The Absolute/All In thread

It begins.

Next month, DC Comics will split in two. When "Absolute Power" comes to an end -- and we have a thread on that HERE -- something happens that creates, for lack of a better term, a new Earth-2. This new parallel universe will be published in DC's new "Absolute" line (not to be confused with their upscale reprints of the same name). Meanwhile, the "regular" universe is being described as having a, cough, rebirth of sorts, titled "All In." DC describes this as "a line-wide initiative combining an exciting, reimagined universe of DC's Super Heroes and an ongoing line of core titles, featuring bold new directions for DC's mainstay Super Heroes."

I am getting lots of info. Too much to just hang onto until October! It seems a shame not to share it. And then: Discussion! We bring to bear the Legion of Superfluous Heroes joint super-power of talking something to death! It will be awesome!

First, here's the information I have so far on the Absolute titles:

DC ALL IN SPECIAL #1

Written by SCOTT SNYDER and JOSHUA WILLIAMSON

Art by DANIEL SAMPERE and WES CRAIG

Cover by DANIEL SAMPERE

Variant covers by WES CRAIG and RAFA SANDOVAL

1:25 variant cover by JOHN GIANG

Foil variant cover by DANIEL SAMPERE

$4.99 US | 64 pages | Variants $5.99 US (card stock) | Foil variant $7.99

ON SALE 10/2/24

As Absolute Power ends (issue #4 on sale Oct. 2), DC’s All In initiative begins with a single-issue mega-event, presented as a startling, symmetrical flipbook!

Following the events of DC’s blockbuster storyline Absolute Power, the heroes of the core DC Universe have fought against the deep divisions in the world around them to usher in a new era of unity. And it’s just in time, too—because Darkseid has returned. Superman must gather every hero on Earth to hold the line against a very different version of the Lord of Apokolips, as they raise our cosmic defenses and prepare for war…and when the first blows land, the shock waves will ripple into every series in the DCU and shake the nature of their reality to its core!

But little do they know…the greater threat is still to come. For there is another Earth: the Absolute Universe. Here, DC’s biggest icons are coming of age with fewer advantages and facing greater opposition than ever before…while miraculously retaining the immutable heroism that has inspired fans for decades. But can they really protect the light that shines inside them when the world in which they live is hurtling toward a terrible destiny?

Co-written by Scott Snyder (Absolute Batman) and Joshua Williamson (Superman), the flipbook DC All In Special #1 features art by Wonder Woman artist Daniel Sampere when read in one direction and Deadly Class co-creator and series artist Wes Craig when read in the other direction. The 64-page one-shot features a main cover by Sampere, with variant covers by Rafa Sandoval, Wes Craig, and John Giang.

“The creation of the Absolute Universe is how I always imagined coming back to DC, and DC All In will be a great jumping-on point for new readers as well as lapsed fans to discover new stories to love and the chance to explore the new directions in store for DC’s core series lineup,” says Snyder.

ABSOLUTE BATMAN #1

Written by SCOTT SNYDER

Art and cover by NICK DRAGOTTA

Variant covers by WES CRAIG, JIM LEE, and MITCH GERADS

1:25 variant cover by IAN BERTRAM

1:50 variant cover by MITCH GERADS

1:100 black and white variant cover by JIM LEE

Foil design variant

$4.99 US | 48 pages

Variants $5.99 US (card stock) | Foil variant $7.99 US (card stock)

ON SALE 10/9/24

Without the mansion…without the money…without the butler…what’s left is the Absolute Dark Knight!

Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta introduce fans to a new Batman with the release of Absolute Batman #1. In this iteration, fans will be introduced to a version of the Dark Knight that doesn’t have the money, mansion, or butler of his core-line counterpart. Readers will quickly find out what makes this the “Absolute” version of Batman when the debut issue, with colors by Frank Martin and letters by Clayton Cowles, arrives at participating comic book shops and digital retailers Wednesday, October 9. Absolute Batman #1 will publish with a main cover by Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin, plus variant covers by Wes Craig and Mike Spicer, Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair, Mitch Gerads, and Ian Bertram (1:25).

