Absolute Batman's Counterpart: The Ultimate Joker Revealed

Absolute Batman has emerged as one of DC's most significant comic book series in recent years, captivating readers since its debut. The first issue soared to become the best-selling comic of 2024, and the series has consistently topped sales charts, a testament to the enthusiastic reception of this bold and often surprising reinvention of the Dark Knight.

Following the conclusion of their inaugural story arc, "The Zoo," creators Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta engaged with IGN to delve into how Absolute Batman challenges the traditional Batman narrative. They discussed the design of the impressively muscular Batman, the impact of his having a living mother, and teased the upcoming emergence of Absolute Joker.

Warning: full spoilers for Absolute Batman #6 ahead!

Absolute Batman #6 Preview Gallery

11 ImagesDesigning Absolute Batman

The Batman of the Absolute Universe commands an imposing presence, characterized by his muscular build, shoulder spikes, and an array of enhancements to the classic Batsuit. This design has earned him a spot on our list of the 10 greatest Batman costumes of all time. Snyder and Dragotta shared with IGN their vision for this hulking version of the Dark Knight, emphasizing a Batman who lacks the traditional wealth and resources.

"Scott's initial idea was to go big," Dragotta explained. "I mean, that was his first direction to me, was this is going to be the biggest Batman we've seen yet. And believe me when I tell you, I drew him really big at first, and then when Scott saw it, he was like, ‘Nick, I want to go bigger.’ And I was like, ‘Scott, we're getting into Hulk-like proportions now.’"

Dragotta elaborated on the design philosophy: "I think that was the impetus for the design, was just go big, bold, iconic, and hit the themes of who this character is. So down to his emblem, down to every piece of his suit, he's a weapon. It's all a weapon. It's no longer just a utility belt. It's just everything's a utility on this Batman. And that continues to, I think, drive the design and it'll evolve and change in the future."

For Snyder, the necessity of a larger-than-life Batman stems from the absence of his usual superpower—extreme wealth. "When the classic Batman shows up, something we often don't talk about is that he's really intimidating to bad guys because he's an amazing fighter and he's an amazing detective and he's big and he's all of those things and he's got the theatrics, but some of it is money too. He shows up in a car or a plane or in a suit that says, ‘I have more than you do.’ And that's a good way for him to intimidate everybody, the super-criminals he goes up against. When Riddler sees him and he's in some incredibly high-tech suit that can do all kinds of things that you didn't think it could, that says, you should stop your criminal ways in its own right. So if this Batman doesn't have those things, then one of his actual tools feels like it would be his size, his physicality, the violence that he brings to a fight, the utility of every piece of his suit, that he's always scary, that anything in him can hurt you."

Snyder further emphasized the theme of Batman confronting seemingly untouchable villains: "I think one of the underlying themes of the villains he's up against is that they don't think they can be touched. They all have the resources that he doesn't... The Black Mask has tons of resources, so everyone with him represents that. And in the second arc, it'll be even more. So he keeps going up against bigger and bigger stuff, so he needs to be this force of nature that says, ‘You don't think I can touch you, but I'm going to. I'll punch you.’"

Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

The influence of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns on Absolute Batman is undeniable, particularly in a striking splash page in issue #6 that echoes Miller’s iconic (and surprisingly divisive) Dark Knight Returns cover. Dragotta acknowledged this homage, stating, "For me, Frank Miller and [Batman: Year One’s] David Mazzucchelli's Batman is everything and a huge inspiration, not so much the drawing, but the storytelling and the way they lay out their stories and tell them. So yeah, Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, and that's a definite homage. And it just felt right and it felt necessary to give that little nod."

Giving Batman a Family

Absolute Batman reshapes the Dark Knight's mythology, notably by introducing the significant change that Bruce Wayne's mother, Martha, is alive. This alteration transforms Batman from a solitary orphan into someone with a family to protect, adding depth to his character.

"It was probably the thing that I went back and forth on the most originally," Snyder admitted. "I knew that if one parent was alive, it would be Martha because it felt like he's had such a relationship with Thomas in different universes, and Thomas is sometimes Batman, and ‘Yes, father. I shall become a bat.’ It's very paternal in terms of his relationship to his parents in a lot of ways. So it felt like Martha would be a lot more interesting here. But once she entered the book and we started trying it out, and so much of the book is instinctual, it's Nick and me figuring it out as we go. We have a big plan. It's planned through Issue 24 and its general structure, and that keeps growing."

Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

Snyder continued, "That said, it's also really how things are feeling as we go, which is a huge joy and thrill of the process. And she just took on this incredible life where it was like she's the moral compass of the book. Bruce is absolutely his own moral force, but he's still young and too idealistic in some ways and not idealistic enough in other ways. And she is both this incredible source of strength and a real vulnerability because having her walking out in the world and capable of being hurt is this weakness, as much as it's a strength. And so it adds this whole dimension to the character that's such a core part at this point of the DNA of him and of the book. I can't imagine ever having not done it because it's one of my favorite things, but it's a really exciting and unpredictable relationship."

Another major change introduced in issue #1 is Bruce's childhood friendship with characters who later become part of his rogues gallery, including Waylon Jones, Oswald Cobblepot, Harvey Dent, Edward Nygma, and Selina Kyle. Snyder teased how these relationships will influence Bruce's transformation into Batman in future issues.

Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

"The whole idea was if he can't travel the world, if he can't train with the League of Shadows or League of Assassins and Henri Ducard and all these people that make up Bruce's worldly training, then who does he train with? Who does he come up with?" he explained. "And so the first real mention of it is in the next issue in #7, but this is who he learned to be Batman through. He learned the city's underworld through Ozzie, through Oswald Cobblepot. He learned how to fight from Waylon Jones, from Croc. He learned the high-level detection and logic and algorithmic thinking from Eddie. And he learned the politics of the city from Harvey. And he learned, I don't want to give too much away from Selina, but a lot from Selina, which is all coming.

"So in that regard, they're all part of Batman. And that's where it came from, was this idea that, look, he should be friends with these guys because he's growing up with them. And at first it was just fun, like, ‘All right, he'll be friends and then they'll turn into the villains.’ But when we started exploring their relationships again, that and Martha became the core heart of the book - his relationships to his friends and to his mother and how that grounds him and also strengthens him and makes him more vulnerable and all of that oscillates. It's a huge factor for us. My favorite scenes, half the time, to write are the scenes with him and his friends and him and Martha."

In "The Zoo," Absolute Batman begins to establish his presence in Gotham as a new wave of costumed supervillains emerges. While there are hints of villains like Bane and Joker, the initial arc centers on Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, the leader of the Party Animals, a gang reveling in the chaos of a decaying Gotham.

Choosing Black Mask as the villain for Batman's origin story might seem unconventional, but Snyder believed he was the perfect fit. "We felt like there was a lot of material there that was like clay, that we could mold the way we wanted," Snyder said. "And the core thing about him is that he has this death face, this skull, and we wanted a villain who was about this nihilism that felt like, look, the world has been bought and sold and carved up and we're past the Doomsday Clock midnight, so let's all party and have fun and get what we can off the scraps off that big table up there. And that's all that's left to do. And if you don't feel that way, then you're crazy. But we're all dead already, so let's have a big dead party. And it just felt like his whole aesthetic spoke to that. And so that's why it was like, look, we'll write him like a creator-owned character. We'll stay true to the DNA, which is that he's a crime boss, but ultimately we'll get to make him really our own. And again, all credit to what Nick was able to do to really transform him into something that was entirely fresh in my opinion."

Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

The confrontation between Batman and Black Mask reaches its climax in issue #6, with Batman delivering a brutal beating on Sionis' yacht. Despite his fury, Batman refrains from killing, but leaves Black Mask severely injured and blinded. This fight underscores Batman's underdog status in the Absolute Universe, where he's underestimated by his foes.

"Honestly, when I put that in over Nick's art, those lines weren't necessarily there in the original back and forth," Snyder said. "It really rang to me like these are my favorite lines in the issue. It's like the thesis to me of our Batman is that he says, ’Tell me I don't matter. Tell me I can't make a difference. I love it. I f\*\*\*ing love it.’ And [he’s] punching you. That's who he is. He'll take everything you tell him about this world being impossible to change, and he'll use it as fuel. Yeah, he has some seriously down moments coming up where a lot of doubt fills him about that. But at his best, that's what he's communicating is just this, ‘I don't care if you say to me it's impossible, I don't believe it.’"

