Daily Comic Book Mission #006: Absolute Batman #1

Welcome back to another Daily Comic Book Mission, where your mission is to read the comic book that I'm going to tell you to read. And today's might come as a surprise. I don't tend to read a lot of superhero stuff for one reason or another. I don't know. I like barbarians and transforming murderous robots, you know, I don't, I don't read a lot of superheroes, but today I'm going to recommend a superhero book, kind of, sort of.

Is Batman really a superhero? Or is he just like a... commercialized vigilante. don't know. I think of Batman the same way I think of Wolverine. They're both pretty awesome, but you can't invite both of them to the party at the same time or else they'll drink everything and kill everyone. You have to choose whether or not you prefer Batman or Wolverine. As a general rule, since I'm an X-Men fan, I've always gone with Wolverine, but I was at the comic book store, the last couple times I've been at the comic book store. My friends are telling me, "you need to read Absolute Batman." I'm like, I'm not reading a superhero comic book that's not X-Men. Or Alpha Flight, for some strange reason, I like Alpha Flight. Anyway, I'm like, all right, so I checked it out. I picked it off the shelf, I looked at it, I'm like, okay, I get it. So it's like a re-imagining of Batman. Like the art looks, well, the art looks great, actually. You know, you're right, this book looks okay.

So it really only took just me having to take one off the shelf and actually open it up, but. I gotta admit I was sucked into it immediately and read like the, I'm already up to like issue 16 by now.

So, uh, I really have thoroughly enjoyed Absolute Batman. It's like the most popular comic book out these days. Even though I think Transformers is better. Yeah, I said it because it's true. Giant robots, greater than symbol, bat people. That is just science. But for those of
you who don't know, maybe you're like more into 1970s-like stuff like I am usually, but Absolute Batman, which really is terrific, I'm not just being nice, is like a re-imagining of Batman. And I think in a way they've adapted it more for just the modern era of absolute bullshit nonsense that we live in. And it works quite well. Instead of just like a bunch of crazy super villains, they're like billionaire douchebags. But in a way that seems more relatable.

Bruce Wayne isn't just an orphaned kid of some uh millionaire or whatever. He's just the kid uh of a teacher, who is gunned down, the teacher, his dad is gunned down at the Gotham Zoo. And that's really what the first six issues of Absolute Batman are all about is the backstory of this new Batman who's a vigilante.

I'm probably doing a bad job explaining it, but that's how it strikes me. I'm flipping through the book here. The art is just fabulous. Who's the artist for this one? It's on the cover, I should know this. Where is it? Who we got? Nick Draggota. Well, he's damn good. Every part of this book is good. It's a very dense issue, too. Sometimes you get modern comic books. This is my biggest problem with modern comics is like, you can blow through them in like three minutes. And like if you pick up an old Conan the Barbarian from 1979, that'll take you a good 20, 25 minutes to read it. Well, depending on how slowly you read it. But this book is very dense. So it'll take you a while to get through it, and it's worth a reread because it's gorgeous. And it's just, I had to do some double takes at times. I'm like, wait a second, that's a different take on this character. That's a different take on this character. The Joker's like a totally different kind of thing in Pennyworth. It's just, it's an interesting take on something that many of us are very familiar with. Like the Batman symbol isn't just a cool symbol, it's like an axe that he wears on the front of his uniform, and he pulls it off and • chops off people's arms.

The action scenes alone are really just spectacular. And I'm always talking about how much I like the new Transformers series. They're like, Batman, Absolute Batman, the action scenes are, like equally good to the new Transformers, but totally different. Like, they just couldn't be more different the way that they're storyboarded and presented. Loads of panels on each page. Love the part where he pulls the bat symbol off of his chest, attaches it to a handle, and starts to chop people into little bits. It's terrific. The coloring's really nice. And you're not going to hear me say this very often, but... Well, while the artwork is terrific. It's the writing that makes Absolute Batman what it is. It's just, well, the writing and the storyboarding and just the whole presentation, really, but it's just very clever. And it's hard to explain more than that just talking about one issue.

So I'm a little bit late to the game here, so I picked this one up off the shelf, and it is the uh 10th printing, if that's any indication that a few people have enjoyed this one. And as I'm recording this, they're up to number, I think 17 is coming out this week. Really looking forward to it, I like their issue 15 is very cool. New take on the Joker. The whole arc with Bane is just gruesome. Start at the beginning. Absolute Batman, I guess they got this whole absolute whatever series coming out of DC right now. I haven't read the other ones, but the Batman one... The guys at the comic shop are right. It's great. And I'm recommending it to you as your Daily Comic Book Mission.

Is it better than an issue of Shogun Warriors? No, but what is?