Snyder launches this new universe with the release of Absolute Batman #1, featuring art by Nick Dragotta. In this iteration, fans will be introduced to a version of the Dark Knight that doesn’t have the money, mansion, or butler of his core-line counterpart. Readers will quickly find out what makes this the “Absolute” version of Batman when the debut issue arrives at participating comic book shops and digital retailers Wednesday, October 9.

ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #1

by Dan Panosian

Written by KELLY THOMPSON

Art and cover by HAYDEN SHERMAN

Variant covers by WES CRAIG, JIM LEE, and JEFF DEKAL

1:25 variant cover by DAN PANOSIAN

1:50 variant cover by JEFF DEKAL

1:100 black and white cover by JIM LEE

Foil design variant

$4.99 US | 48 pages

Variants $5.99 US (card stock) | Foil variant $7.99 US (card stock)

ON SALE 10/23/24

Without the island paradise…without the sisterhood that shaped her…without a mission of peace…what’s left is the Absolute Amazon!

For Diana, there is no island paradise, no sisterhood to shape her, nor a mission of peace—so what is the purpose of an Amazon warrior in this new universe? Eisner Award-winning writer Kelly Thompson and breakout artist Hayden Sherman reinvent her from the ground up in Absolute Wonder Woman #1, with colors by Jordie Bellaire and letters by Becca Carey, on sale Wednesday, October 23. Absolute Wonder Woman #1 will publish with a main cover by Hayden Sherman and Jordie Bellaire, plus variant covers by Wes Craig and Mike Spicer, Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair, Jeff Dekal, and Dan Panosian (1:25).

ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #1

by Wes Craig and Mike Spicer

Written By JASON AARON

Art and cover by RAFA SANDOVAL

Variant covers by WES CRAIG, JIM LEE, and CLAYTON CRAIN

1:25 cover by MATTEO SCALERA

1:50 cover by CLAYTON CRAIN

1:100 black and white cover by JIM LEE

Foil design variant

$4.99 US | 48 pages

Variants $5.99 US (card stock) | Foil variant $7.99 US (card stock)

ON SALE 11/6/24

Without the fortress…without the family…without a home…what’s left is the Absolute Man of Steel!

Writer Jason Aaron and artist Rafa Sandoval join forces to present a new Man of Steel with the launch of Absolute Superman #1. This Superman has no family, no Fortress of Solitude, and no home. Will he still stand for truth and justice in this new universe? Readers can find out when Absolute Superman #1, with colors by Ulises Arreola and letters by Becca Carey, hits participating comic book shops on Wednesday, November 6. Absolute Superman #1 will publish with a main cover by Rafa Sandoval and Ulises Arreola, plus variant covers by Wes Craig and Mike Spicer, Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair, Clayton Crain, and Matteo Scalera (1:25).

Writer Jason Aaron and artist Rafa Sandoval join forces to present a new Man of Steel with the launch of Absolute Superman #1. This Superman has no family, no Fortress of Solitude, and no home. Will he still stand for truth, justice, and a better tomorrow in this new universe? Readers can find out when Absolute Superman #1 hits participating comic book shops November 6.

All three launch issues will also have a “foil design variant” featuring the new crests for each of DC's new Absolute Trinity. Look for these at your local comic book store when Absolute Batman #1 publishes on October 9, when Absolute Wonder Woman #1 publishes on October 23, and when Absolute Superman #1 publishes on November 6.

101 appearance(s) of Ultimates (Earth-616) 21 minor appearance(s) of Ultimates (Earth-616) 29 mention(s) of Ultimates (Earth-616) 1 mention(s) in han…

Here's an interview on the DC site that could in form our discussion.

