DC is celebrating Free Comic Book Day (FCBD), Saturday, May 3, with a can’t-miss selection of free comics showcasing their 2025 All In publishing plans and two new original graphic novels for Early and Middle Grade readers, available exclusively at local participating comic shops (available while supplies last). Additionally, DC’s All In FCBD flipbook will be available free-to-read with registration on DC Universe Infinite.
First up in DC’s FCBD flipbook, the core-line DC Universe soars into Superman action with the dazzling debut of superstar writer Dan Slott alongside acclaimed artist Rafael Albuquerque and colorist Marcelo Maiolo! In this special “zero issue” installment of the forthcoming Superman Unlimited ongoing series, you will witness the prelude to the biggest Superman comic book adventure of the year, as well as an ominous new threat from the heavens that will change the course of Kryptonian life on planet Earth as we know it!
Then, on the flip side of DC’s FCBD flipbook, DC’s Absolute Universe expands in a new story by Jeff Lemire, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Stefano Nesi. Dark forces begin to gather in the shadows… forces that have been waiting a very long time to shape events and seize control. All the while, a mysterious figure watches—but who is this powerful new character, and what do they want with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the emerging heroes?
DC All In/Absolute Universe 2025 FCBD Special Edition, a flipbook written by Dan Slott and Jeff Lemire with art by Rafael Albuquerque and Marcelo Maiolo, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Stefano Nesi, will be available exclusively at local participating comic shops on May 3 (available while supplies last). An additional foil variant cover by Rafael Albuquerque, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Nesi, and Frank Martin will be available for purchase for $4.99 US.
In Superman’s Good Guy Gang, eight-year-old Clark Kent is pretty super: super-fast, super-strong, and super-cool! But being so super can also be super lonely, until he meets fellow super-powered kids Kendra Saunders and Guy Gardner, a.k.a. Hawkgirl and Green Lantern! Together, they’ll form a club where other supers can be themselves, test their powers, grow together, and maybe earn some good-guy points along the way. Future books in the series will include Mr. Terrific, Batman, Wonder Woman, and more as the Good Guy Gang grows!
DC’s Superman’s Good Guy Gang 2025 FCBD Special Edition includes a chapter of the new super-powered buddy comedy from the creator behind Death and Sparkles, Rob Justus, and launches DC’s Early Reader initiative timed to DC’s Summer of Superman! Fans will delight in seeing characters from the film featured in this charming story perfect for first-time readers aged 5-7.
And in Kanga-U: Tests And Tournamentsby writer Sholly Fisch and artist Yancey Labat, is Jumpa ready to hop into action? Wonder Woman’s home island of Themyscira holds many surprises…the most adorable having floppy ears and long tails! Kangas are companions and partners of the Amazons, beloved steeds and protectors of their bonded warriors. And on the island, a school exists to train the next generation of kangas for the many battles and challenges of the future.
Bonding Day, the long-awaited time when Amazons are matched up with newly trained kangas to make the perfect pairs, is finally here. This special event only happens once every 20 years, but this Bonding Day is unlike any other because this is the year when Princess Diana—the only teenager on Themyscira—will choose a kanga for the first time.
Jumpa has been training hard to compete in the Tournament of Kangas, where all the kangas get to show off what they can do. She knows she has what it takes to match with the princess. The only catch is her friends Skippa, Rooth, Goldie, and Big Red are all determined to do the same—and the competition is fierce.
When Ares arrives on the island with a threat that forces the festivities to be canceled, Jumpa must convince her friends to work together for the good of Themyscira and to protect the princess they admire.
DC’s Kanga-U 2025 FCBD Special Edition features an excerpt from the middle grade original graphic novel by writer Sholly Fisch and artist Yancey Labat. Fans will be charmed by this graphic novel suitable for readers aged 8-12.
