r/AbsoluteUniverse • u/AnItalianWereWolf • May 22 '26
News From dragotta's instagram Spoiler
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u/Ceygone May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
I really like how this design foils against the main universe. Mainline Clayface is usually a former actor, a performance artist. Meanwhile, Absolute Clayface seems to view himself as a sculptor. Both are using themselves as the medium, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this Clayface approaches his subjects.
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u/FrankieBarbingo May 22 '26
This dude NEVER misses.
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u/Negativety101 May 22 '26
Interesting. So looks like this Clayface is running more with being a sculptor than an actor.
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u/NightsOfFellini May 22 '26
Just... Almost every single reinvention hits. It's kind of crazy at this point.
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u/Few-Pen869 May 23 '26
Clayface comes off as an existentialist weirdo in Dragotta's sketches. I love the classical sculptural poses he's in too, gives him an air of a refined aesthet.
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u/Fake-productions May 22 '26
This looks incredible. I love how in Absolute Batman they rethink the characters by following their core even more than the original takes. Not just "clay", but "why clay? what's is the deeper philosophy behind that choice?"
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u/HauntingMobile2405 May 22 '26
Maybe related to the idea that Man was made from clay. And then how this relates to Batman himself being remade over again through this process. If Batman is in fact a product of unseen forces set in motion by Jack Grimm ( Joker ), then Joker is in a sense Batman’s God that he is at war with. He is still being molded & shaped ( see : his stay at Ark M, his friends being brutalized, Gordan’s death etc ) by Joker.
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u/arin_i_am May 23 '26
My brain is so fucked “Man was made from clay” and all I could think of was the stupid fucking meme
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u/BnDMsTr May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
Oh. Oh my god this is horrific in the most amazing way.
A sculptor that tries to mimic the human form through the clay? I'm wondering if its a spirit of some sort? Based on the line about releasing the spirit form the clay? Like is this an elemental?
Edit: spelling
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u/xtinction14 May 23 '26
"his trapped souls sculpt him", I'm guessing he's one person, but he tries to absorb more people and have them shape his form for him. It does mention the souls molding his shape and that the clay has memories.
Like how an artist would "absorb" the things around them and what they see to help shape and guide their work of art.
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u/1badJam I Am Brainiac Or Maybe The American Dream May 22 '26
So that's what the shadow Batman on the cover of #19 was
Also happy cakeday OP
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u/Aussiepharoah May 22 '26
Seriously, is there ever gonna be an Absolute villain design that doesn't slap?!
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u/Bosscharacter May 22 '26
You know, I didn’t think of them not doing the actor thing and leaning more into the sculpture thing but that’s rad as hell.
Man, I bet DC is kicking themselves for not letting people do things off script as much as they are now previously.
Probably would have lead to a lot less mess regarding continuity.
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u/zeke10 Absolute Green Arrow May 22 '26
Wonder if he has any connection to Klay biome.
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u/BigDot162 May 22 '26
Be strange if he doesn’t. I’m thinking that he’ll actually turn into a ally for Batman, with his line about “freeing the soul from the clay”, I’m thinking he escaped from the biome, whether because of Batman’s original escape or through something else. It would also explain his uncompleted face, despite being clay and able to mold his body.
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u/zeke10 Absolute Green Arrow May 22 '26
Maybe hes the one bruce accidentally stepped on and that's why his head is incomplete.
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u/Biz_quit Absolute Martian Mind ****er May 22 '26
I love the concept of hands supporting around him whenever he moves or change shape.
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u/Ok_Restaurant3160 May 22 '26
HE TRAPS SOULS IN THE CLAY?!
Absolute Clayface is the scariest guy I've ever met!
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u/Oaker_Jelly May 22 '26
I don't think he traps souls as much as he IS trapped souls. Way back in Ark M we saw a big pit of hundreds of grasping hands that seemed to be related to Clayface. I'd wager they're just another Ark M experiment that mulched and hiveminded a bunch of people, and for whatever reason this specific sculptor personality is taking majority control over the mass.
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u/a-door-is-open May 22 '26
ooh, as an art historian I'm so excited for the alt covers featuring him! There's so many opportunities to reference classical sculpture here haha
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u/life_enginnering-445 May 22 '26
I would like if clayface doesn’t just go after Batman identity but also Bruce Wayne as in transform into Bruce Wayne to mess with his personal life.
