Absolute Batman looks back, Dark Patterns rips and Batman & Robin put character first

Step back to Bruce Wayne’s earliest days as Batman, and to a time when Thomas Wayne was still alive, as the background of this new Batman starts to be filled in. Absolute Batman #4 is written by Scott Snyder from a plot by Snyder and Nick Dragotta, drawn by Gabriel Hernandez Walta, colored by Frank Martin and lettered by Clayton Cowles.

Batman follows the trail of the Wound Man, learning dark secrets that make the killer more than just a madman. What are the connections between the Wound Man and one of Gotham’s most notable companies? Batman: Dark Patterns #2 is written by Dan Watters, drawn by Hayden Sherman, colored by Triona Farrell and lettered by Frank Cvetkovic.

The wedge between Batman and Robin grows as Damian continues to question whether he really wants to go into the family business. And Memento’s attacks on Gotham are only growing worse, meaning Batman needs help from another member of the family. Batman and Robin #17 is written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, drawn by Javi Fernandez and Carmine Di Giandomenico, colored by Marcelo Maiolo and lettered by Steve Wands.

Will Nevin: Here’s a recent interview (actually the second half of one, but whatever) with Scott Snyder about Absolute Batman. It’s got the spoilers pretty well warned, so read what you will. Anything strike you as interesting?

Matt Lazorwitz: Hmmm… I like that the Joker isn’t going to be a big part of the rest of this arc. I was worried that next issue it would turn out he’s here now and Black Mask would suddenly be back-burnered. But letting that be the next arc works for me.

Will: If we have to do Joker basically from the beginning, let him be a ghost that indirectly haunts the book. We’ve had quibbles, but so far, he’s not a problem. I’m still amazed that conceptually, this is a full-on series. Like, Synder has plans for two years.

Matt: DC seems to be in on this for the long haul, and the sales are definitely food enough to justify it, so we should be able to see it play out.

The Young Bruce Wayne Chronicles

Matt: So, stepping away from the continuing narrative of the book after a major cliffhanger is a choice. And still doing the flashbacks in between the stuff in the present in an issue that is entirely a flashback is another. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I liked a lot of what was in this issue. But I’m not sure how the pacing of this works. Absolute Superman did something similar in its third issue, an issue set entirely on Krypton, so I feel like it might be something in the plan of the line.

Will: We’ve talked about how this book is awfully busy. Probably because it’s so ambitious, but busy nevertheless. Counting the scene at the end, we’re jumping between three different stories, and if not for the previous issues, I think I’d agree with you more. To me, this seemed almost restrained in how it was able to settle down and tell two relatively cohesive stories.

Matt: I think I should be more clear. My concern is with the pacing of the overall story, not this issue particularly. I think this is a well-paced story. But reading this as an arc, as a series, I wonder if dropping the flashback here is going to feel like it’s stopping the thrust of the story. I doubt there will be a better place in this arc, and it might have bearing on what happens in the next issue(s), so it needs to be here, but if it doesn’t, I think it might have been better in between arcs rather than in the middle of one.

Will: Ahhhhhh, yes, I gotcha. For as much as I loved the first issue, I wondered whether this would have been better suited there. And there’s lots of riffing going on here, isn’t there? A little “Year One,” a little Nosferatu. Although I don’t really know what to think about a Batman whose first thought was to bite criminals (fake fangs or not).

Matt: Yeah, that is not hygienic. Like, at all.

Will: What I did like, though, is the stuff with Thomas Wayne — you know, the stuff you can listen to on the podcast we just recorded during editing since you didn’t want spoilers. Removing the generational wealth from the Waynes has consequences, and for Thomas, that meant he couldn’t go to med school when he and Martha had a baby on the way. It’s maybe not profound, but it’s one of the clearer things this book has said about privilege and the opportunities it affords. 

Matt: I also was impressed with Thomas talking about the death of his father and how that affected him. It made Thomas want to be a doctor because his father died of a heart attack right in front of him. Bruce’s father died by violence in front of him, and so Bruce wants to avenge violent crime. It’s a strange generational trauma, but it makes a different connection between Thomas and Bruce than in the main DCU.

Will: I will, however, need an indefinite moratorium on any character in the Absolute universe saying something to the effect of, “In another world…” Yeah, we got it. No need to put a cowl on a cowl here.

Matt: That has gotten old; I’m pretty sure it’s popped up in all three books by now.

It’s probably fresh in my mind since we just read it for the podcast, but Snyder is cribbing from his earlier works somewhat here with young Bruce talking about bats. The Batman Who Laughs talked about the evolution and hardiness of bats a lot in his eponymous miniseries. But here, young Bruce takes it in another direction. It isn’t about domination, but about survival and more about using that adaptation to help.The whole idea for Bruce’s bridge is wild, and while I don’t know about practical applications, I really like the slow reveal of the more and more advanced bat motifs.

Will: Similarly, I liked the updated twist on the “feast” scene from “Year One.” It’s no longer just mobsters and other crooks. It’s politicians. Industry. Regulators. The whole damned system from stem to stern is corrupt — a very modern take on the ills facing society.

Matt: The narration is similar to that scene but different in important ways. Here, Bruce specifically thinks that, “You ate it all years ago. It’s just bones now.” Things are much farther along than in “Year One” for this Batman.

And with that, it’s a scene where the mainline Bruce Wayne could walk in and blend, learn what he needs by being himself. This Bruce has to use his engineering genius to get the information. It is another way to draw the distinction between the two.

Will: You know another thing I liked about this issue? None of the rogues are in this. Bruce’s frenemies continue to do nothing for me. 

