{"id":552253,"date":"2026-01-29T19:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/552253\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:34:14","slug":"absolute-batman-is-the-batman-we-deserve-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/552253\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Absolute Batman’ Is the Batman We Deserve in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever folks get to yapping about their favorite Batman<\/a>, the conversation is usually limited to the caped crusader\u2019s live-action actors: Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer (a low-key goat), George Clooney, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson. But as far as the DC hero\u2019s comic book iterations go, Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta<\/a>\u2018s Absolute Batman run is far and away my definitive version of Batman, and my love for the six-foot-nine, 420-pound tank of a man only grows with every issue.<\/p>\n

Absolute Batman<\/a>, alongside Absolute Wonder Woman and the criminally underrated Absolute Martian Manhunter and Absolute Superman, is basically Darkseid fan fiction in that he remade reality into a more brutal and harsher universe where he jettisoned the Justice League. In the Absolute universe, Bruce Wayne has been stripped of his usual tropey fixings of infinite money and a nepo baby socialite bachelor\u2019s life. Instead, he\u2019s a boots-on-the-ground blue-collar construction worker in a Gotham that\u2019s on demon time at all hours of the day. Like, we\u2019re talking the worst Gotham has ever been, with villains turned all the way up to 11<\/a> on their badness levels and huge wipeouts happening every day in broad daylight on the streets.<\/p>\n

While Batman will forever be one of my favorites, depending on the day (Spider-Man is also up there, obviously), what\u2019s always kept me from wholly gelling with Batman is how he felt disaffected with the struggles of the everyman. Sure, he fights crime, and the meme that his power is money is his whole deal is forever funny. But outside of a few rare instances of giving back to those struggling in Gotham, he\u2019s always felt perpendicular to the city\u2019s real issues, unless they\u2019re dressed up in a punchable villainous persona.<\/p>\n

Absolute Batman answers that feeling that Batman is my hero in a ceaselessly satisfying way with every issue by having hands for costumed crime and real-world crimes against humanity like racism and police brutality alike with extreme prejudice.<\/p>\n

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Just in case you missed it. pic.twitter.com\/1XLJSPe4Wn<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Daniel Warren Johnson (@danielwarrenart) January 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To solve Gotham\u2019s insurmountable crime, which pointedly includes racism and xenophobia, Batman employs \u201cless-lethal\u201d means to save Gotham. Key among them is his fuck-off huge construction truck Batmobile and his giant steel plate bat-log axe<\/a>. What we\u2019re left with is a class-conscious Batman who shows up for the little guy in the biggest way possible.<\/p>\n

No point hammers that home quite as emphatically as guest creators Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer\u2019s cathartic, incredibly of-the-moment<\/a> special issue of Absolute Batman\u2014the standalone Absolute Batman Annual #1\u2014which sees Batman decimating a gaggle of white supremacists.<\/p>\n

\"Absolute\u00a9 Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer\/DC Comics <\/p>\n

Among the highlights of the issue is that Batman is deep in his professional wrestling bag, hitting white supremacists with Kenny Omega<\/a>-style wrestling moves like the One-Winged Angel<\/a> and the V-trigger<\/a>, as well as breaking the arm of a guy moments before he attempts to do a Hitler salute.<\/p>\n

When a pastor tries to talk him down, saying this isn\u2019t the way, he emphatically retorts, \u201cThis is his way,\u201d and proceeds to tear apart the white supremacists who aimed to raid an immigrant encampment by torching them with a flamethrower\u2014because they\u2019re not human beings, you see, they\u2019re roaches. Even detailing its highlights doesn\u2019t do justice to how raw and hype-as-hell the issue reads. And that honestly goes for all of Absolute Batman.<\/p>\n

\"Absolute\u00a9 Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer\/DC Comics <\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While getting into comics is hard as hell, what with multiple continuities and runs happening in perpetuity only for them to reboot a handful of months later, Absolute Batman is a great place for folks to start reading\u2014especially if they like 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.<\/p>\n

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Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n