TBU Review: Absolute Batman 2025 Annual #1

In this review of Absolute Batman 2025 Annual #1, Batman takes on a group of white nationalist. Plus two other short stories.

ABSOLUTE BATMAN 2025 ANNUAL #1
Writers: DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON, JAMES HARREN, MEREDITH MCCLAREN
Artists: DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON, JAMES HARREN, MEREDITH MCCLAREN
Main Cover: DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON
Variant Covers: NICK DRAGOTTA, JAMES HARREN, MEREDITH MCCLAREN
Page Count: 56 pages
Release Date: 10/29/25

This review contains spoilers

Absolute Batman’s first annual opens with a flashback with Thomas Wayne reading a newspaper about an extremist bombing and young Bruce asking why things like that happen. Thomas doesn’t know but as a teacher he tries to teach kindness and good values to his students.

Bruce leaves Gotham to buy supplies but comes across a gang beating up on a Spanish mother and her son. The gang of men tell them they don’t belong. Bruce intervenes but is outnumbered. He is about to get beaten severely until a kind priest is able to save him. 

The priest gives Bruce the backstory on the men and tells them that the gang plans to attack an encampment and is going to chase out the people that are staying there. Deejay, the leader, is leading the attack and shouting that he is the true power. Just as he is about yell out “white power”, Batman breaks his arm. Batman opens up a can of whoop ass as only he can against these nazis. As he is about to beat Deejay more, the priest saves Deejay and tells Batman that violence is not the answer.

Batman finds the nazi hideout and beats everyone up, crashes his car through it and starts to burn it down as the nazis look on in fear. The priest is treating the wounded and Batman asks why and the priest says “you have your way and I have mine.”

Bruce drives off and thinks back to a conversation with his dad about how kind and compassionate he is. He says he is going to be a man of good nature and no matter what he does, he will be proud of him. Bruce looks at the blood on his hands and then sits down and sobs.

Analysis

Pretty powerful story. Batman just beating the crap out of racist Nazis. I mean who doesn’t want to see that? But this story is so much more than that. Absolute Batman is pretty violent. We once saw him punt a kid to the moon. And this story includes some pretty violent action scenes. Over the top violence even for giant Batman. I think it being so over the top was to add to the emotional ending. 

I wonder if Batman seeing how violent he has become will play into the regular series written by Scott Snyder. Oftentimes Annuals are one offs that do not mean much but if ever there was an Annual that was lingering, it would be this with Batman seeing how violet he has become. And maybe not kick kids no matter how evil they are.

Warren Johnson brought it as a writer but he really brought it with the art. Really distinctive punches with being able to see Batman’s giant fist smooshing the face of a nazi. If Nick Dragotta is unavailable, then Warren Johnson would be a worthy fill-in.

Second Story

A group of Black Mask gang members are being led into an abandoned church by a member. It is his dad’s house and they are there looking for guns. He knows where they are hidden. They find the gun cabinet empty and the boy’s father there with a shotgun asking them to take what they want and leave. The boy is upset to see his father and they beat him and ask where the guns are.

In the abandoned church, Batman is systematically taking out the rest of the gang members quickly and quietly. Batman has a big fight with a giant gang member and Batman has him beaten and then sets off grenades on himself. The father covers the son and saves him as they embrace and Batman swings off.

Analysis: There wasn’t much to this story. A story of a clearly bitter son trying to take advantage of his father but then realizing his father still cares. What I liked about it was that Batman could have taken the boy into custody because he was obviously a criminal but did not and let the boy be with his father.

My one small critique is that this could be a story with any Batman. Mainstream or Absolute. The first story felt very Absolute but this could have gone into continuity. It was a good story with good art but I think something more Absolute.

BJ Shea

BJ has had two passions in his life: sports and comic books. Specifically Batman and Robin. Not a day has gone by where BJ hasn’t watched or read something Batman-related. Currently, his goal is to collect as many Dick Grayson (his favorite character) issues as he can. Doesn’t matter if he’s Robin or Nightwing or Agent 37, he wants them. Another goal he has is to collect the complete Robin run of Tim Drake’s classic series. Raised on reruns of Adam West and was there for the animated series, BJ is down for any version of Batman. The Dark Knight is his favorite movie ever. On any day, BJ is most likely watching sports, watching anything Batman, or The Office.