DC Just Gave Fans the Heroic Version of Batman They’ve Been Waiting For

The Absolute Universe has been an incredible success for DC Comics, thanks to its compelling reimaginings of iconic superheroes as underdogs fighting for justice in a world dominated by evil. Among all the reimagined heroes, Absolute Batman is the most popular and beloved by fans because he challenges the status quo of both society and the Batman identity. In the Absolute Universe, Bruce Wayne isn’t a billionaire who stalks the night to fight common criminals but is instead a working-class hero of the people fighting for real societal change. In many ways, the Absolute Batman is a far greater hero for Gotham than the mainline continuity Batman ever has been.

Throughout the Absolute Batman series, Batman has been fighting against the systemic injustices that plague Gotham City, particularly those orchestrated by the billionaire psychopath known as the Joker and his Ark M private prisons. Things came to a head when the Joker sent his top enforcer, Bane, to destroy Batman and anyone else investigating Ark M’s illegal activities. Bane had the Dark Knight tortured, directing Ark M scientists to experiment on him, and mutilated Batman’s friends. Now, with Absolute Batman #13, we are reaching the endgame of the latest storyline, with Batman hijacking news feeds to publicly challenge Bane to one last fight and call out the evil festering within Gotham. With this single act, Absolute Batman has proven himself to be the most heroic and socio-political minded version of the Caped Crusader ever conceived.

Absolute Batman Doesn’t Hide in the Shadows

In the main DC Universe, Batman has always relied on staying in the shadows to fight crime. By using his ninja skills and ambush attacks, he has built a mythology around himself, with many people viewing him as an almost omnipresent and inhuman urban legend. In creating this aura of mystery, Batman can strike fear into the hearts of thugs and gangsters by making them wary that the Dark Knight could be lurking behind any corner like a Boogeyman. While this method is effective in making Batman a symbol of fear, it does very little to enact any substantial socio-political change. At his core, the Batman of the main continuity is not a public figure. Rather, he presents himself as a vigilante fighting petty crooks, serial killers, and supervillains.

In Absolute Batman #4, we see a flashback where a young Bruce initially attempted a strategy similar to the primary Batman’s stealth mode by using a voice distorter, silicon fangs, and ambush tactics to strike fear into the hearts of petty thieves. However, this version of the Dark Knight recognized that it was all meaningless theatrics and would never bring about real change. So, instead, in Absolute Batman, Batman goes bigger, understanding that if he wanted to be a genuine force for good, he couldn’t be a symbol of fear — he had to be a symbol of rebellion. By enlarging himself and his gadgets, Absolute Batman sought to make those in power see him as an unstoppable force who would expose their crimes for the world to see.

Absolute Batman #13’s public broadcast marks Batman’s transformation into a genuine symbol for revolution. Where the primary Batman weaponizes fear, Absolute Batman weaponizes the truth. He speaks not just to Bane, but to Gotham’s citizens and tells them that evil is among them, and that the time for change is now. With uncanny relevance to our real world today, he describes how Gotham’s leaders have sold the people’s safety and freedom for profit and power. Batman challenges Bane to a public fight, so that the whole city can see the abomination that Ark M deployed to subjugate Gotham. Now, even if Batman loses to Bane, he will become a martyr and still have successfully exposed Ark M’s wrongdoings. He’s not fighting a one-man crusade against evil; he is rallying the people to fight alongside him for a better Gotham.

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Absolute Batman is a Man of the People and Fighting for Real Change

A significant problem with the main continuity Batman is that, despite fighting for the people of Gotham, he has very little connection to them. The primary Batman is a wealthy elitist who was born into affluence and lives far away from the heart of Gotham City. Additionally, after his parents were murdered by a random mugger, he became a vigilante primarily driven by a personal desire for vengeance and atonement, rather than by a broader goal of making the world a better place. He remains disconnected from the downtrodden citizens of Gotham and does very little to expose the corruption of those in power. Separated from the impoverished, he hasn’t been directly affected by the officials who have allowed the city to fester with crime and corruption.

Absolute Batman, in contrast, is a working-class engineer who grew up in the impoverished streets of Crime Alley. He fights not as an outsider, but instead as a man dedicated to making his community a safer place. With his social worker mother and childhood friends, this Batman has much more to fight for, as he’s trying to make their lives better. He lives every day surrounded by the adverse effects of Gotham’s leaders’ corruption on his family, friends, and neighbors. Moreover, his awareness of the corruption and malevolence of those in power makes him far more empathetic toward the lowly criminals merely trying to survive in a system that has left them impoverished. He recognizes that it’s the people in power, not petty criminals trying to hang on in a depraved world, who must be held accountable.

One person alone can rarely achieve lasting, progressive change, but they can inspire a movement that empowers everyone to fight for their freedoms. Because the Batman of the Absolute Universe grew up in a tightly knit community, and not in a far-off mansion, he understands this truth far better than his main-continuity counterpart. Between his call for action to the citizens of Gotham and his alliance with the anarchist Red Hood Gang, this version of Batman knows that no authority can withstand the combined force of a united populace against oppression. This is why he is the most heroic and selfless version of the Dark Knight: he publicly denounces corruption and motivates people to be their own heroes. The revolution against the forces of evil in the Absolute Universe has begun, and its leader is Batman.

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