As hard as it is to believe, it’s nearly half a year later and Absolute Batman has finally come to the end of its first story arc. It seems only like yesterday the DCU’s new Dark Knight arrived and began to take the world by storm.

the Absolute Batman’s journey and discuss what lies ahead.

Screen Rant: You two have made it to the end of this series' first arc. How does it feel with this first arc finally wrapped up?

Scott Snyder: It feels fantastic. I mean, again, when we pitched the series, we had absolutely no idea that it would receive the from fans that it has. And I think this chapter is sort of our thesis statement and the culmination of everything we are trying to say that this Batman stands for as he's fighting Black Mask at the end, and everything is kind of stacked against him. And Black Mask is making this argument that the sort of powers that Batman is fighting are too big for him to even make a dent in. And he just keeps saying, "Keep telling me I don't matter. I love it. I f***ing love it.". And he's like, punching him. And I was like, this is our comic. You know, this is what we've made. And you know, I love it dearly. We had this sort of in mind when we pitched it. So to see people responding the way they are to it means the world. We're really, really grateful. Again, we didn't know if people would just reject it or feel like it was something they related to. So we feel extremely thankful to fans and retailers for getting so into this one. That means a lot to us.

Nick, I haven’t gotten to speak to you about your art in this series yet, but it’s great. There’s a great sense of energy and action in the fight scenes. I don’t know how you do it, but you get 13 or 14 s or more on one page. Is this challenging or are you and Scott on the same wavelength about how these pages are constructed?

Nick Dragotta: No, I'm a big proponent of making your work easy. So, you know, kudos to Scott. I think with this partnership and this collaboration that he has full faith in me to kind of visually tell the story the way I see fit. So Scott gives me these insane ideas, and then I'm allowed to play and shoot ideas back at Scott. And to me, it's almost easier when it comes out of my filter after it's gone through Scott than me. Rather than Scott dictating every beat, every , everything. Deg around word balloons. We're working in this kind of hybrid Marvel style. So I don't even know what to call it, but constant communication, constant editing and fine-tuning and, yeah, just having fun. So I think it shows on the page. I mean, judging by the reactions I've seen today for six, it's been pretty awesome.

Scott Snyder:The only problem is I feel like people that don't know our process think that I'm like, "Nick, it's 20 s this page.", like I'm worried, no artist will ever want to work with me again, but that's okay. I can work with Nick forever, and no one else.

Nick Dragotta: Yeah, you don't. You kind of don't write the stuff we're doing. It's just a lot of experimentation, a lot of play. I mean, it's a deadline-driven industry too, so we're just, like, letting it rip. But you know, one thing we do hold ourselves to is getting it right to the best of our ability. I mean, we have redrawn a page or added a page right on the day the book goes to print. So we're just constantly fine-tuning and playing with it. And it's cool, Justin, that you're recognizing that, because to me, as a comic book storyteller, I really like to hit emotional beats in books and have the words integrate with the pictures as seamlessly as possible. That's comics. That's what comics do best. And I think sometimes you get a lot of disconnect when a writer writes a full script and an artist could be on a completely different wavelength. You know, you can sense that in a read. I've never had a collaboration like this, and I've had some great collaborators. But, I mean, it goes back to communication. Scott and I are constantly talking, constantly fine-tuning and editing.

I’m not going to lie. I really like how, because this is a Bruce with less of a safety net, he has to act more brutal than usual and you guys get to do so many outrageous things with him compared to the Prime Batman. And in this issue he does something particularly brutal. Have either of you faced any pushback over what you’ve wanted to show or do in this series? Like, was there anything with Absolute Batman’s gear or how he interacts with criminals that was just a red line?

Scott Snyder: No. I mean, DC has been great, honestly, like I expected it. We had alternate versions of a couple of moments in many of the issues, but they've been really ive. And I think the reason is, like, partly what you said and picked up on, which is that, Bruce, in the main universe, when he shows up, he's a figure of power. He has the reason, it's his amazing determination, it's his skill set, it's all of the techniques and the different aspects of his superhero perfection that he's picked up in all these different places around the world. But part of it is also money, like he shows up in a suit that is itself a car or a plane that is in itself intimidating. And so there is a level of kind of of fear that he strikes in you, because you understand that you're up against something that is also systemically powerful. He has wealth, whoever Batman is, he's got better s*** than you have. And so that's part of it. And so for this Batman, he's going all of that is inverted, where he doesn't have any of that stuff, and he's going up against people that have a lot more than him. And so violence is part of what he uses. Like "You thought you were safe, but you are not safe, like I am coming for you. And even in your little protected bubble where you think you can't be punched in the face, I'm going to punch you in the face.". That kind of physicality of him speaks to this force of nature. The brutality and violence for us really does have, you know, a message and a point, or at least an emotional kind of DNA as to why he would be that way. And it's not just sensational. It's not just violence for the sake of Batman being violent.