After whatever the hell 2023 was, I got back into comics in 2024. The Absolute and Ultimate lines helped me get back into Marvel and DC’s output, and I also finally read some stone cold classics, both old and new, like Starman, GenderQueer, 20th Century Men, and Something is Killing the Children. I really love that I can get Silver Sprocket’s books from Comics Plus and Hoopla from my public library, and even though I’m not a New Year’s Resolution person, I definitely plan on reading more of their catalog in 2025 (Caroline Cash’s Peepee Poopoo calls my name!) as well as the back half of Starman, Planetary, finally finding out what actually happened to Krakoa in the X-Books, and keeping up with new titles. (Metamorpho and New Gods were two year end bangers!)
Without further ado, here are my favorite ten comics of 2024
One of the happiest surprises of 2024 was the release of one last issue of Joe Matt’s Peepshow a year after his untimely passing. This comic deals with Matt moving to Los Angeles to pitch a TV version of Peepshow to HBO and deals with similar subject matter as the previous decades of the book like his frugality, personal feelings of inadequacies, and yes, obsession with Asian women. However, occasional distasteful subject matter aside, Peepshow #15 shows a cartoonist’s cartoonist at the height of his craft with impeccably placed sweat beads and speed lines as Joe Matt has another existential crisis. It’s also a love letter to a comics medium with one of Matt’s friends entreating both him and the reader to pore over some of the comics taking up space in his apartment.
In the launch title for DC’s new Absolute line, Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, and Frank Martin rebuild and revise the Caped Crusader from the ground up. Absolute Batmantakes elements from Frank Miller’s works, various Bat-films, and Snyder’s previous work with the character to create a beefy, working class Batman, who is currently bestie with what might later become his Rogue’s gallery. Scott Snyder and Dragotta take aim at school shootings, the prison industrial complex, and cryptocurrency while having entertaining action and chase sequences. They’re three issues into building a universe, and I’m excited to see where this book goes in 2025.
Rick Remender, Brian Posehn, Brett Parson, and Moreno Dinisio’s Grommets is a semi-autobiographical love letter to 1980s skate and punk culture set in the Sacramento suburbs. Remender and Posehn draw on their own experiences as teenagers while Parson and Dinisio turn them up to eleven with detailed and period-accurate visuals that are something out of Mad Magazine. It’s fun to watch Rick and Brian’s misadventures and the ups and downs of their friendship, especially once a timer is put on it when Rick’s parents tell him they’re moving to Phoenix. The past few issues of the series have been literal bloodbaths as punks and jocks clash, and of course, the cops don’t take the jocks’ side. Grommets really captures how epic, hilarious, and occasionally sad growing up was.
I read Sami Alwani’s Ignatz-winning “The Happy Art” on his Instagram, but it’s also available in the Pulping “Comics on Comics” anthology. “The Happy Art” is a quite meta comic about how hard it is to appeal to different audiences in comics and also about collective thinking, cancel culture, and all that jazz. Alwani portrays himself as a dog, and the story reaches new heights of absurdity with each page. I love the juxtaposition of Gen Z lingo with a fanatical love for comics as a medium, and how it changes styles and POV with each panel. Saehmeh is indeed based, and so is this very accessible comic.
Zoe Tunnell, Sebastian Piriz, and Rebecca Nalty tell a cute queer love story against the backdrop of kaiju attacks in Godzilla Valentine’s Day Special. Kaiju romcom is kind of the perfect subgenre, and Tunnell gives the full progression of the relationship between unemployed burnout-turned-monster chaser Piper and Earth Defense Force soldier Tam from loathing to sweet loving. On the art side, Piriz gets to dig deep into Toho’s library of critters, including a battle royale between Godzilla and MechaGodzilla that shows that building bigger bombs and weapons doesn’t lead to peace, but just more war. It’s also interesting to see the portrayal of the King of Monsters change as the book progresses from something jarring and life-changing to just a reality of life. This could also be a metaphor for the progression of a romantic relationship as well.
5. Belly Full of Heart (Silver Sprocket)
Madeline Mouse’s Belly Full of Heart is queer softness, love, and desire in fluid comic book short story format. Mouse uses pomegranates, starfish, cars, Adidas slides, and more as visual metaphors for love. Their vignettes flow from page to page and color palette to palette in a way that feels like a warm hug multiplied by eleven. Belly Full of Heart throws plot out of the window and focuses on feelings and vibes instead. It’s also full of silly humor with “Kissin’ at the beach/Pissin’ at the beach” getting inducted into the kind of rhyming couplet hall of fame. Belly Full of Heart captures the feeling of being 100% yourself around another person as Madeline Mouse rejects rigid panel boundaries and embraces hand lettering to craft one of the most beautiful and gender euphoric comics of 2024.
