(Note: This article contains spoilers for recent issues of Absolute Batman.)
Earlier this week DC teased readers with a redacted cover and solicitation text for Absolute Batman #20, the May-shipping issue of the blockbuster series from Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta. The cover features Batman standing in front of something that appears to be in the shape of giant letter R. The obvious implication of the image is that Robin will soon be joining the Absolute Universe. However, today’s DC Connect features unredacted solicitation text that indicates more than one Robin will be coming to Absolute Batman.
The originally-provided solicitation text read as follows:
As the dust settles in the city of Gotham after the loss of [redacted], [redacted] enter the scene ready to hunt and more than one secret will be revealed in this seminal issue.
Following this morning’s release of DC’s full May solicitations, though, the newly-released DC Connect catalog from Lunar includes an issue description that’s a bit more revealing. Here’s the page from the catalog, and the text below it with emphasis added:
As the dust settles in the city of Gotham after the loss of [redacted], Robins enter the scene ready to hunt and more than one secret will be revealed in this seminal issue.
Who or what are the Robins? The ending of this week’s issue revealed that Martha Wayne is connected to the Absolute version of the Court of Owls, a group original Robin Dick Grayson has had ties to in the mainline DCU. Readers have already had a few glimpses of the Absolute Dick Grayson, who in this universe is a paramedic who doesn’t appear to like Batman very much. Could the Robins be a rival group to the Owls? And what role, if any, will Dick play in their arrival?
Obviously there have been multiple Robins over the years in the mainline DCU, starting with Dick Grayson and including Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne. It’s been teased by Snyder that multiple Robins would be part of the Absolute Universe, but I don’t know that anyone would’ve expected them to show up at the same time. The way this series has taken familiar elements and remixed them in new and interesting ways, though, means anything could be possible.
We’ll find out what it all means when Absolute Batman #20 hits stores in May.