The Threat of Absolute Joker

Where Batman goes, the Joker is never far behind. The series has been building towards a confrontation between these two iconic characters. Absolute Joker, first teased in issue #1, is depicted as the antithesis of Batman—wealthy, worldly, and trained by the best, yet devoid of laughter.

"The Zoo" concludes with another glimpse of Joker, surrounded by a cocoon of dead babies, ordering his manservant to summon Bane to deal with Batman. He's aware of Gotham's new protector but not yet ready to engage directly.

Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

"The initial idea was if this is an inverted system, then Batman is the one that isn't order and part of the powers that be, he is the disruption. Who would be the system? It would be Joker. And so it was built into the DNA of the take," Snyder explained. "Those two things to me are always in relation. I've never written a Batman story, even if Joker isn't in it, where I don’t think about where Joker would be in relation to this take on Batman. He'd always be at the opposite end of the spectrum."

Absolute Joker's evolution into a psychopathic supervillain appears independent of Batman, diverging from traditional origins like The Killing Joke. "I don't want to give too much away," Snyder said. "All I'll say is that this Joker is already really terrifying by the time he meets Batman. But his relationship with Batman is part of something that really evolves as the series goes."

"Yeah, let's just say he's been there. This Joker's been there," Dragotta added. "And I think the clues we've planted is just how powerful he is. So when you see JK Industries, Ark-M - Alfred has hinted that there are Arks all over the world. There's a master plan that... yeah, I don't want to say anything. His storyline is coming up."

Dragotta continued, "I'm back on #9. We got Marcos Martin for two issues, who just does a killer job with Mr. Freeze and the group's dynamic, Bruce and his friends. And then we get back into what's going on below. Already spoiling stuff, but with Ark-M, and then we're going to get into the Joker's storyline. So I think less is more, and just the fact that you're bringing up that image [from issue #6] is telling me we're doing our job. We want people to wonder what's going on and just hold on."

As mentioned by Dragotta, issues #7 and #8 feature a detour with Marcos Martin introducing Mr. Freeze to the Absolute Universe. Judging by the cover of issue #7, this version of Mr. Freeze leans heavily into horror.

"These two issues with Marcos, I'm really excited about," Snyder said. "Nick has been the real guiding light to me about the aesthetics of the series and bringing in artists that are very story-forward, that are non-traditional superhero artists in that way too, to really keep with the theme of the whole book being something you haven't seen. And with Marcos… I'd never worked with him before, but he really comes in looking for the emotional heart of the story. With these two issues that he's doing, Mr. Freeze I think speaks to the same kind of thing Bruce is struggling with. Bruce is struggling with having told his friends that he's Batman and the fact that he never expected to survive the first arc. He had a plan that he would go down with the ship, literally. And so now he almost doesn't know what to do with where he is."

Art by Nick Dragotta. (Image Credit: DC)

Snyder elaborated, "Mr. Freeze is this character who has been through something similar in his own way, but has taken a dark path after that. And I would just say it's a very twisted version of him. Very twisted. And I love that. I feel like, again, I was always nervous about redoing villains in the main universe because they have such legacy and such beloved history. But in this universe, this is ours. This is like our creator-owned Batman. And so you always have the main universe for the takes that you know and love. Over here, we're going to go dark. We're going for it."

Issue #6 also hints at an upcoming confrontation with Bane, raising questions about how his character will be portrayed in relation to the massive Absolute Batman. "Bane, the one thing I'll say is he's really big. That's it," Snyder said. "People were like, ‘Oh, he's going to be small.’ He's not going to be small. He's not small. We wanted someone who makes Bruce's silhouette look smaller."

Finally, the broader Absolute line, which includes Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Superman, will expand with Absolute Flash, Absolute Green Lantern, and Absolute Martian Manhunter in 2025. While the series have been relatively standalone, Snyder hinted at future interactions among the characters. "You'll see hints, I think, that Bruce is aware of stuff happening in other places in our Absolute Universe," Snyder said. "But right now, even today, we're doing planning meetings about how these characters are going to interact in '25 into '26. When I said that before, I think some people took it to mean that we're looking to cross with the main universe and we're not looking to do that. What we're looking for is to start to show the ways in which these characters are beginning to affect each other and how the villains affect each other in this world. So that stuff you will see happening in '25."

Absolute Batman #6 is available in stores now. You can preorder the Absolute Batman Vol. 1: The Zoo HC on Amazon.