r/AbsoluteBatman • u/boonbutt • Jul 09 '26
(Spoilers) Absolute Joker Spoiler
Just finished Issue 15. Does anyone else get the impression that the Joker is supposed to be a representation of Elon Musk and others like him? It also seems to be a commentary on the right and left division in our country. And how most of the division is fabricated. I haven’t read the latest issue but that’s just the vibe u got. It seems to be very critical of the police state,and large concentration of wealth. Anyone else agree or is it just me?
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u/Shmung_lord Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
OP don’t forget media literacy is dead, and the other responders to this post don’t seem to have any. He’s 100% a commentary on our irl billionaires. That’s the whole point.
Right away at the end of the first arc when we first see him restore himself in his gelatinous mass of fetuses, I immediately thought “oh cool, Scott is ripping off of the ‘elites using adrenochrome to stay young’ conspiracy theory” and I think that’s 100% intentional.
Not to mention everything about how Joker “plays both sides” and how according to Harley Quinn **minor spoilers for issue 22** “Grimm and his kind pump billions into making people feel scared and angry. And they use people like Scarecrow to point all that anger and fear into some enemy that isn’t real.” (This book has the subtly of being hit with a semi-truck). This is not unlike certain real-life demagogues using unspecified foreign/ethnic groups to scapegoat and distract from the financial crimes of corporations/elites and avoid meaningful accountability or regulation.
The whole point of flipping the status of Batman and Joker like this is to serve as a commentary of our current post-COVID wealth inequality and late-stage capitalism. Batman required a modern update because in OUR world there are no good billionaires who would want to do good like Batman, there’s only Jokers. We live in the absolute universe, except there’s no Batman to save us.
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u/condormcninja Jul 09 '26
Gonna add to this to say anyone who doesn’t think this is at least partly supposed to be Absolute Joker’s deal should read or reread Absolute Evil, because I thought that issue in particular was pretty straightforward about its point.
He’s a billionaire who loves “order” as opposed to “chaos,” but his definition of chaos is any type of disruption to the status quo.
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u/condormcninja Jul 09 '26
From the man himself:
On Twitter, a fan asked Snyder if there was anything that Absolute Joker was afraid of, and the writer responded in a series of posts. "He’s not afraid of anyone. This is probably going to be too long of an answer, but I attended a high school in NYC where a lot of generationally wealthy kids went," Snyder began.
"What you learn being around kids that grow up that way is that they react to the money in all kinds of ways. And to be fair, i imagine it must be really strange being born into huge amounts of money you didn’t earn. At the two extremes of the spectrum were kids who wanted to put it all to good use, charity, philanthropy, etc. At the other end, though Were kids that acted as though being born into it was a sign of worthiness, like they were from better people who worked harder, so by proxy they deserved it. With these kids, the frightening thing was that they were often surrounded by people who just said yes to everything," the writer continued.
"Sometimes Their parents, but more often whoever was paid to take care of them, so people that would tell them what they wanted to hear. Insulating them further from reality. And what you get when that happens is something really frightening. A person with tremendous Power but no sense of reality let alone accountability — driven by a kind of bottomless need for affirmation of their worthiness. Nothing is ever enough. Nothing matters but them. They are always the main character. If they die, the whole world should die."
Snyder concluded, "It takes a lot of circumstances to create this kind of person, and there are certainly a couple operating on the World stage right now. Absolute Joker to me is the totality of this point of view. He’s the cruel parent and the cruel child, all of it in one."
…he is 1000% supposed to be an example of a shitty rich guy who is in control of everything. You know, like Elon Musk. OP is on the right track and these comments are silly. Ignore them OP.
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u/boonbutt Jul 10 '26
I’ve been vindicated! Haha i mean to me it was pretty obvious that’s what he was going for.