Scott Snyder: I've always tried to pull back on that in the main series when we were writing it, not to make him not violent, but just to be careful with it. Because, again, as somebody who has all of the advantages, there's a tipping point with Batman. When he tips, not even killing, which, of course, he should never do, but even just in his physical punching and intimidating criminals and so on. There's a tipping point you can start to feel really quick, where you're like, "This guy is a lot more than the people he's beating up." And you know, people are great about being careful with that. Over here, though, it's like, no holds barred, gloves are off. Because the people he's up against generally are working for people way more powerful than him in this series.

For me, one of the most interesting things about this series is Batman’s relationship with some of his classic villains, like Riddler and Killer Croc. In this issue, I get the sense that cracks are starting to form. I want to hear from both of you about your reinterpretation of Bruce's villains and what this may mean going forward.

Scott Snyder: I'll just tee Nick up, because, honestly, like everything in this series, the important thing to know, is that we're c0-creators. It's not even writer and artist. Every element in the story, I credit Nick with every idea that you like in this. He has equal part in all kinds of ways. For us, making the villains his friends, was a decision we made together, and it was almost like, "How long are they going to be his friends?". And then the more we enjoyed writing them and drawing them and having them in that space, the more it became part of the emotional beating heart of the story. We got to draw this out. And so it grew. I think it grew as we were planning it into something a lot more central, like his friendships with these characters, whether or not they have fissures, if they turn into villains, all that became a lot heavier than the initial idea, which was like, "Oh, he'll start as friends with them, and then they all become who you know them to be.".

Scott Snyder: And that's part of the fun of this series, to me, is that, when I was on main Batman, Greg was very much like, "Let's be instinctual.". And it was not easy for me at that time. I don't feel like I ever really got to where I wanted in that regard, with him. To his credit, he always put up with me. But I wish I could have been more like, a little bit more go with the flow and spontaneous. But it was, it's just different pressures on the main book, and I was in a different place in my life. But in this book, because it existed outside of it, and because I'm just at a different place, like, it's so much easier to just roll with it and let some of these things grow organically based on our conversations together and how we're feeling on the page. So yeah, the fissures are starting here. But again, one of my favorite things about the entire series is his relationship to his friends and Martha, if not my favorite. And again, all credit to Nick, as you know, the co-creator of that whole element here.

Nick Dragotta: It's been awesome. And I think, creatively, we were maybe planning on pushing the reveal back, right Scott? Of when his friends would find out he was Batman, who would automatically figure it out. And I think we planted seeds with Eddie. With six, Waylon just felt right, like, because it might have been originally written he went as Bruce, but would be beat up, and we were going to plant the seed. Like, "What's going on with you, Bruce? You've not been around.". But just in keeping with the way we want to do this pedal-to-the-metal-style comic and really push the medium, is what it does best. We were like, "You know what? Waylon is going to feel a spike and be like 'What the hell's going on here?''.". It just feels right, you know? And that's what we're kind of riding on with this book creatively, is just move in that direction.

Nick Dragotta: And, you know, it's all planned out too. I mean, every time Scott and I talk, I think the book grows by six more issues and new arcs. So I in just the latest conversations about how we're going to wrap this whole thing up, is just awesome. And I can't wait to get there. Instinctually, it just feels right too, if you think about your friends, and how close you are with your closest friends. I mean, how many big secrets do you keep? And if you do, are they truly your friends? And this is like a brotherhood and a sisterhood. So it feels right. And I can't wait til we get into the story about how this more unfurls. I think we're discovering a world that's not so much black and white, there's a lot of gray,

Scott Snyder: In the issues, Nick has also been instrumental in guiding the series towards the interstitial issues, like the ones in between the arcs. What kind of style of art would be fun to bring in, which artists are people that have a sort of storyteller-first mentality and that. And so the issues with Marcos Martín seven and eight that deal with the introduction of Mr. Freeze, but also, can they really pick up right where that leaves off emotionally for Bruce and his friends? The heart of those two issues is an ongoing conversation, a fight he's having with his friends in the valley about being Batman. So you'll see the fallout of him telling Waylon in the issues.

