In a heavily guarded room, five people gather. They are rich, or powerful, or both. They discuss the secrets of the world, and their growing discontent as superhumans are manifesting. And they will form an alliance strangely like one we have seen before, but completely different in a key way. Absolute Evil #1 is written by Al Ewing, drawn by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Nesi, colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr. and lettered by Tom Napolitano.
Selina Kyle has returned to Gotham as Catwoman, and she’s here as Batman starts to gather allies and prepare for his final showdown with Bane. Absolute Batman #13 is written by Scott Snyder, drawn by Nick Dragotta, colored by Frank Martin and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Will Nevin: I just cannot be assed to read DC K.O., Matt. Like, that premise is profoundly uninteresting. But if people are digging it, I wish them well.
Matt Lazorwitz: Not every comic is for everyone. I am pretty into it. It’s just wild fun, with a deep connection to all sorts of wild DC history. It’s high cosmic, high weird. And while I think four-plus years of the podcast has gotten you to appreciate that stuff more than when we started, this is really not a Will event.
Will: When I win the Powerball and have enough money to buy the Yankees, I’ll save up team profits for a few years to buy DC, and we’ll get 17 different Detective Batman books. But I’ll bring you on to shepherd something exceptionally weird.
Matt: So, you get to run the Slam Bradley, Harvey Bullock and Joe Potato titles, while I get my completely trippy Dan Watters Azrael title? Sold.
Will: Potato and Potato Comics. The additional team-up book. It’ll be great.
Darkseid Is … Justice
Matt: As you have not been reading the entire Absolute line, how did this issue feel to you? I feel like it was there as sort of a synopsis of a lot of what has happened in the first year and a springboard for what’s next, and for me, who has read all of this as it happened, it worked pretty well in that respect.
Will: I read the Wonder Woman and Superman #1s, so I was at least able to follow bits and pieces. Even without the full backstory, the big moments here still hit *hard* — especially that folksy reveal at the end.
Matt: Al Ewing does a great job making what is for all intents and purposes a history lesson and a conversation for 20+ pages engaging. Something I thought was a coincidence, or parallel evolution of story, with all these evil oligarchs in this universe, is clearly very intentional. This is clear social commentary, as in this darker world, there are no good billionaires. And the one who was growing a conscience gets his face smashed in with a mace off panel.
Will: Hooboy, that went from “Oh, I wonder what Absolute Green Arrow will be like” to “that sumbitch is dead” with a quickness. I liked how they gave the universe a bit of depth and history — it was a nice touch to something that still feels brand new.
Matt: I’m curious to see how this ties into the already announced Absolute Green Arrow series coming in early 2026. Is that everything leading up to this moment? Is it Roy Harper who is GA? Or is something else going on? Pornsak Pichetshote and Rafael Albuquerque are a solid creative team, so I’m happy to see what they will do.
Will: If there’s anything that could sell me on a Green Arrow book, it’s revenge. And, I guess, in a very technical way, maybe Ollie’s not dead. Only mostly dead. Probably dead.
Matt: Seeing the corruption of the JSA characters absolutely suits this world. Two of the three we see are either collaborators or just willing to take the money and run, while the third gets killed just as badly as Ollie seemingly does. This again feels like the disenchantment of Gen X and later with the Greatest Generation; these incorruptible heroes of the more hopeful DC Universe are very much corrupted by Darkseid’s presence at the root of this world.
This is the most we’ve gotten of Joker so far. I’m leaning toward the idea that he becomes a cackling maniac when he Jokers out. Do you think I’m going to be too far off on that one?
Will: We can only take the “man who never laughs” bit so far, can we? I don’t know about the laughter, but I love a Joker obsessed with order. That’s a fun twist.
Matt: Order and his own belief in justice. I have to admit, the perverse nature of that group of five traditional supervillains calling themselves the Justice League and being in the Hall of Justice? It made my skin crawl a little. This seemed very much up your alley, very much reflecting the world as it is and saying something about it.
Will: Are you saying that perhaps there is social commentary in a Justice League run by villains as published in a country run by white nationalists? Might be something to that, fella. (Admittedly, I did not think about that angle because my brain is mush after a long week.)
Matt: I think there might be something there, yeah…
Reunions
Matt: Before we get into the story itself, I want to admit my mistake. We like to call out when we predict something right, so only fair to do the same when we’re wrong. I said in our last review of Absolute Batman that I figured the leader of the Red Hoods was going to be Jason Todd. Nope! I was not anticipating this to be the first appearance of Absolute Harley Quinn.
Will: That was a bit of a curve ball, wasn’t it? I don’t know how I feel about it, but I do feel like we’re burning through legacy characters pretty quickly for something that’s still paced out for another 20 issues or so.
Matt: Legacy villains anyway. We have a very limited number of Bat family members who have popped up. And many of the ones who have are either glorified cameos (Babs) or just flat out cameos (Dick and Leslie). I think there is some wisdom in introducing all these characters and then slowly fleshing them out. You don’t have a lot of, “Well, when is X character going to show up?” You’ve seen them, you know the beginning of their deal, and it’s just a matter of slow rolling the information.
Will: Consider my point countered, Matthew. We can at least agree we’re ripping through “Venom” at a fast pace, right?
Matt: Absolutely. And that was one of the problems with the original story, wasn’t it? That the five issues had pacing problems, that we didn’t really see the fallout of Bruce’s addiction. He goes into the cave, and 30 days later comes out with a big beard and has kicked the drug. There’s the chance that the withdrawal will be a big part of next arc, when the stuff in his system runs out, I suppose.
Will: And the story we have in front of us now — I thought it was a bit unclear as to how it works. Clearly, Batman was abducted and experimented on for months, only for the baddies to install a venom system he can tap into of his own accord? I mean, it’s clear that some type of psychological addiction is building, but it seems like a constant uninterruptible supply would be a better way of creating a subservient monster.
Also, Catwoman and shooting people!
We should probably talk about that last thing, but again, this just highlights the antsyness of this book. We can’t sit too long with any one idea (like Bruce asking Waylon to take a dive) before we’re right on our way to something else. Actually, this was a great companion read to the Ewing book in that respect. See what you can do when you let a story breathe and don’t constantly interrupt it with flashbacks?
Matt: You can say many things about this book, but never that it is decompressed. The best scene to me was that moment with Bruce and Waylon. It was just a really strong character moment. Well, that and Batman calling out Bane on screens across Gotham. I love a good Batman being a big damn hero moment.
Will: Credit where credit is due — that’s a great inversion of “Knightfall” with Batman (not Bane) seeking the big public spectacle.
Matt: But another interesting character moment is when Bane is sure that Batman will give in and Joker will have to let him go. We haven’t really seen that aspect of this Bane before, huh? The wistful Bane who just wants to go home. It adds a layer to the monster he’s been portrayed as throughout here.
Will: Having read Bane’s origin and seen him as a fully developed character in stories like “Knightfall,” we know he can have some depth, and this arc has certainly given us that. I’m trying my best to appreciate this for what it is and not what I’d like it to be, and overall, I think this arc (and this issue) has been good.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat podcast is a look at the life and times of Commissioner James Gordon, in an episode we could only call “You’re a Damn Good Cop, Jim Gordon.”
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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.
