Zabardast's Profile

I finally read Absolute Batman #1 after hesitating for weeks, and unfortunately my first impression was that it substitutes constant “badass” concepts for disciplined storytelling.

The premise is supposedly Batman without wealth, but this Bruce appears even more gifted than the regular Batman. He has an enormous superhuman-looking physique, encyclopedic knowledge, engineering mastery, i mpossible gadgets, perfect combat precision and the ability to outthink an experienced intelligence operative immediately. Removing the Wayne fortune means little when the writer simply replaces it with unlimited competence.

The action also undermined its own logic. Alfred emphasizes that Batman precisely avoids arteries and kills no one, but Batman then amputates a man’s hand without the story acknowledging the obvious risk of catastrophic bleeding. It felt less like a moral code being thoughtfully depicted and more like the comic wanting both “nonlethal Batman” and a shocking axe moment.

Alfred’s deduction of Bruce’s identity was similarly rushed. The comic gives him a clue involving Bruce’s childhood bridge design, but it skips the actual investigation and jumps straight to certainty.

The issue contains a huge amount of plot, exposition, redesigned characters, gadgets and reveals, yet very little room to know Bruce as a person. It felt like the opening montage of a movie or a pitch presentation designed to display one marketable concept after another.

I understand why readers enjoy the energy and exaggerated art, but it didn’t work for me. Absolute Wonder Woman felt like a genuine transformation of its hero. So far, Absolute Batman feels like familiar Batman mythology with altered biographies, uglier proportions and fewer believable limits.more