Absolute Batman #15 Review | The Birth of a New Monster in Gotham
I’ll be honest… I haven’t kept up with Absolute Batman the way I intended.
I’ve dipped in and out, picking up the issues that sparked interest, but Absolute Batman #15? This one was a mandatory read.
If you consider yourself any kind of Batman or DC Comics fan, this is one of those “stop what you’re doing and open the book” issues.
It doesn’t just introduce a new iteration of The Joker as much as it lays a foundation, reveals a disturbing backstory, and sets up a reason why Bruce would desperately want to stop this grotesque, poetic monster.
When the Joker redesign was revealed months ago, I wasn’t impressed. Honestly, I was quite annoyed by it.
It felt like edgy for the sake of being edgy. But now that I’ve seen the context, the story, and the philosophy behind it… yeah, it’s clicking for me.
It mirrors Batman in a meaningful way… not visually, but thematically!
Binding them in the kind of twisted reflection that the best Joker stories thrive on.
I don’t yet know how long this Batman/Joker thread is meant to run, but the scope feels big. EPIC, even.
This could easily evolve into a sprawling storyline with massive implications for both Gotham and the future direction of this series.
And interestingly, Batman never meets the Joker in this issue. Instead, #15 works as an origin tale… or at least a partial one. The entire story is framed as Alfred recounting the history of this creature to Bruce, preparing him for a confrontation that Alfred himself once attempted… and failed at. It’s haunting, and it gives Joker’s arrival a sense of inevitability.
The art? Fantastic. The redesign that once annoyed me? It now looks perfect in motion. Once you see how this Joker comes to be through panels and presented, it becomes clear the design wasn’t shock value… it was storytelling.
The writing is excellent as well. It builds tension, mystery, and an almost primal curiosity that grows page by page. You spend the first half of the issue wondering who… or what The Joker actually is… and then a major reveal drops that shakes the foundations of the Absolute universe that binds Batman and Joker together in a classic yin-yang way that feels both fresh and faithful.
If there’s one major omission, it’s motivation. The Joker’s goals, desires, or twisted philosophy are intentionally withheld. Normally that would frustrate me, but here? It fuels anticipation. You can feel the story holding something back… Hopefully, something big.
By the end of Absolute Batman #15, one thing is clear, we’re not just getting a new Joker.
We’re getting a reinvention designed to reshape the mythology for the long haul. And judging by this issue… we might be looking at one of the boldest interpretations in years.
