As Batman lays siege to Black Mask’s yacht to try to stop the chaos he has started in Gotham, his friends reckon with the knowledge that he is Batman, Alfred has a conversation with his daughter, and Jim Gordon and Martha Wayne face Gothamites turned Party Animals in the final issue of the inaugural arc of Absolute Batman. Issue #6 is written by Scott Snyder, drawn by Nick Dragotta, colored by Frank Martin and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Will Nevin: We’re one week away from “Hush 2.” I’m not ready, Matt.
Matt Lazorwitz: Keep Calm and Look at the Bandages, or some similarly trite statement. I am waiting to see if this actually comes out on time for six months. I don’t remember huge delays on the original, but Jim Lee hasn’t gotten any faster as an artist in the intervening years.
Will: There’s no excuse for this to not already be in the can, is there? Already announcing the Fraction run — as a No. 1, no less! — has got to be some incentive to stay on track if not.
The Battle of Black Mask’s Boat
Will: I want to take a stab at a central thesis for this book, at least as I have come to understand it: The real world and Gotham are both shit, so just sit back and watch a big ass Batman wreck shit. Is there more to it than that? I really thought there was going to be after the first issue, but in getting the first arc in total, I think what we got is what we got. This is big, loud escapism in a dark, terrible world. And that’s fine. But I was really hoping for something more.
Matt: I think what Snyder is getting at, what is supposed to be the theme, is Martha’s speech on the last two pages of the story: Life does suck. We all are in pain and are going to feel pain. But it’s what we do with that pain that makes a difference. What I find questionable about that is, well, that’s the theme of every Batman story ever. It’s not novel or even all that EXTREME. It’s what has defined Batman from the minute readers learned his origin.
Now, that might sort of be the point. Darkseid created the Absolute universe to be hopeless, and yet each of our heroes has found a way, even with the things that have helped define them in the Prime Earth stripped away, to find hope and heroism. But it makes this far more about the details and the facades than about anything different at the core of Batman.
Will: It’s funny you say thematically this story isn’t all that different — I was thinking to myself earlier that Batman’s final assault on Sionis’ party boat was more (violent) or less the same as we’d see on Prime Earth. But you’re right in that this is generally a much more hopeless book. I mean, there’s nothing quite so bleak as Gotham residents ready to assassinate Mayor Jim Gordon and Deputy Mayor Martha Wayne only to quickly lose interest when the money evaporates. Oh, and Alfred getting guilted into staying in Gotham. That’s fairly bleak, too.
Matt: The Alfred stuff here was very frustrating. Both the first scene with Julia and the scene between her and Alfred were half scenes, and neither did much. I still have no reason to care about this Alfred other than his name is Alfred Pennyworth. If this was Simon Cabot (a random, British sounding name I just came up with; don’t look any more deeply into it than that), I would want this guy out of the book. Snyder has a long way to go to make me like this Alfred.
Will: Did you know Simon Cabot is a physiotherapist who works with Nuttfield Health in London? I could have made that up, or it might be real. Who knows?! There is a lot of showing and pointing and loud gesturing at established characters, but outside of changing the circumstances of the shooting/origin of Batman and (to a lesser extent) leaving Martha alive, there hasn’t been anything particularly smart about this book, which brings me back to my central complaint that this is loud nonsense.
Matt: This is Jason Statham as Batman. Jason Statham doing an American accent. It’s not bad: The art is great, and the story is fun for values of fun, but it’s like The Beekeeper. There’s nothing subtle in its politics, and it’s reveling in its violence. Did you ever expect to see Batman punt a psychotic little girl? I didn’t, but I have now.
Will: I buy that for sure — and who hasn’t wanted to punt a kid at one point or another? — and I think it’s on me to recalibrate my expectations moving forward. I enjoyed The Beekeeper. I can enjoy Beekeeper Batman once I get it out of my head that it could be something more.
Matt: The violence here is the most over the top we’ve seen in a book that has really enjoyed its violence. Aside from Batman kicking a small child for a field goal (I cannot stress that enough), he pokes out Black Mask’s eyes with the pointy ends of his ears on a lovingly rendered splash page. The only reason to focus on that is to make the point that this isn’t your father’s Batman. This Batman will fuck shit up. And that does bring to mind a question: If we are willing to strip away so much from Batman to make a new version of the character, why does the One Rule matter? I’m not saying keeping it in place is bad or wrong, I’m curious why you think Snyder keeps that one piece in place when so much else has changed and become darker.
