A few weeks ago, DC announced that Absolute Batman was going to receive an animated adaptation. This is unequivocally good news given that since the Absolute Universe started in 2024, they have been a much needed shot of adrenaline to the comics market and also the DC canon at large.
The basic premise of the Absolute Universe (and I guess, technically spoilers) is that Darkseid’s presence in the Earth-Alpha/Elseworld has shifted the moral balance of the universe, which has a weird series of cascading effects on all of the would-be heroes.
Absolute Batman is the flagship and posits a simple shift for Bruce Wayne: what if he wasn’t embarrassingly rich. In the Absolute Universe, Bruce is a civil engineer, which has not stopped him from being built like a literal stack of bricks and having oh so many toys at this disposal, but it does position him differently. He is a solo-operation, unable to afford a butler or a mansion. The one bit of joy is the fact his mother is still alive, but Gotham is still overrun by oh so many of super villainy and corruption, and Bruce Wayne has taken it upon him to take the mantle of Batman and protect his city.
And you know? I am excited to see the stories animated. I’m excited that this animated adaptation is happening relatively soon. I think it’ll be a nice companion to the film noir imagining of Bats in The Caped Crusader.
The Absolute Universe has a distinct visual dictionary that makes it a lot of fun to look at and, even at 35, I want nothing more than to have yet another entry into my Saturday morning cartoon binge.
All that said, I do hope this project is one of many because I think a lot of the Absolute series could benefit from more exposure. There are two specifically that I have in mind, although I already know that by mentioning one specific adaptation, I’m going to get asked about this one, so I’ll address it now: an animated Absolute Superman co-existing with Invincible is certainly possible, but co-existing with Invincible and the darling that is My Adventures with Superman is perhaps a stretch that we don’t need to make.
But we have had so many morally shifted Superman stories to the point where we could fill several volumes of Supes to the point where I’m not sure that “Kal-El if he got to live on Krypton til he was a teen” if that particularly novel. I would watch it, but if I’m praying to the creatives at DC, I’m praying for two more series first.
Absolute Wonder Woman
Quite simply, we deserve more Wonder Woman content generally speaking and a dark magic Diana raised in hell by Circe is such an incredible premise at face.
Out of the rebooted Trinity, Absolute Wonder Woman ended up being my favorite since I thought it was the most drastic shift in the common mythos that still retained the core of the character. Thompson’s writing was stellar as always, and I loved Sherman’s illustrations, capturing the bleak dark fantasy that only a Wonder Woman raised in the Underworld can provide. Look at that Pegasus and tell me that wouldn’t be infinitely more interesting animated than an invisible jet or one of several versions of a car.
It’s also the only of the Absolutes that explained why any of this was happening, so if one were to consider the long-term implications of adapting the rest of the Absolute universe, it would probably stand to reason to get that origin in sooner rather than later.
Now, I am biased towards Eldritch horror, but the truly selling point of the series is the mother/daughter relationship dynamics and again, not a lot of that in the modern animated landscape, so it’s really just filling a necessary niche.
Absolute Martian Manhunter
Deniz Camp’s and Javier Rodriguez’s Absolute Martian Manhunter is my personal favorite of the absolute. There is a very distinct possibility that this is the only one that can’t be faithfully adaptable, but that only makes me want to see it more because crucially, Absolute Martian Manhunter plays with the medium of comics. The fact that it exists on pages that have transparency and can be cut and folded, and otherwise plays with the very medium that I want to see played with in an animated space.
For those uninitiated, the basic idea is that FBI Agent John Jones develops a connection with the literal abstract concept of an alien and begins to experience the world in very weird ways, denoted as Martianvision. If you’re not already sold by the trippy imagery I’m presenting, I’m not really sure what else to tell you other than we might just have different ideas of what media adaptations can really achieve.
This one also doesn’t have to be a series. I’ll take a movie.
Absolutely Everything Else Absolute
Batman opens the door, but there is so much rich lore and content in the Absolute Universe. A revised emotional spectrum from the Lanterns. A universe without the Speed Force. Absolute Green Arrow extending the “you have failed this city” mentality to its logical conclusion. Catwoman as a high tech spy/operative.
I know it’s greedy to ask for it all, but Batman and Superman are no longer for this DC fanatic. I yearn for all the good stuff to get adapted.
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