I'm so happy you brought him up, Scott, because we know Mr. Freeze is coming, and you actually have a history of re-inventing Mr. Freeze from the New 52. Talk about what your goal was here compared to the last time you overhauled this character?

Scott Snyder: Yeah, the last time I loved it, but we got some pushback. DC was very much, at that time, about, "Look, it's New 52, everything needs to be rewritten.". And I had already kind of won my battle with them about keeping a lot of the Batman mythos the way it was. Everything was the same. And part of Court of Owls was trying to show you that everything was still there; Damian, Tim, Dick, Jason, everybody. And so with this, it was like, "Okay, well, I can redo. Mr. Freeze. We'll do him from scratch. Because why not? Because we kept everything else." And so I loved this idea, James did too. This is one of the first things I co-wrote with James Tynion, but it was about Mr. Freeze is in love with Nora, but the twist of that was that Nora was actually the first person to ever be cryogenically frozen, and so he fell in love with her as he was writing a dissertation on her, but never knew her, because he loves the ice and nothing else. And it was really polarizing. It was kind of like, some people really loved it and wanted to adopt it as this darker version of Mr. Freeze. And then some people were really angry about the loss of the actual romance of him and his wife, and the humanity, which I completely understand with this.

Scott Snyder: Like, the fun was because we're in an alternate world, you have the Mr. Freeze you love, in the main universe and here, we could go bananas and he can be as dark as we want, as long as we keep within the DNA of the character, which I feel very attached to at this point. You know, Mr. Freeze was not a villain that, when we did that was not at the top of my list of villains. Now he's one of my favorites, and I've done a lot of reading about him, and a lot of revisiting some of my favorite stuff in animated and film and everything. So now it's like this was a real, sort of considered reinterpretation that I think has elements of sympathy, elements of humanity, but really takes it in a different direction as well, where I feel like we can be bold and have a new generation of some of these villains in our book. Because again, you can always go to the main series for what you expect from classic Victor Fries.

Alright, we've held off long enough, we have to discuss Absolute Joker. You obviously have this inversion of his dynamic with Batman, where, this time, Joker's the billionaire. And there's a moment here where we get to see just how depraved this variant is. I want to hear from both of you about how you reinvent a character like Joker in the Absolute Universe and what it's going to mean for Absolute Batman.

Scott Snyder: You want to start Nick or do you want me to start?

Nick Dragotta:I'll start. Scott's idea was...when I first heard it, I was like, "Okay, let's do this." And I kind of don't want to say too much, though, because it's quite far off when we get to the storyline of what's going on with this Joker and who he is. But it's a joker like we've never seen before, and at the same time, kind of feels relevant to what's going on in the world. With a very comic book bent to it. That's all I kind of want to say about it. I want readers to discover the read as they read it and the story and keep some of the suspense. So, yeah, less is more, I think, in my opinion.

Scott Snyder: I always spoil everything, but I'm gonna be very careful. I think the way that I like to think of the Joker, my thesis on him has always been like that he's like the Joker card in the deck, right? A deck of cards where it could take on any value that you wanted to take on to win a hand, right? And so ultimately, like that's how he sees himself in relation to Batman, that he changes into whatever form in whatever story he thinks, or the writer thinks Batman needs to be scared by. Because the way the Joker wins is to challenge Batman on the deepest core level, so that, in his mind, he's trying to make him stronger. In our minds, he's just total frightening psycho. But here, if Bruce represents all of this kind of, this feeling of idealism, collectivism, resistance, like all these things that say we can make a difference, then just ideologically, Joker is sort of the absolute opposite, you know? And so he takes on values and he has a mission that's extremely different than any Joker I've ever seen or written. And I do genuinely think he's much scarier and darker. I really do, because he has all of these resources. I mean, that's no secret at this point. This isn't the guy with lint in his pockets that's coming up, but instead, is the one with everything in place, a whole economy behind him. He's kind of like a whole nation-state unto himself in a lot of ways, in of his material and money and all of it, which to me is way scarier. Because he's going to show you how small you are in every way.