Inspiring the Next Generation: Snyder and Dragotta Talk “Absolute Batman”

BY: Jules Chin Greene

Friday, September 6th, 2024

The world of DC is about to get a lot bigger with the advent of the Absolute Universe this fall. Providing an alternate take on some of DC’s most beloved characters, the Absolute Universe launches with new ongoing titles focused on Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman, led by three different all-star creative teams. In the upcoming Absolute Batman series, writer Scott Snyder will return to the world of Gotham City for an all-new vision of the Dark Knight, alongside collaborator and artist Nick Dragotta.

Debuting next month, Absolute Batman will center on a young Bruce Wayne who is scrappy, bulky and without the generational wealth that he’s commonly associated with. This Bruce is an engineer with a passion for fixing problems in his city. And Snyder and Dragotta’s reinterpretation of the Batman mythos doesn’t stop there. Our good friend Alfred Pennyworth is now a grizzled former MI6 agent and mercenary who isn’t afraid to kick some butt and doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with Gotham’s new vigilante.

We recently had the chance to speak to both creators about what they have in store for us in this eagerly awaited new series. Read on to learn what fuels their collaboration, their love of the character and their excitement for carving out a new frontier for the Dark Knight.

Scott, you mentioned that this is a very personal story for you, and you’ve spoken in the past about how you often lead with the personal when it comes to your work in general. Could you talk about where you were coming from with Absolute Batman?

Scott Snyder: Yeah, 100%. The scariest thing for me is to go back to this character. It is the most challenging thing, because I was lucky enough to be able to do stories that really mattered to me with one of my best friends in the world, Greg Capullo, and Jon [Glapion] and FCO for a long time. And I'm not trying to touch the hem of that.

But once in a while, you get an idea where it was like, “If I could really change the mythology, if I could have Batman grow up in a way where his family never had the money, and how he's formed happens differently in this…”

It's a big story point. This Batman comes up in Crime Alley. He knows the villains in a different way. And instead of being system and order and the way Batman is in the main universe, this Batman is chaos and anarchy. He's a big, primal beast. He's smart. He's a planner and all those things, but he's a force of nature.

And I wanted to do a story where it really is for my kids. Maybe not just yet, it's a little too violent and dark, but it's written for my kids. Batman always made me brave. Growing up in New York, I love the idea that he went up against nuclear war, like in The Dark Knight Returns. My anxieties were reflected in these books in the ’80s. And for him here, I want him to go up against things that feel unmovable, like giant civilians and systems that feel like you can't change them, so you just have to compromise, which is Alfred's point of view as a kind of mercenary coming to town. For Batman, though, he's this kid that does not believe that. He believes you go up and you bang your head against it over and over and over until you get it to change. So, it's a totally different take.

I know with your work, Nick, there’s a very powerful sense of perspective and low angles. How did that impact the way you went about drawing Batman and Gotham?

Nick Dragotta: Scott cooked up this incredible story, and my job is to bring that to life and inject my own self into it. And I'm really taking a different approach in that, when scenes are pedestrian, I really want to slow it down a bit. And then as emotion or action ramps up, we're going to go a little more hyper and more dynamic. So, there's a rhythm. And Scott's got some incredible dialog in here, and I really just want to nail the beats.

We like to leave a lot to the imagination too. So, you'll see a lot of silhouettes in my comics, and I like readers to inject themselves into it. It goes back to what Scott was saying about character too. When you see this Bruce Wayne, he's more like us. And I think readers will go, “Yeah, I've walked the streets like that. I've done things like that. I've solved problems like that.”

At its core, it's Bruce Wayne. But pulling them in this new direction feels a little more identifiable, I think. And readers are going to love it.

Going back to what you were talking about with this new identity for Bruce, I love that he’s an engineer. The Batman we know is always thinking things through, he’s got these contingency plans. Was his job as an engineer a way to get him thinking and knowing about how things work?

