Absolute Batman #19 (DC Comics, 2026)

After the intense events in Absolute Batman #18, this issue gives readers a breath of fresh air as it starts the story 1,500 miles away from Gotham City in the middle of a cornfield. A pair of farmers is out doing their job, plowing the fields with huge machines. A strange man with a mangled face and no shoes walks out from the rows of corn while smoking a cigarette. Crows circle overhead.

He speaks to the men in a "voice" and tells the one man that the other man is sleeping with his wife. The farmers are confused until one man gets an alert on his phone that shows this infidelity to be true (or maybe he was outraged by A.I. slop and misinformation?) The now irate farmer punches out his friend and proceeds to run him over with a giant harvester machine.

Then, just when he seems to understand the error of his ways, a plane crashes into the harvester. The strange man with the hat and cigarette walks away, smiling and whistling a tune.

Meanwhile, back in Gotham City, Batman is fleeing the police in some kind of new Bat-Vehicle that resembles an oversized R.C. car, which can run on its top or bottom which a gyroscopic chamber in the middle. Batman and Pennyworth argue over the radio about what to call it.

After successfully avoiding the cops, the machine is deconstructed by Harley Quinn and her gang after she dubs it the Bat-Nasty. Batman walks away as a plain-clothes Bruce Wayne,  and runs into his friend Waylon, who is recovering thanks to the arrowhead amulet thing that Batman scored in Absolute Batman #15. Bruce feels regret about getting his friends involved.

Later, Batman, Pennyworth, and Quinn watch a TV broadcast about philanthropist Jack Grimm V, who appears everywhere on the scene all at once. Obviously, they don't trust him. Quinn reveals the Bat Signal that she developed, and Bruce gets a call from Mr. Gordon.

He meets Gordon, who seems paranoid and distressed, on the roof of a building. Gordon is about to hand him a stack of secret files when he decides to set it on fire with his cigarette. Crows circle overhead. He drops the files and moves to the edge of the roof.

While Batman picks up the partially burned files, Gordon jumps. He tries to save him, but it is too late. Onlookers witness what they think is Batman killing Mr. Gordon.

A strange man with a hat, a cigarette, and a mangled face smiles from across the way.

After the new reports that Batman pushed Gordon off the roof, a man named Slade Wilson gives a talk on stage next to Mayor Hill. He reveals the "Robin Program" funded by Jack Grimm V. A group of five young adults and children, who were presumably troubled kids saved by the program, walk out on stage in matching suits.

But, there are new suits waiting for them (though we don't see what they are yet).