REVIEW: ‘Absolute Batman’ Issue 10

Absolute Batman Issue 10 is published by DC Comics, written by Scott Snyder, with art by Nick Dragotta, colors by Frank Martin, and letters by Clayton Cowles.

Batman is trapped inside Ark M, where Bane meets every escape attempt.

This issue features a very messed-up prison break. Absolute Batman Issue 10 is very close to a body horror story with how it proceeds. Batman is captured and kept in a cell within Ark M. With limited resources, Batman has to keep using ingenious and disgusting methods to escape. Through both gadgets he’s hidden on himself, mutilation on himself, and other horrific means, Batman will find ways to get out. But each time, Bane is waiting, and brutalizes him again before he ends up back in that cell.

Absolute Batman Issue 10 is cyclical, a constant repetition of escape from a man almost driven insane. In fact, by the end, he is insane. It’s incredibly violent and disturbing, with a slow pace that wallows in its grim and unsettling atmosphere. Ark M is a harrowing place of nightmarish experiments, perhaps even more revolting than the Arkham Asylum in the main universe.

Everything is a surprise and a mystery, with little idea of what’s waiting for Bruce outside of the cell, except for Bane. Absolute Batman Issue 10 is a horror show of misery and pity. And there’s another person in there, too. Waylon Jones, Bruce’s childhood best friend. It’s both a tremendous reveal and a heartbreaking end, because it’s the first example of what might tear apart this group of friends.

We learn a great deal about this version of Batman from outside influences. Snyder uses narration from a different perspective in Absolute Batman Issue 10. Doctors’ notes are used to describe what has been done to Bruce and what he has done to them. Removing his suit leads to severe injuries, and there are further wounds later in each escape attempt.

There is a scientific, matter-of-fact tone to the narration in Absolute Batman Issue 10, as the doctor reveals the grizzly ways in which they tortured Bruce and how he used his own bodily functions and pieces to fight his way out. There is even more detail in what Batman does than what the art shows. Bruce himself is clearly mentally affected by the captivity. He shows a dogged determination, with a stubbornness that is terrifying. The things he does to himself and to others are signs of how desperate he is to rescue his friend.

It has often been noted about the main version of Batman, across both comics and movies, that he is disturbed and broken due to his trauma. But this version is even worse. He can be intensely non-verbal, sometimes growling. The ideas he has about how to inflict pain are sadistic, truly maniacal. And since the ordeal in Absolute Batman Issue 10, things can only get worse. The others he finds in Ark M are terrifying, the results of sickening science.

The art captures the unpleasant nature of Absolute Batman Issue 10. It reveals the cruelty and sickness within the facility, leaving little to the imagination. Bruce looks relatively normal. But each time he’s returned to the cell, he has gone through something else. Right up until the end, when he looks harrowing and demented. This is the opposite of prepared or fancy. This Batman is rough and willing to improvise with anything. He’s running around the facility naked, with nothing but his own body as a weapon.

The violence is horrific and shocking each time, especially the second escape attempt. Everything Batman uses has come from him, and what he does to the guards is grotesque. The other inmates are also frightening. They have been turned into things that aren’t human. Their expressions convey extreme pain, a pain that is almost unimaginable. When Bane enters, he fills the room. He has a calm ferocity, just walking in to put down Batman, then leave again.

The colors are incredible at helping tell the story in Absolute Batman Issue 10. In Bruce’s cell, the lighting is very bright. It means there’s nowhere for him to find and nowhere for him to hide weapons, completely exposing him. When he’s out, exploring more of Ark M, the comic is much darker, with solid blocks of black. There are unspeakable things hidden in those shadows. The lettering uses the same faux handwriting font as previous issues in the narration, which may be difficult for some readers to understand.

Absolute Batman Issue 10 revels in revolting. It’s a dark issue in every sense of the word, swapping with some of the most twisted stories in the series so far. Snyder wipes horrific descriptions, and Dragotta draws some startling, stomach-churning violence. But it fits the Absolute Universe. The villains in this alternate timeline are downright sadistic and unsettling towards human life, with an obsession over causing pain and contorting the human body. So the heroes have to be at a level of hardcore to match that evil.

Absolute Batman Issue 10 is available now wherever comics are sold.