Absolute Batman may lack many of the innate advantages of DC's traditional Dark Knight, but one thing he has going for him is sheer mass. Writer Scott Snyder famously joked that this is "The Batman Who Lifts," given the way he towers over just about everyone else in Gotham City. Though not quite everyone. What happens when Absolute Batman meets Absolute Bane?
That's the question Snyder and artist Nick Dragotta have set out to answer in the series' latest story arc, "Abomination." Absolute Batman #9 introduces Bane to Bruce's rapidly growing rogues gallery. If you thought the Bane of the Arkham games was huge, just wait until you get a load of Absolute Bane.
Read on for a full breakdown of what happens when Absolute Batman meets Absolute Bane for the first time, as well as the other key Batman players who make their debuts in this issue.
Meet Absolute Bane
Bane makes his introduction in this issue when he crashes a private peace summit between the leaders of Qurac and Kahndaq. No sooner do the two men agree to end their long war and embark on a new era of peace and cooperation than Bane comes knocking. He informs the two men that, sadly, their peace talks broke down, and one man killed the other in a fit of rage. After securing a volunteer, Bane promptly crushes the other leader's head in one massive fist.
As you can see, Absolute Bane is an impressive physical specimen, dwarfing even Bruce Wayne. You might have expected Snyder and Dragotta to go in a completely different direction with this version of the character, making him lean and lithe to contrast Batman's raw muscle, but Snyder told IGN in a recent intervew that this was never an option.
“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.”
Absolute Bane may be large, but he's hardly a dumb brute. If anything, the character is oddly pleasant and well-spoken in his debut scene, even revealing a philosophical bent:
The implication in this scene is that Bane is working for Absolute Joker, a man whom we know is a reclusive billionaire who runs JK Industries and the mysterious Ark project. This assassination is part of a larger, systematic effort to destabilize world governments and enrich the wealthy elite. No sooner does Bane accomplish his mission than he's called to Gotham City and his first encounter with the Batman.
Absolute Nightwing and Deathstroke
Bane isn't the only major Batman character who makes his debut in issue #9. We also meet the Absolute versions of Dick Grayson and Deathstroke.
As far as we know, this Dick Grayson hasn't become Robin or Nightwing just yet. Instead, he's working as a Gotham City EMT. His job has grown much more difficult of late, as Batman is currently cutting a bloody swath through the criminal underworld and leaving countless Maroni and Falcone family members battered and broken. With every ambulance and every rideshare vehicle called into action, Dick is forced to race two of his charges to the hospital on a rickshaw.
Why is Batman on the warpath? He's searching for his childhood friend, Waylan, who was abducted in issue #8. Once Batman discovers (with help from GCPD officer Barbara Gordon) that Waylan has been taken to Ark-M, he hatches a plan to infiltrate the still-under-construction facility and rescue his friend. Serving as his eyes and ears is Alfred Pennyworth, who has returned to Gotham to lend a helping hand to its new protector.
However, Alfred has deep misgivings about the mission and Batman's ability to safely exfiltrate Waylan. Something has Alfred spooked, and we learn that it involves a discovery about an old friend. Alfred is haunted by the knowledge that his old comrade-in-arms Slade Wilson is now acting as the Joker's bodyguard. To Alfred, everything leads back to the overarching war that now looms over humanity.
It's also worth mentioning that issue #9 alludes to another major element of the Batman mythos (and one that played a key part in Snyder's previous Batman work). As he explores the depths of Ark-M, Batman comes across the skeleton of a gigantic bat frozen in ice.
This skeleton appears to be Barbatos, the demonic Bat-God that consumes decaying worlds created by the World Forge, and the being that pursued the Dark Knight across time in 2010's Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. This Batman doesn't fully comprehend what he's seeing, but he seems to sense that both he and it are part of some larger cosmic game. Given Barbatos' ties to Darkseid, and the fact that Darkseid was the catalyst behind the creation of the Absolute Universe, this cameo appears to be hinting at a larger storyline.
Absolute Batman vs. Absolute Bane
Batman and Bane finally meet in the closing pages of Absolute Batman #9, and their showdown doesn't go well for the Dark Knight. Bane approaches their fight with a lackadaiscal calm. He calls out each of Batman's moves with an appreciative air, before responding by breaking his opponent's arms and leg in turn.
Here's where things get really wacky. Batman attempts to taunt Bane by calling him a "juicer," only for Bane to reveal that he hasn't actually activated the Venom tubes strapped to his back. As massive as Absolute Bane is, he can grow even bigger. And grow he does, revealing the monstrous transformation that takes place when he does consume Venom.
Once throughly juiced, Bane is now so enormous that Batman is roughly the size of one of his arms. No version of Bane we've seen before, whether from the classic comics, the cartoons, or the games, can measure up to this hulking monstrosity.
Clearly, Batman has his work cut out for him. Will he find some way of overcoming this far stronger and more skilled opponent? Will he follow the example of classic Batman and wind up with a broken back for his troubles? We'll find out as "Abomination" continues to unfold.
For more on DC's Absolute line, find out why it's DC's most exciting launch in years, and see the many ways Absolute Batman reinvents the Dark Knight's mythology.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
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