KAHN, JENETTE – BATMAN –
ABSOLUTION 2002 DC Graphic novel that largely humanises the vigilante aspects of Batman. Ten years after a
terrorist attack in Gotham leaves Batman helplessly witnessing the deaths of many people, he gets a lead on the missing perpetrator of the offence. She is one Jennifer Blake, of the so-called Children Of Maya freedom fighters. Batman pursues her to a religious
community called Haven where she has settled down to raise her son, a child with Down’s syndrome. Batman separates her from him, as he fights her and saves the child from a fire as the mother
escapes. The boy is given over to the charge of the community as Batman gives chase to the woman he has
pursued for a decade. She heads to London, and again, he confronts her, this time in a Catholic
Church. She holds a priest and his congregation hostage, but even Batman sees how she makes sure that they are safe when she destroys the church as she escapes yet again. Batman tries to convince herself that she cannot have changed her ways and that she deserves no
redemption for her crimes, and he pursues her relentlessly to India and on to Thailand. The exotic land, the heat, his stifling costume, and dysentery take their toll on him, and he collapses as he is on the brink of capturing her. To his surprise, she nurses him back to health. She has removed his mask, but she seems indifferent to any notion of exploiting her knowledge of his identity. Batman still tells himself she is evil, and then some of her old terrorist cell allies try to take over the town, Batman rescues the people, but he is still weak, and the girl he has pursued for ten years kills herself to successfully stop the take over. Batman is till telling himself that she deserved no redemption or absolution as he lays a rose on her grave. Haunting, and drawn to near photographic realism, -this is a Batman tackling three dimensional human situations rather than comic book clichéd villains. It’s a true masterpiece with the stature of major tragedy.