Absolute Batman, from former Batman scribe Scott Snyder and Superman: American Alien artist Nick Dragotta, has radically reinvented Batman’s rogues gallery for the new Absolute Universe. Selina Kyle (Catwoman), Harvey Dent (Two-Face), Eddie Nygma (Riddler), Ozzie Cobblepot (Penguin), and Waylon Jones (Killer Croc) aren’t costumed criminals, but Bruce Wayne’s childhood best friends. The Joker is a humorless oligarch who siphons blood from newborns. Black Mask is a high-tech terrorist bankrolling black site prisons. And Bane, a hulking monstrosity sent by the Joker to break the Bat, is an old enemy of the Dark Knight’s newest ally: intelligence agent Alfred Pennyworth.
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Before Bane debuts in Snyder and Dragotta’s Absolute Batman #9 (out June 11), Snyder and guest artist Marcos Martín (The Amazing Spider-Man) will introduce “a chilling new take” on Victor Fries, a.k.a. Mr. Freeze, in a two-part story spanning Absolute Batman #7 (April 9) and #8 (May 14).
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“Gotham’s past is frozen in fear,” a teaser reads. Absolute Batman‘s six-issue first arc was just the tip of the iceberg, as Batman and allies learned that the Joker-backed Black Mask has been funding “Arks”: global black site prisons, including an “Ark A” in Santa Prisca (in the mainstream continuity, the birthplace of Bane), an “Ark B” in Russia (potentially hinting at Russian supervillain KGBeast), and the biggest yet, “Ark M,” (Arkham Asylum) planned for Gotham City.
“It’s a two-parter between arcs,” Snyder previously teased on the Owen Likes Comics podcast. “I did Mr. Freeze with [artist] Jock on [All Star Batman] … and [Absolute Batman] is so rebuilt from the ground up, mythologically. Everything feels different.”
Unlike most modern interpretations of the freeze gun-wielding Batman villain — typically a cryogenics expert who suffers a lab accident while desperately trying to develop a cure for his beloved Nora, placed in suspended animation due to a degenerative disease — the all-new Absolute Mr. Freeze more resembles Max Schreck’s Count Orlok from Nosferatu.
“It’s like, ‘I know how to do Mr. Freeze in this mythology, because he wouldn’t be Victor in love with Nora, who is frozen.’ He’d be something different,” Snyder said. “Because you plug him into the basic foundational math of the mythos here. [Like] Joker, I always love Joker, but this one is really different. He’s more different than Bruce is from the traditional Batman.”
Absolute Batman #7
It’s about to get icy cold in Gotham City… as we reveal the connections between a young, up-and-coming scientist named Victor Fries, and his history with the Ark M experiment. A bombastic two-parter with a guest artist, the one and only super-star Marcos Martín, starts here!
On sale: April 9
Absolute Batman #8
GOTHAM IN THE GRASP OF MR. FREEZE! Batman is in the fight for his life against this icy new threat. But in the end, what terrifying truth will be unearthed about Ark M and… Joker?
On sale: May 14
