly kills them.
Mayor Jim Gordon is holding a town hall with angry citizens. They are angry because of the terror these Party Animals are giving to the city. Alfred is there, and he sees the Animals about to barge into the town hall and asks to engage. Alfred’s superiors tell him he is only there to observe.
Gordon is shot at while his daughter Barbara, a cop, stands alongside. Batman shows up in a great splash page, leaping towards the Party Animals. Batman’s cape acts as a rope almost as he slings it around a criminal’s neck and tosses him through a window. Alfred watches and studies as Batman takes off the ears on his cowl and uses them as a Batarang and mini swords. Alfred also thinks about how he is not killing anyone but is still able to clean house. A bigger thug with a hatchet comes up ready to kill Batman. Batman takes some type of handle and then attaches his chest emblem on it and turns that into an ax (BAD ASS). Batman then chops the thugs hand off! The rest of the gang starts to run away, but Batman sets off bombs to cause them to get captured. Alfred attempts to engage, but Batman kicks him in the chest.
The next day, Alfred has figured out that Batman is Bruce Wayne. He tells us his backstory. Twenty-four years old, social worker mom, teacher dad, and grew up in Crime Alley. No Manor, no billionaire playboy. We are told that Bruce won his class a trip to the zoo due to a science project. We flash back to the day at the zoo as a gunman is murdering people. Thomas Wayne rushes Bruce and his friends into the bat exhibit before he is killed.
Bruce ends up going to college to play football but gets injured and stops. Alfred thinks he faked the injury. Alfred tails Bruce all the way to his meeting his mother.
Alfred confronts Bruce in his lair. Batman modifies a gun he stole from Alfred earlier and shoots him in the face with a bunch of mini-batarangs before he rides out of the high-rise building in a motorcycle.
We have an epilogue, which sees Alfred’s old target being lost and on the run. He is a man that goes by many names, such as Jack and Arthur, but they only call him Joker because he never laughs…
Absolute Batman #1 variant cover by Wes Craig. Image: DC Comics
I admit, I was skeptical of this new Absolute Universe that DC Comics is putting together. Batman has been around for over 85 years, and people like their Batman a certain way and usually any changes from that norm can be met with eyerolls. But this worked for me. It didn’t feel like an Elseworlds tale, like so many other different takes on Batman, and it felt surprisingly new and refreshing.
There are a lot of characters that we know stuffed into these pages, but each one is turned about one or two degrees the other way. Scott Snyder sets up a lot on the table. Agent Alfred, Bruce being friends with what would be his rogues gallery in another universe, and more.
Nick Dragotta’s Batman looked weird to me in those early images, but seeing him in action worked. The cape and the chest ax are very new. New twists on classic things. I love how Snyder included the part of Bruce being a former football player. It’s a small touch that I appreciated that sometimes can be overlooked in comic books.
