Absolute Batman #7 & #8 proves that even without Nick Dragotta’s kinetic art, this series can still deliver a masterclass in tension. Let’s be honest: when you see Guest Artist on a solicit for a hot book, your first instinct is to skip it. We’ve all been burned by fill-in arcs that feel like homework; rushed storytelling, inconsistent art, and plots that go nowhere.
But this isn’t a skip week. It’s a deliberate tonal pivot that takes the series from Blockbuster Action Movie to Slow-Burn Body Horror Noir, and while Dragotta takes a break after six brutal issues, Marcos Martin steps in to turn Gotham into a frozen nightmare.
As someone who’s managed enough supply chain logistics to know when a system needs to slow down for maintenance, I appreciate this pacing shift. The frenetic energy of the Black Mask arc couldn’t last forever without burning out the engine. This two-issue arc, titled Absolute Zero, delivers something different: psychological horror wrapped in detective work. It’s creepy, it’s emotionally devastating, and it kills off a character you probably thought was just an Easter egg reference.
If you missed the brutal Black Mask finale that set up this arc, catch up on our Absolute Batman #6 review. And if you’re completely new to the series, start with our Absolute Batman #1 review to see how Snyder rebooted Batman from the ground up.
Absolute Batman 7 & 8 Review: The Art Shift That Divides Readers
Let’s address the elephant in the room first: the Marcos Martin Art Style.
If you came here expecting Dragotta’s kinetic, manga-influenced violence; those wide-angle smash panels, the exaggerated motion lines, the sheer weight behind every punch, you’re going to be surprised. Maybe even disappointed at first. Martin’s work is flatter, more retro, and leans heavily on negative space and eerie stillness.
His layouts feel more European in influence, with unconventional panel shapes and a focus on mood over spectacle. Where Dragotta gives you impact, Martin gives you dread. And you know what? It works perfectly for this story.
This isn’t action Batman. This is investigation Batman, the guy walking through crime scenes in silence, piecing together horrors that have already happened. Since this arc focuses on the Absolute Mr. Freeze origin, a story fundamentally about cold, isolation, grief, and clinical horror, Martin’s detached, surgical style makes the violence feel more disturbing than cool.
Dragotta makes you feel the impact of a punch. Martin makes you feel the silence of a frozen room, the kind where you realize something terrible happened and nobody’s coming to fix it. It’s a different flavor of storytelling, but it’s still Michelin-star cooking. Just don’t expect the same menu.
The shift won’t work for everyone. If you’re reading Absolute Batman purely for the over-the-top action and brutal physicality, these two issues might feel like an intermission. But if you appreciate horror comics, detective noir, or just good visual storytelling that trusts the reader to sit with discomfort, Martin delivers something special here.
The Villain: Absolute Mr. Freeze Origin
Forget the tragic romantic you know from Batman: The Animated Series. That version of Victor Fries, desperate to save his dying wife, sympathetic even in villainy, doesn’t exist here. This version of Victor Fries Jr. is pure nightmare fuel, and Snyder makes sure you understand that from the first reveal.
The Absolute Universe reinvents Freeze not just as a guy with an ice gun, but as a brilliant, terrified scientist working deep inside the Ark-M mystery; the black-site facility that’s been hovering in the background of the series since issue one. Fries isn’t freezing people out of love. He’s using a prehistoric bacterium, not just ice, to preserve what he’s already lost, and the results are less snow cone villain and more biological body horror.
The visual of his parents suspended in cryo-stasis horror tubes is something that sticks with you long after you close the book. It’s gross. It’s sad. It’s deeply uncomfortable. And it establishes a core truth about the Absolute Universe: even the sympathetic villains here are monsters shaped by trauma, not redeemed by it.
Martin’s art amplifies the horror. The way he draws Freeze’s lab; sterile, silent, clinically precise, makes it feel less like a supervillain lair and more like a morgue where the bodies are still technically alive. You can almost feel the cold leaking off the page.
What makes this version of Freeze genuinely unsettling is that Snyder writes him as someone who knows what he’s doing is monstrous but can’t stop. He’s not a villain who thinks he’s the hero. He’s a villain who knows he’s already damned and keeps going anyway. That’s a different kind of scary.
As a lifelong Wolverine fan, I’ve seen plenty of science gone wrong stories with Weapon X, but there’s something about Freeze’s methodical, quiet despair here that hits differently. Logan usually survives the lab; Freeze is the lab.
