In this review of Absolute Batman #7, Bruce’s next mission takes him to a place drawing tons of power from Gotham’s power grid — the place known as Ark-M.
Absolute Batman #7 main cover by Nick Dragotta (DC Comics)
Absolute Batman # 7
Writer: Scott Synder
Artist: Marcos Martin
Main Cover: Nick Dragotta
Variant Covers: MICO SUAYAN, BILL SIENKIEWICZ, AMY REEDER, CHARLIE ADLARD
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: April 9, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Absolute Batman #7, the beginning of the next arc of Absolute Batman’s journey, starts off with flashback as young Victor Fries is driving through the Tanzia Rainforest with his father as they are leaving the rainforest to see an iceberg that has more life in it than the rainforest. Victor’s eyes widen as his father shouts “What’s wrong?!”
Cut to the present day as we see Waylon, Ozzie, Harvey, and Eddie remembering a friend of theirs nicknamed Matches Malone. He was a street tough kid who was “crazy” as Ozzie puts it who just got out of Blackgate. Waylon asks who saw him last and Bruce suddenly shows up and says he saw him last.
Bruce meets with Matches as Matches is getting him work papers so Bruce can work on the Ark M project and get an inside look at what is happening on that island. Matches looks like Archie if Riverdale turned into Gotham. Matches says how he owed Bruce one and Bruce asks for what when suddenly Matches drops dead as blood spills from every pore on his body. Bruce takes his phone and runs.
Bruce tells the rest of the gang what happened to Matches but his friends make him stay because they have to talk about how he is Batman.
Bruce hacks into the phone and finds names of researchers working on Ark M. Familiar names like Langstrom, Isley, and Fries. Fries has connections to Gotham as he is the founder of a company called V Core in the city. Alfred calls in with information on Matches’s death and says it’s not a bioweapon or virus but a bacterium.
Bruce goes undercover at V Core to investigate and runs into an employee. Bruce asks if Victor and Nora still oversee things here and the employee says yes and shows Victor and Nora cryogenically frozen and says he is their son Victor Jr.
Jr mentions that the power running V Core and keeping his parents in ice is to keep their bodies alive until a cure can be made for what ails them Victor Jr is only alive today because he was frozen and cured of a rare condition.
As Bruce is looking for any clue to what happened to Matches, Victor Jr starts to transform into a blue monster and grabs Bruce’s face with his cold hand. To be continued….
Analysis
Snyder’s second arc is off to a strong start. Again he sets up character moments that will paid off down the line such as Bruce and his friends and their anger towards him being Batman. They comment on how Bruce used them all to train in his journey to be this new Dark Knight. It seems like they either don’t approve of him being Batman or just mad that he did not tell them.
The twist on Matches is unique and there seems to be more to his and the gang’s childhood that leads to what happened to Matches. Also Matches’s death doesn’t seem to align with Victor’s brief glimpse of his powerset that we see. Perhaps a Black Mask drug is still not off the street? Something to do with Pamela Isley? We shall see.
Marcos Martin has art duty now and his art is as strong as ever. Fans will know Martin from Batgirl: Year One. Martin really shined there in the old school version of the DC Universe but I felt he was able to shine in this new Absolute Universe.
