Come October 9, 2024, it is said there will be a new Batman in the Gotham neighborhood: Absolute Batman. He is, well, different, and thus worthy of perusal. More so, because the rest of the DC Comics Trinity — Wonder Woman and Superman – will follow Batman into the new Absolute Universe later in October.
Kudos for DC Comics, writer Scott Snyder, artist Nick Dragotta, and colorist Frank Martin for plunging into what could be called a Batman for our times. Not that DC has been shy about creating some extreme versions of Batman for its Absolute Editions, but this new Absolute Batman feels like a totally inverted image of the prime Batman.
This Batman is not one of the multiple iterations of prime Batman. He is not the brooding Batman of the 1930s (hey, there was a depression then), or the lighter Batman & Robin exclamatory duo of the 1950s (war hero Eisenhower was presiding over a prosperous economy), or even the focused-on-justice-for-Mom-and-Dad Batman of 1989 (people were suffering through an economic slowdown again). This oh so different Batman is not even a figment of his own imagination, like in the 2022 Batman Unburied series.
The new Absolute Batman has shed all his original self, for real!
Batman’s wealthy parents Martha and Thomas Wayne were not killed by thugs, as they were in the prime Batman Universe. They are now very much alive and not at all wealthy. Dad is a teacher, and Mom works in the Mayor’s Office.
As it must follow, Bruce Wayne is not the billionaire owner of Wayne Enterprises, but an engineer (or construction worker per some previews). Thugs are not among his shunned and hunted adversaries, since he grew up with them in the heart of Gotham.
From the perspective of the new Absolute Batman, there are bigger fish to fry than thugs and petty crime bosses. His principal adversaries are the powerful within the established system, those (like the traditional Bruce Wayne?) who have the wealth and resources that most citizens of Gotham lack.
This Batman no longer represents a perceived established system that aims to bring order to Gotham. Absolute Batman’s modus operandi is not to bring order where chaos reigns, but to use disorder and chaos to destroy the established order he finds objectionable.
In an interview with Comicbook, Scott Snyder encapsulates the core of the new Batman,
“I don’t want to give too much away but one of the core concepts of the series is that in this world, Bruce will be the small chaos in the system and the villains will be more powerful, have more resources.”
“We want it to feel like Batman, yet brand new,” … “But the core idea, that he is the anarchy, not the system, and his adversaries are more systemic … “
One must assume the new Absolute Batman is a Batman for our times.
The world is not yet Gotham. But how are we doing in the orderly establishment departments, public or private? Everybody feel comfortable with Big Tech or Big Pharma? Is everybody confident with their own safety and the safety of their family in their homes, streets, schools? Everybody feel confident that on November 5th all will go smoothly?
If sincerely answered, responses to the above questions would be “not great” and “no.” The established establishment, public or private, has no credible plan to lower the unsustainable national debt, curb the power of monopolies, make effective public education available to all children, heal the minds of our youth (think teen suicides and school shootings), or end what is becoming universal dependence on public assistance or selective dependence on criminal endeavors (think gang membership and drug dealing).
In the absence of cogent planning and action, we get extreme gibberish — We will end inflation with price controls! I can end a war with a phone call! Medicare for all! We are being run by a bunch of cat ladies! This real-life twaddle feels like the equivalent of the new Absolute Batman’s hulking inelegant frame bringing chaos and calling it remedy. Meanwhile, believers of the twaddle could be compared to the new Absolute Bruce Wayne, who continues to live in Crime Alley among the thugs so he can learn from them how to fight the “fat cats.”
“This is Absolute Batman, going up against the fat cats, the one percenters, the ones who play the populace and make them dance, sacrificing them for their own purposes, and then making them blame each other. This Absolute Batman has been planning for a long time, staying in Gotham to learn rather than travelling the world and doing the kind of jobs that an eccentric billionaire trust fund kid would never do.” Bleedingcool.com, September 12, 2024.
It will be interesting to see if this inverted Batman sells.
Hopefully, DC Comics will succeed in engaging their readers in the new personality of Bruce Wayne and the new modus operandi of Absolute Batman. A quick look at Reddit>Comics, or any of the numerous comics forums will show that readers pay attention to the origins, motives and conscience of their Superheroes. Will they feel that Absolute Bruce Wayne is a bit too average? A bit too much a product of our times? A bit too obviously a diversity and inclusion justice warrior?
After all, today’s readers can too often find chaos and disorder in their own neighborhoods, schools, and sadly their own homes. Will they be interested in someone who – unlike prime Batman who aims for return to order — uses bursts of brute force to simply plow through adversaries? We shall see.
Picture: This is what Batman looked like back in 1939, when he first appeared in the comics. He was slim, agile, sophisticated. When Absolute Batman comes out in October, make comparisons. The picture is from article on CBR.com, Every Single Batman Suit & Costume, In Chronological Order, dated July 1, 2024.
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