Will: Let’s be honest: Sionis is alive as a technicality just like so many other goons from the first six issues. You (and I don’t mean ***you***, Brother Matt) can equivocate all you want, but once Batman starts dismembering and eye gouging, he’s not that concerned with preserving life. And that was a question I had last time out, you know? What does this willingness to inflict graphic, life-changing violence against his foes mean for this character? We haven’t gotten any answers in these first six issues, and perhaps we never will.
But my short answer to your question? The One Rule is in place because either editorial demands it or Synder’s basic understanding of the character compels the same. But functionally? It’s done in this book.
Matt: The flashbacks remain tender and lovely. Seeing a young Bruce with Martha processing his father’s death is unique to this take, but I want to know more about how he decided to become Batman when he had a parental figure there. Why didn’t Martha help channel his rage into something other than vigilantism, especially as she is so clearly involved with the civic order? And is a book so wrapped up in violence interested in telling that story?
Will: Exploring that relationship would be more interesting than continuing to mine the barren landscapes of my emotional investment in the friendly rogues. (I promise not to complain any more about them … this week.) We’ve literally never seen that for any length in any other Batman story — why not do it here? There’s still space and time to do it in future stores, but with Bane on deck and Mr. Freeze in the hole, it seems like Synder is much more interested in playing with toys than drilling deep into what would make this book fundamentally different.
Matt: I still don’t mind the rogues, and I think we’re going to watch those relationships start to fall apart now that they know Bruce is Batman, but I knew better than to bring them up. It’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull (and yes, I know that’s a myth, but the metaphor stands).
Will: It’s contrived nonsense, Matt, and I can’t stand it! OK, I’m actually done.
Matt: I’m not letting you off the hook quite that easily. Here’s my question then: If Bruce had five friends who did not share the names of classic Bat rogues who would wind up taking those identities after they felt betrayed when Bruce didn’t tell them he was Batman, would it bug you as much? Or is it just that Snyder grafted those names onto those characters that bugs you so much? Because I think him losing part of his support system because he was too bullheaded, and they don’t come back like every time he does it on Prime Earth, is a story beat that is worth examining.
Will: Absolute Batman growing up as a friend to Catwoman, Penguin, Two-Face, Killer Croc and Riddler is lazy and trite. Creating new characters who get mad that they didn’t know about Bruce’s secret life? That could be an interesting take on the (tired as well) sawhorse that Batman created the costumed plague he’s forever doomed to fight.
Matt: Fair. I just wanted a better idea of what angle here was bugging you so much.
Now, onto the biggest mystery of this issue for me: Was Joker wearing a suit of dead babies in that last scene? And did he, like Count Orlok in the recent remake of Nosferatu, skip leg day for decades? The second question is a joke, the former leads me to wonder if we’re getting something that thematically rhymes with Tom Taylor’s Detective Comics about the rich exploiting the young for medical research.
Will: Those do indeed appear to be dead babies. And since Absolute Joker is a creepy billionaire, I have no doubts that we are going to get something like we see in ‘Tec. Here’s what *I* wonder: Did this Joker also fall into some kind of vat and the baby suit is his way of keeping Prime Joker-type behavior at bay?
Matt: I don’t know if it’s a vat, or exposure to some chemical weapon, but I have little doubt he was caught in some chemical that is killing him and he is using the baby suit to stop from looking like Prime Joker, if not acting like him. Or maybe something worse. Those panels seem to indicate it’s not just making his skin less Joker-y, but healing him as well. This is something I am engaged with, because Joker seems to be a much more radical redefinition than anyone we’ve seen otherwise.
We’ll watch more Batman Beyond someday, but it seems like what happened to Terry’s arch-foe, Blight, who had to constantly get new pseudo-skin put over his radioactive Blight body so he didn’t look like the Masters of the Universe villain Scare Glow all the time.
Will: It’s not a look that closes too many deals on the golf course.
Bat-miscellany
- Patreon backer John Wickham is back on the BatChat podcast to discuss villain-on-villain violence in three stories where Batman villains fight each other, including “The War of Jokes and Riddles.”
- For a guy who is so smart, Batman didn’t think to put a gorget in his costume? That’s Middle Ages tech, Bruce.
- The Hill is reporting that the Democratic National Committee is devoting resources to friend of the show Josh Weil’s campaign in Florida’s 6th Congressional District. The Hill is also reporting that last month Josh raised $10 MILLION. Fuck yeah, Josh!
Buy Absolute Batman #6 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.
