Absolute Batman is known for taking everything people love about Batman and cranking it up to eleven. In the Absolute Universe, everything is bigger, badder, and bloodier, and no one proves that more than Batman. All of his rogues have undergone insane and horrific transformations, from the ice-zombie Mister Freeze to the brutalized Penguin. The literal biggest and baddest villain we’ve seen so far is Absolute Bane. In the main universe, he was already a monster of a man, but this Bane is a hundred times scarier. When he uses Venom, he gets as tall as a house and then some, and Batman has far fewer resources to go against him.
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Absolute Batman #14 showed the final confrontation between the Absolute Dark Knight and the monster of muscle, and it was Batman’s most brutal fight of all time. It was full of gore, pain, and utter insanity, but it wasn’t just epic panels and blood flying every which way. Absolute Batman has always had a strong emotional center, and this arc focused on that more than ever. This no-holds-barred beatdown perfectly captured exactly what makes Batman one of the best heroes ever, and everyone in Gotham City felt it.
A Battle to End All Back-Breaking
The final battle between Bane and Batman was set up in the previous issue, with Batman challenging Bane before the entire city. Bane arrived at the stadium, ready to force Batman back to Ark M and finally stop being the Joker’s war dog, but Batman was never going to go down easy. When Bane walked in, Batman dropped an entire building on him, but all that did was make the monster excited. Batman and his allies laid into Bane with everything they had, but every blow just made him infuse more Venom, which only made him bigger and stronger.
Bane toyed with Batman, encouraging him to use the Venom still in his system. Alfred screamed that it was the only way for Bruce to get out alive, but Batman just kept taking the beatings and giving them back twice as hard. At one point, the Red Hood Gang unleashed Killer Croc, and Waylon tore into Bane with animal ferocity, giving Batman the perfect chance to sever Bane’s spine. Batman broke Bane’s back, but even that wasn’t enough to stop him. Bane infused more Venom than ever before and rose back up as a monster of pure muscle and rage. He pounded Batman into the dirt, shouting that the Dark Knight could never win, but then Batman revealed his trump card.
Before the fight, Batman had Edward extract the Venom still inside him. Catwoman filled her syringes with it, and when Bane finally injected so much Venom that it had all but replaced his blood, Selina shot him up with even more. The final infusion was too much for even Bane to take, and he broke apart into a mass of barely alive strings of flesh. The people of Gotham City saw Batman beat the monster, and Alfred finally realized what made Batman so incredible. It wasn’t that he won, but that he kept fighting.
A Hero Who Never Surrenders
Bane fought his war because he wanted to win. He always looked ahead, saw a final light at the end of the tunnel if he committed enough atrocities. Batman, in contrast, never needed to win. Batman didn’t fight Bane because he thought he could win. Their first few fights ended with Batman being torn apart like a child, and Bane hadn’t even been trying. Batman likely didn’t think he could win at all, but that didn’t matter. Someone had to stand up to Bane, to fight to avenge the people he’d wronged and save the people he would hurt in the future.
As Alfred narrated after Batman finally took down Bane, Batman fought because fighting was the point. He wanted to win and save the day, but that was a result, not the intent. Batman fought because it was the right thing to do. Batman’s war on crime has always been called a never-ending battle, and plenty of other characters have told him that he’ll never truly save his city. Batman wants to save it, but even if he can’t, that doesn’t matter to him. To Batman, the important thing is that he fought with everything he had, that he did everything in his power to win. Even if he loses, Batman went down trying to save everyone.
Fighting is what gives the people hope, teaches them that they can stand up, too. Batman refuses to stand around and do nothing, and that is what lets him endure as a character. Batman goes up against impossible odds and veritable gods every night, but he steps up because somebody has to. Batman is all about doing whatever you can, because even that little bit matters. Even if you don’t win, you did something, and that’s always better than making the problem worse through inaction. Batman will never stop fighting, because to him, fighting to save the day is all he’s ever known how to do. Winning is infinitely less important than the effort going in.
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