I know that Midnight Radio technically came out in 2019, but it got a special edition remaster from writer/artist Iolanda Zanfardino so it’s eligible for my “Favorite Comics of 2024” list. Using a distinct color palette for each protagonist, Midnight Radio follows the lives of a diverse cast of characters brough together by a mysterious radio message urging them to be their own authentic selves. There’s a plotline with a healthcare company being responsible for the deaths of many people that was painfully relevant last year, and Zanfardino explores even more social issues like racism, xenophobia, social media addiction, and violence against queer people throughout her story. However, the main draw of Midnight Radio for me was the characters breaking off the shackles of corporate jobs, corrupt cops, unwelcoming families, and societal pressure and finding fulfillment through a variety of types of art, including indie games, music, and more!
Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, and Phil Noto’s Ultimates is anti-imperialist team superhero comic published by the world’s largest entertainment corporation that is also an ode to the single issue. As a collective unit, Ultimates builds to the assembling of Earth-6160’s mightiest heroes and the return of the Maker. However, Camp does the opposite of writing for the trade and gives each single issue its own flair. For example, Ultimates #4 is about Dr. Doom trying to bring the Fantastic Four back and can be read in five distinct ways to tell his tragic story with Noto channeling his inner Dave Gibbons and creating gorgeous symmetry. Deniz Camp and Frigeri connect new takes on She-Hulk and Hawkeye to the violence done towards the indigenous people of the Pacific islands and North America and breathe new life into old school anti-fascists Captain America and Jim Hammond’s Human Torch. Ultimates feels a lot like if Angela Davis wrote the Avengers, and that is a high compliment.
Influenced by comic book history as well as his own experiences as a cartoonist, Chip Zdarsky’s Public Domainis part love/hate letter to the medium and dysfunctional family drama. Public Domain #6-10 shows how the sausage is made with Dallas Comics trying to beat the clock and their new take on iconic superhero, The Domain. Along the way, there are old men arguing at bars, thinly veiled analogues for “star” comic book creators, and a look back at a love affair. Public Domain shows the difficulty of being creative under corporate constraints and also having a personal life while being caught up in the wringer of the comic book industry. It comes across as a real passion project for Zdarsky who crams each issue with visual gags, parodies, and of course, heartfelt moments.
Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto, and David Messina’sUltimate Spider-Man was twelve issues of comic book comfort food as Peter Parker gets his powers as a thirty-something and must learn how to use them in a world undergirded by evil and corruption. In opposition to certain other writers and editors, Ultimate Spider-Man shows that a married with children Spider-Man comic can be compelling. There’s nothing like struggling fighting the Shocker while one kid knows your secret identity, and the other doesn’t and is kind of besties with J. Jonah Jameson. Speaking of Jameson, the story that showcased him and Uncle Ben digging into the Kingpin and Oscorp might have been the single issue of the year as the two old school newspapermen show their work and speak truth to power. On the art side, Checchetto brings a sleek high tech sheen to the suits and fights while not losing that classic Spider-Man charm, and Messina does a good job of holding down the fort in his fill-in issues. All in all, Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) is the Spider-Man comic I needed at 31 like Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) was the Spider-Man comic I needed at 13, and I love that it wrapped up its first year with a dark, Empire Strikes Back type ending.
Absolute Batman #3 continues the rock and roll attitude of the series and Batman receives a heavy dose of reality.
