In this review of Batman Day 2026: Batman of Two Worlds #1, Batman faces an inside job robbery in two worlds, and handles it very differently in both!
Batman Day 2026: Batman of Two Worlds #1 main cover by Nick Dragotta and Jorge Jiménez (DC Comics)
Batman Day 2026: Batman of Two Worlds #1
Writers: Matt Fraction, Scott Snyder
Artists: Javier Fernández, Nick Derington
Main Cover: Nick Dragotta, Jorge Jiménez
Page Count: 20 pages
Release Date: September 19, 2026 (Batman Day 2026)
This review contains spoilers
Story #1: Short Cuts
A small man, Mr. Jones, boards a first class flight on Air Oolong, and boasts to his seatmate about getting paid a million dollars to leave his keys in the door where he used to be a security guard. We see Batman in Gotham chasing down two robbers with teleportation tech they stole from Mr. Jones’s workplace, and after an impressive chase where Batman pushes his body and gadgets to the limit, he manages to capture them despite their “vroop”ing around the rooftops. As the story ends, we see that Mr. Jones’s seatmate is Bruce Wayne…
Analysis
Matt Fraction has said that the genesis of this tale was he proposed a problem for Batman to solve in both the main run and the Absolute universe to Scott Snyder, and this comic was the result. The problem, as far as I can tell, was “Batman deals with an inside job robbery”, and in this main universe story, it’s mostly told through an extremely kinetic action scene between Batman and the two punk robbers with their stolen teleportation tech. Artist Javi Fernandez (Nightwing Rebirth, One Bad Day Two-Face, DC KO) takes his cues from main Batman artist Jorge Jimenez in drawing extremely fluid and exciting action scenes. Main title colorist Tomeu Morey provides bright, gorgeous coloring for each sequence, avoiding some of the overly neon feeling to some of his work outside of Jimenez. Though there’s not much space in either of these stories, there’s a lot of character in Batman’s actions and reactions in the chase, and Mr. Jones the security guard has a cute but slimy feeling to him well conveyed by the art.
Story #2: Cut Short
Bruce Wayne, construction engineer, analyzes a fault in a skyscraper construction with Lucius Fox, as we see Batman dealing with heavily armed robbers. Attacking them from inside the vault, he subdues them despite Alfred’s instructions to use strategies instead of just attacking straight on. Batman captures the robbers, and adds the inside man to his bound criminal pile.
Bruce notices a crack in the foundation and tells Lucius they’ll have to fix it from the beginning. Alfred’s voiceover says that Batman needs to lead the way in changing the world.
Analysis
Scott Snyder’s approach to the inside job robbery is to have Batman be ahead of the robbers, already in the vault, and have him be very Absolute Batman – ignoring Alfred’s advice and strategy and just beating everyone up with his size, strength, and gadgets. The Lucius and Bruce engineering scene gives some nice contrast to the brutality and darkness of Absolute Batman’s demeanor. Nick Derington (Batman: Universe) gives a less brutalistic and spikey version of the Absolute Batman universe, with gorgeous thick and clean lines, but still clearly capturing Nick Dragotta’s designs, while Frank Martin gives the clear blue but washed out horror of Absolute Gotham’s skies and dark menace of Absolute Batman in action expert coloring.
It’s interesting how Fraction and Snyder have chosen to position Batman in the structure of each of their stories. Main universe Batman is reactive – chasing the robbers, investigating who is responsible, while Absolute Batman is waiting in the shadows already knowing that the inside man is responsible. Both stories make strong political and class statements – with Mr. Jones the treacherous security guard expressing his middle/lower class envy of the rich and “skipping steps” to join the upper class that Bruce was born into, while Alfred preachily narrates how Absolute Batman is self made with self designed gadgets instead of buying them (but where does he get both the time and materials to make them work? There’s a LOT of hidden costs that Snyder refuses to address in how his Absolute Batman is “working class” here.) While Fraction’s Batman doesn’t make as strong a conclusion about the class envy and disruption of crime, he’s clearly very interested in those themes. Meanwhile, while Snyder’s Batman is very much about how the old generation has failed and the new generation is the only hope by tearing things down to the foundations and using extreme violence to change things, it doesn’t actually have any issues or policy preferences expressed (in this issue). It continues to be a generic permission structure for vaguely political violence that at its heart is revenge, rather than defense or construction.
It’s nice to see the balance of both stories being drawn by superstar artists who aren’t the main artist of the main and Absolute runs. Both Fernandez and Derington capture the style of their counterparts brilliantly without being a slavish imitation. I’m very curious to see if either of these stories are wrapped into the main line of their runs – whether the robberies or tech or characters involved become plot points referenced in the ongoing storylines of Batman vs. Vandal Savage/Minotaur, or Absolute Batman vs. Absolute Joker/Scarecrow/etc.
All in all, it’s nice that DC is giving a flavor of both series with new stories for 3 dollars instead of the Sample approach of last year, just reprinting the first 2 to 10 pages of already existing comics for a free booklet. I prefer new stories, even if short, to repackaging (unless it’s exclusive stories like the single issue of Wayne Family Adventures from 2024). We’ll see how DC approaches Batman Day, Free Comic Book Day, Superman Day, and other promotional occasions in the coming years, but this one I think is a pretty decent success.
Only one cover for this more cheaply priced promotional comic – a collaboration mashup of main universe and Absolute universe Batmans drawn by main artists on both series Jorge Jimenez and Nick Dragotta. Coloring is done by Absolute universe colorist Frank Martin, giving it a heavier, more brutal feeling even on Jiminez’s kinetic linework, but the mashup feels appropriate and exciting.
Final Thoughts
Batman and Absolute Batman showcase their skills and philosophies in this tale of the Batman of Two Worlds!
