Absolute Batman #1 Review

There are two types of reactions and feelings to a new Batman story, a new rendition, a new take. The very boring, “Ugh, more Batman,” and the far more interesting, “It’s great that almost everyone has a Batman story they want to tackle.”

But what happens when you’ve already told your Batman tale? What happens when you’ve told a long, sprawling saga about the Caped Crusader that tackles almost every cog in the character’s machine? Is that the end, or do you have more to say?

That was the question on my, and what I assume to be a lot of people’s minds when we found out that Scott Snyder, writer of The Black Mirror, Batman: The New 52, and All-Star Batman, was set to write Absolute Batman, a fresh take on the character in a brand new universe. It wasn’t like the New 52, where it was a semi-reboot; this is fresh, from the ground up, fully new, a fundamentally different take on the character and his mythos.

I was, of course, excited nonetheless. I would not be reading comics if not for Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s phenomenal Batman run, so this got me going. But it didn’t end there. On the art team was Nick Dragotta on pencils and Frank Martin on colors, an absolutely insane creative team who worked together on East of West. Seeing their art in that book made me a believer; I was pumped, I was ready for it, and I needed it then and there.

Ever since I read Absolute Batman early, I kept thinking about it. I kept re-reading it, over and over again, time and time again. In fact, as I’m writing about it, I’m letting every scene play out in my mind, trying to hold onto that feeling and resisting the temptation to just go and re-read the damn thing again, because this book is a fucking treasure.

BATMAN IS.

One of the key elements that leads to a good superhero story is the focus on their city, their home turf. To that end, Gotham City is something that should be integral to most Batman stories. It’s as much of a character as Bruce himself is. Scott Snyder understands this, in fact, he understands this so much that one of the core elements of his New 52 run is the city, and how it’s a living organism that grows and changes – sometimes with the Batman, sometimes around him, and sometimes in spite of him.

But of course, that’s not the only story that does this. Of the others, two books redefined the Dark Knight forever. Those are, of course; The Dark Knight Returns, written and illustrated by Frank Miller, inked by Klaus Janson, colored by Lynn Varley, and lettered by John Costanza; and Batman: Year One, written by Frank Miller, drawn by David Mazzucchelli, colored by Richmond Lewis, and lettered by Todd Klein. These books argue that Batman is the chaos element, the one that rages against the system. That’s his point, that’s his nature, and this is reflected in Snyder and Capullo’s run during the New 52.

But there’s also an element to the character there. Bruce Wayne is rich. Like Scrooge McBat rich to explain how he gets all his toys. Despite fighting against the systems as an underdog, he’s still afforded the advantage of wealth. Conversely, Absolute Batman is different. “What if Bruce Wayne was poor?” is an easy thing to ask, but it’s not as easy to execute, and yet, the team absolutely crushes the idea.

To combat that element, Snyder and Dragotta posit Bruce. and the Waynes, as belonging to the lower class, someone who is talented yet without the resources that the regular Bruce would have access to. Instead of only being able to sympathize with those who aren’t as lucky as he was, he’s now right there with them. He’s one of them – and in many ways – one of us too. He’s traversed through several positions as a blue-collar worker in organizations that run the city to understand exactly how the city works, and how the systems that govern it operate. It’s a different playing field, and that’s what makes it so interesting.

It doesn’t just end there. To make this work, Scott Snyder does something that not only proves why a seasoned Batman veteran is perfect for writing Absolute Batman, but also why he’s the seasoned veteran to write this book.

You see, fellow Gothamite – Scott’s understanding of Gotham lays the framework for easily presenting to us the key difference between the two. When he wrote Batman during The New 52, he presented to us how that Bruce loves Gotham, how he wants it to evolve, and how he plans on incorporating his own secrets with that evolution. In the very first issue of that book, the opening to the Court of Owls saga, he has Bruce reveal his plans for the future of Gotham, large skyscrapers all across the city, and in secret, additional safehouses for his alter ego as the Caped Crusader. Conversely, Absolute Batman‘s Bruce isn’t the one that’s paying people to build the skyscrapers. He’s the one building the skyscrapers, and he understands that no one’s going to use them, so he builds his headquarters inside those skyscrapers. It’s playing with the idea of familiarity, bringing forth an idea that sounds familiar but then twisting it on its head. Bruce Wayne will ultimately do the same thing, but they’ll do it in very different ways.