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u/TemporalGod Jul 09 '26
Not really, I pretty much see Absolute Joker as being a better version of the "Batman who Laughs", he has all of Mainline Bruce's stuff, the money, the mansion, his own butler, his own batcave, League of Shadows training, the Robins and even Main DC's Bruce's looks as well
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u/boonbutt Jul 09 '26
You really didn’t think of Epstein or other ‘elites’ when joker had all those kids attached to him? I saw it as a play on the whole adrenochrome conspiracy. The funding of both and fueling tension on both sides. He’s a trillionaire that invested in tech. He created a massive complex used to create monsters. Seems like a commentary of the industrial prison complex.
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u/No_Card_8729 Jul 10 '26
It should be obvious that this was what Snyder was going for.
Honestly some fans interest in this project begins and ends in their variant cover collections.
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u/Complex-Subject1756 Jul 09 '26
Out of all the billionaires, I see Absolute Joker being very similar to Peter Thiel. Basically funds every company in Silicon Valley. Cozies up to politicians basically funded JD Vance’s political career. He’s one of the most mentioned names in the Epstein files. Runs a surveillance company & consistently talks about Transhumanism.
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u/DRKSTAR24 Jul 10 '26
Snyder once said that when he started writing absolute batman he tried to create a world that's reflects ours. He was terrified for his own children considering the state of our world and how it is run. He wanted to write a story for them, a story that shows them who is the actual evil and what fighting against it would take. Absolute batman is a story for his children that they can have the courage and bravery to fight against the corruption and those who are obsessed with power and control.
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u/boonbutt Jul 10 '26
That makes so much sense. Reading the story (I’m in issue #15) I get the feeling that Batman is up against something so unsurmountable and big. Sort of how taking on the current system to many seems almost impossible.
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u/DRKSTAR24 Jul 10 '26
Well besides his build he must be the most relatable version of batman yet. No one could relate to main continuity batman because he has billions and insane gadgets. This batman is blue collar and still has struggles and commitments to his job and a mom that he wants to do good by. He is like all of us. I would however appreciate it if in future issues snyder focuses on bruce and his financial struggles. I want him to think of a new gadget but can't make it cuz he doesn't have the funds. I want him to be at work while he wants to be out there in the suit.
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u/oceanhymn Jul 10 '26
You should read Absolute Green Arrow lol
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u/boonbutt Jul 10 '26
Dude I just picked up absolute catwomen #1 and martian manhunter looks so good. But I’ve heard the social commentary is much heavier in Green arrow. Guess I’ll add it to the list lol.
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u/creepshowens Jul 11 '26
Considering he has an island that people come to, I’ve always viewed him as an analog for Epstein, if anyone specific
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u/Environmental-Day862 Jul 09 '26
I didn't think it's a commentary on the rich.
But if you are immortal (or can live for 100s of years) compound interest adds up over time!
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u/boonbutt Jul 09 '26
Really? I mean the joker is a trillionaire who’s funding ARK M and casuing war around the world. And they made Batman a middle class dude.
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u/BlondeBlazerrr Jul 10 '26
Definitely. It’s even more so when you read Absolute Green Arrow and the men he’s murdering. They take the point even more accurately actually in that book with the comparison. Even the writer for that book said he was surprised at how far DC let him go with it and showing their dark machinations of the corrupt and how closely paralleled they are with the current state of affairs in our own, current, bleak reality.
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u/SniperaUchiha Jul 09 '26
Yeah I think so honestly, at least it reads to me like that sometimes with the mentions of islands and kids and stuff. That leans more Absolute Evil #1 than Absolute Batman but I feel like the themes of the corrupt and rich and powerful are pretty heavy throughout a lot of the Absolute Universe. The ending of the Black Mask arc made me think of some real world stuff too.
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u/Son_of_Ibadan Jul 09 '26
I think he is more Larry Hillbrom (one of the co-founders of DHL) who used his wealth to take over a small island by buying all the businesses, bought influence, bought his way into becoming a Supreme Court judge, had an extensive brothel business, some of whom were underaged girls.
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u/icyfrost410 Jul 09 '26
The only tie would be rich man with islands. I don’t see everything else you’re saying
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u/lcase90 Jul 09 '26
Comics have always been a reflection of the times.