Graham Nolan, the co-creator of Bane, has seen the design for Absolute Bane from Absolute Batman #9 and he hates it. Before reading his comments, take a look at Absolute Bane below.
In a post on X, he called the design an abomination. His full quote reads, “As the designer /co-creator of Bane…this is a terrible abomination.” That is a very strong opinion from the creator of the character. Someone on X then asked him if the head is the main thing he doesn’t like about it, to which he replied, “We can start there.” In the same thread, he was asked if anyone else has ever done Bane justice in their interpretations of the character. He replied, “Of course. Many have, and done excellent interpretations. This is not one of them.”
His words may come off as harsh, but the design for Absolute Bane has sent a lot of comic readers reeling. When compared to the rest of his body, Bane’s head is very, very small. It will be interesting to see if the artist that designed Absolute Bane, Nick Dragotta, has anything to say about Nolen’s comments.
The art in the Absolute Batman series has been jarring for many readers, but it is intentionally drawn to be this way. Batman is depicted as absolutely massive, significantly larger than any other iteration of Batman to date. The only comparable version is the Batman from The Dark Knight Returns, but this Batman is still much bigger than that one.
The whole point of the Absolute comics is to reimagine characters with key elements of their origin taken away from them. In Absolute Batman, Bruce’s mother is alive, he has no money, and Alfred is an MI6 agent. His rogues gallery including Riddler, Killer Croc, and Catwoman are all his best friends. In Absolute Superman, Kal-El comes to Earth as a young man who witnessed the collapse of Krypton and still remembers his home planet. He isn’t anywhere near as strong as the usual version of Superman, and his cape is made out of some kind of nanotechnology that is also infused with an AI. Lois Lane is a corporate military agent and the Kents are barely around. In Absolute Wonder Woman, Diana is not raised on Themyscira because Themyscira has been completely destroyed. Instead, she is raised on an island full of monsters, and her adoptive mother is actually Circe. She rides a pegasus that has no flesh, but does have a skeleton that also feeds on magic.
Clearly, the Absolute Universe is very different from the mainstream version of the characters within it. To some, the changes are just too much. To others, the changes create new storytelling opportunities for characters that may have grown stale in their minds.
What do you think of the design for Bane? Let us know in the comments!