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

Batman was born out of violence – a horrible tragedy that shaped the trajectory of his future. But when a vigilant MI6 agent starts tracking the lonely life of Bruce Wayne, he discovers the interconnectivity between a hero’s shell life and the many layers of the Black Mask Gang. It’s Batman versus Alfred Pennyworth!

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 has established himself as an extremely large force to be reck-oned with. But how did he get to this point? How did he push himself? And how did the tragic events of his childhood, and the advice of his father, shape the man who he became…literally? Guest artist Gabriel Walta joins for this essential origin issue of Absolute Batman to explore Bruce Wayne’s past, and his inevitable future to go BIGGER. Don't miss this pivotal issue!

WILL THE PARTY END HERE FOR ABSOLUTE BATMAN? With his friends lives at stake, will a broken, beaten, and ultimately defeated Bruce Wayne finally compromise and give up both himself and his morals to Black Mask? Or does he have something even BIGGER than himself to help? And what does this have to do with Mayor James Gordon and his relationship with a young Bruce Wayne? All this and more in the penultimate issue to the first arc of ABSOLUTE BATMAN!

THIS IS IT – THE PARTY ENDS HERE.Bruce Wayne, a young man who has built his entire life on leveling up, on becoming a bigger man than both his enemies and the obstacles that stand in his way, will have to break down the Black Mask and his gang of Party Animals.Will he be able to do this without the help of his unlikely new MI6 ally, Alfred Pennyworth? And how do his childhood friends – Edward Nygma, Waylon Jones, Harvey Dent, and Oswald Cobblepot (among others) – play a crucial role in Batman’s legacy as Gotham’s Vigilante? Absolute Batman’s first story arc, “The Zoo” concludes with this larger-than-life story, while introducing a few new elements to come in arc 2. You’d have to be ABSOLUTELY MAD to miss it!

It’s about to get icy cold in Gotham City…as we reveal the connectionsbetween a young, up-and-coming scientist named Victor Fries, his historywith the Ark M experiment, and what it all has to do with the mysteriousJoker. A bombastic two-parter with a guest artist, the one and only super-star Marcos Martín, starts here!

Batman is in the fight for his life against this icy new threat. But in the end, what terrifying truth will be unearthed about Ark M and…Joker?