Yet, it doesn’t end there. Bruce’s anger towards these billionaires and oligarchs who waste money on skyscrapers just to never use them feels all too real. We all feel that way, certainly those of us that live in big metropolitan cities like New York. Using that very familiar feeling, we’re invited to reflect on the Bruce we know – again, cartoonishly rich, but also a reminder that rich people in the real world do just spend money on things like this for the hell of it, so reversibly, it makes sense that Absolute Batman‘s Bruce would take advantage of that sort of thing and bend it to his way, and give back to a city he loves by using resources from people who just want to take from it like parasites.

But this book isn’t just plot, it’s a comic book, and all this only works because of how it’s presented to us.

GOTHAM IS.

Issue 1 of Absolute Batman runs for 42 pages (4 of these are dedicated to 2-page spreads), and within those, they set up; our main protagonist, Bruce Wayne, our secondary protagonist, Alfred Pennyworth, the villains of the first arc, known as “the Party Animals,” and the world that this creative team will be playing in. Yet, it never, ever feels like too much is going on. It’s perfectly paced, maintaining a dangerously good momentum right onto the very last page.

So much of that is because of the visual storytelling. To go back to The Dark Knight Returns, in which Miller is unafraid of squeezing every last panel into a page without feeling overwhelmed, you can see that same energy in Nick Dragotta’s page composition in this book. It’s the team playing with the idea of familiarity again – pulling you in with something you know only to subvert it. A page will hit you with 14 panels, irregular yet maintaining a perfect rhythm that makes every moment, be it action, an investigation, or a flashback, immersing you in the way the best books in the medium do. Through that familiarity of page layout, it reminds you of The Dark Knight Returns in ways beyond just the fact that both Bruce’s are big guys, but also through the action, while the writing and the way Bruce looks underneath the mask remind the reader that he doesn’t have that experience, he’s still new to the game.

And it doesn’t end there either. Frank Martin brings his A-game into coloring the hell out of it, resorting to tones that complement the mood rather than relying purely on realism to bring out the most from every single scene. Clayton Cowles’ lettering brings it all together too, in the same way Costanza and Lewis did for the two aforementioned books. Within the chaotic element of Dragotta’s composition, it blends in smoothly, not interrupting the momentum. Where it shines are the sound effects, they work in conjunction with the rhythm of the art so well, to the point where, without it, the book would not feel the same. There’s real thought and care put into it.

It’s the big, bold stuff you can only get from sequential art. It’s certainly what I expect the new fresh Batman take to do – the way Miller, Janson, Varley, and Costanza did it in The Dark Knight Returns, Mazzucchelli, Lewis, and Klein did in Year One, and the way Capullo, Glapion, Plascencia, and Starkings did in Court of Owls.

Be brave, be bold, be innovative, REDEFINE not just how a BATMAN book should look, but also inspire how American COMIC BOOKS should look. This is the kind of art you look at and realize greatness is in the making. Especially for someone like me. I’ve read more Batman than I’m proud to admit, but no one since Capullo and co. have quite really defined how a Batman book should look. Great art teams, yes, but nothing that blew my socks off. Not until Dragotta and Martin. That’s one of the highest praises I can give to this book.

The Absolute line sounds ambitious as hell, but if this is an idea of what we’re going to get out of it, then we’re in for a treat. This is the kind of book that makes you want to go into a comic shop and pick up an issue. Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, and Clayton Cowles are here to take the world by storm in Absolute Batman, and the question to you is whether you’ll embrace the chaos, or if you’ll get swept up by it.