Absolute Batman #12 - DC Comics

ABSOLUTE BATMAN No. 12, November 2025

Fully focused upon the frightening fate of Bruce Wayne’s closest friends at the hands of a totally deranged Bane, Scott Snyder’s script for Issue Twelve of “Absolute Batman” is perhaps understandably a bit of a choppily-paced affair. Indeed, every time the titular character opens a hospital room’s door and gasps in shock at the bed-ridden body before him, the storytelling arguably resets itself in an attempt to outdo the gratuitous, physical mutilation which has just preceded it; “Eddie, We need to get you to a hospital. You – AAAGH!”

Unfortunately though, so unstoppable an assault upon the audience’s senses – following up so closely upon the body horror inflicted upon both Waylon Jones and the Dark Knight himself, is arguably much too much all at once, and resultantly doesn’t leave any time for the reader to dwell upon each supporting cast members’ life-changing injuries. Furthermore, even once the ghoulish carousel of broken bones, badly burnt flesh and partial lobotomy is over, the American author debatably doesn't allow any of the trauma to actually sink in, before throwing the Venom-poisoned Caped Crusader head-on into a confrontation with Catwoman instead.

Admittedly, such a scintillating speed of events definitely holds the attention throughout the eighteen-page periodical. But the impact of so much bloodshed would surely have been far more poignant if perhaps poor Ozzie, Harv and Eddie’s fortunes had been delivered in a far more piecemeal fashion throughout this multi-part narrative. As it is, few bibliophiles will probably have even had the time to process Jones’ future as a giant crocodile before they’re inundated with Oswald brutally being “almost two feet shorter” and Harvey suffering “third-to fourth-degree burns across the left side of his body.”

What is impressive about “Abomination” are Nick Dragotta’s pencils, which somehow manage to capture all the distress caused by Bane within the confines of a single comic book. This is a publication which has little room to spare for double-splashes or even a handful of panels per page. So when the artist does deliver a single picture, such as Batman and Alfred Pennyworth standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the darkness awaiting an unseen assailant, it should cause any onlookers to pause momentarily to admire the moment, before plunging on back into the morass of tiny pictures.

The regular cover art of "ABSOLUTE BATMAN" #12 by Nick Dragotta & Frank Martin