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| Front cover of Absolute Batman volume 1 The Zoo |
Score (out of 5 Capes)
4/5 Capes for an exciting and novel new take on Batman and the entire circle of characters, a little rough on the edges but with loads of potential.
My Review
The Absolute line of books from DC Comics has made a huge splash with comics fans. None more so than Absolute Batman. The first issue has been reprinted multiple times and every new issue of the ongoing series places high on the monthly sales charts.
The series has been getting so much attention that I could not ignore its trade paperback collection any longer. I needed to get myself a copy to read now, so I would no longer feel like I was missing out.
I see why there is so much buzz behind this title. Writer Scott Snyder has done a superb job of reimagining and reinterpreting the entire Batman mythology and universe.
The previous high-water mark, the set of three original graphic novels Batman: Earth One, included some clever new twists and takes of Batman's origin story but left many of the secondary characters roughly within their canonical takes.
Snyder feels no need to hew so close to canon. The characters are still there - Selina Kyle, Edward Nygma, among many others - but rather than homicidal or psychotic villains and anti-heroes, they are part of Bruce Wayne's circle of peers, poker buddies, former classmates. Still all special, with their gifted intelligence, curiosity and acrobatic skills, and so on, but at least in the early days of Absolute Batman, they help more than they battle.
Snyder likewise gives us a fresh take on Bruce Wayne. Still driven, strong, athletic and acrobatic, still highly intelligent with clever inventions. But no longer the wealthy playboy and business tycoon. Now, he is a construction worker.
Its outside-the-mansion take on Bruce is reminiscent of the limited series The Return of Bruce Wayne, in which he was reimagined as a pirate, a Puritan-era man, a Stone-aged primitive and more. But those were much more limited in length of run and in size of the Bat universe. This series uses the ongoing format to go much deeper into the details of its reimagined Gotham and all its characters.
This Bruce Wayne, rather than rely upon his millions and billions, deliberately torches in flames and smoke the hundreds of millions of dollars given him as a bribe to look the other way from the villainous chaos exploding throughout Gotham.
The zoo of the book's title and first story arc of the ongoing series is the literal Gotham Zoo, where beloved and wise teacher Thomas Wayne was killed while protecting his son and classmates on a school field trip. The tragedy's telling is carefully paced out with flashbacks running throughout the book, raw memories from the invention competition that was rewarded by the field trip to the day itself and the police and courtroom scenes that followed.
These flashbacks and their gradual unpacking of such critical events in the life and formation of young Bruce are one reason why I prefer reading - and reviewing - graphic novels and trade paperbacks. By collecting so many chapters in one place, it is easier on the reader to follow the threads and emotions that run through these scenes. No need to wait until next month or the one after that to start putting those pieces together.
In these first chapters of the ongoing series, Batman is still rough around the edges in his tactics, strategies, equipment. Through other flashbacks, we get a glimpse of earlier outings, when he was even less polished in his abilities, but he is clearly a quick study and is making his way toward the incredible, nearly flawless crime-fighter of legend. Will the Absolute Universe Batman wind up in that same place?
The visuals also show some rough edges that could stand some polish. Yes, they convey the gritty, intense and dark mood of the series, but on several occasions lead artist Nick Dragotta and fill-in Gabriel Hernandez Walta seem to take short cuts, leaving us with some sloppy and over-inked panels.
But those are just the edges. At its core, this book and the Absolute Batman series are beautiful and intense. Dragotta in particular makes great work of silhouette and shadow in controlling the mood of the scene and the flow of the narrative. Battle scenes are intense. This new Batman is truly terrifying, dangerously violent and slightly unbalanced, all of which is conveyed by Dragotta's art.
A new take on Batman also needs to wrestle with the tools of the non-meta man in the costume. The decades of accumulated miracles on his utility belt are not completely swept away but rather are replaced with several shocking and brilliantly creative new tools and weapons.
The bat-trimmed dump truck. The collapsible battle-axe with logo-shaped head. The mask's ears that can be detached and used as daggers or rotated for a bloody head-butt. The extendible arms. The multiple pieces of the cape and the diverse ways such a cape could be used. Snyder must have had no end of fun brainstorming these ideas, and I suspect more will come in future books.
My FOMO - fear of missing out - caused me to bump this up my list of books to acquire and review. And I am glad it did. This is a delight and sets up well for a long run of an alternate but very enjoyable take on Batman.
What I loved
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| Innovative and genuinely bat-themed tools of the trade |
Batman's famed utility belt has long held all manner of clever inventions and tools for his battles with the evil villains he confronts. We have emerged from the more comical era where everything became bat-themed simply by slapping the prefix "bat-" on it: bat-cave, batmobile, batarang and so on.
The creative teams behind Absolute Batman kept the core idea - a man with no super-powers but lots of intelligence, inventing things to help him battle his enemies - while throwing out most of what came before and doubling-down on the tie-ins to the Bat theme.
My personal favourite is the one pictured - extendible rods, inspired by the way some bats walk around using their arms. And in the stories in this volume, he makes good if occasional use of this innovation.
It is hardly the only one. Another impressive new weapon is the collapsible battle-axe with two-bladed head shaped to match the blocky logo on his chest. The bat ears on his cowl and mask are also cleverly converted into weapons with multiple uses, whether removable knives or ones that can be rotated for other uses.
And since he needs to get around, there are also vehicles like a motorcycle and a dump truck (!) bedecked in subtle but functionally important bat logo trimmings.
Every Batman era and writer introduces new such Bat-weapons. In this heavily reimagined Absolute universe, though, these stand out as brilliant, innovative and on-point. Nice!
What I didn't love
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| Scratchy, over-simplified art |
For such a high-profile, imaginative and innovative rethinking of one of comics' flagship characters, the visuals frequently disappoint. Sure, they evoke a dark, gritty and violent world with a hero ready to meet the challenges before him. But too often artists Nick Dragotta and Gabriel Hernandez Walta give us something that feels slapdash and rushed, or that spends too much time on the wrong details.
Take the image above, for one example. It is a flashback panel to the earliest days of Batman's vigilante crime-fighting, so a simplistic profile layout and basic framing and facial details is consistent with the basic beginning and simplistic approach of the budding new hero.
But the effect is overwhelmed by the dominant detail of the background, the metal bars on the window, dirty brick and graffiti walls, rusty pipes and shadows. It sets the mood but overshadows the main actors in the scene. The net result is even more attention on the scratchy, careless look of our hero and his prey.
The problem continues outside these flashbacks as well, with so much time spent on the novel tech and tools or the hellhole of Gotham that the main characters wind up looking rushed and half-finished.
Related Reviews
All In Saga that kicks off the Absolute DC Universe
Another take on Batman in Justice League 3000
Batman as Pirate, Puritan and more in the Return of Bruce Wayne
Quick Reference Details
Writers: Scott Snyder
Artists: Nick Dragotta, Gabriel Hernandez Walta (#4)
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Aug 5, 2025
Parental Rating: Teen
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| Back cover of Absolute Batman volume 1 The Zoo |
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