Matt: Something I continue to be more OK with than you, but I didn’t miss them. I think Snyder made a conscious choice to not include Martha here as well as them to not split the focus. This issue is very much about Bruce and his father.

Will: The rogues as besties, they’re just too cute, Matt. I hate cute.

Buy Absolute Batman #4 here.

The Deepening Mystery

Will: Well, this book still fucks. Can’t say I expected the Wound Man to be portrayed as a victim, but it’s working.

Matt: That wasn’t where I thought this was going at all, but I am very much cool with it. I think we both thought that Bruce, someone else touched by tragedy, was going to be the next target, But instead we get a tale of corporate greed run rampant, and a man broken by it becoming a monster. Very much in the animated series Mr. Freeze mold, only way creepier. The hint is in the title, which I didn’t pick up until getting to the end of the issue. It’s “We Are the Wounded.” The plural, the hint that there was something bigger going on, was there from the start.

Will: That sneaky bastard Watters, putting hints right there in the open. I would have liked a little more with the pathologist — himself very much not well — and the Wound Man, but there’s nothing to say we won’t get that in the back half of this story. Each page, it seemed, built a sense of dread and anticipation. Once again, what more can you say about Sherman’s work? Just incredible.

Matt: I was expecting the pathologist to be more involved with the Wound Man’s background at the end of last issue, but I like that Watters surprised me. I’m wondering how tied together the four arcs of this book are going to be. Are we going to see completely separate stories? Or will characters introduced here (the pathologist, the reporter) be threads that connect each arc somewhat? Will the events here help the guy straighten out, or will it get worse for him?

Will: If the series is Dark Patterns, you’d think there would have to be connective tissue, right? And yeah, I’d hate to see these supporting characters get jettisoned right as we’re getting to know them.

Matt: We talked above about how Absolute Batman is taking bits of the origin and the history of Batman in more modern takes. And the end here is a story that, while not modern, is something we see on the news regularly. We get ghost towns like Centralia in Pennsylvania, but this one, caused by corporate greed, has echoes of A Civil Action, Erin Brockovich and the Flint water crisis. It makes the story resonate more when it feels real.

Will: And this story can do that without feeling preachy. I don’t feel like I’m being yelled at, ya know?

Matt: Because it’s natural to the story. It’s not a story about those sins, but they are a natural part of it.

Speaking of natural to the story, the guy behind the toxin that caused all this is Black Mask’s dad, and I like that. It doesn’t feel too cute, because we know the Sionises were into all sorts of shifty business dealings, and it’s not like they’re making him a supervillain. He’s just a crappy businessman whose dealings are coming home to roost.

Will: And if Roman somehow got a little taste of it, that might explain why he’d be so fucked up.

Buy Batman: Dark Patterns #2 here.

Fathers & Sons

Matt: I don’t like harping on the same points again and again with a book we review monthly, but I have to say it again: Batman and Robin, regardless of who’s on the book, is at its best when it is a character piece. Bruce and Damian’s relationship is the centerpiece of the comic, and the scenes between them, or about that relationship when they’re talking about it, are what really draws me in.

Will: And, man, when Damian is talking about the burdens of being Batman’s son? His questioning the mission? That stuff is so good it makes the spooky killer stuff almost seem like a distraction.

Matt: I absolutely agree. Fernandez draws a cool riot at Arkham caused by a weird toxin, but I kept wanting to see more of Damian talking to Dr. Bashar. 

Speaking of the (seemingly) good doctor, the moment at the end where Bruce asks Oracle to look for a connection between Bashar and Ra’s al Ghul. Do you think Bruce has anything concrete there? Or is this him feeling like someone is interposing into his relationship with his son, and that must be connected with Ra’s, because who else would do it? I kind of think it’s the latter. Of all the Robins, to this point Damian has been the one most dedicated to the mission, to becoming Batman, and I think Bruce might have taken some comfort in knowing his legacy was assured. For someone not used to being in full dad mode, he might be looking for a reason Damian is changing, and not realizing it’s just growing pains.

Will: Either way, we can’t lose. If Bashar is up to no good, we have an example of Batman being smart and able to outwit his enemies. If Batman has mistaken the doctor’s intentions for something evil, then we have a story of Batman being wrong and perhaps being able to learn from his mistake and grow his relationship with his son. Really, I think I’m fine either way, with maybe a slight lean toward Batman seeing conspiracies where there are none.

Matt: The mystery of Memento might not be as compelling as the character stuff, but I’m still curious about what’s going on there. The way Professor Blye reacts when Bruce enters the crime scene in England made me wonder if the Memento thing is something supernatural, where it passes from one person to the other by seeing it. So Blye is this Memento, having gotten the supernatural contagion from the previous Memento. It might be stretching things a bit far, but we still don’t have a lot of answers, so I’m playing with what I have.

Will: “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” — Spock

Matt: The last page has me very excited for what comes next. SPOILERS: Of all the Batfam to bring in here, Red Hood feels like the most natural from a thematic point of view. He’s the one who broke with Bruce, so he will have a unique perspective on Bruce and Damian’s problems. And I really want to see how Johnson writes him.

Will: Oh, absolutely. In a book that has had some good family vibes, I can’t wait to see how the legacy of some of Bruce’s most painful mistakes changes the tone here.

Buy Batman and Robin #17 here.

Bat-miscellany

• Batman teams up a lot. But can you imagine Batman teaming up with the Joker? You don’t have to imagine it, as we read three stories where it happened on this week’s BatChat podcast.

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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.

Will Nevin

Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.