ABSOLUTE BATMAN #24 REVIEW: FEAR BITES BACK

Absolute Batman #24 reminded me why this book has managed to keep my attention even after the initial “look how different this Batman is” novelty wore off. Scott Snyder isn’t treating the Absolute Universe like an excuse to remix costumes and villains. Bruce’s relationships are the experiment. Put this version of Batman next to the people who knew Bruce before the symbol swallowed him and suddenly all that armor doesn’t mean shit. This issue digs right into that, with Bruce, Selina, Waylon and the increasingly disturbing mystery surrounding Gotham all crashing together.

I especially liked what Snyder does with Selina here. Their history isn’t delivered like a Wikipedia page disguised as dialogue. You can feel that these people knew one another before everything went sideways, and Selina has absolutely no interest in politely accepting whatever version of Bruce he thinks he has become. Their conversations have bite, but there is warmth buried underneath it. That’s important because this Batman can visually become such a monster that the book needs characters capable of reminding us there is still a human being inside that giant brick wall wearing ears.

Then we get into the creepy shit. The investigation around Gotham Zoo and the Scarecrow material gives Nick Dragotta room to shift the book from character drama into straight-up nightmare territory. The cornfield sequence is nasty in the best possible way. Dragotta has always made this Batman feel huge, but scale isn’t the only trick in his bag. Look at how he uses silhouettes, negative space and those stretched-out figures hiding in the field. Batman isn’t entering a normal superhero fight. He is walking into somebody else’s nightmare, and for once being the biggest psycho-looking dude in the room doesn’t automatically give him control.

Frank Martin’s colors are doing serious work here too. The transition from the quieter Gotham scenes into those aggressive oranges, reds, sickly greens and deep shadows gives the issue a visual pulse. When the violence kicks in, Dragotta and Martin don’t make it clean. Bodies bend, faces distort and Batman gets swallowed by the environment. The action feels desperate rather than choreographed for a trailer, which is exactly what this sequence needed.

What I loved most is Bruce’s stubbornness finally colliding with people who know how to challenge it. He can calculate, build insane weapons and turn himself into a tank, but you can’t engineer your way out of every emotional problem. Selina knows it. Waylon knows more than Bruce initially gives him credit for. Even the villain understands enough about fear to attack Bruce somewhere underneath the armor. Snyder has been building a Batman who refuses to accept the limitations imposed on him, and this issue starts asking whether that same refusal can become one of his weaknesses.

I do think the issue occasionally asks you to carry a lot of ongoing Absolute mythology into what is otherwise a fairly intimate chapter. Somebody jumping into #24 cold is going to be staring at certain conversations wondering what the hell everyone is talking about. I’m fine with serialized comics expecting readers to read the series, though. Twenty-four issues in, we don’t need every character stopping to explain the last two years to us.

By the last pages, Snyder and Dragotta have moved Bruce somewhere far more interesting than another victory pose over a defeated villain. He is hurt, physically and otherwise, and the road ahead points directly toward something this run has been circling for a while. Batman versus Joker is coming, but Absolute Batman #24 works because it doesn’t feel like filler designed to get us there. It takes Bruce apart a little first. Now I’m ready to see what crawls out when the next nightmare starts.

CRUSADERS SCORE:
4.5/5

Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Nick Dragotta
Colors: Frank Martin
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: DC Comics