Story: Scott Snyder Art: Nick Dragotta Colors: Frank Martin Letters: Clayton Cowles
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site
1944: As U.S. Sergeant Sal Romero is parachuting into Nazi-occupied Europe, young Nazi officer Felix Bruckner becomes the host for an unspeakable evil. In the aftermath of their violent meeting, Romero is reborn as Ghost Rider ’44, who sets out not only to take revenge on Bruckner and the Nazis, but to save mankind from annihilation! Hellhunters #1 takes us back to the kind of story where it was clear who the bad guys are and kicking Nazi ass was something you cheered on.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed growing up was watching “old” war movies with my father and grandfather. Often John Wayne leading a pack of soldiers against a clear enemy with cheesy dialogue but still a bit of machismo about it. There were black and white “classics” and more “modern classics” like The Dirty Dozen which had fun with the genre while focusing more on the personalities of the characters and what they brought to the action. Hellhunters #1 feels like it taps into those classics in a way as we’re introduced to a new Ghost Rider who’s out to kick Nazi ass.
Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Hellhunters #1 does a solid job in introducing its hero and villains and infusing the horror genre with war comics. It’s very much an introduction quickly taking us through the two origins both of which don’t have much in depth but really, it’s not needed. The Nazis make a deal with a devil and a dying soldier makes a deal to come back as Ghost Rider. Beyond that, that’s all we really need to know. The two sequences that lead to each of those moments are solid and in some way hit some cliches but still are more than entertaining in a pop sense.
The art by Adam Gorham is solid. With color by Frank Martin and lettering by Travis Lanham, the comic feels cold throughout. But, what’s interesting is the visual balance between it being a traditional war comic but also featuring horror elements. It does a solid job of mixing the two. Some of that is due to the lettering by Lanham who gives each of the otherworldly beings a lettering style that captures their essence and highlights their ethereal nature.
Hellhunters #1 is a fun start to the series. It’s clear we’ll see more heroes of the time and it’ll be interesting to see where it all goes from here. But, overall, it nails its concept of a war comic with horror elements and delivers a combination of the two that feels like B-movie entertainment in a good way. This is one to just sit back and enjoy.
Story: Phillip Kennedy Johnson Art: Adam Gorham Color: Frank Martin Letterer: Travis Lanham Story: 7.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Read
Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Batman and Alfred have formed a tentative alliance, but the Black Mask has some new friends too…and they’re coming to Gotham to wreak absolute havoc. Plus, discover the dark secret that will rock Bruce to his core and make him question everything… Absolute Batman #3 continues the rock and roll attitude of the series and Batman receives a heavy dose of reality.
Written by Scott Snyder, Absolute Batman #3 has Batman and his new possible ally Alfred on the run in the rather unique Batmobile. The issue is full of action as the two power their way through Gotham on the run from a gang as well as Gotham’s police.
But, what makes the issue interesting is the back and forth between Batman and Alfred. Alfred lays out what they’re up against and an approach that is a tough decision for Batman. Does Batman take up an offer where it might dial down the violence in Gotham but lets it go on in hopes in the long run catching his enemy or does he continue his fight and roll the dice?
Where the comic hits a slightly bumpy ride is an offer made by a corrupt politician to the police that feels a bit too obvious in what the cops should be able to figure out but it’s Gotham and this one has been shown to be pretty messed up. Snyder between the two aspects of the comic creates ethical questions about means to an end and how far one would go to bring about justice. It sets up this Batman as possibly more ethical dilemmas in this world’s battle as opposed to the main universe’s Batman who is much more stuck in his beliefs. This Batman might make deals with the devil if it means long term gains.
The art by Nick Dragotta is solid as usual. With color by Frank Martin and lettering by Clayton Cowles, the art has a metal feel to it. The designs as always are intriguing and the action is over the top. This Batmobile, while totally impractical, also feels much more grounded and raw in a way. The reaction of Alfred to everything really emphasizes how insane it all is.
Absolute Batman #3 is another solid issue to the series that presents an opportunity for Batman to take his approach to his fight in a different direction. It also adds to Bruce’s past and a much different childhood than what we’ve seen elsewhere. Overall, another interesting issue that adds new layers to this version of the Dark Knight.
Story: Scott Snyder Art: Nick Dragotta Color: Frank Martin Letterer: Clayton Cowles Story: 8.35 Art: 8.35 Overall: 8.35 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
A two word descriptor in the midst of Alfred Pennyworth’s narrative captions describes Absolute Batman #2, and they are “Batman AF”.
