In this review of Absolute Batman #12, Bruce awakens to find out what has happened since escaping the torture at Ark-M.
Absolute Batman #12 main cover by Nick Dragotta (DC Comics)
ABSOLUTE BATMAN #12
Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art and Main Cover by NICK DRAGOTTA
Variant Covers: PAUL POPE, DENYS COWAN, STEVAN SUBIC
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 9/10/25
This review contain spoilers
Absolute Batman #12 opens with Batman and Waylon in the aftermath of their escape from Bane. Batman thanks Waylon for saving him and Waylon asks for him to do the same because he hungers so much. Batman thinks he’s asking for a cure but Waylon wants Bruce to kill him. Bruce can’t bring himself to do it and Waylon says he should have left. Bruce pleads with him as his best friend swims off in the sewers.
Flashback to Bruce and Selina buying an apartment together as Bruce still struggles with how to tell Waylon that he can’t win the fight. Selina tells him to bend the rules in their favor.
Bruce wakes up after being unconscious for twenty days with Alfred by his side. Alfred says there is a delivery system woven into his spine and brain loaded up with venom. Bruce wants to leave but Alfred says that he does not understand what he has gotten himself into. Bruce leaves.
Waylon wants Bruce’s help. But it’s not what he thinks. (DC Comics)
Bruce returns home to his mother after being missing for so long. Martha tells him that something has happened to Ozzie. Bruce goes to see Ozzie at the hospital. Ozzie is hooked up with wires and looks more like Krang from TMNT with legs. We see snippets of what Bane did to Ozzie. He broke every bone in his body and if he recovers, Ozzie will be almost two feet shorter. Bruce asks if Harvey has been by and Leslie Thompkins says that he is next door.
Harvey has 4th degree burns on the left side of his body and his skull was fractured in practically two pieces. Harvey tells Bruce that what happened to them is his fault and that he only hates Bruce half the time. Bruce rushes to see Eddie who had his brain smashed by Bane and now believes he is smarter and is all about questions now.
Alfred is telling Bruce that Bane wants war and the only way is through. The alarms go off and they think it’s Bane. But it is not Bane. Selina knocks out Alfred and has returned to see Bruce dressed as Catwoman.
Analysis
Pretty, pretty gruesome stuff here. The way Ozzie, Harvey, and Eddie look now and the brief glimpses into how they were beaten and mangled by Bane. I think moments like that is why Dragotta is the perfect artist for this series. The gruesomeness and brutalness is where he can really let loose and show just how bad Bane has destroyed Bruce and his friends.
The transformations of Waylon, Harvey, Ozzie, and Eddie evoke Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, where characters undergo significant physical changes, such as Norman Osborn becoming a goblin monster. Oswald turns short and stout like a penguin, Harvey’s skull cracks, Eddie has an odd brain, and Waylon resembles a bulked-up Leatherhead (from TMNT). It would have been preferable for them to retain more normalcy before becoming their alternate universe versions, as there’s a notable lack of regular characters in comic books today.
We still have questions. Why is Selina back now? What is up with the venom in Bruce’s body? Is he going to hulk out at some point and take over this Ark M organization? Is Bruce stuck with that venom inside him forever? Is Selina somehow tied into this Arm M scheme? And why is her mask like a giant Technodrome? (Another one!)
I liked Absolute Batman #12. Bane is really making things personal with Bruce. He has gone after his best friends and it makes you wonder if his mother and Jim Gordon are next.