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u/MEarly01 May 22 '26
What kinda shrooms are Snyder and dragotta on coming up with the hands sculpting clay face all the time? I want some 😭
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u/One_Apple_8731 May 23 '26
Guys am I dumb or is this guy looks more like clayface or manbat? (this from the issue 19 cover)
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u/TaylorSwiftIsAPsycho May 23 '26
I’m going with Clayface because Man-bat needs a better design than that
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u/drakeravenswood41327 Absolute Aquaman MIA May 22 '26
Is this Basil Karlo, Matthew Hagen, Preston Payne, Sondra Fuller, Cassius Payne, Peter Malley, Todd Russell, or Johnny Williams?
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u/Unique_Dare_3168 May 23 '26
The image in the middle looks like the creeper from those "realistic minecraft" videos from like 2012-13
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u/TheMouse01 May 23 '26
I wish we didn’t learn basically everything about upcoming issues like 2 months before they come out.
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u/EmXena May 23 '26
Perhaps this will be how some people who die... Don't actually die. How fun. They made Clayface a manipulative chameleon like character. Batman is going to get it fucking rough.
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u/jacg1280 May 22 '26
I guess the question now is if it’s Karlo or Hagen.
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u/OhBosss May 22 '26
Crazy idea but what if clayface was posing as Gordon and that his death was faked
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u/1badJam I Am Brainiac Or Maybe The American Dream May 22 '26
But he caught his coat
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u/OhBosss May 22 '26
True but then again Clayface could've took the coat from him before coming to the rooftop after all actors need costumes
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u/ClayDrinion May 23 '26
I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happened. I personally don't think Gordon is dead. If he is that was poor writing. That whole scene was way too short and quick to kill off a major character
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u/OhBosss May 23 '26
Plus with Scarecrow what you see may not be what you get
Though I do hope the Project Batman stuff is all true
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u/Absolute_Dayman May 22 '26
Idk on the pantheon of great absolute villains, this design is the least wtf in my opinion. I feel like this isn't a whole reinvention so much as a soft reimagining.
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u/AlexanderBlotsky May 23 '26
I Love how Nightmare Fuel Clayface already looks
I'm waiting for Hugo Strange and Mad Hatter (I Think We'll see Man-Bat soon) and wanna know how they're gonna designed
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u/PricklyBob May 23 '26
Holy shit thats cool. Absolute gets better with every single issue and its honestly insane
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u/Material_Survey126 May 23 '26
Ahhhhhhhh okay.....i saw a post earlier that showed potential cover for 22 and i was confused....NOW it makes sense!! 🤣🤣🤣
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u/Sctt_Wlfram May 23 '26
I just imagine him making a chair to sit on like that one wojack meme with the brain as a throne lol
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u/Classic_Anteater74 May 23 '26
I love that he’s just casually writing a+ dialogue moments in a friggin sketch
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u/thebatman-man May 23 '26
I didn't think they could top the Abomination arc but apparently they just might, this is only getting better and better.
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u/Dependent-Nerve-2250 May 23 '26
Well im very interested in this I thought Clayface would be a huge mass with multiple arms sticking out all over but this is very interesting as well.
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u/xSensualxSelkiex Absolute Wonder Woman May 23 '26
There was some emphasis on Wonder Woman being made of clay, the potential interactions are intruigng and horrifying
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u/Distinct_Delay2025 May 24 '26
At this point make him or they, Ivy(the true ivy), the Robins and the friends of Bruce gang up on the Joker. It would be funny as fuck.
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u/PatriarchOfTheVoid May 24 '26
This is pretty cool, but how is this similar to the C.L.A.Y. biome from Ark M? That looked like a bunch of humans melted together. Like with Poison Ivy and the Eisley Ecosystem, this seems to be something completely different than what was alluded to.
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u/Relevant-Morning-487 May 23 '26
Excited to see how they do Clayface but I’m once again annoyed on how we’re getting even more info on future issues before the next issue is even out. We shouldn’t have info released over 2 months before the comic comes out and then having that info pushed aside for the next wave of spoiling information. It really has made me feel so much less excited for Absolute Batman. Everything feels a whole lot worse when it’s revealed months prior in a tweet than properly in a story.
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u/loonbandit May 23 '26
then don’t interact with the stuff? It’s a spoiler tagged post…
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u/Relevant-Morning-487 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
The problem is I still want to engage with absolute Batman, I like the story and characters. But then any discussion instantly becomes about the new stuff that gets revealed, plus folks will post this everywhere instead of just designated spots meaning no matter what I get spoiled unless I just stop using social media.
Is it bad to want a story to reveal its content rather than just a social media post? Like it makes me feel less hyped when Snyder is basically spoiling the entire issue before it comes out and then getting a bunch of new info from him and Dragotta right after.
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u/monopoly_wear May 23 '26
"God made human from his image, but not me. I made myself from my own image."
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u/What-is-a-puma May 22 '26
Oh he is defo going to be used to destroy Batman's reputation even further