9 Ways Absolute Batman Reinvents the Dark Knight’s Mythology – IGN

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With the release of Absolute Batman #1, DC has officially kicked off the Absolute Universe. Similar to Marvel’s Ultimate Universe line, the Absolute Universe is devoted to exploring streamlined, modernized versions of iconic heroes, free from the constraints of decades of existing continuity. And if we’ve learned anything from the first two issues, it’s that Absolute Batman is a very, very different hero from the Dark Knight we know and love.

Just what has changed for the Absolute Universe? How does the new series reinvent Batman for 2024? Here’s a look at everything that’s changed in this twisted new version of the DC Universe.

Warning: beware of full spoilers for Absolute Batman #1 and #2 ahead!

Batman’s New Origin Story

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

One of the hallmarks of the Absolute Universe is that characters like Batman and Superman lack many of the innate advantages they have in the traditional DCU. In the case of Bruce Wayne, he’s no longer a billionaire playboy with a mansion, a butler, and a cave full of expensive gadgets. He’s a blue-collar civil engineer from a humble background.

Over the course of issue #1, we get the rundown on Batman’s revamped origin story as seen through the eyes of Alfred Pennyworth (more on him in a minute). Bruce’s father Thomas was a schoolteacher rather than a doctor. Bruce himself tested at near-genius levels as a child, eventually winning a science competition where he invented a portable, retractable bridge to be used in rescue scenarios. As a prize, Bruce and his class were given a field trip to the Gotham City Zoo.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck when a gunman opened fire at the zoo. Thomas ushered his students to safety before being caught in the crossfire. That’s the trauma that birthed the Batman, and we have to assume Bruce carries some guilt for his father’s death with him even now.

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

Issue #2 offers more insight into how that trauma birthed the Batman. We see another flashback to zoo shooting, where a stray bullet rips open a hole in the bat exhibit. Bruce is engulfed by bats, and he remains catatonic until Jim Gordon arrives and hears him scream. This Bruce Wayne clearly has a deep-seated fascination with and terror of bats.

Issue #1 offers some insight into the training Bruce underwent to prepare himself to become a vigilante. After earning a college football scholarship (and promptly faking a career-ending injury), Bruce studied chemistry, engineering, criminal psychology, and other subjects relevant to punching crime in the face. While he didn’t travel the world studying under the greatest warriors and detectives, he has developed a unique streetfighting style based in mixed martial arts and boxing. And by working as a civil engineer in various locales across Gotham, Bruce has developed an intimate knowledge of the city he hopes to save.

Bruce Wayne’s Friend Group

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

One of the most intriguing changes introduced in Absolute Batman #1 involves Bruce Wayne’s friend group. We learn that Bruce’s childhood gang included Harvey Dent, Selina Kyle, Waylan Jones, Eddie Nashton, and Oswald Cobblepot. Even now, they remain friends, though Bruce is rapidly drifting away from the group as his nightly activities start to consume his life.

What does it mean that so many of the characters destined to become supervillains start out as Bruce’s close friends? Have their destinies changed in the Absolute Universe, or will we see Waylan become Killer Croc, Eddie become the Riddler, etc?

The only one of these characters we meet in issue #1 is Waylan, who currently runs the boxing gym Bruce trains at and shows no sign of the reptilian skin condition the character is so well-known for. Waylan looks to be the best friend Bruce has. Will that change as the series moves along?

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

Issue #2 showcases more of this friend group, as the increasingly reclusive Bruce makes a rare visit to their regular poker game. Their banter reveals that Eddie is every bit as fascinated with riddles and wordplay as the regular Riddler, while it’s hinted that Oswald already has his fingers in some less than savory pies. Harvey, meanwhile, is revealed to be a lowly law clerk with major career ambitions. The only friend MIA from this game is Selina, who is said to be travelling the globe and recently made a stop in Cairo.

Alfred Pennyworth: Secret Agent

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

Bruce may not have a butler, but that hardly means Alfred has no role to play in the series. Issue #1 is narrated from Alfred’s perspective. In the Absolute Universe, Alfred is a secret agent for a mysterious organization (it’s unclear if he’s working for the British government or an agency like ARGUS). He’s pulled off a mission monitoring a mysterious killer overseas in order to gather intel on the growing crisis in Gotham. A gang called The Party Animals has been massacring innocent civilians, and Alfred’s handlers want to know what exactly they’re dealing with.

Alfred is warned that another party has begun to make itself known in the city, the first sign that Batman is beginning to appear on the public’s radar. Alfred later encounters Batman in person when observing an attack by The Party Animals. Alfred’s orders are to observe and not to engage the gangmembers, one he strongly disagrees with. Already, the seeds of the eventual Batman/Alfred alliance are beginning to be laid.

Batman is more of an antagonistic figure to Alfred in issue #1, even stealing the secret agent’s motorcycle and all of its valuable intel. Alfred, for his part, immediately deduces Batman’s secret identity. While he considers assassinating Bruce in broad daylight, he decides “You’re just a **** kid.”

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

In issue #2, it becomes clear that Alfred is quickly developing an affection for Bruce/Batman, in part because his war on the Party Animals is making Alfred’s intel-gathering mission much easier. Alfred traces Batman’s campaign across the city. He notes that while most soldiers in the field follow one of two tactics, AF (advance forward) and RR (retreat and regroup), Batman never seems willing to retreat or give ground. He’s simply Batman AF.

