It's finally here! Following DC All In Special #1, the first regular issue of DC's new Absolute Universe is in comic stores now. Absolute Batman #1 is a brand-new start for the Dark Knight, featuring an all-new take on Bruce Wayne, his friends and foes, Gotham City, and set on a world that's a lot harsher than the core DC universe. Forget what you thought you knew about the Caped Crusader, because this book is about to upend it all.
Absolute Batman #1 by writer Scott Snyder (author of some of the best Batman comics) and artist Nick Dragotta, colorist Frank Martin, and letterer Clayton Cowles introduces us to a 24-year-old Bruce Wayne. He still lives in Gotham, but pretty much everything else about his life has been flipped on its head.
We'll get into it all right after Dragotta and Martin's cover and this GREAT BIG SPOILER WARNING. If you don't want to find out what happens in this issue, maybe check out some of our other Batman features, like our guide to the best Joker stories, instead...
Meet Alfred the assassin
Titled "The Zoo," this issue is the first of a five-part arc. Our guide for most of the issue is, perhaps surprisingly, not Bruce Wayne but Alfred Pennyworth, here reinvented as a motorcycle-riding badass with an arsenal of weaponry and an on-brand penchant for tea. We learn that he's back in Gotham after a stint in Singapore hunting a mysterious target and now tasked with gathering information on the Party Animals – a gang of skull mask-wearing killers who have raised the murder rate in Gotham by 700%. He's also warned that there is another player monitoring the Party Animals: the Batman.
It's not long before the two cross paths. Alfred watches Bruce in action as he takes down the Party Animals with brutal efficiency. In the wake of the battle, Alfred tries to confront him twice, but is defeated twice, with Batman stealing Alfred's bike and riding it out of a tower block window.
The Absolute Batman is brutal and BIG
This won't be a surprise to anyone who has seen the previews, but Nick Dragotta's take on the Dark Knight is an absolute unit (Absolute Unit #1, coming soon from DC... OK, not really). "We wanted him to feel like a primal force, just this unstoppable wall coming at you to level anyone in his way," said Snyder in our recent interview with him and Dragotta. Well, mission accomplished. This is a more obviously intimidating Batman than we've seen in a while. He dispatches the Party Animals with maximum prejudice, beating, stabbing (the ears on his new cowl are actually hidden knives), and even chopping one guy's hand off with his axe – that's the Bat-Symbol, though he has to attach a handle to it, which feels inconvenient.
Despite all that, Alfred notes that he is careful never to kill. This Batman still adheres to his code of ethics; he's just a little bit heavier-handed.
Bruce's backstory is very different
The Absolute Universe Bruce Wayne has a very different backstory to the one we're all used to. The most obvious change here is his wealth, or lack thereof. This Wayne is still super-smart – "near genius level" according to Alfred – but he was brought up in Crime Alley by parents with average jobs. What's more, only one of those parents is dead. Thomas Wayne was killed in a seemingly random shooting at Gotham Zoo (on a trip that was awarded, with dreadful irony, to Bruce's class after the young Wayne won a student engineering contest). We only get a brief glimpse of her this issue, but Martha Wayne is still very much alive, well, and a part of Bruce's life. That's going to add a fascinating new dimension to the series.
There's a new breed of criminal in town
Backing the Party Animals is a mysterious and wealthy figure who wears a similar skull mask. Although he is never formally identified in the issue, it's pretty clear that this is Black Mask – AKA Roman Sionis. We see him court the heads of the Maroni and Falcone crime families before brutally murdering them. Clearly we are once again situated at the point where the old Gotham mafia gives way to a new generation of costumed killers, traditionally a fertile setting for Batman comics. Black Mask is a great choice for first villain, and a clear sign that the Dark Knight's enemies in this version of the mythos are going to come from the sort of wealthy background that Bruce Wayne enjoyed in previous incarnations.
Batman has some unexpected friends
As we mentioned above, this Bruce grew up in Crime Alley surrounded by people from all walks of life. That's a very different upbringing to the more isolated Batman we're all used to, with his money and his manor. "We wanted to create a new dynamic between Bruce and the classic rogues, so that the people we're bringing in for him to fight offer this looming challenge you haven't seen him go up against before," said Snyder in our interview. So, the new Bruce trains in a gym owned by Waylon Jones – Killer Croc in the mainstream DC universe – and is part of a circle of friends that also includes numerous reimagined members of the classic rogues gallery, including Selina (Catwoman), Harvey (Two-Face), Ozzie (The Penguin) and Eddie (The Riddler). We even see a photo of the group as kids. Aside from Ozzie already clearly being a bit shady there's no indication that any of these characters are villains... yet.
So... that new Joker
The issue's epilogue provides two tantalizing teases of things to come. We get some hints at the identity of the target that Alfred had been tracking before he was assigned to Gotham, discovering that he studied with Henri Ducard (in DC lore, one of the men who helped train Batman) before murdering him, and then did the same to the League of Assassins. The obvious money is on this being Ra's al Ghul, but that could just be a red herring.
The second is a glimpse at this universe's Joker, here reinvented as a shady industrialist of some kind and one of the 30 richest people on the planet. Nobody knows his real name (Jack and Arthur are apparently two that he has gone by in the past) and he never laughs, hence people sarcastically naming him the Joker. An interesting reinvention and an ideal dark mirror for our new blue collar Batman.
Absolute Batman #1 is out now from DC.
The Absolute Universe continues with Absolute Wonder Woman #1 later this month. Check out our interview with Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman.
JSA's Jeff Lemire says a Justice Society/Justice League crossover is "inevitable" - "If we didn't try to do something really cool, it would be neglecting the readers"
Is Green Arrow really a traitor? What happens to Amanda Waller? And which hero makes a surprise return? All your Absolute Power #4 questions answered