SS: 100%. You see his whole history in issue #1. Alfred is trying to figure him out. After the traumatic stuff that happens early on, which is also different in our universe, Bruce starts this path to building Batman. When he's a kid, he wins these architectural and engineering competitions. And in one of them that he wins, he makes a mobile bridge that you can take to places that have natural disasters and it's based on a bat's anatomy. So, he's always a builder from the beginning. Alfred has this refrain of, “What are you building? What are you building?” He's building Batman.

ND: I'm just going to spoil this, but Scott's script reads like a novel. It's not written like a normal script. It's all there. It's got all the dialog beats. And there's a part in it where Bruce fixes what he breaks and it's just awesome, and it all comes full circle. It's just such a great moment in the book. And it just fits this character. He's a do-it-yourselfer. He's a problem solver. He’s a new hero for a new age.

SS: It's writing it so your kids feel like it’s an invitation to be better than us. If you have to burn down the things that we made to make something better, do it. Just go for it. Be Batman.

That reminds me of the ending of The Batman, with Gotham City getting flooded.

SS: That’s my favorite part of that movie. And that’s the thing. From the moment I started on the character in a post 9/11 world, it really felt like Batman needed to be something different. And it wasn't so much about him facing his demons in this. He's somebody that, instead of scaring bad guys into the shadows, is actually trying to bring good people out into the light and be like, “We can do this.” He's a unifier. He goes up against guys and women with dangerous, solipsistic, selfish ideologies, who think it's about them and that is inspiring.

He says, “I'll be the target. I'll go up against them. I'll be brave against them, to make you brave against the things in your life that you think are impossible to beat.” And that formula is so simple. You know that's who Batman is.

You’ve mentioned that there is chaos and anarchy in this series. Could you speak to where the sense of order can be found in this world?

SS: It really is a flip. Like when you see how the villains come in, it’s just very different. Bruce grows up very differently.

I think the thing that worries me sometimes with Bruce is there are stories when it kind of feels like he's punching down in the main universe. And it's hard not to punch down when you're a generational billionaire. The goal here was to always have him punching up and have him face things that seem unbeatable. Crime, for some reason in Gotham, when you open the book, is up 500%. And there's this new gang which is ruining everything, and no one knows why. And so, the secret behind them and what's happening is a big part of where we start.

This is a much different Alfred, as well. How did you reflect that visually, Nick?

ND: Just trying to represent the core of the character. I mean, this is a grizzled MI6 Alfred. He's a badass. He could have his own title, in my opinion. He narrates the book. He's kind of the storyteller that we're connected to most and he's witnessing all these events. And like we said, he is order. He might be the old ways and Bruce is the new. Can that inspire Alfred too?

I'm just trying to draw characters that represent who they are. I want my villains to be scary. I want them to be brutal. I want them to be evil. I want you to be disgusted by their actions. Batman, I want him to be scary. I don't want you to be like, “I want to go meet this guy.” You want to run from this guy. And I want that youth to come through too. Like, “Wow, this guy can make a serious mistake that could cost him his life. He's really riding that razor's edge.”

One final question, what’s your favorite part about working together?

SS: Look, it's going to sound corny, but already at my age, you don't make a lot of new friends. Nick has become a true friend and creative partner. I think the thing that I love the most about working with Nick is the same thing I loved about working with Greg [Capullo]. It's the same thing I love about working with Jock. The people that I return to always put story first, and neither of us have an ego about it. Meaning, if he has a better idea for something, great. Whatever is going to make the best story, we do it. And my favorite part, in a literal way, is he lives just across the water from where I live in New York. So, he takes the ferry over and we work in my studio and put pages up all over. I've never gotten to work in person before, so it's such a magical experience to get to physically make it together.

ND: Yeah, I think that it's the friendship. The first day I went over to Scott’s, I ended up playing wiffle ball with his son. We're enjoying this. It's not work. Scott's enthusiasm is infectious, and no hyperbole, he's in this 100% like me. I'm fully passionate about this medium. In terms of business, I want to leave it in a better place. And I want to just continue to create good comics.

Absolute Batman #1 by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin will be available in print and as a digital comic on Wednesday, October 9.

