Tre Johnson

Loved it

Even if I didn’t love it, in hindsight I can more admire JMS early 00s Thor series w Olivier Coipel for trying to tie real situations & imagined heroes. But so far, ABB at least isnt interested in taking advantage of this new opportunity.

But taking mass shootings, urban lawlessness & merging w Blue Collar Batman isn’t doing with either the context or premise so far. There’s a bit of “so what?” To this bc it lacks any moral refinement or beliefs. It’s just all darker bc “real world is harsh”. OK but we’ve HAD that Batman already!

The world we’re actually living in right now can feel woefully dark. I don’t mind comics seeking to mirror that, but ABB seems to have a one-note belief/approach to “real world issues”.

If these endeavors like Absolute, are supposed to present contemporary, re-contextualize/imagined versions of these characters for “todays world”, why not be bold enough to reframe Batman’s emotional response to his trauma? Not everyone emerges from these things dark & loner!

It’s all to say that I walked away from these 2 issues wondering & feeling “is this really the creative limits of this character?”. I think it’s time & opportunity for a tonal change in Batman. What would it mean - to lore, to culture, to storytelling - for Batman to be, idk, softer?

I’m no prude about graphic violence, sex or adult themes, but I think in 2024 we can be daring enough to imagine a Batman that’s less the sum of his darkest versions, & express/present a version of Batman that would challenge creators & audiences by taking on diff emotional notes & tone for once

But I can’t help but feel that even in this granular execution, these alt/Black Label/etc versions, particularly of Batman, seems to suggest the only tonal directions to go w/ this character, especially as a means to be more ‘mature’, is to be even more dour & graphic

But it’s also these overall elements that give me a lot of pause about wanting to continue w this series. I get it; devoid of wealth, this Batman is more resourceful. And in the face of a particularly heartless version of Gotham, he’s required to be more extreme

Together, Snyder & Dragotta give us a Batman, and a Gotham, that pulls from previous iteration high marks - there’s lots of flecks of Miller’s DK in here & I think splashes of the low mark Miller/Lee All Star Batman series

And as both character & midnight avatar, this Batman is bulging & tank-like. I admire Dragotta’s pencils dating back to his East West days & here his line work, especially on Batman, gives B a weighty presence that feels both supernatural & cartoonish

Character-building like this— the genius intellect, the top tier athlete & then the hyper focused body building post schooling—all feels v familiar w some slight tweaks now to “ground” him more.

It’s an inevitability, it seems, that even in reimagining Bruce Wayne as a working class character - he now comes from humble roots - there’s still some max-leveling created to ensure BW/Batman still feels like a nigh invincible tactician

I’ve now read the first two chapters of #AbsoluteBatman & well — the thing with reimagining these characters is that it’s impossible to escape some default settings. 🧵

but we need a lot of, prob too many, lucky breaks now for the rest of the season. that includes basically everyone else remaining w/o any significant injuries & prob some collapse/rut from 2-3 contenders ahead of us. morey will surely look 2 make a move, but idk w what assets now. rough szn ahead

the thing that's clear is that even once JE gets back to full strength, his historic version of full strength isnt anything we can count on consistently. this team, despite all the moves, seems to already need retooling, which is wild. some of that will be fixed w PG & Maxey being on the floor ofc

Black Genius by Tre Johnson: 9780593186473 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A powerful read which redefines the meaning of genius while illuminating forgotten historical figures and the ways in which Black Americans have found various way to thrive despite insurmountable obst...

I never got into being a prolific Tweeter & Bluesky may not change that, but I can at least make my 1st (only? TBD!) one at least start off by sharing that my 1st book - BLACK GENIUS: Essays on American Legacy - is up for preorder & drops 7.29.25: bit.ly/BLACKGENIUS - hope you check it out <3