Is there any hope in Gotham in Absolute Batman #5?

Bruce Wayne faces a moral dilemma: let the Party Animals operate without Batman’s interference for a week and receive a large sum of money and the gang going easier on Gotham. As Bruce tries to make his decision, political wrangling makes it more clear exactly who is behind the chaos in Gotham. Absolute Batman #5 is written by Scott Snyder, drawn by Nick Dragotta, colored by Frank Martin and lettered by Clayton Cowles.

Will Nevin: We’re not going to get to it today since we’re all in (see what I did there???) on Absolute Batman #5, but do you think the newsmaking turn of events in Batman and Robin #18 is really a thing or just a passing little tease?

Matt Lazorwitz: Just a passing tease. Every Robin has their growing pains moment, and I feel like Damian was due his.

Will: I’ll have to concur with that assessment, especially given where we are in that story. Damian will find the balance he wants in his life — and figure out that not everyone in his ear wants what’s best for him.

Batman vs. the Party Animals

Matt: There’s not a whole lot that is easy in this issue. This is a brutal comic, with some serious violence and some dark moral pronouncements from our villain. But the one thing that feels easy, that feels right, is the choice Bruce makes when confronted by the Party Animals. We’ve spent two months wondering if Bruce will really bend to them. And of course he doesn’t.

Will: A morally compromised Batman? In this economy? Absolutely not. But Alfred certainly continues to be a petulant little asshole, doesn’t he? There’s a lot to think about here, and it’s deeper than the constant references to prime universe characters and relationships. We have what continues to be — as we’ve said on the show — a “Punisher-ass Batman,” one who is violent and almost indiscriminate in the amount of lethal force he uses.

Matt: Almost, though. As far as I can tell, he still hasn’t taken a life. Although skewering Sionis’ enforcer on the Bat spikes on his costume seems as close as you can get. It’s the cinematic Batman, the one who almost certainly kills, but we never see it on screen. And the beginning of this issue had me thinking a lot about this book’s relationship with Batman cinema, since the burning of the money to make a point can be nothing if it’s not a reference to Joker doing the same thing in The Dark Knight.

Will: What does a Batman who magically does everything without money need money for? I thought that was a fairly trite reference even as I didn’t quite understand the mechanics of what was happening. (Did Batman burn all that money on a giant overhead projector?)

I’m still stuck on the violence and how it relates to who this Batman is. So the Batman we’ve known since 1939 lost his parents in a random (when it’s best told) act of violence. This new one lost his father in what amounted to an armed combat attack on a civilian population. The murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne made prime Bruce (as he eventually came to be) deeply adverse to guns. Is Absolute Bruce simply numb to violence?

I think it’s 75% “I want this Batman to do a bunch of cool shit,” but I hope there’s something deeper there that gets teased out as the series continues.

Matt: Maybe we’re going to watch this Batman grow? Keeping with my cinematic references, having just rewatched The Batman, the whole arc of that film is Batman learning he has to be more than vengeance; that inspiring vengeance just begets more violence. Maybe Snyder is trying for something like that? Because if we’re in a world as absolutely dark and broken and hopeless as this one is presented in this issue? That’s a tough pill to swallow. My capes-and-tights escapism doesn’t work when it’s a world where the rich can cackle maniacally about getting away with everything because they’re rich and the poor are one step away from just taking up arms for random violence.

That Batman is not a symbol that inspires anyone is a sad world. As much as Superman over in his Absolute title is this bare bones fighter for social justice, he still inspires. Here, Batman tries to inspire and seemingly just fails.

Will: You mentioned how dark the book is, and I think my favorite, most subtle indication of that is that none of the streets have creator names. It’s as if there’s no light in this world.

Matt: I definitely noticed that this issue.

I’m going to cycle back to one of my oldest themes when discussing the work of Scott Snyder, but it’s one that this issue puts front and center. Snyder’s books are always about what he is most afraid of at that moment. And the rich running roughshod over society feels like the fear du jour right now for reasons I don’t feel like going into because I don’t want to smash my laptop in rage and frustration. But Sionis here is embracing that. And the additional bit of backstory here, that he grew up poor on a pig farm, does what most Bat villains do, which is draw a parallel with Batman. Bruce too was brought up not rich, but Sionis used whatever brilliance he has to build this empire of cruelty, while Bruce stayed humble and tried to help. So far he hasn’t been too successful, but he’s tried.

Will: If there’s one thing that unites prime and Absolute Bruces, it’s that they fail a whole bunch but continue to keep fighting. (Insert Michael Caine gif here.) And that’s what we want out of any Batman, a character who should be a symbol for the indefatigable, best part of the human spirit. And speaking of Sionis, backstory aside, he still seems to be one of the most recognizable parts of this book, in that he’s barely changed at all.

