The second arc of the Absolute Universe’s inaugural title begins with Bruce Wayne and his friends eulogizing a lost comrade. Bruce begins to more deeply research Ark M and meets the scientist Victor Fries. Absolute Batman #7 is written by Scott Snyder, drawn by Marcos Martin, colored by Muntsa Vicente and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Matt Lazorwitz: I’d like to ask the people who read this column regularly a question. The past month or two, we have changed from a three-book-roundup format to a deeper dive on one comic per week. I’m curious to know if that is working for people.
Will Nevin: I like the deeper digging we’ve been able to do. But I’m cranky as hell about not getting to Dark Patterns this week. Miss you, boo.
Fire and Ice
Matt: After we recorded last night’s podcast, you said something about this book and this review, and it’s something I’ve been thinking about, but it needs the context of what you said, so please start us off with what you said to me last night.
Will: Way to put me on the spot, buddy. If I had to guess at what I said, it probably distills down into, “There’s no there there.” This book — after the first issue — has had nothing to say. There’s a lot of pointing to surface-level Bat knowledge (“Hey! You ‘member Matches Malone! He’s in this universe, too! Isn’t that wild?”), but what does it have to say about anything? I keep coming to this same point in my mind and in these reviews, and I swear to god, I’ll get off of it one day, but in essence, I expect more from Scott Snyder, a guy who has been writing Batman off and on for 15 years now. I would think it could be deeper and better than this.
Matt: I’ve been thinking about what this book is saying since you said that. It’s been rattling around in my brain. And I think there is a theme underlying most of this, and it’s the theme that is underlying the Absolute Universe in general. I am going to ask a question that you might find ridiculous, but what movies you have and haven’t seen often leaves me befuddled. Have you seen Se7en?
Will: That made me literally laugh out loud. Look, I’ll own it. Have I seen The Godfather? No. Will I yell at you for 15 minutes about how Face in the Crowd is a revelation, and Andy Griffith is a malevolent force lurking behind every episode of The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock you’ve ever seen? Absolutely. To answer your question (“What’s in the box?!”), yes, but it’s been a spell.
Matt: I think Snyder is getting at the same point that the final line in that movie is. And I quote (and it’s better to hear this in Morgan Freeman’s voice):
Will: “Get busy living, or get busy dying?”
Matt: Nope, but close. “Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.’ I agree with the second part.” I think Snyder is fed up with the world we live in, and who isn’t, but isn’t willing to give up on it. That is what we saw in that first arc, for sure. This Gotham is corrupt and broken beyond measure, but Batman keeps fighting. It’s sort of a central Batman tenet, but Prime Earth Batman lives in a world that might actually embrace the whole phrase and not just the second part.
Will: I can buy that as a thesis, but Synder needs to do more to show his work. Like, in this issue, Gotham is under martial law, but it’s barely a passing background note. That needs to be investigated a bit more, especially with a Bruce who seems to just shrug at possible stepdad Jim Gordon’s election loss.
Matt: I don’t think there’s an argument to be made against that point. This Bruce has tunnel vision, just like the Bruce of the Prime Earth, if not worse. Gordon’s election loss, his friends’ anger at him keeping secrets and even the death of Matches are just white noise around his crusade as Batman and his investigation of Ark M. If Snyder is slow playing Bruce losing everything because he can’t see the forest for the bats hanging in the trees, there is something there. But I can’t be sure that’s what he’s doing.
Will: I complain a lot about this book, so how about something I like? The new take on Mr. Freeze seems interesting — again, I don’t know if there’s going to be any substance to it, but at least it’s not a new guy in a different suit. This seems like a reconceptualization of the entire character.
Matt: And after the reveal of Joker at the end of last issue, I think we might be seeing a theme of body horror with these two. Joker actually seems to sit at the nexus of the two villain themes we’ve seen so far: the rampant capitalism of Black Mask and the science for science’s sake and damn anyone who gets in our way of Freeze.
Will: Love me some body horror. I read this for the first time last week, and on a reread before we got started today, I noticed that this Freeze seems to draw strength and power from ice rather than requiring it to simply sustain his life. If that’s the case, that’s a pretty novel way of freshening him up.
Matt: The look of the character is really creepy. That Slender Man vibe gives me the shivers, wordplay intended. Marcos Martin is a good choice for a fill-in here. There’s a vibe with Nick Dragotta, a smoothness to the lines, but he’s not a clone. I think these issues will look good in a collection with Dragotta’s.
Will: Oh, he is a spoopy motherfucker, no doubt. In another non-complaint, I thought the colors were great.
Matt: Stunning. I love that they are vibrant but without being … bright? They don’t take away the tone of the book but still stand out.
One last question: Are you aware of the big reveal at the end of the first arc of Absolute Superman? Have you read any of that book?
Will: I read the first issue and heard that our good friend the Demon’s Head shows up eventually. That the surprise?
Matt: Yeah, although admittedly when the evil corporation is Lazarus Corp., it’s not exactly a subtle hint. I wonder if we’re heading toward some kind of crossover or confrontation between Ra’s and his evil corporation and Joker and his. It would be a way to connect those two books in a logical way.
Will: That would be a hell of a way for Bats and Supes to meet for the 32nd first time. And I don’t care how grimdark this universe is, they had better be friends, goddamnit.
Bat-miscellany
- Three random stories from Will’s bookshelf are the topic of this week’s BatChat podcast, including a volume of Batman ‘66, the graphic novel The Chalice and the Final Crisis lead-in Gotham Underground.
Buy Absolute Batman #7 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
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.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
