After months of mounting expectation, the Absolute Universe’s Joker finally steps into the light. Once relegated to sinister glimpses in the background of Absolute Batman, the character is fully revealed in Absolute Batman #15 — delivering a startling origin and a nightmarish redesign that nevertheless draws on decades of Joker mythology.
The issue frames Joseph Grimm’s story through an Alfred narration, tracing the Grimm family’s rise and the grotesque evolution of its heir. The Grimms built an entertainment empire — producing films, gaming hardware, cable networks, and the microchips behind it all — then cloaked themselves in charity, ostensibly to bring joy to children. That public-facing generosity is a dark mirror of the Waynes’ civic-minded legacy; both families leverage influence, but the Grimms weaponize spectacle.
In the present, the fifth-generation Grimm presides over a reclusive criminal dynasty from a private island, surrounded by armaments and indulging in a macabre hunt for what he calls “the perfect game.” Alfred’s account peels back the family’s philanthropic veneer, revealing they financed conflicts across history — even funding both sides of major wars — and bankrolled destructive technologies up to nuclear weaponry. Their smiles, it turns out, come most readily at the scene of devastation. That mixture of lavish public persona and secret brutality evokes echoes of Sean Murphy’s Batman: The White Knight, where the Joker reinvents himself as a polished public figure.
Grimm’s islands serve as hunting preserves where he cages prey for years, releasing them only to stalk and torment them for sport. When he reveals his true self he becomes a demonic, shape‑shifting figure — a nightmare clown with rows of razor teeth that climb toward his eyes and pupils set aglow in red. The design recalls other horror‑inflected Jokers — from Jock’s bloodshot renderings in Detective Comics to imagery reminiscent of Pennywise — and even echoes a Joker playing card that surfaced online connected to The Dark Knight. There’s a sense that this incarnation is the logical extreme of the character’s darker interpretations, a monstrous continuation of Grant Morrison’s more surreal, transgressive takes.
Alfred’s narration suggests there may be a single, persistent Joseph Grimm who has insinuated himself through history by unsavory means and now perpetuates his existence through advanced stem‑cell experiments, exploiting children to sustain himself. That throughline links Snyder’s Absolute run back to elements from his New 52 Batman and intersects with themes from Geoff Johns’ Three Jokers, which posits multiple incarnations of the Joker across time. Subtle breadcrumbs — like the appearance of the Malone name on old posters, Bruce Wayne’s long-used alias — hint at possible entanglements between the Waynes and the Grimms, and even invite comparisons to mythic figures such as Dr. Hurt who blur the boundary between family history and supernatural menace.
Absolute Batman #15 stands out as a striking single issue: it reimagines a well-worn adversary with fresh, gruesome clarity while threading the new origin into broader Batman lore. If Scott Snyder can make the first full confrontation between Batman and this incarnation of Joker deliver as satisfyingly as this issue reveals the antagonist, we’re in for a truly memorable clash.
Source: Polygon
