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THIS WEEK: If you think Absolute Batman has been dark and intense so far, Absolute Batman #10 wants you to hold its Big Belly Burger. Plus, do you want stories with Robin(s)? This week’s got stories with Robin(s).
Note: the review below contains spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.
Absolute Batman #10
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Nick Dragotta
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
If you’re going to do an intense take on Batman, you may as well do a really intense take on Batman, right? That’s the feeling I had as I was reading Absolute Batman #10, which is, to be clear, itself a really intense take on Batman. Moreover, it might be one of the gnarliest and most disturbing Big 2 comics I’ve read in recent years.
Through it’s run so far, Absolute Batman has been a muscled, intense, and bombastic interpretation of a character who typically counts among his defining traits being muscled, intense, and at least a little bombastic. Part of what’s for sale with this book is that it’s going heavier on certain elements of Batman than basically any other take on Batman has done in the past. And now in this second full arc (we covered the mini #7 – #8 guest arc in this space too, btw), Absolute Batman has found a villain who can match that same energy in Bane.
And, really, if you grew up relatively close to when Knightfall was coming out, as I did (it’s a bit before my time, but close enough that kids talked about it on the playground), you know that Bane from the start has been a cruel, powerful character capable of breaking the Bat. Well, what this arc presupposes is maybe Bane could be even more cruel if he’s facing a Batman who’s even more imposing. In this story arc — dubbed Abomination — Bane is going to do more than break Batman’s back.
Yes, in the world of Absolute Batman, literally breaking the Bat is not enough. In this comic, Bane himself is actually a tool of the sadistic minds at Ark M (a play on Arkham Asylum, natch), who I think are trying to build more tools like him. Anyway, what results is that they are trying to explore the uptmost limits of what Bruce Wayne can endure before losing his will to fight and totally submitting. That’s almost the entire narrative of this issue (minus some scenes of Martha Wayne and Jim Gordon searching for the missing Bruce, plus some flashbacks that come into play later).
And it’s an incredibly effective storytelling choice. One that allows the book to do some truly horrendous things to Batman (I almost couldn’t believe corporate would let them do some of this to such a prized character) without it feeling gratuitous. Every awful thing that happens to Batman in this comic really does serve the story, helping to continue building his character and the inevitability of Batman’s continued war on crime.
I dug it, as depraved as it got, and, of course, that’s a major credit to Scott Snyder’s scripting. But the real star of this book remains Nick Dragotta, colored by Frank Martin, who is just building a whole new visual language for Batman and Gotham City. And he really gets a chance to let loose in a wild way with the ending sequence, which I will not spoil other than to say it features a new, and well-earned take on Waylon Jennings as Killer Croc.
So yeah, we are now 10 issues in and Absolute Batman is only getting stronger. And I think Absolute Batman #10 might be the best issue yet, as long as you don’t mind getting a little sick and dirty.
The Round-Up
This week features not one…not two…but three excellent comics that feature some kind of Robin stories. Well, technically one of them is a former Robin, with Nightwing #128 being on this list, but still. And they were all great! My favorite of the bunch was Robin and Batman: Jason Todd #2 by writer Jeff Lemire, artist Dustin Nguyen, and letterer Steve Wands. It’s a deep character study of Jason Todd, and one that I really don’t know where it’s headed, given the inherent tragedy of the character. Nguyen in particular is delivering his best Big 2 work ever in these pages, really stunning stuff.- Speaking of stunning art! This week also served up Batman and Robin: Year One #9 by writer Mark Waid, artist Chris Samnee, colorist Matheus Lopes, and letterer Clayton Cowles. When Samnee and Waid get the runway to do a long take on a character, there are few better teams in superhero comics. And while this book took a few issues to find its grove (for me, anyway), it’s really been clicking of late. Clayface is such a fun villain for this arc, and Samnee and Lopes are hitting every sequence out of the park here, delivering wonderful Gotham City noir visuals.
- Finally, we come to the aforementioned Nightwing #128, which finds us in the midst of what I think it’s fair to say is a pretty unexpected art. This issue is by writer Dan Watters, artist Dexter Soy, colorist Veronica Gandini, and letterer Wes Abbott. It’s a Nite-Mite arc really, when you get right down to it, but now in this issue it’s also bringing in the superhero of Kandor, Van-Zee. I say it’s unexpected because I felt like this creative team was previously serving up a sort of grounded, localized take on Nightwing…and now suddenly we’re doing fifth dimension hijinx. But the book hasn’t really suffered because of it. In fact, I think it’s endeared this run (which I’m really enjoying) to me more.
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