One of the most boring aspects of the Batman character these days has been his portrayal as someone that is heavily against causing great harm to people he ends up fighting against. He has this general notion of not killing and not causing significant damage to a person. I find that over time this portrayal of his character has led to such a stale set of stories that has the same general outcome as he's constantly fighting the same people. With Batman being someone that wants to save the city of Gotham while not wanting to remove the evil that corrupts it, the stories end up feeling all too familiar to each other. The thing is, each story ends up doing a similar thing: Batman is a torn adult having lost his parents to a criminal as a child, to which now he's sworn to save the city. The recent The Batman film saw the character as someone far more depressed and far more threatening, with a more nihilistic take on life. The comics vary in his portray but again stick to that very thin line and refuse to move all that far from it. I found interest in the recent release of a comic called Absolute Batman quite quickly, and this was due to a very unique redesign of his character. One that has a completely different look in costume but also attitude. Batman instead is this chunky thing, his logo a wide slightly altered rectangle across his chest. He has charger aspects to his costume: the cape, spikes on his shoulders, and the bat ears on his mask are actually sharp knives capable of great harm.
To add to this, Batman's approach to weapons extends beyond the boring gadgets that just have him swinging around and looking like a ballet dancer. He's happy to carry a huge axe. Even to use firearms; though this one was modified so that it didn't cause the same amount of harm a usual one would. But I found this questionable when it was revealed that this modification was just sharp bat-shaped looking shuriken-type things. For more context, this weapon was fired directly into the face of another. I could see how that would actually cause some pretty serious harm. In one panel, we see him directly stabbing another person twice in the chest with his mask ears. Apparently he misses vital arteries and that means it's fine. But hey, a more brutal portrayal of Batman is more than welcome here.
In this story we aren't seeing the usual Batman, it still somewhat sticks to the trope of Batman losing his father to a criminal, but his mother is still very much around. Batman is still quite young, in his near mid 20s, and with this he's actually a fairly normal citizen. No massive amounts of funds pouring into his pockets from corporations his family set up and then gave to him in their deaths. No cave or Alfred to guide him despite his weird antics in the night. I really like this, I really like that they've taken the time to just remove so much of the usual structure of his character and try something completely different. It's about time this happened. And I'm not one to care much for the way that Batman is supposed to stick to his general morals. I want to see a more gruesome story, one where he fights the evil of a city with evil. It's a much more powerful story to see him engaging with chaotic characters when he himself has to display a chaotic nature. This first volume had us introduced to a few characters, one of which was a character named Alfred but an aged gun for hire that actually ends up hunting down Batman after he storms a place full of masked criminals shooting it all up. These scenes were much darker, full of action. At first I wasn't too interested in the art style which felt a bit too digital for my liking, but it grew on me the more I read through it. Lots of unique colours and they really come out when necessary. Sometimes the comic having a more painterly look to it with the digital style it offers.
I'm really curious as to where things are going to go from here. The story already hinted at Joker appearing, which I wasn't too interested in seeing as it would've been nice to see some new and fresh designs appearing. It's clear they've changed some things in that regard but it didn't seem like it was a lot. Preferably there's a story here than extends beyond the usual suspects and has our poorer, younger Bruce Wayne learning about the city he's in. For a first volume it didn't span over too much backstory which was nice, not showing us much of how Batman was formed and Bruce's character shifted into adulthood. I'd prefer to see the story stick to this route and have things feel more secretive. The more it feels harder to connect with Bruce in this story, the more effective and engaging I think it'll be. To see him not as a vigilante, but also part of that madness that roams the city in the day and night. Where the law has no interest to him.
In terms of the art style, I'm digging it for now. I like the use of perspective and the exaggerated look of Batman in his moments of action. The addition of actual violence gives the action moments far more weight. Blood spattered and people with blatant wounds to them makes these engagements feel like they're something real. Not the usual missing of gunshots or quick slap across the head and the enemy is knocked out. It makes the world building far more fun when we see these people roaming around with guns, machetes, butcher's knives and the rest. And Batman can only fight that fire with the same fire. I'm really looking forward to seeing how all of this continues, and finally it seems like a story of this big character that actually interests me a bit more.