Matt: A rich, entitled douchebag who brings chaos where he goes because he feels like he should be able to? Yup, that’s Black Mask.

This issue leaves us on a cliffhanger, and one that could set up a tragedy I have sort of been expecting, and leads us into the other plot and topic of discussion for this issue. So I’ll save that for there, but I want to bring up the character who seems most different. You mentioned him before, but this Alfred sucks. I don’t necessarily mean that the character in the meta way sucks, but in the world of the book. This guy who is so world weary that he can’t see inspiration and just believes everyone and everything should bend to the way of the world. I am assuming next issue we will see him have some kind of Scrooge-like epiphany, with Batman never quitting, but reading him as he is, he is not a character I like.

Will: And, see, I think that makes him suck in the meta way. He’s so painfully, obviously shallow, and there had better be an Alastair Sim-level turn in his story, or he can fuck right off and hang out with Geoff Johns’ interpretation of the character.

Matt: I take him as the character who embodies the world — so as long as the world is hopeless, Alfred is hopeless. His turn to finding some hope is symbolic of there being some hope in the world, which is why I think he works on a meta level.

Will: I agree with that interpretation, but this guy just doesn’t have an ounce of nuance — he might as well be twirling his ’stache while watching Batman head toward making the deal with Black Mask. Gimme a little bit of internal conflict, jeeze.

Gordon and the Flashbacks

Matt: This issue has spent the least time moving through flashbacks of any of the previous issues, which I take as a good sign. I hope this means that the dual-time thing is coming to an end and the next arc will be a more straightforward narrative without all the time shenanigans.

Will: It’s been really rough, hasn’t it? I swear, some of the earlier issues seemed to skip around every two or three pages. But I’m torn. The flashbacks have been the most emotionally resonant parts of this book to date. And while I understand most readers wouldn’t have the patience for two or three issues of young Bruce Wayne dealing with trauma, I think it would have made for a more solid foundation for the book. Alas. I do think, though, we’re going to have to spell out the precise nature of Martha and Jim’s relationship before we can be fully done with the past.

Matt: That is if Martha and Jim survive the next issue. I have been worried that Martha has had a limited time in this world, and that last page makes me very worried that one or both of them are not long for this comic.

I thought this flashback was also very affecting. That it was Bruce who wants a beacon of hope where his father died, not to destroy it and forget it? That’s a very Batman thing. That he won’t look away and forget his tragedy but stare it in the face and confront it is appropriate for who Batman always is.

Will: Batman always gets up, and Batman is forged in trauma and would be the last person in line to Eternal Sunshine himself — the things that should always be true of any Bats. Gordon mentioning that the memorial won’t be lit this year sounds like that’s where we’re heading in the final issue for this arc, which would nicely tie everything together.

Matt: Interesting. I viewed Bruce burning the money as a big beacon in the sky as him lighting the memorial himself.

Will: Again, I didn’t understand how that worked at all. You’d think with all the degrees I have, I could follow a comic book. But now that you say that, it does make sense.

Matt: And poor Jim Gordon, who has pretty much resigned himself to losing the election, and Martha who is comforting him. From the story about how they met, I get the impression Jim was a family friend before Thomas’ death, yes? Makes me wonder why Barbara, who gets a brief appearance here, wasn’t part of Bruce’s clique of friends if that is so.

Will: Perhaps this Jim has a bit of a wandering eye as well. Maybe he and Martha kept their relationship a secret. That would explain why Babs and Bruce aren’t friends, at least.

Matt: That would be in character with the Jim of the prime Earth, for sure.

So we have one issue left in this first arc. Are we expecting some hope in the final issue? Or will this darker world remain where it is? How upset would you be if this Alfred was all just a headfake of sorts, with us assuming he is going to join Bruce’s crusade and he winds up just leaving? And is Babs finding a Batman cowl a hint that she is going to use it to become Batgirl in the near future?

Will: If nothing else, we’re going to get some surprises, and I think we’ve learned we can take nothing as a certainty. Jim and/or Martha could die. Alfred literally said, “I’ll never help you again,” so I think we have to take him at his pissy word. The only thing we know for sure is Mr. Freeze is coming in for our next arc. Short of that, I think this will continue to be an interesting — albeit somewhat imperfect — book.

Bat-miscellany

We’re reading three stories from DC’s Legends of the DC Universe anthology on this week’s BatChat podcast. They are … comics we read.

Buy Absolute Batman #5 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)

Matthew Lazorwitz

Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.