Fans have been taking to social media to express their displeasure with the new bat symbol being used in Absolute Batman, debuting this November, which features the bat symbol set against a rectangular black armored bar on Batman‘s chest, which serves to obscure the actual symbol itself (with the black symbol on the black background). One fan even brought DC Studios CEO James Gunn into the situation by trying to get his take on the symbol, only for Gunn to explain that he has no authority over DC’s comic book line.
The concept behind Absolute Batman is that this is a world where Bruce Wayne is NOT a billionaire. He doesn’t have a Batcave, expensive technology, and a butler. Instead, Wayne is a working class hero, who uses his fighting skills more than anything else, which is why his costume has spikes and armor all over it.
How was James Gunn brought into the Absolute Batman debate?
Nick Dragotta, the artist on Absolute Batman, has an exaggerated art style, and that is part of why fans are likely so confused as to the design of Batman’s chest symbol…
For instance, Jim Lee also did a variant cover for the first issue of Absolute Batman, and Lee’s depiction of the chest symbol makes the Bat symbol stand out more as an armored bat…
Lee also seems to pair the bat symbol with an ax carried by Batman.
In any event, a fan turned to Threads to ask James Gunn about the symbol, confusing it with what the bat-symbol will look like when Batman debuts in DC Studios, asking Gunn, “as a fan of Batman i beg you please change the Batman logo, it looks awful, I love the Superman one.”
Gunn replied that he had no authority over the DC comic book line, explaining, “I have no jurisdiction over the comics!”
How has Absolute Batman writer Scott Snyder responded to the criticisms?
Scott Snyder, who is writing Absolute Batman, and who is the architect of DC’s whole new Absolute Universe, has taken the fan criticism in stride, even joking about all of the complaints on social media, explaining that whenever someone complains about the symbol, they’ll make it even BIGGER in response…
Like most things, we likely will have to wait until the actual comic book is out before we see how fans ultimately land on the Bat-symbol. Obviously, everyone remembers the angry fan petitions about Michael Keaton as Batman, among many other examples of that sort of thing.
Source: Threads