The stench of burning rubber and cheap cologne filled the air as the truck barreled down the alley. A low growl rumbled from the engine, a promise of violence hanging heavy in the Gotham night. He gripped the wheel, knuckles white, the weight of the city pressing down on him. Is this really the Batman we need right now?
Whenever folks get to yapping about their favorite Batman, the conversation usually lands on the live-action actors: Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson. But as far as the DC hero’s comic book versions go, Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta‘s Absolute Batman is my definitive version of the character, and my love for the six-foot-nine, 190 kg (418 lbs) tank of a man only grows with every issue.
Absolute Batman, alongside Absolute Wonder Woman and the criminally underrated Absolute Martian Manhunter and Absolute Superman, is basically Darkseid fan fiction. He remade reality into a more brutal universe where he jettisoned the Justice League. In the Absolute universe, Bruce Wayne has been stripped of his infinite money and nepo baby socialite bachelor’s life. Instead, he’s a boots-on-the-ground blue-collar construction worker in a Gotham that’s on demon time 24/7. This is the worst Gotham has ever been, with villains turned all the way up to 11 and huge wipeouts happening every day in broad daylight.
A Batman For the People
Think about the last time you felt truly disconnected from someone you admired. Batman, while forever one of my favorites (Spider-Man is up there, too), sometimes felt distant from the struggles of the everyman. Sure, he fights crime, and the meme that his power is money is funny. But outside rare instances of giving back, he’s always felt perpendicular to the city’s real issues, unless they’re dressed up in a punchable villainous persona.
Absolute Batman answers that feeling with every issue. He has hands for costumed crime and real-world crimes against humanity like racism and police brutality alike.
Just in case you missed it. pic.twitter.com/1XLJSPe4Wn
— Daniel Warren Johnson (@danielwarrenart) January 25, 2026
What makes Absolute Batman different?
To solve Gotham’s insurmountable crime, which pointedly includes racism and xenophobia, Batman employs “less-lethal” means to save Gotham. Key among them is his construction truck Batmobile and his giant steel plate bat-log axe. What we’re left with is a class-conscious Batman who shows up for the little guy in the biggest way possible.
Axe-Wielding Justice
I saw a woodpecker relentlessly hammering at a tree in my backyard the other day, and it reminded me of Batman’s focused, brutal approach in *Absolute Batman*. No point hammers that home quite as emphatically as guest creators Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer’s cathartic special issue of Absolute Batman—the standalone Absolute Batman Annual #1—which sees Batman decimating a gaggle of white supremacists.
Among the highlights of the issue is that Batman is deep in his professional wrestling bag, hitting white supremacists with Kenny Omega-style wrestling moves like the One-Winged Angel and the V-trigger, as well as breaking the arm of a guy moments before he attempts to do a Hitler salute.
Is this the most brutal version of Batman?
When a pastor tries to talk him down, saying this isn’t the way, he emphatically retorts, “This is his way,” and proceeds to tear apart the white supremacists who aimed to raid an immigrant encampment by torching them with a flamethrower—because they’re not human beings, they’re roaches. Even detailing its highlights doesn’t do justice to how raw and hype-as-hell the issue reads. And that goes for all of Absolute Batman. This run is a powder keg of righteous fury.
More Than Just a Story
Mind you, this is only one story told in the ongoing tale of Absolute Batman, not counting his cute crossover team-up with Absolute Wonder Woman.
How can new readers get into Absolute Batman?
Getting into comics can be hard. Multiple continuities and runs happen only for them to reboot a few months later. Absolute Batman is a great place for folks to start reading—especially if they want to see a hero not mince words with how messed up his world, and our world by proxy, is while doling out justice in the only way he can. As a great entry point, it’s a sign of the times.
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Given the state of things, is *this* the Batman we should be aspiring to?