About time! (for a full read-through) - ABSOLUTE BATMAN, INCORPORATED arrives!

[K. Jones]

http://comicsalliance.com/batman-inc...han-fairbairn/


A week ago today I thought "hey, it's 2015!" and checked Amazon to see if Absolute Batman, Incorporated was within reach. I've been delaying my dedicated ultimate Morrison run read-through (the final annotations?) for a long time now, waiting for that replacement artwork.

So I was pleased as punch to wake up today and find ComicsAlliance had this lovely Fairbairn piece with a glimpse into the full nature of the edition's revises, reprises. To say I'm happy with the improvements is understatement. Some of these scenes that Masters & Others had to do are key scenes. Tim Drake being first to arrive, going alone against the legion of Leviathan henchmen is possibly his finest hour so far in The New 52 and it deserved Burnham's art, which we can see is more kinetic, more desperate, more Crispy, and interestingly just generally shares more of a likeness with our mind's eye perception of what Tim Drake looks like. Plus Burnham always had a way of making that costume tolerable.

It's a great teaser article because we don't get every single replacement page, and we get hints at other improvements that I know I wasn't asking for, like the O'Neil/Aparo era costume "fix" in the Talia flashback. Not only did I not expect that - that entire issue is a "This is your life" flashback for Talia so I almost expect more little surprises.

But the thing I really didn't expect was Paquette getting in on it. I had no idea that page (and some others?!) wasn't his work. It was really well chameleoned and I never had a problem with the barebones take on Gaucho's "Gaucho-Cave". But now it feels rich, like its Zorro inspiration. The same elements are there ... Kathy Kane's motorcycle ... the original costume ... good on Paquette.

Obviously the marked improvement award goes to that Nightwing & Red Robin page, which is sleak now and the callbacks to that statue of Lady Justice and the Batwoman foreshadowing are now more marked and easy to see, cleverly done.

I'm very eager to see especially now some of the Kathy Kane ominous Spyral stuff ... and the Talia & Heretic hanging out in Dick Grayson's penthouse kitchen stuff.

[LoneNecromancer]

I knew they'd redraw the pages, didn't expect them to also change things like this:



Looking forward to it.

[ispacehead]

Looking forward to it.

Might have to pony up for this. Wasn't planning on it, but now I'm not sure I can resist.

[Stormcrow]

I am delighted about changing the costume back to the original for the flashback!

So glad they gave Chris the opportunity to redraw the fill-in pages, this is a must have for me.

[Maxpower00044]

I'm 100% buying this book.

[charliehustle415]

I must buy! The new Chris art is so awesome! I just wish Batman & Son, RIP, and Return of Bruce Wayne w/Missing RIP Chapters had Absolute editions so the entire collection would match.

[Maxpower00044]

It's 50% off on this site: http://www.cheapgraphicnovels.com/ba...dition-hc.html. Might buy it next week.

[Maxpower00044]

I never bought an absolute before. The books are bigger than standard trades?

[LoneNecromancer]

I never bought an absolute before. The books are bigger than standard trades?

Yeah, haven't you ever seen them at your LCS? They're pretty big.

Here they are next to some regular deluxe hardcovers.

[Maxpower00044]

Yeah, haven't you ever seen them at your LCS? They're pretty big.

Here they are next to some regular deluxe hardcovers.

Yeah, I couldn't remember if it was absolute or deluxe editions that were oversized. I hope it will fit on my bookshelf. Haha

[Maxpower00044]

Those Absolute New Frontier and AS Superman. That's awesome.

[ispacehead]

It's 50% off on this site: http://www.cheapgraphicnovels.com/ba...dition-hc.html. Might buy it next week.

Oooh... That's enticing. Thanks for the link. Wonder how long that price will last....

As to the size....yeah, they're gynormous. I had the Dark Knight Returns Absolute edition. Definitely special occasion stuff. I wouldn't be interested in this if it weren't for the changes in the art.

I'd love to actually see one first, or at least perhaps a review.

[Cipher]

Very cool to see the redone art. I guess since this isn't running monthly alongside other New 52 titles anymore, the powers that be are less concerned with it fitting coherently into that universe. The redrawn costumes for flashbacks will definitely go a long way toward matching it up with the rest of the run and letting it function as what it was originally intended to be -- something of a finale to the Batman that existed in comics from 1939-2012.

[Maxpower00044]

Oooh... That's enticing. Thanks for the link. Wonder how long that price will last....

As to the size....yeah, they're gynormous. I had the Dark Knight Returns Absolute edition. Definitely special occasion stuff. I wouldn't be interested in this if it weren't for the changes in the art.

I'd love to actually see one first, or at least perhaps a review.

On that site it will always be that price. Maybe it might go up to 40% off instead of 50%, but, not much more expensive than that. That site is amazing.

[greenish lantern]

This is killing me. On one hand I really want to buy it, but I'm still hoping that they are going to release a series of omnibuses. I want the whole Saga collected correctly in a chronological order, with Final crisis tie-ins, The time and the batman, R.I.P and such.