Story: Scott Snyder Art: Nick Dragotta Colors: Frank Martin Letters: Clayton Cowles
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site
A two word descriptor in the midst of Alfred Pennyworth’s narrative captions describes Absolute Batman #2, and they are “Batman AF”. In the context of the story, it doesn’t mean the slang profanity, but the special forces term “advance forward”. However, all the same, the double meaning works in one of several bombastic moments from Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, and Frank Martin. There’s no sophomore slump in this issue with Batman trying to figure out of what the deal is with Roman Sionis and the Party Gang while being surveilled by the eagle-eyed soldier Alfred Pennyworth. In between more kick-ass setpieces, there are glimpses at Jim Gordon’s struggling mayoral campaign, a glimpse at possible friends/allies for Bruce Wayne that are familiar to anyone who has consumed a piece of Batman media, and of course, a look at the tortured psyche of the young man behind the gadgets, vehicles, and costumes.
Dragotta’s action sequences stand out in Absolute Batman #2 because of the idiosyncrasy of his layouts, and his ability to tag team with Martin who uses striking background colors against Nick Dragotta’s silhouette figures. This tandem operation gets to work in the second scene of the comic with Batman fighting the Party Gang in an aquarium against a constant marine blue background. The steady color palette draws attention to Batman’s individual moves while panels shaped like diagonal kicks and bolstered with speed lines open up the page. However, as the fight progresses, the blue turns to green and finally red signaling the end of the engagement with Batman using smarts and a knowledge of chemistry to get himself out of this particular scuffle. In his role as observer, Alfred offers commentary on Batman’s technique as a crime fighter, and how he possibly can’t keep up with this attack, attack, attack strategy, especially when he has no backup. (There is a hushed mention of a “Red Hood” figure in one of the captions.)
Snyder, Dragotta, and Frank Martin’s gift for choreography punctuated by jaw dropping splash pages comes in handy in another pivotal scene in Absolute Batman #2. However, this sequence isn’t a fist fight, but a poker game with Bruce and his friends Waylon Jones, Oswald Cobblepot, Edward Nygma, and Harvey Dent. Except for maybe Cobblepot, who messes around with some shady practices, none of these men are close to being supervillains and come across as eccentric, rough around the edges actual friends of Bruce. Of course, a guy who dresses up like a bat is going to hang out with a gym owner that is starting an exotic pet side hustle, or a quirky little guy who makes a pot in a poker game a math equation. I’m not a big poker player, but the game is easy to follow and establishes the character traits of Bruce’s friends while also moving the Party Gang plot forward. Also, in the big picture scheme of things, it shows that Scott Snyder isn’t just going to throw out the big members of Batman’s rogues gallery out in the open in the first couple of issues, but is going to build up their characters and have him fight other threats in the early going. Absolute Batman feels like a marathon, not a sprint.
With iconic action sequences and emotional, nigh-operatic red and black flashbacks, Absolute Batman #2 continues to flesh out the nightmare world that has spawned a more brutal Batman while scattering some flecks of hope and companionship, especially in the relationship between Jim Gordon and Martha Wayne as well as the budding partnership between Batman and Alfred.
Story: Scott Snyder Art: Nick Dragotta Colors: Frank Martin Letters: Clayton Cowles Story: 8.6 Art: 9.0 Overall: 8.8 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, and Clayton Cowles teach a very old Bat some new tricks in Absolute Batman #1.
