DC Just Turned Absolute Batman Into His Own Worst Nightmare

Batman has always had a reputation for being an extremely violent hero. He’s a master of just about every form of combat there is, and he makes liberal use of every single one to bring order to Gotham City. Many say that the Dark Knight is too extreme, and that he breaks people in ways far worse than the death he refuses to deal. While that is definitely an exaggeration, Batman is an action hero, and a big part of that is doing all kinds of martial arts violence to save the day. That’s just as true for Absolute Batman. 

The Absolute Universe is a much, much darker world than our heroes are used to. Every bit of violence and terror is cranked up to eleven, and so Absolute Batman is a downright demon on the battlefield. However, while some claim that this extreme destruction is too much, even for an edgier version of Batman, it’s there for more than spectacle. In fact, the Absolute Batman 2025 Annual used his extreme violence to give us a heartbreaking look into Batman’s psyche and reveal his greatest fear.

Absolute Batman Is A Monster of Absolute Vengeance

The first story in the annual revealed the origin of the Absolute Batmobile in the bloodiest way possible. Still very early in his career, Bruce traveled to the town of Slaughter Swamp to pick up some modified, non-lethal gear from a shady weapons dealer. While there, he discovered that the town was in total disarray, and a white supremacist gang had formed in the hole of extreme poverty and anger at the world created. Bruce took a brutal beating while defending a mother and child from them, eventually being saved by a local priest. The priest patched Bruce up and told him that the men planned to run a homeless camp full of immigrants and people of color out of town by any means necessary. 

Batman suited up and went to war on the white supremacists. He ripped through them with even more hyper violence than we’ve seen in the Absolute Universe so far. He snapped limbs in the wrong direction and burned down their base with a flamethrower, even smashing through it with the giant truck that will become his Batmobile. Batman unleashed bloody vengeance on the villains, and in the aftermath, the priest walked in to start patching them up. When Batman asked why, the man said he didn’t know how to fix their broken circumstances; he just knew how not to make things worse. Batman walked away and thought back to his father, who once told Bruce that he knew his son was a kind soul who would help people.

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The priest and Thomas Wayne had been old friends who protested together, each fighting to fix the world in a way that didn’t hurt others. Batman was overwhelmed with guilt, shame, and disappointment, and wrapped his bloody hands around himself as he wallowed in all his dark thoughts. The final pages in this story hit harder than all of the Dark Knight’s strikes this issue, and gave us insight into Batman’s biggest fear and regret.

Absolute Batman Is A Good Man Filled With Rage

All Bruce ever wanted to do was make his father proud, to live up to the man his father knew he could be. His father fought for change in a way to help everyone, but Bruce can’t do what he did. Batman is a hero who enacts vengeance as much as he helps people, and this version is ten times more violent than any other version, regularly cutting off appendages and breaking bones in the worst ways imaginable. Bruce’s dad wanted him to be a kind, compassionate person, but every night he goes out and coats his knuckles with blood.

Batman will never stop fighting to save Gotham City. That’s non-negotiable, but that doesn’t mean that he is happy with how he fights. His dad was a teacher, someone who tried to educate, and all this early-stage Batman can do is try to tear things down. He hates that part of himself as much as he relishes it, because it’s the only way he knows how to make a difference. More clearly than any other version, this Batman hates what he is, and is terrified of what his father would say if he saw him. But while his dad is dead, his mom isn’t. And that, more than anything else, is likely Batman’s greatest fear.

As much as Batman is haunted by the good man that his father was, his mom is much the same. He hasn’t told his mom what he does for a plethora of reasons, but one has to be that he’s terrified of her reaction. If she knew what he was doing, she might be disappointed and hate his brutality, or even say his father would be disappointed in him, and that terror might be too much for him. Batman’s biggest regret will be disappointing his parents, and unfortunately, he thinks he does that every night when he goes out.

Absolute Batman 2025 Annual is on sale now!

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