Replies

- The Baron > Captain Comics September 13, 2024 at 2:26pm
  I've been reading the Ultimate X-Men, mostly because I'm a Peach Momoko mark, and the Ultimates, mostly on a whim in an "I may drop it at any moment" mode.
  
  Marvel has now had three distinct teams of "Ultimates":
  
  The Original Ultimate Universe "Ultimates"
  
  The Earth-616 "Ultimates"
  
  The New Ultimate Universe "Ultimates"
- Captain Comics > The Baron September 13, 2024 at 3:07pm
  
  I don't remember the 616 Ultimates. Who were they?
- The Baron > Captain Comics September 13, 2024 at 6:05pm
  
  See here.
  
  Ultimates (Earth-616)
  
  101 appearance(s) of Ultimates (Earth-616) 21 minor appearance(s) of Ultimates (Earth-616) 29 mention(s) of Ultimates (Earth-616) 1 mention(s) in han…
Captain Comics September 14, 2024 at 11:49am

I missed that entirely. Now that you've pointed it out, I remember reading solicitations about it while assembling Comics Guides. But I was already tradewaiting by then, and I didn't buy these titles in collections, which appear to segue into Civil War II. And when I read the premise of Civil War II, I put my fingers in my ears and said "La la la" until it was over. I still haven't read a single issue of Civil War II of any kind, and am perversely proud of it.
- The Baron > Captain Comics September 14, 2024 at 3:07pm
  
  I have those "Ultimates" runs, and they're actually pretty good. A lot of good books got smeared by tie-ins to the Civil War stories.
Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) September 15, 2024 at 2:20pm

I hadn't realized Gateway City was a Spectre location, Philip -- nice catch! But Diana's been in Gateway City before -- John Byrne brought her there when he took over her book in the 90s. I haven't read those books since they were initially published, but when I was checking that I didn't misremember this, I came across someone saying it was the DCU version of San Francisco (which, as the "Gateway to the Pacific," explains the name).
Jeff of Earth-J September 16, 2024 at 8:45pm
I don't think you're going to get much argument over the Absolute=Ultimate comparison.

Another similarity (in addition to the basic concept) is the implication of the name of the line itself. For example, Marvel designating an "Ultimate" line relegated the "616 Universe" to mere "penultimate" status, yet Marvel's original universe is still ticking along while the so-called "ultimate" line is long-gone (for the most part). If DC's new universe is "Absolute," what does that make the original? According to the internet, some options may be...
- Limited?
- Restricted?
- Restrained?
- Conditional?
- Provisional?
- Qualified?
- Partial?
- Questionable?
- Dubious?
...but not "All In."
Jeff of Earth-J September 18, 2024 at 9:17pm

I just found out that the new "Absolute" universe is going to be "gritty." I'm now less enthusiastic than I was. C'mon, DC! It's been 40 years. Learn a new tune.

Today I learned that the Absolute Batman must function without wealth and resources, and suddenly I'm intrigued again.
Captain Comics September 19, 2024 at 2:55pm

Here's an interview on the DC site that could in form our discussion.

Inspiring the Next Generation: Snyder and Dragotta Talk “Absolute Batman”

BY: Jules Chin Greene

Friday, September 6th, 2024

The world of DC is about to get a lot bigger with the advent of the Absolute Universe this fall. Providing an alternate take on some of DC’s most beloved characters, the Absolute Universe launches with new ongoing titles focused on Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman, led by three different all-star creative teams. In the upcoming Absolute Batman series, writer Scott Snyder will return to the world of Gotham City for an all-new vision of the Dark Knight, alongside collaborator and artist Nick Dragotta.

Debuting next month, Absolute Batman will center on a young Bruce Wayne who is scrappy, bulky and without the generational wealth that he’s commonly associated with. This Bruce is an engineer with a passion for fixing problems in his city. And Snyder and Dragotta’s reinterpretation of the Batman mythos doesn’t stop there. Our good friend Alfred Pennyworth is now a grizzled former MI6 agent and mercenary who isn’t afraid to kick some butt and doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with Gotham’s new vigilante.

