“Absolute Batman: 8 Ways the Dark Knight’s Mythology is Reinvented” | Entertainment

Batman's New Origin Story

One of the hallmarks of the Absolute Universe is that characters like Batman and Superman lack a lot of the innate benefits they've in the conventional DCU. In the case of Bruce Wayne, he is now not a billionaire playboy with a mansion, a butler, and a cave full of pricy devices. He's a blue-collar civil engineer from a humble background.

Over the course of challenge #1, we get the rundown on Batman's revamped origin story as seen via the eyes of Alfred Pennyworth (extra on him in a minute). Bruce's father Thomas was a schoolteacher somewhat than a physician. Bruce himself examined at near-genius ranges as a toddler, ultimately profitable a science competitors the place he invented a transportable, retractable bridge for use in rescue eventualities. As a prize, Bruce and his class got a subject journey to the Gotham City Zoo.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck when a gunman opened hearth at the zoo. Thomas ushered his college students to security earlier than being caught in the crossfire. That's the trauma that birthed the Batman, and we have now to imagine Bruce carries some guilt for his father's loss of life with him even now.

Issue #1 gives some perception into the coaching Bruce underwent to organize himself to turn into a vigilante. After incomes a school soccer scholarship (and promptly faking a career-ending damage), Bruce studied chemistry, engineering, prison psychology, and different topics related to punching crime in the face. While he did not journey the world finding out beneath the biggest warriors and detectives, he has developed a singular streetfighting model primarily based in blended martial arts and boxing. And by working as a civil engineer in numerous locales throughout Gotham, Bruce has developed an intimate data of the metropolis he hopes to save lots of.

Bruce Wayne's Friend Group

One of the most intriguing adjustments launched in Absolute Batman #1 includes Bruce Wayne's good friend group. We study that Bruce's childhood gang included Harvey Dent, Selina Kyle, Waylan Jones, Eddie Nashton, and Oswald Cobblepot. Even now, they continue to be associates, although Bruce is quickly drifting away from the group as his nightly actions begin to devour his life.

What does it imply that so a lot of the characters destined to turn into supervillains begin out as Bruce's shut associates? Have their destinies modified in the Absolute Universe, or will we see Waylan turn into Killer Croc, Eddie turn into the Riddler, and so forth?

For now, the solely one in every of these characters we meet in challenge #1 is Waylan, who at the moment runs the boxing health club Bruce trains at and reveals no signal of the reptilian pores and skin situation the character is so well-known for. Waylan seems to be to be the greatest good friend Bruce has. Will that change as the collection strikes alongside?

Alfred Pennyworth: Secret Agent

Bruce might not have a butler, however that hardly means Alfred has no function to play in the collection. Issue #1 is narrated from Alfred's perspective. In the Absolute Universe, Alfred is a undercover agent for a mysterious group (it is unclear if he is working for the British authorities or an company like ARGUS). He's pulled off a mission monitoring a mysterious killer abroad with the intention to collect intel on the rising disaster in Gotham. A gang known as The Party Animals has been massacring harmless civilians, and Alfred's handlers wish to know what precisely they're coping with.

Alfred is warned that one other occasion has begun to make itself identified in the metropolis, the first signal that Batman is starting to look on the public's radar. Alfred later encounters Batman in particular person when observing an assault by The Party Animals. Alfred's orders are to watch and to not have interaction the gangmembers, one he strongly disagrees with. Already, the seeds of the eventual Batman/Alfred alliance are starting to be laid.

For now, although, Batman is extra of an antagonistic determine to Alfred, even stealing the undercover agent's motorbike and all of its useful intel. Alfred, for his half, instantly deduces Batman's secret id. While he considers assassinating Bruce in broad daylight, he decides “You're just a **** kid.”

