With the discharge of Absolute Batman #1, DC has formally kicked off the Absolute Universe. Similar to Marvel’s Ultimate Universe line, the Absolute Universe is dedicated to exploring streamlined, modernized variations of iconic heroes, free from the constraints of many years of current continuity. And if we have discovered something from the primary two points, it is that Absolute Batman is a really, very completely different hero from the Dark Knight we all know and love.
Just what has modified for the Absolute Universe? How does the brand new sequence reinvent Batman for 2024? Here’s a have a look at the whole lot that is modified on this twisted new model of the DC Universe.
Warning: watch out for full spoilers for Absolute Batman #1 and #2 forward!
Batman’s New Origin Story
One of the hallmarks of the Absolute Universe is that characters like Batman and Superman lack most of the innate benefits they’ve within the conventional DCU. In the case of Bruce Wayne, he is not a billionaire playboy with a mansion, a butler, and a cave full of pricy devices. He’s a blue-collar civil engineer from a humble background.
Over the course of situation #1, we get the rundown on Batman’s revamped origin story as seen by way of the eyes of Alfred Pennyworth (extra on him in a minute). Bruce’s father Thomas was a schoolteacher reasonably than a health care provider. Bruce himself examined at near-genius ranges as a toddler, ultimately profitable a science competitors the place he invented a conveyable, retractable bridge for use in rescue situations. As a prize, Bruce and his class got a area journey to the Gotham City Zoo.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck when a gunman opened fireplace on the zoo. Thomas ushered his college students to security earlier than being caught within the crossfire. That’s the trauma that birthed the Batman, and we’ve to imagine Bruce carries some guilt for his father’s loss of life with him even now.
Issue #2 gives extra perception into how that trauma birthed the Batman. We see one other flashback to zoo taking pictures, the place a stray bullet rips open a gap within the bat exhibit. Bruce is engulfed by bats, and he stays catatonic till Jim Gordon arrives and hears him scream. This Bruce Wayne clearly has a deep-seated fascination with and terror of bats.
Issue #1 gives some perception into the coaching Bruce underwent to organize himself to turn out to be a vigilante. After incomes a university soccer scholarship (and promptly faking a career-ending damage), Bruce studied chemistry, engineering, prison psychology, and different topics related to punching crime within the face. While he did not journey the world learning underneath the best warriors and detectives, he has developed a singular streetfighting fashion based mostly in blended martial arts and boxing. And by working as a civil engineer in numerous locales throughout Gotham, Bruce has developed an intimate information of town he hopes to avoid wasting.
Bruce Wayne’s Friend Group
One of essentially the most intriguing modifications launched in Absolute Batman #1 entails Bruce Wayne’s pal group. We be taught that Bruce’s childhood gang included Harvey Dent, Selina Kyle, Waylan Jones, Eddie Nashton, and Oswald Cobblepot. Even now, they continue to be pals, although Bruce is quickly drifting away from the group as his nightly actions begin to eat his life.
What does it imply that so most of the characters destined to turn out to be supervillains begin out as Bruce’s shut pals? Have their destinies modified within the Absolute Universe, or will we see Waylan turn out to be Killer Croc, Eddie turn out to be the Riddler, and so forth?
The solely one in every of these characters we meet in situation #1 is Waylan, who presently runs the boxing fitness center Bruce trains at and exhibits no signal of the reptilian pores and skin situation the character is so well-known for. Waylan appears to be one of the best pal Bruce has. Will that change because the sequence strikes alongside?
Issue #2 showcases extra of this pal group, because the more and more reclusive Bruce makes a uncommon go to to their common poker recreation. Their banter reveals that Eddie is each bit as fascinated with riddles and wordplay because the common Riddler, whereas it is hinted that Oswald already has his fingers in some lower than savory pies. Harvey, in the meantime, is revealed to be a lowly regulation clerk with main profession ambitions. The solely pal MIA from this recreation is Selina, who is claimed to be travelling the globe and lately made a cease in Cairo.
Alfred Pennyworth: Secret Agent
Bruce could not have a butler, however that hardly means Alfred has no function to play within the sequence. Issue #1 is narrated from Alfred’s perspective. In the Absolute Universe, Alfred is a undercover agent for a mysterious group (it is unclear if he is working for the British authorities or an company like ARGUS). He’s pulled off a mission monitoring a mysterious killer abroad with a purpose to collect intel on the rising disaster in Gotham. A gang known as The Party Animals has been massacring harmless civilians, and Alfred’s handlers need to know what precisely they’re coping with.
Alfred is warned that one other get together has begun to make itself recognized within the metropolis, the primary signal that Batman is starting to seem on the general public’s radar. Alfred later encounters Batman in particular person when observing an assault by The Party Animals. Alfred’s orders are to watch and to not have interaction the gangmembers, one he strongly disagrees with. Already, the seeds of the eventual Batman/Alfred alliance are starting to be laid.
Batman is extra of an antagonistic determine to Alfred in situation #1, even stealing the key agent’s bike and all of its beneficial intel. Alfred, for his half, instantly deduces Batman’s secret id. While he considers assassinating Bruce in broad daylight, he decides “You’re only a **** child.”
In situation #2, it turns into clear that Alfred is rapidly creating an affection for Bruce/Batman, partially as a result of his battle on the Party Animals is making Alfred’s intel-gathering mission a lot simpler. Alfred traces Batman’s marketing campaign throughout town. He notes that whereas most troopers within the area observe one in every of two techniques, AF (advance ahead) and RR (retreat and regroup), Batman by no means appears keen to retreat or give floor. He’s merely Batman AF.
