Absolute Batman #8 - DC Comics

ABSOLUTE BATMAN No. 8, July 2025

Scarily super-strong due to having “ice woven into the muscle tissue” and irrefutably insane, Scott Snyder’s reimagining of Mister Freeze will surely capture the complete attention of anyone picking up a copy of this twenty-page periodical. But whilst Victor Fries Junior quite literally looks like he stepped straight out of a first-class horror flick, several other aspects of “Absolute Zero” probably didn’t land quite as well – especially once a thoroughly frozen Bruce Wayne finally manages to free himself from his adversary’s deep-freeze machine.

For starters, the American author’s sub-plot of having Waylon Jones beat-up his crime-fighting friend in a dark alleyway arguably appears a little forced, and tries to suggest that Batman’s previous “suicide mission” to save Gotham City from the murderous machinations of the Black Mask was actually an act of cowardice. Now admittedly, the vigilante is still recovering from that horrendous ordeal, and even wears an arm cast as a result of the injuries he suffered defeating Roman Sionis. But it’s difficult to watch him get so quickly ‘laid out’ by his chum without any sort of struggle, and definitely hard to swallow that the Dark Knight is in any way a quitter.

In addition, some bibliophiles possibly won’t be able to shake off the notion that Wayne suddenly appearing in his full bat-suit inside Fries’ headquarters rather smacks of Tony Stark’s lightning fast transformation into Iron Man. Indeed, one moment a semi-naked Bruce is desperately trying to escape an air-tight tube half-full of a liquid cooling agent, and then in the next he’s booting down Victor’s door with a miniature flame-thrower strapped to his right wrist; “I heard you like pain.”

Equally as unsettling as some of the penmanship to Issue Eight of “Absolute Batman” are debatably parts of Marcos Martin’s pencilling. The Spanish artist’s handling of this book’s central antagonist is absolutely superb, with the tall, gangly monster moving with all the awkward mannerisms an onlooker would expect from a deranged serial killer whose limbs are twice the length they should be. However, some of the scenes involving Wayne – most notably the flashbacks involving his dead pal Matches – just seem a little too clean-lined for so dark a tale, especially when garishly coloured by Muntsa Vicente.

The regular cover art of "ABSOLUTE BATMAN" #8 by Nick Dragotta & Frank Martin