The Gordon Family

No new Batman universe could be full with out Jim Gordon taking part in a component. Issue #1 provides no indication to imagine Batman and Gordon are working collectively but, nevertheless it does forged Gordon as the uncommon good cop making an attempt to take care of order in a metropolis quickly descending into chaos. But on this case, Gordon is not Commissioner of the GCPD, however somewhat the lately elected mayor of Gotham. His daughter Barbara, in the meantime, is a police officer.

Gordon holds a press convention to ease public considerations over the rising risk of The Party Animals. However, that plan hits a snag when the gang assaults in the center of the convention and Gordon himself is shot.

The Rise of Black Mask

It shortly turns into clear that the first costumed supervillain the Absolute Batman will face off in opposition to is not Joker, Penguin, or Riddler, however Black Mask. Roman Sionis is launched as the chief of The Party Animals and a person obsessive about accumulating loss of life masks of well-known celebrities and political figures.

Sionis holds a gathering with Gotham City crime bosses Sal Maroni and Carmine Falcone, each of whom are cautious of this upstart upending the conventional order in the metropolis's underworld. Sionis wastes little time earlier than revealing that he is already made loss of life masks of Maroni and Falcone's family members and including each males to his assortment.

Traditionally, Batman's early months on the job are spent waging struggle on the Gotham mob, earlier than energy slowly shifts in favor of villains like Joker and Penguin. In the Absolute Universe, nevertheless, it appears that evidently shift is already occurring. A brand new era of evil is rising in the metropolis and consuming the outdated.

The New Batsuit in Action

The reader and Alfred alike are handled to the first glimpse of the new Batman in motion when the Dark Knight arrives to battle the Party Animal members attacking Gordon's press convention. If there's one takeaway from this battle, it is that Absolute Batman has numerous nifty toys regardless of not having a billionaire's assets.

Nearly each element of Batman's costume is a weapon in its personal proper. His cowl's ears and his gloves' spikes are retractable daggers. His bulletproof cape is a modified model of the identical transportable bridge he designed as a toddler, permitting him to manage the numerous wings at will.

Even the Bat emblem is a potent weapon. Not solely is it a strengthened piece of metal plating defending Bruce's chest, it may be eliminated and hooked up to a deal with to kind a razor-sharp ax. The Party Animal chief learns that the onerous method when he loses his hand in a duel.

The Fate of Martha Wayne

The flashback to Bruce's tragic childhood reveal that Thomas Wayne died defending his college students at the zoo. But what about Martha Wayne? It seems she's nonetheless alive and properly. Bruce pays his mom a go to after laying a flower at the web site of his father's homicide, whilst Alfred watches from afar.

This could be the greatest and most vital change launched in Absolute Batman. Bruce Wayne has at all times been portrayed as an orphan devoted to stopping what occurred to him from occurring to anybody else. How a lot does it change the equation for Bruce to have a mom who raised him to maturity? At the very least, this implies Absolute Batman has one thing to lose ought to his secret id ever be revealed.

Teasing Absolute Joker

Absolute Batman #1 ends with an epilogue web page teasing the debut of Batman's most iconic foe. Alfred's handlers report that the man he had been monitoring abroad vanished in the Phillipines. Known by many names like Jack and Arthur, this man educated beneath elite killers like Henri Ducard and the League of Assassins earlier than murdering them and transferring on. He's one in every of the richest males in the world. He by no means laughs, therefore why he is come to be identified mockingly as the Joker.

If Joker is meant to be the twisted antithesis of Batman, then it is clear the Clown Prince of Crime has been reworked to go well with this darker, grittier tackle the Caped Crusader. Joker is every part this Batman is not. He's a person of wealth and privelege. He's traveled the globe and honed himself into the excellent warrior. And it is solely a matter of time earlier than he involves Gotham and checks himself in opposition to the Batman. Will the Dark Knight be the one to lastly make the Joker crack a smile? We'll discover out as the collection continues to unfold.

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For extra on what's new in the world of comics, try the Biggest New Comic Releases of October 2024 and see an unique preview of Frank Miller's Ronin Rising.

Jesse is a mild-mannered workers author for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your mental thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.