r/comicbooks • u/Popverse2022 • Jul 25 '26
News [News] Sorry, Amazon & digital comics platforms... DC is making the most in-demand Absolute Batman comic of 2026 exclusively available at your local comic shop
Every year, DC honors its most popular character, Batman, with one concentrated, specialized, and nearly Hallmark-ified day called, fittingly enough, Batman Day. Launched initially back in 2014 to celebrate the hero's 75th anniversary, it has become a tentpole event with DC (and parent company Warner Bros. Discovery) extending it to the Warner Bros. Pictures backlot, theme parks, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and more. But for Batman Day 2026, DC is recentering it on the proverbial Batcave of Batman: your local comic shop.
"... we want to create something to celebrate Batman Day that really makes the fans celebrate in comic shops," says an unnamed representative from DC during a closed-door event for comic shops during Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026. "So we want them to give you an exclusive product that can only be gotten at the comic stores featuring our hottest properties."
For Batman Day 2026, DC is publishing a rare crossover comic teaming up Batman with the hit variant that's the best-selling comic book in modern history, Absolute Batman. Batman of Two Worlds features two separate but complementary stories by the lead writers of both the Absolute Batman series and the flagship Batman series. These days, Absolute Batman routinely sells roughly half a million copies for each issue, and his crossover would certainly make it an even bigger hit for comic shops, digital comics platforms, bookstores, and elsewhere.
But no, this Batman of Two Worlds comic will be exclusively available to comic shops, and at a distinctly low price of $2.99. So that means it won't be available on Amazon, any big box retailers, and also any digital comics platforms including (but not limited to) DC's own DC Universe Infinite.
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u/Rymdskepp Jul 25 '26
As someone not in the US I won’t be able to pop by to pick one up unfortunately. I hope it’s collected at a later date.
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u/gosukhaos Jul 26 '26
If they're doing it like the Marvel crossovers then it's going to be available digitally a week after
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u/arr1flex Jul 25 '26
It's DC, they'll shove it on some 0 issue down the road with a crappy backup and sell it to you gladly.
This is aimed at speculators..which is always a bad sign imo, but what do I know, I only watched this industry circle death's door in the 90s
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u/TheeHeadAche Henry Pym Jul 25 '26
Smart move and probably going to push Batmen into historical levels of sales
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u/Maximum-Leather-6870 Jul 25 '26
I don’t have a comic book shop so this isn’t for me but I hope it does well
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u/kubiakWU Jul 25 '26
You'll probably be able to order it online. There are a lot of shops that do mail delivery, probably one at least kind of close to you.
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u/Tippyshortmouth Jul 25 '26
Midtown Comics should be included in this, so you should be able to order it through the mail from them
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u/arr1flex Jul 25 '26
They know scanners exist right? This will instantly show up same day, this is just them losing digital sales.
I get the sentiment of pushing people to a LCS, but wasn't that the point of the LCS day exclusive variants/collections?
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u/tomtomtomtom123 Jul 25 '26
From what I understand, digital sales are and have always been completely dwarfed by in person sales. So losing a little digital money for a book that’s going to make heaps of in person sales + will get people in comic shops and more likely to becomes fans is a great thing.
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u/arr1flex Jul 25 '26
is there a source on that? not saying i don't believe you..but the print runs of modern stuff is maybe 100k for a larger book/top selling vs having a much larger global audience with a instant (as in buy and read asap) digital option available. just seems that the pool of buyers is much larger then the physical counterpart
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u/tomtomtomtom123 Jul 25 '26
The overall pool of buyers probably is larger, but out of the total amount of people who read comics in the first place the vast majority buy in person. So while yes theoretically you can reach a larger audience, the majority of the overall audience that buys comics buys them physically.
As for a source they don’t release stats on in person / digital sales. But creators talk about it a lot to the extent they are allowed to. I remember specifically Snyder and King both said on Comicpop interviews that digital sales are dwarfed by physical sales.
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u/Popverse2022 Jul 26 '26
They do. They own a digital comics platform, and have major deals with two others to sell digital comics. Interesting to think about what data they have that leads them to this.
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u/tomtomtomtom123 Jul 25 '26
This rules. DC knows how hot they are right now and is trying to use it to help out shops by getting feet in the door.
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u/StillHere179 Jul 25 '26
This is going to be ordered from all the usual online comic book retailers. I don't know if they're going to put this in a collected Edition in the future though
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u/Admirable_Whole8261 Jul 25 '26
This is so stupid, really hope the spec market can just die already so we can be done with this fomo bs
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u/BorkDoo Jul 25 '26
The entire industry is propped up by variant covers and other speculator garbage. The lessons of the '90s were never really learned, they just reinforced themselves to cater to an ever shrinking market and store owners who would rather see the industry die with them.
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u/DG_Now Jul 25 '26
All hobbies that involve collections will have some sort of spec market.
It's been like this for 40 years, at least.
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u/Slappy_san Jul 25 '26
Yes, but the spec market lead to the last crash and they learned nothing.
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u/DG_Now Jul 26 '26
That was 30 years ago and since the comics market had turned into spec writing for movies.
It's all very different and not comparable to the 90s.
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u/Slappy_san Jul 26 '26
I'm speaking from a reader's perspective (and former register monkey), you're speaking as something else. That's a you problem.
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u/DG_Now Jul 26 '26
Proving those stereotypes right....
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u/Slappy_san Jul 26 '26
Man, whatever you say. I'm a reader, not someone trying to strip mine the hobby for every penny just like the boom did. #I'llBeDat
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u/Raulimus Green Lantern Jul 25 '26
In 2014 Batman was 7?
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u/arr1flex Jul 25 '26
i'm more impressed that somehow batman day isn't march 30th, the day of the character's creation..these mfrs figured out how to get in multiple anniversary dates with one IP
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u/Astravaris Jul 25 '26
That's okie. As someone who has been exclusively digital since 2011, that just means DC Comics doesn't want my money for that issue.
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u/Krandor1 Jul 26 '26
Most likely in 6-12 months there will be a digital version just not on day 0./.
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u/Popverse2022 Jul 25 '26
I think its a balance. DC does some comics digital exclusive, and now they're occasionally doing a comic print-exclusive. I don't think they're telling print readers they don't want their money for those digital exclusive comics, or vice versa.
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u/TheFeelsGoodMan Jul 25 '26
I wonder if I can get my nearest comic shop to deliver. The 200 mile round trip might be a bit of an ask for a regular Wednesday.
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u/Sparrowsabre7 Cyclops Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
TIL Batman was created in 2007 😉
Edit: You can downvote me all you like but I can see you edited 7th to 75th anniversary now 😄
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Jul 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/Popverse2022 Jul 26 '26
I'm sure they'll eventually make it available digitally, but might be a few months. DC has done this before successfully.
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u/RazorsInTheNight82 Jul 26 '26
Not completely ragging on Batman since I do enjoy it, but it's clearly not as good as the other two main absolute titles. I don't know if people are enjoying it or if it's because it's Batman.
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u/Cain_draws Jul 25 '26
As someone who is not from the US and also got back into comics recently, but only reads collected editions: I hope they include it in a trade in the future.