The Plot: Matches Malone Death & The Ark-M Investigation
The emotional center of this arc, and the moment that hits hardest, is the Matches Malone death.
In mainstream DC continuity, Matches Malone is just a disguise Bruce Wayne wears when he needs to go undercover in Gotham’s criminal underworld. A fake identity, a tool, nothing more. But in the Absolute Universe, Matches was a real person; a trusted informant for Bruce and one of his few connections to the streets.
Watching him get systematically taken apart by Freeze’s bacteria/cryo-weapon raises the stakes in a deeply personal way. This isn’t just another casualty in Batman’s war on crime. This is Bruce losing another connection to his past, another person who knew him before the mission consumed everything.
Snyder doesn’t make it quick or clean, either. The death is drawn out, horrifying, and Martin’s visual choices make sure you feel every second of it. Bruce isn’t just solving a crime here; he’s watching someone he cares about die slowly, and there’s nothing his fists or his tech can do to stop it.
It’s a gut-punch, and it reframes the entire arc. This isn’t a stop the villain story. It’s a grief story disguised as a detective thriller.
The Ark-M Mystery Deepens
While the Matches storyline provides the emotional weight, the larger plot centers on the Ark-M mystery; the offshore black-site detention facility that Mayor Hill has been constructing in secret.
This arc confirms what the series has been hinting at for months: Ark-M isn’t just a prison for Gotham’s worst criminals. It’s a lab. A place where experiments are being conducted on things, and people, that shouldn’t exist. Freeze’s work is connected to it. The bacterial weapon he’s using? It came from Ark-M’s research programs.
Bruce’s investigation into Freeze becomes an investigation into the facility itself, and what he uncovers is disturbing: Gotham’s government isn’t just corrupt, it’s actively creating the next generation of supervillains.
Snyder is playing the long game here. These two issues don’t answer all the questions; they expand them. By the end of issue #8, Bruce has more leads than conclusions, and that’s clearly intentional. Ark-M is being set up as the central threat of the entire run, the rot at the heart of this version of Gotham.
Why This Arc Matters (Even If It Feels Like A Detour)
Here’s the thing about Absolute Batman #7 & #8: on the surface, it looks like a fill-in arc. Guest artist. Quieter story. A break from the main villain. But it’s not filler; it’s foundation.
This arc does three critical things for the series:
- It expands the world. We finally get real information about Ark-M, which has been lurking in the background since the start.
- It raises the emotional stakes. Matches’ death reminds us that Bruce’s mission has real costs, and not every loss can be avenged with a good right hook.
- It shifts the tone. After six issues of brutal, high-octane action, Snyder and Martin prove that this series can do quiet horror just as effectively.
If you skip these issues because it’s just a guest artist arc, you’ll miss essential setup for what’s coming. Absolute Batman #9 kicks off the Bane storyline, and everything that happens here, Matches’ death, the Ark-M revelations, Bruce’s growing paranoia, feeds directly into that.
Verdict: Essential or Filler?
Don’t let the art change scare you off. Don’t let the quieter reputation fool you into thinking this is skippable.
Absolute Batman #7 & #8 is a necessary bridge between the Black Mask finale and the incoming Bane chaos. It cools down the series’ breakneck pacing just long enough to let the horror sink in, and it delivers one of the creepiest, most emotionally devastating Mr. Freeze stories in years.
If you skip this arc, you’ll miss the first real answers about Ark-M. You’ll miss the Matches Malone tragedy. And you’ll miss Martin’s masterclass in visual horror.
If you’re going the trade route, you can grab Absolute Batman Vol. 1: The Zoo on Amazon; it collects issues #1-6 and covers the complete Black Mask arc. The trade gives you the whole story without hunting down back issues, but you miss out on the I was there when Bruce jumped out of a plane and stabbed Black Mask with his cowl ears bragging rights.
Score: 8/10
Points deducted only because I miss Dragotta’s kinetic energy, but Martin is a legend in his own right, and this arc proves the series can handle tonal shifts without losing its identity. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need a fourth cup of coffee to wash the taste of that ending out of my mouth.
Want more Absolute Universe coverage? Check out our complete guide: Getting Into Comics? Start with DC Absolute Universe. Next: Absolute Batman #9 Review: Bane’s Abomination Debut Inside Ark‑M.
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