Absolute Batman #1 – The Zoo, Part One – 4/5

I’ve always been a fan of Elseworlds/Multiverse takes on traditional stories in concept, but I’m not seeing many that actually get me excited.

I’ll admit that part of that is simply due to my lack of comic book experience. In comparison to other forms of media, I really have not read that many comics. Like many people my age, most of my comics experience comes from adaptations.

Unfortunately, promises of the multiverse in current day MCU has left me incredibly disappointed. So the closest I’ve gotten to good Elseworlds material is Into the SpiderVerse and the Arrowverse’s Elseworlds Crossover. Both of which were great, but at the end of the day, are only hints towards alternative looks at characters I love. They’re also like 7 years old now.

So when I was scrolling TikTok and Absolute Batman designs started showing up on my For You Page, I knew it’d be a matter of time before I bit the bullet and picked this up.

With that perspective in mind…

I’m pretty happy with the first issue!

(Spoilers below)

This thing inherently has the cool factor. From the get-go, the art is sleek and the designs are super striking.

Alfred Pennyworth is no longer Bruce Wayne’s butler, instead he’s got some kind of Special Ops intel thing going on. Hot on Batman’s case, he narrates his return to Gotham City. Meanwhile, the “Party Animals”, a street gang/secret organization is creating havoc in all corners of Gotham.

At its core, it’s still Gotham City. Crazy events are occurring, masked men are doing nefarious things, and Batman is on the prowl to clean it all up. There seems to be some criticisms about this origin story not being that different from classic Batman. I get the concerns, but it’s hard to say whether I agree with that sentiment quite yet.

“Without the mansion… without the money… without the butler… what’s left is the Absolute Dark Knight”, the back of Volume 1 proclaims.

I think there’s a ton of potential with this Bruce’s upbringing. Obviously there’s the class struggles. This first issue ends with a tease at a Billionaire Joker. What will a Bruce Wayne who had to struggle to earn his place in the world do when confronted with a high net worth egomaniac?

Thomas Wayne was still murdered at a young age, but his mother survived. What is it like for a Bruce Wayne who still has his mother?

And finally, there’s this new idea of Alfred Pennyworth. Who is he? Who does he work for? What is his goal? He sees Bruce Wayne as Batman and immediately infers that he’s acting as a conqueror. Now that’s interesting.

What is Bruce Wayne’s ultimate goals?

When I was younger, I couldn’t care less about Batman. I thought he was just some rich guy that used his money to gain his skills and tools. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve returned to this idea periodically and even though I would consider myself to be a Batman fan now, I’m still a bit conflicted.

I think it’s clear that in most iterations of the character, Batman is a hero. Just because he has access to more resources, doesn’t mean it didn’t take an immense amount of effort and sacrifice to learn and attain them. And more importantly, he uses these resources to help others. His dedication to the mantle is in service to the people of Gotham City.

However, becoming Batman is a egocentric move. After his parents’ death, the point where he had the least amount of control, he became Batman. In all intents and purposes, Bruce Wayne died that day. Like many alter egos, Batman became the ultimate tool to control external circumstances.

Almost every version of Bruce Wayne has used their trauma as a way to gain control. It’s a power fantasy.

In previous Batman stories, it’s easy to look at a Batman like figure and say, “well bro has a lot of money, of course he could become Batman”.

But what does that look like for a guy whose mother is a social worker and whose father was a teacher? How does he circumvent barriers that previously where removed by wealth?

In this first issue, we see that Bruce did a lot of interning. He went to college. He worked in city council. He did a lot of personal studying. He even played football for a brief moment.

If I had any problem with this origin story, it’s that I would’ve preferred to actually see all of this. I feel like there had to be some amount of internal struggle and it’s a shame we don’t get to see any of this. Instead we’ve just pushed the story forward to a time where Absolute Batman is already Absolute Batman and I’m a bit concerned that the character won’t be that much different.

Even still, I remain hopeful. I love the vibes presented here. There’s a lot of questions, both philosophically and literally, about the world here. They got me hooked, we’ll just have to see how far that lasts.

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Pick up the first Volume of Absolute Batman here: Absolute Batman Vol. 1