We recently had the chance to speak to both creators about what they have in store for us in this eagerly awaited new series. Read on to learn what fuels their collaboration, their love of the character and their excitement for carving out a new frontier for the Dark Knight.

Scott, you mentioned that this is a very personal story for you, and you’ve spoken in the past about how you often lead with the personal when it comes to your work in general. Could you talk about where you were coming from with Absolute Batman?

Scott Snyder: Yeah, 100%. The scariest thing for me is to go back to this character. It is the most challenging thing, because I was lucky enough to be able to do stories that really mattered to me with one of my best friends in the world, Greg Capullo, and Jon [Glapion] and FCO for a long time. And I'm not trying to touch the hem of that.

But once in a while, you get an idea where it was like, “If I could really change the mythology, if I could have Batman grow up in a way where his family never had the money, and how he's formed happens differently in this…”

It's a big story point. This Batman comes up in Crime Alley. He knows the villains in a different way. And instead of being system and order and the way Batman is in the main universe, this Batman is chaos and anarchy. He's a big, primal beast. He's smart. He's a planner and all those things, but he's a force of nature.

And I wanted to do a story where it really is for my kids. Maybe not just yet, it's a little too violent and dark, but it's written for my kids. Batman always made me brave. Growing up in New York, I love the idea that he went up against nuclear war, like in The Dark Knight Returns. My anxieties were reflected in these books in the ’80s. And for him here, I want him to go up against things that feel unmovable, like giant civilians and systems that feel like you can't change them, so you just have to compromise, which is Alfred's point of view as a kind of mercenary coming to town. For Batman, though, he's this kid that does not believe that. He believes you go up and you bang your head against it over and over and over until you get it to change. So, it's a totally different take.

I know with your work, Nick, there’s a very powerful sense of perspective and low angles. How did that impact the way you went about drawing Batman and Gotham?

Nick Dragotta: Scott cooked up this incredible story, and my job is to bring that to life and inject my own self into it. And I'm really taking a different approach in that, when scenes are pedestrian, I really want to slow it down a bit. And then as emotion or action ramps up, we're going to go a little more hyper and more dynamic. So, there's a rhythm. And Scott's got some incredible dialog in here, and I really just want to nail the beats.

We like to leave a lot to the imagination too. So, you'll see a lot of silhouettes in my comics, and I like readers to inject themselves into it. It goes back to what Scott was saying about character too. When you see this Bruce Wayne, he's more like us. And I think readers will go, “Yeah, I've walked the streets like that. I've done things like that. I've solved problems like that.”

At its core, it's Bruce Wayne. But pulling them in this new direction feels a little more identifiable, I think. And readers are going to love it.

Going back to what you were talking about with this new identity for Bruce, I love that he’s an engineer. The Batman we know is always thinking things through, he’s got these contingency plans. Was his job as an engineer a way to get him thinking and knowing about how things work?

SS: 100%. You see his whole history in issue #1. Alfred is trying to figure him out. After the traumatic stuff that happens early on, which is also different in our universe, Bruce starts this path to building Batman. When he's a kid, he wins these architectural and engineering competitions. And in one of them that he wins, he makes a mobile bridge that you can take to places that have natural disasters and it's based on a bat's anatomy. So, he's always a builder from the beginning. Alfred has this refrain of, “What are you building? What are you building?” He's building Batman.

ND: I'm just going to spoil this, but Scott's script reads like a novel. It's not written like a normal script. It's all there. It's got all the dialog beats. And there's a part in it where Bruce fixes what he breaks and it's just awesome, and it all comes full circle. It's just such a great moment in the book. And it just fits this character. He's a do-it-yourselfer. He's a problem solver. He’s a new hero for a new age.

SS: It's writing it so your kids feel like it’s an invitation to be better than us. If you have to burn down the things that we made to make something better, do it. Just go for it. Be Batman.