Story: Scott Snyder Art: Nick Dragotta Colors: Frank Martin Letters: Clayton Cowles
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site
Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, and sound effect maven Clayton Cowles teach a very old Bat some new tricks in Absolute Batman #1, the launch title of the new DC Universe that’s existing parallel to the one we’ve known and loved as part of the “All-In” initiative. Their take on Batman is a child of the school shooter generation and a working class hero who loves his mom while being a kick-ass force of nature and urban legend. Told from the POV of special agent Alfred Pennyworth who is back in town doing some recon on the murderous “Party Animal” gang, there are definite parallels to Batman Year One with Pennyworth playing the role of Jim Gordon, the “newcomer” to Gotham while learning more and more about a dark, dedicated vigilante trying to clean up the city. However, Snyder and Dragotta don’t beat around the bush and after about 22 pages unleash the new, axe-wielding literal Dark Knight
Absolute Batman #1 is an edgy comic, but it’s an earned edginess that starts with spectacular visuals. Scott Snyder gives readers almost an entire single issue of build-up before dropping the proverbial giant anvil and unleashing Nick Dragotta and Martin to tap in the rage that fuels Batman while turning the amps to 11. Like a skilled builder, Dragotta uses lots of small, yet impactful panels to get inside the psyche of Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth before delivering the poster/phone background worthy moments that will be commanding huge prices on the original art market. Although, Batman’s costume is his usual black and grey, Frank Martin doesn’t shy away from pops of color to accentuate the action like reds and blues when he confronts the Party Animals’ gunmen. However, once he gets up close and personal, Martin goes for the classic John Higgins red and blacks with Nick Dragotta using the path of the batarangs to move your eye. They and Snyder turn in the action scene of the year: one that I’d hope would never end. This is the Batman that will do everything but kill, and his dialogue has some sadistic humor like telling Black Mask that some hospitals do reattach hands.
Alfred Pennyworth hasn’t appeared in mainline DC Comic since Tom King and Tony Daniel killed him off in 2018 so it’s super compelling that his is the first voice we hear after a one page flashback and title card. Scott Snyder and Dragotta basically make Alfred the protagonist of Absolute Batman #1 stripping him of the butler veneer and just have him be the special agent that’s become a part of who he is in pop culture from the bald, blunderbuss wielding “I’m the butler” in the Beware the Batman to the protagonist of Epix’s Pennyworth and finally the working class, tough guy Brit played by Andy Serkis in The Batman. Snyder makes him a tortured agent of imperialism who buys tea from an Afghan shop owner in his neighborhood while musing about how he was part of the invasion of Afghanistan in the early 2000s. (Because he’s middle-aged, and that was 20 years ago.)
When Alfred or his narrative captions are on the page, Absolute Batman feels more focused and less chaotic like a middle-eight sequence where Bruce trains at Waylon Jones’ gym, and the Party Animals cut through the antagonists of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Batman collaborations and MAX’s The Penguin. It’s tension, release, and world-building in one fell swoop. Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta aren’t concerned with being polite and honoring previous incarnations of characters even if there is a lot of Frank Miller and Kelley Jones in Dragotta’s take on the Caped Crusader. Snyder also treats Gotham like a living organism like in previous Batman runs although his captions are less verbose and focus on individual characters and their conflicts and relationship to their environment instead of telling the secret history of Gotham City. It’s fun watching Alfred Pennyworth be an unflappable badass and then struggle with his relationship with his daughter Julia as well as getting used to the “changes” that have come to a city that he used to know.
Absolute Batman #1 is the Batman comic for the kids that blast She Wants Revenge while watching their Bachelor’s in Public Policy diploma accumulate dust in their mom’s basement. (So, basically Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto’s Ultimate Spider-Man for Goth kids.) That’s weirdly specific, but Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, and Cowles craft a new take on the Dark Knight that’s civically minded while also having the best extended action sequence in years. Car chase scenes in The Batman and Batman Begins, eat your heart out! The added page count creates a flow for the fighting while still allowing time to flesh out the book’s cast and world. Purists may thumb their noses at this title, but Batman is character that thrives with rebirths and reinvention. I just can’t wait to see what cool shit Snyder and Dragotta do with him next!
Story: Scott Snyder Art: Nick Dragotta Colors: Frank Martin Letters: Clayton Cowles Story: 8.4 Art: 9.6 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Announced in July and debuting this fall, DC Comics has a new Absolute Universe of comic books hitting shelves at your local comic book store in October, November, and beyond. DC has revealed the main covers to Absolute Batman #1, Absolute Wonder Woman #1 and Absolute Superman #1 with their new logos, and shared variant covers for each launch title.
ABSOLUTE BATMAN #1
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).
ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #1
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
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).
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.