Scott Snyder: So yeah, he's really terrifying. And the thing I'd echo with what Nick said, too, is that this is not even a fraction of his story. Like we wanted to give you a good tease of how dark we're going with him, but like you're gonna get it pieced out, like there will be a little bit more of him in arc two, when Nick comes back in issue nine, and then not in that issue, but you'll learn a little bit. That arc will touch on him a tiny bit, but he really starts coming in and we're going to be doing a special on the side as well. We haven't announced it yet, but we'll see. We're going to give you more pieces of him, building and building and building. So when you really see him in our series, and you see his design and how he's functioned in Gotham and around the world over the last years, like you'll see this is a very different version, and something we think will hopefully really scare people to death.

Nick Dragotta: Ultimate comic book villain, is the way I will put it. I mean, yeah,

Scott Snyder: His physicality too, like, you're starting to get a hint of this. He's sort of this really disgusting mirror of Bruce, in the way that he is handsome. You saw him in issue one, like he's a handsome billionaire like Bruce Wayne. But for some reason, there's also something to him that you see at the end of this issue that evokes the Joker physically as well. And so when you actually get all of it together, and you see who he is and his physical design and everything that Nick is doing, I just think it's going to blow people away. I'm really excited. It's definitely dark though, too. I'm really, really excited about it. Nervous, but excited.

One thing I've appreciated about this series so far is that whatever victories we get here don’t exactly feel like victories, which feels appropriate for the Absolute Universe and how Darkseid's energy defines this world. How do the two of you balance advancing Batman’s character while keeping the distinct spirit of this universe alive?

Scott Snyder: That's a great question. I mean, I think we had a real revelation, like we did a round-robin meeting with all the Absolute creators not long ago, and we really talked about that aspect of it, because in all the series, they're up against bigger odds. So what does that mean? When I laid out what we were doing on Batman and Kelly laid out what she's doing on Wonder Woman, and Jason laid out what he's doing on Superman, we realized we have a really similar thesis. And the thesis is that these heroes shouldn't win like the ways that we're used to in real life. In this universe, it feels like the whole superhero trope is inverted, right, where it's almost painful when you see Avengers: Infinity War, to have to wait for a second part. We're so conditioned to have the superheroes win, and then that tells the story of how it's worth it, and immediately gives you this kind of instant gratification that's part of the superhero medium. But with this universe and with these stories, it feels like the point of them is to say, being a real hero, at least in this context and sometimes in today's day and age, means not getting to see the results that you hope for, but the small results that you're capable of in that moment, even if that brings a bigger backlash.

Scott Snyder: And so these heroes are fighting in a way where you're not going to see them be like, "And I defeated everybody, and now the city is happy.". You're going to see they won this small battle and now this bigger force is coming this way and asking the question "Is it worth it to fight if you don't get to see yourself win?". And you know, it's not a secret that the resounding kind of answer to that question in the Absolute Universe is 'yes'. That's when it means most to fight is when you don't think you're going to see the results you want right away. It's going to be. That's part of what happens with Bruce. Bruce doesn't think he's going to live. He's got a bit of a death wish in this arc, and then that's part of what he reckons with his friends in the next arc too. But ultimately, at the end of the day, that's the message of the whole Absolute Universe to us is that it's just as heroic, if not more, to fight when you're not going to see yourself win in the way that you would love at the end.

Nick Dragotta: Yeah, I think my outlook on it is was this was always such a different Bruce and Batman. So almost just in a new take, in that sense that I never really concerned myself with the other Batman and what's going on and whatnot. We're worried about that because we're kind of just looking forward and trying to create something new and different. But the fuel is very much the core of Bruce Wayne and Batman, what he represents. And you know, something born out of trauma, and how you use that, whether good or bad. And I totally, wholeheartedly agree with Scott, if someone was to go on this journey, it's ultimately a death wish, and you know where that's going to take us. And that fits in line with the Absolute Universe and Darkseid's energy. So maybe that gives us a little more leeway to go more extreme in this book. But I would say it's a real reflection of the world we live in, too. So it just feels right creatively about what we're doing.

Absolute Batman #6 is available now from DC Comics.