One Absolute Batman Scene Is So Audacious, It Just Became 2025’s Defining Comic Book Moment
DC’s Absolute Batman has bulldozed the zeitgeist since its 2024 launch, and issue 14 just unleashed the series’ most shocking turn yet—igniting an uproar across fandoms and feeds alike.
If you have even a toe in comics right now, you keep hearing about Absolute Batman. And if you don’t? You’ve probably still seen it floating around your feed. Fifteen issues in since launching in 2024, the book hit a peak with issue #14 — a nasty, cathartic Batman vs. Bane showdown that a lot of readers are calling the biggest comics moment of 2025. It wasn’t just the beatdown; it was the message it sent to anyone with designs on Gotham, including one very specific someone: Jack Grimm, better known as the Absolute Joker.
The fight that lit the fuse
Absolute Batman #14 isn’t subtle. Batman dismantles Bane with a level of grit and brutality that’s hard to shake. The win lands like a public service announcement to Gotham’s worst: this version of Batman is not here to be tested. And that warning extends to Grimm, the book’s wild-card Joker variant, who now knows this Batman isn’t someone to poke.
Why this version is exploding
The surprise twist here isn’t that a Batman book sells. It’s that this new, dialed-up take on the character is pulling in both longtime Bat die-hards and people who don’t usually read comics at all — and apparently sparking copycat ideas across the industry. Writer Scott Snyder puts the surge down to how gleefully extra the Absolute Universe lets things get. The book is built for shareable panels and jaw-drop moments, and social media did the rest.
'Weirdly, there’s a lot of talk and buzz about those books on TikTok, which I didn’t even realize. I guess they’re a lot more memeable, the Absolute and Ultimate books. They’re bringing in a bunch of young readers, which is awesome. I have heard that from retailers.'
That tracks. The series is engineered for screen-caps and reaction videos, and it keeps delivering scenes that travel. Getting a wave of new readers to jump into single issues is rare. Doing it at this scale is rarer.
DC’s 2025 turnaround
Zooming out, Absolute Batman is doing more than just scoring headlines. In 2024, DC lagged behind Marvel. In 2025, the tide has very much turned, with the Absolute line hauling DC back into the center of the conversation. Across the Absolute Universe, we’re talking millions of copies sold — and Absolute Batman is taking the lion’s share of that pile.
Per Snyder, the book isn’t just selling; it’s expanding the audience. Retailers are seeing younger readers show up for these issues. That helps DC’s market share compared to 2024 and, maybe more importantly, proves there’s a huge appetite for wild, radical spins on legacy characters when they’re executed with confidence.
The real takeaway
Absolute Batman pretty much did the thing no one was asking for and made everyone want it. It’s a template for taking big swings with familiar icons, and the success is already nudging other creators to push harder. If you care about how the sausage gets made in comics, this feels like one of those inflection points that sticks around.
Absolute Batman at a glance
- Title: Absolute Batman
- Issues so far: 15
- First issue: Absolute Batman #1 (October 9, 2024)
- Breakout moment: Batman defeats Bane in Absolute Batman #14 (2025)
- Big bad lurking: Jack Grimm, a.k.a. Absolute Joker
- Creative team: Writer Scott Snyder, Artist Nick Dragotta, Colorist Frank Martin
- Publisher: DC Comics
- Where to read: Issues are available on DC Universe Infinite