Absolute Batman #5

Apr 2025 · DC · 4.99 USD

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“The Zoo, Part Five of Five”

About this Issue

Absolute Batman #5 serves as the penultimate chapter of the debut arc of DC's Absolute Universe line, a publishing initiative that reimagined its core heroes stripped of inherited wealth and privilege — and this issue crystallizes that premise at its most dramatically intense, forcing a blue-collar Bruce Wayne into a no-compromise confrontation with Black Mask and his Party Animals terrorist organization. The issue delivers the first appearance of the Absolute Universe's version of Dr. Leslie Thompkins, a character with deep roots in Batman's origin mythology since the Bronze Age, here recontextualized within the working-class Gotham of Earth-Alpha. By engineering his own improvised Bat-Signal out of a spotlight and two hundred million dollars arranged in the shape of a bat, Bruce publicly signals his defiance and makes an irrevocable break with any transactional peace — a storytelling beat that defines the moral core of this alternate Dark Knight. Part of a series that earned an Eisner Award nomination for Best New Series and spawned an animated adaptation in development at Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios, issue #5 represents a key dramatic hinge point in one of the more culturally resonant Batman relaunches in recent memory.

writer Scott Snyder · artist, inker Nick Dragotta · colorist Frank Martin · letterer Clayton Cowles · cover Nick Dragotta

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $5

CGC 9.8 · 873 in census $74

CGC 9.6 · 42 in census $45

CGC 9.4 · 14 in census $35*

CGC 9.2 · 5 in census $30*

CGC 9.0 · 3 in census $28*

CGC 8.5 · 1 in census $23*

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CGC 8.0 · 1 in census $20*

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CGC 9.8 ▾ $88–$157 4 listings

CGC 9.8 · Variant $88 CGC 9.8 $139 CGC 9.8 $150 CGC 9.8 · Variant $157

CGC 9.6 $74.99 1 listing

Raw — MINT ▾ $49.99–$120 4 listings

MINT · Variant $49.99 MINT · Variant $64.95 MINT · Virgin $79.95 MINT $119.99

Raw — NM+ $65 1 listing

Raw — NM ▾ $50–$74.99 5 listings

NM · Variant $50 NM $55 NM · Virgin $59.99 NM · Virgin $60 NM $74.99

Raw — NM- $85 1 listing

Raw / ungraded ▾ $5.99–$100 23 listings

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5th print $4.99 5th print $4.99 NM+ · 4th print $7.99 Signed · 3rd print $34.99 Foil · 3rd print $49.99 Foil · 3rd print $59.99

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History

Absolute Batman launched in October 2024 as the flagship title of DC's new Absolute Universe imprint, with Scott Snyder — who had initially planned only a consulting role on the line — agreeing to write the series on the condition that Nick Dragotta, best known for the Image Comics series East of West, would illustrate it; writer James Tynion IV is credited with persuading Snyder to take on the book directly. Snyder and Dragotta developed their protagonist in close physical collaboration, with Dragotta working from Snyder's New York studio and the two iterating on a larger-than-life Bruce Wayne designed to feel like a 'primal force' — Snyder reportedly pushed Dragotta to make the character even bigger than initial designs suggested. Frank Martin served as colorist throughout the first arc, and issue #5 shipped on February 12, 2025, with a card-stock variant program featuring covers by Joëlle Jones, Ian Bertram, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, and Clay Mann (with Seth Mann).

Trivia · 7 facts

First appearance of the Absolute Universe version of Dr. Leslie Thompkins (Earth-Alpha), who appears in flashback tending to a young Bruce Wayne after his father's death — she is depicted treating Bruce after he is swarmed by bats at the zoo where his father was killed.
Written by Scott Snyder with art and main cover by Nick Dragotta; Frank Martin is the colorist. Published by DC Comics on February 12, 2025 (cover-dated April 2025).
Issue #5 is the penultimate chapter of the series' first arc ('The Zoo'), in which the primary antagonist is Roman Sionis / Black Mask, reimagined as the leader of a terrorist group called the Party Animals.
Alfred Pennyworth, reimagined in this continuity as a former MI6 agent, confronts Bruce in the Batcave after Bruce's gambit and declares he will never help Bruce again — a significant fracture in their already fraught relationship.
The issue also develops the political subplot involving Mayor James Gordon and Martha Wayne, whose backstory together (Gordon once arrested Martha at a protest but let her go) is revealed in a flashback.
The series as a whole — of which this issue is part — received an Eisner Award nomination for Best New Series and later inspired an animated adaptation announced at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, with Snyder as showrunner/executive producer and Dragotta as producer.
Multiple variant covers were published for this issue, including card-stock editions by Joëlle Jones, Ian Bertram, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, and Clay Mann with Seth Mann, plus a 1:50 virgin variant.