GRAPHIC-NOVEL COLUMN: Absolute Batman is a Pinhead
By Dan Brown Absolute Batman is a new version of the Dark Knight who’s setting DC fandom and the sales charts on fire. Instead of coming from a rich family, this Bruce Wayne is a young man of modest means while his nemesis, the Joker, is Gotham’s resident billionaire in this continuity. You can also recognize this new superhero because, as drawn by Nick Dragotta, he has a massive body but a pinhead for a noggin. Scott Snyder handles writing duties. I’ve been reading a number of Batman collections lately, ranging from the awful (The Long Halloween) to the superior (The Court of Owls Saga). For this column I read The Zoo, which collects the first six issues of Absolute Batman. The title has been lauded for its visual storytelling, and is selling gangbusters – we’re talking manga numbers. “Absolute Batman is now consistently selling 300,000 issues a month, a monster number in the comic-book publishing field,” the Hollywood Reporter noted in an article on April 3 (I’m sure a part of that total is single copies with variant covers). What you’ll see in Absolute Batman: The Zoo is fresh takes on familiar names and institutions. Jim Gordon is Gotham City’s Mayor. His daughter is Barbara, a cop like the main-universe version, except she’s black. Instead of a Batmobile, Wayne steals a motorcycle. His father, a grade-school teacher, is killed in a school shooting, inspiring the young man to become a crime fighter. Alfred Pennyworth is an ex-special forces soldier-turned-mercenary, and possible partner for the Dark Knight. Selina Kyle is a childhood friend of Wayne’s. Not having the financial resources of the original Bruce Wayne, our hero must use whatever materials come to hand, like when he commandeers a gigantic dump truck in a chase scene. He also leans on a group of friends that includes the Absolute equivalents of Two-Face and the Riddler. No doubt some of the people buying this series are speculators, but there’s no denying this is a novel and energetic twist on the Batman we’ve all come to know in the past. I especially appreciated Absolute Batman No. 4 because it was drawn by frequent Jeff Lemire collaborator Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and delves into this particular Batman’s origin story. The strong demand for the series has led to multiple printings of the first few issues. Fans are genuinely excited to see where the creative team will take the title. I’ve always argued, when anyone says Batman is just a regular guy (unlike Superman), that his superpower is the Wayne family fortune, which allows him to be prepared for any threat to his hometown. So it’s interesting to see how this Batman’s anger is directed at the city’s One Per Centers, who he feels have an obligation to their community, but are instead pretending to literally be above it all, hiding from their responsibility in penthouse apartments. Are you reading Absolute Batman? What do you think? How do you suppose he got his shrunken head? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
