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I've been hearing about 'superhero fatigue' for about ten years now, and I haven't seen much evidence for it. If you've been paying attention to American comics these past couple of years, you'd have noticed that DC's Absolute Universe and Marvel's Ultimate Universe have both been massively successful. The people (me) love their giant Batman and his massive battle-axe! 

Now, Absolute Batman writer Scott Snyder has shed light on what brought him back to writing superhero comics for DC in the lead-up to the Absolute Universe. While on the Off Panel podcast, Snyder said, "It was around that time when… I was really starting to get, I think, kind of angry at the mainstream culture for starting to really criticize the superhero genre. It was the Wall Street Journal that did this piece that was kind of an autopsy on the Marvel Universe, and there was another piece in The Times, there was just a lot of stuff that felt like it was backhandedly kind of talking about, ‘Well, thank god that superhero era is over,’ kind of was the feel. Or ‘It’s done.’ And it just felt like, ‘Not here. Over here is where these characters are reborn in all kinds of ways.’ So it got me excited to come back." 

It's also worth noting that while The Fantastic Four: First Steps floundered in theaters last summer, DC Studios's Superman film was the highest-grossing superhero film of 2025. And, while Marvel is winding down their Ultimate Universe, DC's Absolute Universe is continuing to flourish. A new Absolute series, Absolute Green Arrow, will launch this spring from a real dynamic duo of writer Pornsak Pichetshote and artist Rafael Albuquerque. 

Volume one of Absolute Batman is available now in trade paperback and hardcover form, and the second collected volume will arrive on February 3, 2026, wherever books and comics are sold. 

He is vengeance, he is the night, he is... one of Popverse's favorite subjects. Learn how to do a Dark Knight movie marathon right with our Batman movie guide, and for the true World's Greatest Detectives out there, dive deep into the heart of Gotham City by getting to know Batman with Popverse. Here are some of our latest Batman stories:

• Batman and his prank war side from Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen days will pop out some in Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez's upcoming DC relaunch
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