The Gordon Family
No new Batman universe can be full with out Jim Gordon enjoying an element. Issue #1 provides no indication to imagine Batman and Gordon are working collectively but, but it surely does forged Gordon because the uncommon good cop attempting to take care of order in a metropolis quickly descending into chaos. But on this case, Gordon is not Commissioner of the GCPD, however reasonably the lately elected mayor of Gotham. His daughter Barbara, in the meantime, is a police officer.
Gordon holds a press convention to ease public issues over the rising menace of The Party Animals. However, that plan hits a snag when the gang assaults in the course of the convention and Gordon himself is shot.
Issue #2 reconnects with the Gordon household within the hospital, as Jim recovers and laments the truth that his reelection likelihood is slipping away.
The Rise of Black Mask
It rapidly turns into clear that the primary costumed supervillain the Absolute Batman will face off in opposition to is not Joker, Penguin, or Riddler, however Black Mask. Roman Sionis is launched because the chief of The Party Animals and a person obsessive about gathering loss of life masks of well-known celebrities and political figures.
Sionis holds a gathering with Gotham City crime bosses Sal Maroni and Carmine Falcone, each of whom are cautious of this upstart upending the standard order within the metropolis’s underworld. Sionis wastes little time earlier than revealing that he is already made loss of life masks of Maroni and Falcone’s family members and including each males to his assortment.
Traditionally, Batman’s early months on the job are spent waging battle on the Gotham mob, earlier than energy slowly shifts in favor of villains like Joker and Penguin. In the Absolute Universe, nevertheless, it appears that evidently shift is already occurring. A brand new era of evil is rising within the metropolis and consuming the outdated.
The New Batsuit in Action
The reader and Alfred alike are handled to the primary glimpse of the brand new Batman in motion when the Dark Knight arrives to battle the Party Animal members attacking Gordon’s press convention. If there’s one takeaway from this struggle, it is that Absolute Batman has a number of nifty toys regardless of not having a billionaire’s assets.
Nearly each part of Batman’s costume is a weapon in its personal proper. His cowl’s ears and his gloves’ spikes are retractable daggers. His bulletproof cape is a modified model of the identical moveable bridge he designed as a toddler, permitting him to regulate the varied wings at will.
Even the Bat emblem is a potent weapon. Not solely is it a bolstered piece of metal plating defending Bruce’s chest, it may be eliminated and connected to a deal with to type a razor-sharp ax. The Party Animal chief learns that the exhausting method when he loses his hand in a duel.
The Gigantic Absolute Batmobile
In situation #2 we see the Batmobile in motion for the primary time. And like the whole lot else about Batman on this universe, it is outsized and amped as much as 11.
Batman hits a snag on this chapter when he breaks into the marketing campaign places of work of the previous Mayor Ford and investigates a clandestine undertaking recognized solely as ArkM. Batman is interrupted by Black Mask, who reveals he is simply summoned everything of the GCPD to Batman’s location. Batman plunges down an elevator shaft and runs into Alfred, who proposes an alliance. Batman agrees to listen to him out, however first they must make their escape. That’s when Batman summons a Batmobile so monumental it dwarfs the Tumbler and even the Bat-Tank from The Dark Knight Returns.
This Batmobile seems to be a modified mining automobile. Though this Bruce Wayne is not a billionaire, his work as a civil engineer clearly provides him entry to the gear he must wage battle on crime.
The Fate of Martha Wayne
The flashbacks to Bruce’s tragic childhood reveal that Thomas Wayne died defending his college students on the zoo. But what about Martha Wayne? It seems she’s nonetheless alive and effectively. Bruce pays his mom a go to after laying a flower on the website of his father’s homicide, at the same time as Alfred watches from afar. Later, in situation #2 Martha herself visits Jim Gordon within the hospital, establishing that the Wayne and Gordon households have a heat, long-standing relationship.
This might be the most important and most vital change launched in Absolute Batman. Bruce Wayne has at all times been portrayed as an orphan devoted to stopping what occurred to him from occurring to anybody else. How a lot does it change the equation for Bruce to have a mom who raised him to maturity? At the very least, this implies Absolute Batman has one thing to lose ought to his secret id ever be revealed.
Teasing Absolute Joker
Absolute Batman #1 ends with an epilogue web page teasing the debut of Batman’s most iconic foe. Alfred’s handlers report that the person he had been monitoring abroad vanished within the Phillipines. Known by many names like Jack and Arthur, this man educated underneath elite killers like Henri Ducard and the League of Assassins earlier than murdering them and transferring on. He’s one of many richest males on the earth. He by no means laughs, therefore why he is come to be recognized satirically because the Joker.
If Joker is supposed to be the twisted antithesis of Batman, then it is clear the Clown Prince of Crime has been reworked to swimsuit this darker, grittier tackle the Caped Crusader. Joker is the whole lot this Batman is not. He’s a person of wealth and privelege. He’s traveled the globe and honed himself into the right warrior. And it is solely a matter of time earlier than he involves Gotham and assessments himself in opposition to the Batman. Will the Dark Knight be the one to lastly make the Joker crack a smile? We’ll discover out because the sequence continues to unfold.
Whiuch Absolute DC sequence are you most excited for? Cast your vote in our ballot and tell us your ideas within the feedback beneath:
For extra on how the Absolute Universe has reworked iconic DC heroes, learn the way Absolute Wonder Woman overhauls Diana’s origin and the way Absolute Superman establishes a Man of Steel with out Clark Kent.
Note: this text was initially printed on 10/9/2024 and up to date on 11/13/2024 with the newest details about Absolute Batman.
Jesse is a mild-mannered workers author for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your mental thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
