A few days ago, I wrote a recap and review of Absolute Batman #1, calling it one of the best reinventions of the Caped Crusader we’ve seen in a long time, if not the best. If you haven’t read that recap and review, check it out here before you continue with this one.
SPOILERS for Absolute Batman 1 and 2 below.
This issue starts off with a very brief scene of Bruce trapped in the bat enclosure, his father’s dead body seemingly locking him in. The panels are beautifully crafted with a lot of red in the background to communicate the fear that Bruce is feeling. It’s a good opening to the rest of the issue.
Then, we get some more action. Batman fights off a large group of Party Animals in the aquarium, a stark contrast in color from the red of the previous pages. His hooks and origami cape are back in action as Batman yanks the Party Animals around with ease. However, it seems like Bruce is finding a bit of challenge, only a bit, as a few knives are sticking out of his back. As the fight goes on, Alfred Pennyworth has a monologue overlaid across the battle. He talks about the military ideas of pushing forward and tactically retreating when appropriate, wondering when Batman is ever going to retreat only to find out the answer is never. Batman deploys some kind of spikes from his back, piercing the glass behind him, and water knocks the surrounding Party Animals away. True to his name, Batman is suddenly hanging from the ceiling dropping in chemically concentrated vinegar to turn the water below him into hydrochloric acid, the perfect kind to burn, but not kill. It’s a very cool scene that really shows the brutality of this Batman.
In the next few pages, we find that Bruce has crafted safehouses all throughout the city into a perfectly on the nose shape of a bat when plotted on the map. There’s a bit of a tease for Red Hood, a character I’d be very interested to see in this world, then Bruce goes to talk to Joe Chill who we learn murdered his father. Alfred then tells the reader that he has removed whatever secret help he had been giving Bruce, meaning the Party Animals were able to track down his hideout in a skyscraper, but Batman, of course, has planned for this and planted bombs that would blow the building up perfectly into the shape of his cowl. Once again, it seems like the no kill rule is a soft rule. This scene is almost ruined when Alfred says, “Batman AF”. I rolled my eyes at this one. Alfred is at least in his late fifties, maybe early sixties. Why is he communicating like he’s fourteen? It was a bad line.
This is about all the action we get in this much shorter issue, as the rest is information about many of the side characters and the Party Animals groups. We find out that Martha Wayne and Jim Gordon are close friends in this world. The dialogue felt a bit unnatural in this scene. I couldn’t tell if there was supposed to be romantic tension between Gordon and Martha or not, but I think we’ll know for sure after more issues are released. The best part of this scene is the revelation that Gordon found Bruce the day Thomas was killed completely engulfed by bats. The art is chilling, although I’m not sure what the bats were doing. It didn’t seem like they were biting him, but it was creepy nonetheless.
A few pages later, Bruce finally accepts the numerous poker invitations from his groups of friends he’s been ignoring that are villains in the main universe. There is no shortage of puns regarding the characters’ alter egos. We see Harvey Dent before he becomes Two-Face, although a jacked version of Penguin calls him by his villainous name. Penguin is clearly involved in the criminal underworld quite heavily, but the rest of the group seems to be lawful for the most part. Riddler is still a genius in this world, but we don’t learn too much about him other than he maybe builds computer chips. The only one absent from this scene is Selina Kyle, who we see as a child at the end of the issue. This scene drags on. It simply takes too long. Unless these characters are going to change into their alter egos, I don't really care to spend that much time with them.
There’s an Arkham tease when Bruce investigates a location found through Eddie’s investigation of an ape skull mask which but it turns out to be a trap, sending him into another scuffle with the Party Animals and the GCPD. However, Alfred seemingly followed Bruce and is now trapped with him. Before they have a chance to talk, Batman reveals they’re currently standing in the batmobile which is just as ridiculously massive as he is. The thing is a monster truck combined with a garbage truck if they were four times their regular size. It’s pretty cool, but we don’t see it for long.
My biggest question after this issue is this: how is Bruce able to do all this without any money? How did he build a bulletproof suit, with retractable spikes in the back, knives in the mask, origami stilts in the cape, and an axe attached to the chest in his free time? I get he’s an engineer that has worked jobs in construction, but how does he have access to what he would need to build this batsuit? On top of that, he built the biggest batmobile to ever exist, safe houses all over the city, and dozens of bombs. Where does he find all the equipment and machinery? I get it’s a comic book and there has to be some suspension of belief which I am perfectly willing to do, but it would be nice if there was some sort of explanation. Maybe this will come in the future.
Still, it’s a solid read. It’s dark, gritty, and very different from the Batman most of us know. Other than Alfred’s terrible use of the phrase “AF” , the lack of explanation, and the length of the poker scene, it’s a solid comic book. Overall, I give it a 7/10.