Absolute Batman writer Scott Snyder talked about the tremendous success of the series and the creative process of the latest issue.
In an interview with CBR, Snyder was overwhelmed by the positive critical and commercial response to the series. He talked about how Absolute Batman and the DC All In initiative was supposed to be a way to garner excitement for DC and comics in general. However, the series’ sales blew all of those expectations out of the water.
I was like the guy piloting the Titanic. What if it didn’t work? … Full disclosure, the expectation was that we were just hoping that Absolute Batman would crack 100,000 copies, and I was worried that it wouldn’t. I was like, Nick is an untested artist in terms of mainstream superheroes. And then to have it go to 450,000 copies or whatever, and then to have Absolute Wonder Woman sell over 200,00, and Absolute Superman do that, and then Justice League Unlimited in main universe sell out. It was such a beautiful moment, not for the sales on Absolute Batman, which are great, and I’m incredibly grateful for that, but to see it as a realization of what all these retailers were saying, which is comics isn’t even close to, not only not being dead, but it’s not even a bad market.
W0rking with A New Artist
Issue four came as an interlude. The previous issue ended on a cliffhanger, but then number four focused on Bruce’s evolution as a crimefighter. The issue also brought on Gabriel Hernandez Waltz as a guest artist.
I wanted to do three narratives. One, Bruce at his lowest when he’s unwilling to do anything but react emotionally to the horrors of the world. And that’s Bruce yelling at Joe Chill, “I hate you! I wish you were dead! I don’t want to hear anything to say!” And then Bruce at his most generous and his biggest, his largest, which is, “I want to know what made you, so I can approach the world and holistically try and stop that from happening again.” And the bridge between those things, which is his building of the Batman bridge that is, it is a physical bridge and a metaphorical bridge.
Comparing and Contrasting Absolute Batman vs Mainstream Batman
Scott Snyder also took time to clarify the differences between Absolute version of Batman versus his mainstream counterpart. A lot of is the change in character’s back story from being a billionaire to being a typical working middle class guy. It makes the character have an insurmountable challenge to try to change a system that rewards greed and chaos. This ideal also extends to the Absolute version of the Joker- who seems to be a rich individual with unlimited resources.
So what if, instead of being part of that system, he is up against all of it in some way, and you put Joker at the other end of that spectrum? You’ll learn more about the Joker in coming issues, even as he sort of haunts the series for the first year, until he kind of comes in late, and he has all of these things. He’s kind of a country into himself of resources. And so how do you show that one person who has very little can change everything? And it’s the opposite lesson, I think, of the main universe Batman, where both characters are equally inspiring, but Bruce Wayne, in the main universe, has the ability he’s born with; the sense of “I can change whatever I want, because I have the resources and power. What do I do with this?” This Bruce doesn’t have any of that. And so he’s angrier and more teenage in that way of being. Like, “I don’t care what you say, I’m still going to do it. I’m still going to change it.”
Absolute Batman #4 is now on sale at your local comic book shop.
Source: CBR.com
All images maybe subject to change.
