Absolute Batman Just Achieved An Astonishing Milestone For Comic Books

If you like Batman at all, you should be reading "Absolute Batman" by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta. Twelve issues in, and there hasn't been a monthly Batman comic this good and exciting since... well, since Snyder was writing the main "Batman" comic back in 2016.

Snyder already left his mark on Batman history with that run, particularly by introducing new villains the Court of Owls. In "Absolute Batman," he's gone for radical changes and tuned into the world he's writing in and for. There's still Gotham City, and Bruce Wayne is still Batman, but the usual details are distorted. This Bruce is not a billionaire, he's a working class guy fighting against the systems that rule the world and the monsters they've created.

The book is doing something right, because "Absolute Batman" has been the best-selling comic on the direct market for months. The volume 1 collected edition, "The Zoo," has also recently placed no. 5 on the New York Times bestseller lists for Graphic Books and Manga. "The Zoo" is the only DC/Marvel superhero comic on the list, ranking just under new volumes for serialized manga/manhwa "Solo Leveling" and "Jujutsu Kaisen" and ahead of "Spy x Family" and "Dandadan."

It's no secret that manga has been leaving DC and Marvel's superhero comics in the dust, sales-wise. Manga is a medium of variety that's always bringing in new readers, whereas superhero books feel calcified, appealing to a shrinking (and aging) core reader base. For evidence, just walk into your local Barnes & Noble; there'll be two-three times as many shelves holding manga compared to the shelves holding American comics.

DC, at least, is aware of this and is trying to catch up. They've been publishing "Compact" editions, or manga sized (and priced) versions of popular DC comics. DC Executive Editor Chris Conroy also said one of the goals of the "Absolute" line was to bring in manga readers with comics that share that style.

"There is a vast pool of readers out there who are experiencing serialized comics through manga and not through Western superheroes. Their first reference point either starts with manga, rather than with our material, or the elements of our material that have already been reflected through manga, like 'Chainsaw Man' or 'My Hero Academia.'

Dragotta's action in "Absolute Batman" mixes dynamic and gruesome as well as "Chainsaw Man" author Tatsuki Fujimoto does, while the monstrous designs of the villains so far feel inspired by the demonic Apostles from Kentaro Miura's dark fantasy "Berserk."

The added appeal of the "Absolute Universe" is, while the characters are familiar, they're starting over at square one. This sort of reboot isn't novel, granted; Marvel Comics did it twice with the "Ultimate Universe," first in 2000 and then again in 2023. Yet while historically I've been more of a Marvel guy, I admit that "Absolute" is the line that feels fresher and like it's making bigger swings. "Absolute Batman," which launched the line, is leading this advance force.

"Absolute Batman" is currently in its second arc, "Abomination," which features Batman fighting against a terrifying new version of Bane. But let's look at the story which made "Absolute Batman" a bestseller. What makes "The Zoo" so good? How does it compare to other Batman origin stories, like Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's foundational "Batman: Year One," Snyder's own "Batman: Zero Year," or films like "Batman Begins" and "The Batman"? Is there really anything new to say about Batman's character or his beginning now? There sure is!

"The Zoo" is set during Bruce's first days as Batman, when Gotham is under siege by a ruthless gang, the Party Animals, led by Black Mask/Roman Sionis. The book cuts between present and past, when Bruce's childhood changed forever. This time, Batman isn't born in Crime Alley, but at the Gotham City Zoo.

As a child, Bruce won a young engineers contest (with a bat-wing like device) and earned his class a field trip to the zoo. Then, a gunman opened fire into the crowds; Bruce's dad and teacher Thomas gave his life to stop the shooter Joe Chill. Mirroring his father's sacrifice, Batman's public debut is stopping the Party Animals from shooting up Gotham's city hall.

Bruce's trauma now isn't a mugging gone wrong, it's a mass shooting. That already makes Batman feel more like a normal guy because in America, mass shootings have become ordinary. Bruce losing his father wasn't an extraordinary stroke of bad luck, but something that could happen to anyone. "Absolute" Batman is built out of a palpable fear and pain too many people feel, which makes it a more honest plea to rise above that fear. 

Issue #2 opens with Bruce, locked in the zoo's bat exhibit for protection by his father, seeing the shape of his destiny. Compare "The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller's (the man who made Batman what he is today) where a young Bruce fell into his future Batcave.

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Snyder has said "The Dark Knight Returns" is his favorite comic ever and that bleeds through "Absolute Batman." Dragotta's page layouts of smaller, often cross-cutting panels echo Miller's talking heads from "Dark Knight."

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Snyder (who has a teaching background) once used "Dark Knight Returns" for an impromptu lesson on Twitter. Recalling some advice from a teacher of his, Snyder explained how the first page of "The Dark Knight Returns" tells the comic's whole story.

If we apply that same standard to "The Zoo," what does it tell us? The opening page depicts the poster of the zoo's bat enclosure, with a "Batty" mascot. The poster invites us to observe all the "crazy" things bats can do, which we will as Batman does the impossible. Then Thomas calls Bruce away, because "there'll be plenty of time for bats later." The next page is a close-up of Chill's hand holding the gun pointed in the direction of the preceding page; later is now.

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We live in unsubtle times so Batman (living up to the absolute branding) needs to be even bigger and more badass. "Absolute" Bruce is a 6 '9, 400+ pounds of muscle giant. His costume is made of weapons; his ears are knives, his chest insignia is an axe head, his cape is prehensile like a bat's wings, etc. He's even more ingenious and creative with his gadgets, because lacking immense resources, he has to be.

In "Absolute Batman" #2, while Batman is fighting the Party Animals at Gotham Aquarium and tank water spills, he perches from the ceiling and drops a vinegar pellet. That turns the water into hydrochloric acid, burning the Party Animals' feet. The mechanics of that gadget is classic Batman, but the results of it are a lot more brutal.

So "Absolute" Batman is still impossibly cool with an ace up his sleeve for any obstacle he comes across. Yet he can't do it alone. This Bruce only lost his father; his mother Martha is still alive when he becomes Batman. After his father died, Bruce wasn't a lonely orphan in an empty mansion. He had his friends (including Waylon "Killer Croc" Jones, Harvey Dent, Selina Kyle, etc.) to take him to see the "Zorro" movie he should've gone to with his dad.

The true main character of "The Zoo," per Snyder, is Alfred Pennyworth; not a butler, but an MI6 agent observing Batman in Gotham. Alfred is the book's narrator and we often see Batman from his eyes, while we're denied hearing Bruce's thoughts. Over "The Zoo," Batman's actions shake Alfred out of his cynicism; they may not be surrogate father and son here, but Alfred will still be there to pick Bruce up when he falls.

Bruce needs the help because the odds (and money) is against him. As Batman podcast "The Black Casebook" has argued, money itself is "Absolute" Batman's greatest enemy. Why do the Party Animals wear masks? Not to conceal their identities, but because Sionis set up a game where they earn cash points for committing crimes and the helmets keep them wired in. Batman now isn't a fantasy of a single rich guy doing impossible things because of that money, it's one where people are more powerful than money.

"A lot of the people [my kids] are most afraid of are generational billionaires, and they don't necessarily aspire to that, that isn't someone they think of as a hero... most people coming up these days, their generation has a big struggle to make it," Snyder said in 2024, explaining how he wanted to revamp Batman to resonate with his sons' generation. Not for nothing, Snyder's sons love manga, too.

"Absolute Batman" issues #1-12 are currently available; issue #13 is scheduled for release on October 8, 2025.