That reminds me of the ending of The Batman, with Gotham City getting flooded.

SS: That’s my favorite part of that movie. And that’s the thing. From the moment I started on the character in a post 9/11 world, it really felt like Batman needed to be something different. And it wasn't so much about him facing his demons in this. He's somebody that, instead of scaring bad guys into the shadows, is actually trying to bring good people out into the light and be like, “We can do this.” He's a unifier. He goes up against guys and women with dangerous, solipsistic, selfish ideologies, who think it's about them and that is inspiring.

He says, “I'll be the target. I'll go up against them. I'll be brave against them, to make you brave against the things in your life that you think are impossible to beat.” And that formula is so simple. You know that's who Batman is.

You’ve mentioned that there is chaos and anarchy in this series. Could you speak to where the sense of order can be found in this world?

SS: It really is a flip. Like when you see how the villains come in, it’s just very different. Bruce grows up very differently.

I think the thing that worries me sometimes with Bruce is there are stories when it kind of feels like he's punching down in the main universe. And it's hard not to punch down when you're a generational billionaire. The goal here was to always have him punching up and have him face things that seem unbeatable. Crime, for some reason in Gotham, when you open the book, is up 500%. And there's this new gang which is ruining everything, and no one knows why. And so, the secret behind them and what's happening is a big part of where we start.

This is a much different Alfred, as well. How did you reflect that visually, Nick?

ND: Just trying to represent the core of the character. I mean, this is a grizzled MI6 Alfred. He's a badass. He could have his own title, in my opinion. He narrates the book. He's kind of the storyteller that we're connected to most and he's witnessing all these events. And like we said, he is order. He might be the old ways and Bruce is the new. Can that inspire Alfred too?

I'm just trying to draw characters that represent who they are. I want my villains to be scary. I want them to be brutal. I want them to be evil. I want you to be disgusted by their actions. Batman, I want him to be scary. I don't want you to be like, “I want to go meet this guy.” You want to run from this guy. And I want that youth to come through too. Like, “Wow, this guy can make a serious mistake that could cost him his life. He's really riding that razor's edge.”

One final question, what’s your favorite part about working together?

SS: Look, it's going to sound corny, but already at my age, you don't make a lot of new friends. Nick has become a true friend and creative partner. I think the thing that I love the most about working with Nick is the same thing I loved about working with Greg [Capullo]. It's the same thing I love about working with Jock. The people that I return to always put story first, and neither of us have an ego about it. Meaning, if he has a better idea for something, great. Whatever is going to make the best story, we do it. And my favorite part, in a literal way, is he lives just across the water from where I live in New York. So, he takes the ferry over and we work in my studio and put pages up all over. I've never gotten to work in person before, so it's such a magical experience to get to physically make it together.

ND: Yeah, I think that it's the friendship. The first day I went over to Scott’s, I ended up playing wiffle ball with his son. We're enjoying this. It's not work. Scott's enthusiasm is infectious, and no hyperbole, he's in this 100% like me. I'm fully passionate about this medium. In terms of business, I want to leave it in a better place. And I want to just continue to create good comics.

Absolute Batman #1 by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin will be available in print and as a digital comic on Wednesday, October 9.
Captain Comics October 1, 2024 at 2:13pm
Just a reminder for those who are DC-curious: Tomorrow, Oct. 2, ends Absolute Power and begins the All In/Absolute duoverse. Books of note:
- ABSOLUTE POWER #4 (OF 4)
- DC ALL IN SPECIAL
- BATMAN #153
- BIRDS OF PREY #14
- POISON IVY #26
- SHAZAM #16
Bonus: Captain Marvel Jr. is finally getting a name in Shazam #16. Just like Captain Marvel/Shazam is now called "The Captain," Captain Marvel Jr./Shazam Jr. will now be called "The Commander." I don't know what this means for the other members of Billy's family who can 'Zam out, especially Mary.

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