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Absolute Batman is the biggest thing in comics right now… literally. It’s not just that the series is set in an alternate universe where evil is the moral center. It’s that the series imagines Bruce Wayne as a 400-pound hulk, who grew up in Gotham’s slums after the murder of his father, a modest school teacher instead of a doctor with generational wealth. The increasingly gonzo reinterpretations that creators Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta present each month has made Absolute Batman a sensation, with every issue soaring straight to the sales chart and burning up the internet with memes and discussion.
Something that big cannot be held to just one medium. And so, DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation‘s latest announcement included not just a show about the super-dog Krypto and an anime show titled Joker: Laugh Riot, but also an animated Absolute Batman series. The decision makes perfect sense, but DC Animation’s track record with adaptations makes us wary of potential for success.
Launched in 2024, the Absolute Universe is a dark mirror of the DC Universe, in which villains have unprecedented power and the heroes we know all lack some key element. In this world, Wonder Woman is a witch who was raised in Hell by Circe, isolated from Paradise Island and the Amazons. Superman grew up on Krypton as the son of laborers, and came to Earth as an angry, alienated young adult who only had a few short years to learn about human kindness from the Kents. Absolute Martian Manhunter and Absolute Green Lantern radically reinvent their core concepts to tell mind-bending stories about the nature of fear and evil, while Absolute Flash, Absolute Catwoman, and Absolute Green Arrow use more traditional story forms to address corruption in economics and government.
All the Absolute comics have been excellent thus far, and all have captured the public’s imagination, none more so than Absolute Batman. Part of the popularity stems from the line’s central appeal. By reimagining the Joker and Ra’s al Ghul as untouchable billionaires who trample people in pursuit of economic power, the series speaks to our current political moment, turning our feelings of powerlessness and anger into power fantasies with immediacy—just check out last year’s Absolute Batman Annual #1, in which the Dark Knight laid waste to a group of white supremacists.
Absolute Batman also stands out because of Snyder and Dragotta’s fearless approach to the material. It’s not just beefy Batman who gets bigger; Joker is a dapper, sullen man who can transform into a cackling dragon, Poison Ivy is a plant creature who envelops the city, Bane grows to the size of a building and literally beats Harvey Dent and Oswald Cobblepot into becoming Two-Face and the Penguin. It feels like Snyder and Dragotta challenge themselves to push the concept to increasingly absurd lengths with every issue.
That very audacity gives us reason to doubt the animated adaptation. DC has been making animated adaptations of landmark comic stories and, with few exceptions (2010’s Batman: Under the Red Hood, for example), the cartoons have fallen far short of the source material. All-Star Superman hits the story beats, but lacks the wonder of the Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely series, 2011’s Batman: Year One shined off the grit and immediacy of the Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli original, and Batman: The Killing Joke inserted an unsavory romance between Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon into Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s already unpleasant story.
Whether making changes that don’t serve the story or rendering the artwork bland and smooth, these adaptations play as bland, unnecessary remakes. And if DC Animation diminished even straightforward superhero stories, how much more damage will they do to a series defined by its over-the-top visuals and plotting?
If there’s one bit of hope for Absolute Batman, it’s that Snyder and Dragotta are both on board as producers, and Snyder will serve showrunner. But how much time can they devote to the show when they’re busy making some of the best and most popular superhero comics of all time? That’s a big ask, even for people who made the biggest Batman.
Absolute Batman is now on comic book shelves.
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