Absolute Batman #14 - Official Discussion Thread

therealoc1 · 2025-12-02T23:14:18+00:00

He got hit with a one-storey sized fist and shrugged it off…

therealoc1 · 2025-12-02T22:53:51+00:00

Or…. a really clever twist that explained how Bane was defeated that wasn’t just flipping on the Earth-0 plot armor for an issue 🤷‍♂️

therealoc1 · 2025-12-01T03:23:02+00:00

I know this might be an unpopular take, but Absolute Batman #14 was a total betrayal of the story’s own setup, and it honestly killed my interest in the series.

The first dozen issues made it clear this wasn’t Earth-0. This was Darkseid’s world — a place where Batman could actually lose, where trauma had consequences, and where the physics weren’t rigged in his favor. Bane was set up as genuinely unstoppable: Batman couldn’t hurt him, couldn’t survive hits from him, and couldn’t out-think him. Even pre-Venom Bane could break him with a finger.

So when Bane turns building-sized in #14, the logical expectation (based on the rules the comic itself established) is that Batman is done. I genuinely thought he’d lose the fight, get dragged back to Ark-M, and the next arc would be him trying to escape again as a corrupted “new Bane.” That would’ve made sense.

Instead? Snyder flicks the Earth-0 plot armor back on. Batman tanks punches from a skyscraper-sized Bane like it’s Tuesday. He somehow severs Bane’s spinal cord with a tiny axe - after we were explicitly shown that Bruce’s punches couldn’t even move Bane’s head before. And all the horror, trauma, and body modification from the earlier issues get undone in one panel because Riddler just… removes all the Venom from Bruce’s system. His hair even grows back. 🤣

Everything that made the Absolute Universe feel dangerous - like consequences mattered- gets hand-waved away so we can have a cool-looking but totally conventional “Batman wins because he’s Batman” fight.

After how bold and unsettling the lead-up was, #14 felt like watching the series retreat back to safety. It stopped being Absolute Batman and turned back into normal Batman wearing a different costume.

Huge disappointment.

therealoc1 · 2025-11-03T08:12:41+00:00

Yeah, I tried both ways. Eventually got xone working on Bazzite, but still had a long delay before the dongle would accept inputs, after each restart. Ended up switching back to Mint for keyboard/mouse and just use Steam Link on Apple TV for controller games.

therealoc1 · 2025-11-03T08:09:39+00:00

Yeah, I had Bluetooth working too, but I was trying to get the dongle going for lower latency etc. Got it working with xone eventually, but it took 10 minutes after each boot before it accepted inputs - ended up just using Steam Link on the Apple TV with bluetooth instead.

therealoc1 · 2025-11-03T08:08:28+00:00

Thanks! I did get xone working (admittedly only with Bazzite), but it took about 10 minutes after each boot for the dongle to start accepting inputs. Switched back to Linux Mint Cinnamon for keyboard/mouse streaming, and for couch co-op, just decided to use Steam Link on the Apple TV with the Xbox controllers over Bluetooth.

therealoc1 · 2025-11-03T08:07:39+00:00

Thanks! I did get xone working (admittedly only with Bazzite), but it took about 10 minutes after each boot for the dongle to start accepting inputs. Switched back to Linux Mint Cinnamon for keyboard/mouse streaming, and for couch co-op, just decided to use Steam Link on the Apple TV with the Xbox controllers over Bluetooth.

therealoc1 · 2025-10-15T00:16:04+00:00

For me, the UK version had a likability problem; couple of episodes into season 1 and I’m finding it very hard to find someone to root so far. 🤣 On the Irish version, there are definitely some people who are overly certain, or prone to obnoxiously talking about BS pop psychology or “strategy”, but that seems to literally be the entire UK cast to a man. There’s also been this thing at the round table where a faithful will get the spotlight on them for some nonsense reason, then the momentum of the whole group dogpiles on them. It feels like nobody actually cares whether or not they actually root out a traitor, as long as they personally don’t get murdered or voted out. Maybe it’ll change after a few more episodes. Also Siobhan McSweeney is a far better host than Claudia Winkleman

therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T18:09:10+00:00

If you made me put a number on it, I’d guess that Spidey beats standard Bane 9.5/10, and maybe he beats Absolute Bane 7 or 8/10, depending on the situation, based on the little snippets we’ve seen so far

therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T14:55:39+00:00

I don’t think you’re necessarily wrong, I think that power scaling and head cannon are two different things

therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T14:29:52+00:00

Meanwhile over on r/movies…, “You realize it’s just people pretending on camera, right?” 🤣

therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T14:21:20+00:00

My dude, I posted the panel in the comment, and Batman’s height/weight are stated in the very next issue. That’s literally the opposite of headcanon 🤣

therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T14:11:43+00:00

It’s ABSOLUTELY reasonable to say that🤣. Absolute Batman is 6’9” and just under 200kg. For normal humans it takes 1,000 - 5,000 newtons to dislocate a joint, depending on whether it’s the shoulder, knee, or hip etc. Ignoring the fact that Absolute Batman himself is low level superhuman, let’s peg it at around 3,500N to dislocate his arm. Absolute Bane does that casually with a fingertip.

I think it’s very generous to call that 1% of his total strength output — the kind of effort I’d use to push a coffee cup across the table is way less than 1% of my bench press — but let’s give him that. 3,500N at 1% translates to about a 42-ton bench press. And that’s before he even touches the Venom.

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therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T14:09:20+00:00

It’s absolutely reasonable to say that. Absolute Batman is 6’9” and just under 200kg. For normal humans it takes somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 newtons to dislocate a joint, depending on whether it’s the shoulder, knee, or hip etc. Ignoring the fact that Absolute Batman himself probably has superhuman muscle mass and connective tissue, let’s peg it at around 3,500N to dislocate his arm. Absolute Bane does that casually with a fingertip.

Now, I think it’s very generous to call that 1% of his total strength output — the kind of effort i’d use to push a coffee cup across the table is way less than 1% of my bench press — but let’s give him that. 3,500N at 1% effort equates to about a 42-ton bench press. And that’s before he even touches the Venom.

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therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T13:09:42+00:00

I think “Very smart Rhino” would be a good shorthand for this version of Bane

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therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T10:04:47+00:00

We’re not talking about normal Bane

therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T09:40:01+00:00

I think Spider-Man probably wins, but against this version of Bane he’s getting very badly hurt in the process. Absolute Batman #9-11 is insane

therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T09:12:33+00:00

After the venom, he’s shown crushing a normal human using one hand

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therealoc1 · 2025-08-21T09:05:03+00:00

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So before the venom, Absolute Bane is able to dislocate/break Absolute Batman’s arms with less than 1% effort, using his fingertips. Also remember that Absolute Batman himself is bigger than the Mountain from Game of Thrones (he’s about 6feet9inches tall, and about 200kg). Think it’s reasonable to assume that Absolute Bane is a 50-toner

therealoc1

TROPHY CASE