Writer: Scott Snyder
Art: Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vincente, and Clayton Cowles
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $4.99
Reviewed by: Anonymous
Release Date: June 11th, 2025
AN ALL NEW ARK (M) STARTS HERE! The latest development in saving the derelict and despondent of our society is a facility known as Ark M—a fully operational institution that has played a rather sizeable part, on purpose or not, in the creation of evil. And it’s active. So when Bruce tries infiltrate it and distill its secrets, a new villain from Gotham City arrives to deal with the problem…an old adversary of Alfred’s…a man known only as Bane.
If you’re interested in this comic, series, related trades, or any of the others mentioned, then simply click on the title/link to snag a copy through Amazon as you read the Absolute Batman #9 Review.
THE DISPATCH
Scott Snyder’s Absolute Batman series has always pushed boundaries—psychological, ethical, even metaphysical—but with issue #9, the series launches a new arc that takes aim not just at Gotham’s underworld, but its institutions of so-called care and correction. “Ark M” isn’t just a new setting—it’s a concept, a question, and a crucible. And with Snyder at the helm, it’s as unnerving as it is riveting.
Following the high-concept horror of earlier issues—which saw Bruce confront digital hauntings, multiversal reflections, and the lingering ghost of Alfred’s death—issue #9 dares to make the madness personal again. The plot kicks off with Bruce infiltrating Ark M, a new “rehabilitation” facility with a past steeped in quiet evil. It’s not Arkham Asylum by name, but it shares DNA—and perhaps, something darker.
Snyder, ever the architect of Gotham’s hidden sins (The Black Mirror, Zero Year, Death of the Family), introduces Ark M as a modern Frankenstein’s lab for systemic failure: a sleek, clinical dystopia where inmates vanish, experiments are sanctioned under bureaucracy, and the line between healing and control is disturbingly thin. In other words, classic Snyder—social commentary laced with mythic dread. But what elevates Absolute Batman #9 isn’t just the setting. It’s the return of Bane.
Not just a bruiser here, Bane is reimagined as something more haunting: a ghost from Alfred’s past, a philosophical counterweight to Bruce, and a man who knows Ark M’s darkest secrets because he helped inspire them. This Bane isn’t venom-fueled rage—he’s patience, presence, and pain incarnate. Snyder leans into the tragic intellect that made Bane great in Knightfall, but twists it with a personal vendetta linked not to Batman, but to Alfred. That reframing gives the character a fresh bite, especially for long-time fans.
This issue also marks a notable tonal shift. Where previous entries in the series leaned into surrealism and meta-commentary, this chapter is tightly focused, almost claustrophobic. Ark M’s corridors aren’t haunted by metaphor—they’re haunted by consequence. There are no hallucinations here. Just secrets. Experiments. Evidence. And Batman, stripped of allies, must navigate it all.
Visually, the book’s signature blend of noir grit and psychological terror. Stark lighting, oppressive shadows, and sterile whites make Ark M feel both clinical and corrupted—like Arkham filtered through the lens of Se7en.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Absolute Batman #9 opens its newest arc with thematic urgency and narrative confidence. Scott Snyder continues to prove he understands not just Batman’s enemies, but the systems that enable them—and how Bruce, for all his power, is just one man trying to hold back an entire city’s collapse. With Bane re-entering the fray and Ark M promising horrors still unseen, this may be the most grounded—and disturbing—arc of the series yet. Arkham was madness. Ark M is madness with intent. And that makes it even more terrifying.