With Absolute Batman: Ark M Special #1 being the first release in the series for 2026, it’s pretty easy to see why.
Absolute Batman: Ark M Special #1 main cover by Joshua Hixson (DC Comics)
ABSOLUTE BATMAN: ARK M SPECIAL #1
Written by SCOTT SNYDER and FRANK TIERI
Art and Main Cover: JOSHUA HIXSON
Variant Covers: JAVIER RODRÍGUEZ, RILEY ROSSMO, STEVE SKROCE, JOSHUA HIXSON
Page Count: 32 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)
Release Date: 1/7/2026
Absolute Batman: Ark M Special #1 is a horror film in comic form centered in a Batman universe, it’s executed to perfection. In this story, we get an up close and personal look at this universe’s Amadeus Arkham. It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten a deep dive into Dr. Arkham and this story is one of the most intriguing yet. He’s a well-intentioned man whose facility becomes increasingly dilapidated but also holds a deep, terrible secret that mortifies Dr. Arkham. Oh, and it ends with the reveal of another Absolute version of another villain that I absolutely (no pun intended) cannot wait to see in action.
Absolute Batman: Ark M Special #1 starts with narration from Dr. Arkham reciting an excerpt from his diary. The first image jumping out is him holding one of his books, “Who is Jack the Ripper?” Remember that title, it’ll come in handy as the story progresses.
As he introduces the story, Dr. Arkham also provides a warning to the reader before jumping to 1945. It’s there that we see Dr. Arkham discussing the sale of Arkham Asylum to a prospective buyer, a man with an unknown name. We then go back in time to Arkham’s childhood where his mother is eagerly awaits her husband’s return from the Civil War. She sees a Union soldier approaching the home and assumes it is her husband. It’s not. It’s another soldier informing her of his death.
It’s too much for her to handle and she shoots and kills the soldier in cold blood and that’s not even the horrifying part of the story. She then turns the gun and shoots and kills her own children, but spares Amadeus before killing herself. It’s never explained why, which makes the scene somehow even more morbid. That moment of mercy towards him inspires Arkham into a lifetime of helping others like his mother. He builds what’s now known as Arkham Asylum and we see the facility operate much more normally than we have in 99.9% of Batman stories, regardless of which universe they occur in.
Until he comes across HIM.
“He” happens to be a patient known as “Jack Doe” any Batman fan knows anyone in Arkham named Jack Doe could be or has some connection to a certain clown. Jack has already killed and mutilated several people but Arkham says he was the patient he wanted to help the most. Later on, a boy approaches the asylum covered in blood and Arkham takes him under his wing. The boy immediately becomes fascinated with everything Arkham does. You immediately begin to wonder who this boy is and who he will become. The boy is even taunted and held hostage by Jack Doe before he’s released during a standoff with a guard. The buyer now asks Arkham about the infamous breakout after Arkham initially denies knowing what the buyer was talking about before finally admitting it happened. Arkham is convinced Jack did it and is terrified realizing Jack probably would go after the boy Arkham felt was his son. He goes and finds the boy’s room empty and bloody. Arkham (and the reader) presumes Jack took the boy and killed him.
We arrive back in 1945 again and Arkham assumes Jack is the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper. The buyer asks to see the furnace room where the iates escaped from during the breakout
This is the big twist: he sees not one but TWO walls re-bricked. Arkham never noticed the second. The buyer then asks him what else he never noticed and whispers in his ear before leaving. It stopped Arkham cold he couldn’t sleep the entire night. He gets the boy’s teddy bear and sets it on fire via the furnace before burning the asylum to the ground…with patients still inside. This is the insane Amadeus Arkham fans know. We reach the end of the journal entry and see Arkham is sending it to Captain Flash of Gotham Police, hoping it will stop not Jack but…the boy he once called his son.
After letting out a “Wow!”, we are now taken to the modern “Ark M.” to a man smiling behind a desk.
We also learn Arkham goes down to the furnace room to open the second hole that was repaired. The suspense as a reader at this point is almost too much. Inside that hole we find…. The body of Jack Doe! We learn now that boy is indeed Jack Grimm, this universes’s Joker. Absolute Batman: Ark M Special #1 ends with Batman kicking butt and we’re teased several members of this universes’s rogues gallery we haven’t met yet but that wasn’t the big reveal.
Meet Absolute Deathstroke.
Analysis
Absolute Batman: Ark M Special #1 is a wonderfully morbid and exciting start to Absolute Batman in 2026. It’s a little bit of Gotham by Gaslight mixed with the rest of this series and it kept me on the very edge of my seat the entire read. Joshua Hixson’s art is perfect for this environment. It actually gave me some vibes from Grant Morrison’s classic Arkham Asylum story. I don’t know how much higher praise I can give it.
Despite not having much Batman in it, Absolute Batman: Ark M Special #1 kept me hooked. I figured it would have some connection to the issues that came before it but the fact that reveal really wasynt until the end actually made the experience much more enjoyable. That means that if you’re picking up this issue for your first dive into this series, you don’t necessarily need to read every issue before it.
That’s the sign of a good special issue.
Final Thoughts
Not having enough Batman usually holds an issue back, but that wasn’t the case for me anyway. I COULD see it being a problem for others, so be warned if you’re one of them. That said, the story is so darn good I really don’t think a vast majority of people in that crowd will mind. Scott Snyder again shows why he’s one of my favorite Batman writers (yep, I loved his whole New 52 run even if Bloom was shaky) and Hixson’s art is too shelf.