The Gordon Family

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

No new Batman universe would be complete without Jim Gordon playing a part. Issue #1 gives no indication to assume Batman and Gordon are working together yet, but it does cast Gordon as the rare good cop trying to maintain order in a city rapidly descending into chaos. But in this case, Gordon isn’t Commissioner of the GCPD, but rather the recently elected mayor of Gotham. His daughter Barbara, meanwhile, is a police officer.

Gordon holds a press conference to ease public concerns over the growing threat of The Party Animals. However, that plan hits a snag when the gang attacks in the middle of the conference and Gordon himself is shot.

Issue #2 reconnects with the Gordon family in the hospital, as Jim recovers and laments the fact that his reelection chances are slipping away.

The Rise of Black Mask

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

It quickly becomes clear that the first costumed supervillain the Absolute Batman will face off against isn’t Joker, Penguin, or Riddler, but Black Mask. Roman Sionis is introduced as the leader of The Party Animals and a man obsessed with collecting death masks of famous celebrities and political figures.

Sionis holds a meeting with Gotham City crime bosses Sal Maroni and Carmine Falcone, both of whom are wary of this upstart upending the traditional order in the city’s underworld. Sionis wastes little time before revealing that he’s already made death masks of Maroni and Falcone’s relatives and adding both men to his collection.

Traditionally, Batman’s early months on the job are spent waging war on the Gotham mob, before power slowly shifts in favor of villains like Joker and Penguin. In the Absolute Universe, however, it seems that shift is already happening. A new generation of evil is emerging in the city and consuming the old.

The New Batsuit in Action

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

The reader and Alfred alike are treated to the first glimpse of the new Batman in action when the Dark Knight arrives to battle the Party Animal members attacking Gordon’s press conference. If there’s one takeaway from this fight, it’s that Absolute Batman has a lot of nifty toys despite not having a billionaire’s resources.

Nearly every component of Batman’s costume is a weapon in its own right. His cowl’s ears and his gloves’ spikes are retractable daggers. His bulletproof cape is a modified version of the same portable bridge he designed as a child, allowing him to control the various wings at will.

Even the Bat emblem is a potent weapon. Not only is it a reinforced piece of steel plating protecting Bruce’s chest, it can be removed and attached to a handle to form a razor-sharp ax. The Party Animal leader learns that the hard way when he loses his hand in a duel.

The Gigantic Absolute Batmobile

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

In issue #2 we see the Batmobile in action for the first time. And like everything else about Batman in this universe, it’s oversized and amped up to 11.

Batman hits a snag in this chapter when he breaks into the campaign offices of the former Mayor Ford and investigates a clandestine project known only as ArkM. Batman is interrupted by Black Mask, who reveals he’s just summoned the entirety of the GCPD to Batman’s location. Batman plunges down an elevator shaft and runs into Alfred, who proposes an alliance. Batman agrees to hear him out, but first they have to make their escape. That’s when Batman summons a Batmobile so enormous it dwarfs the Tumbler and even the Bat-Tank from The Dark Knight Returns.

This Batmobile appears to be a modified mining vehicle. Though this Bruce Wayne isn’t a billionaire, his work as a civil engineer clearly gives him access to the equipment he needs to wage war on crime.

The Fate of Martha Wayne

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

The flashbacks to Bruce’s tragic childhood reveal that Thomas Wayne died protecting his students at the zoo. But what about Martha Wayne? It turns out she’s still alive and well. Bruce pays his mother a visit after laying a flower at the site of his father’s murder, even as Alfred watches from afar. Later, in issue #2 Martha herself visits Jim Gordon in the hospital, establishing that the Wayne and Gordon families have a warm, long-standing relationship.

This may well be the biggest and most significant change introduced in Absolute Batman. Bruce Wayne has always been portrayed as an orphan dedicated to preventing what happened to him from happening to anyone else. How much does it change the equation for Bruce to have a mother who raised him to adulthood? At the very least, this means Absolute Batman has something to lose should his secret identity ever be revealed.

Teasing Absolute Joker

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Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

Absolute Batman #1 ends with an epilogue page teasing the debut of Batman’s most iconic foe. Alfred’s handlers report that the man he had been tracking overseas vanished in the Phillipines. Known by many names like Jack and Arthur, this man trained under elite killers like Henri Ducard and the League of Assassins before murdering them and moving on. He’s one of the richest men in the world. He never laughs, hence why he’s come to be known ironically as the Joker.

If Joker is meant to be the twisted antithesis of Batman, then it’s clear the Clown Prince of Crime has been reworked to suit this darker, grittier take on the Caped Crusader. Joker is everything this Batman isn’t. He’s a man of wealth and privelege. He’s traveled the globe and honed himself into the perfect warrior. And it’s only a matter of time before he comes to Gotham and tests himself against the Batman. Will the Dark Knight be the one to finally make the Joker crack a smile? We’ll find out as the series continues to unfold.

Whiuch Absolute DC series are you most excited for? Cast your vote in our poll and let us know your thoughts in the comments below:

For more on how the Absolute Universe has transformed iconic DC heroes, learn how Absolute Wonder Woman overhauls Diana’s origin and how Absolute Superman establishes a Man of Steel without Clark Kent.

Note: this article was originally published on 10/9/2024 and updated on 11/13/2024 with the latest information about Absolute Batman.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.



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