After the immense success of Absolute Batman, it’s only natural that dans would start pondering an adaptation. While nothing is confirmed, co-creator Nick Dragotta would “love” to see an anime akin to Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
Out of all the comics of recent times, Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta has garnered the most hype — and that’s more than reflected in comic sales. It re-imagines the Batman mythos, and it’s off-the-scale epic, dialling everything up to eleven. Absolute Batman offers up a much grittier take on the hero’s origin. He has not inherited wealth, and Alfred Pennyworth is not a butler, but a hardened operative. Wayne himself isn’t a rich socialite –in his mid-twenties, he works as a civil engineer. The Joker, rather, is the rich business mogul.
Going into 2026, Absolute Batman is keeping up strong momentum with the Absolute Wonder Woman crossover, and of course, the forthcoming Scarecrow arc that has fans very excited. There’s plenty more where that comes from, too.
There’s been no real talk of any adaptations yet, a few months back Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta participated in an AMA on League of Comic Geeks, where the topic of an animated adaptation inevitably came up. Rather than pushing the question aside, Nick Dragotta said, “I’m not in the know,” adding: “But I know DC makes and licenses quality stuff so I’m excited to see what comes. Personally, I’d love to see a Studio Trigger anime of Ab Bat.”
Studio Trigger is a Japanese independent animation studio known for some of the slickest and most acclaimed anime shows out there, including Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia, and most recently, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix. Edgerunners had a vibrant, action-packed style that would suit an animated adaptation of Absolute Batman perfectly.
Before you get too excited, this is mere chatter and nothing more. But the fact that Dragotta has sent out a tantalising vision for what an Absolute Batman adaptation could look like, we won’t stop thinking about it anytime soon. The next question is: Who would voice Batman?
Absolute Batman returns for issue #16 on January 28.
