| Slot: |
Absolute Batman 16 Kirkham Variant Cover B |
| Item: |
Absolute Batman 16 Modern |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
4718732010
|
Owner Comments
Synopsis for Bat Out of Hell:
On Friday morning, Bruce Wayne arrives at the ruins of the Veterans Arena to help with reconstruction, working alongside the crew from dawn to dusk. His foreman, Mr. Fox, quietly forgives Bruce’s unexplained absence, saying he knows Bruce wouldn’t disappear unless something serious had happened. Bruce insists he’s fine. Fox urges him to take the weekend for himself—go do something that isn’t work for once.
After the shift ends, Bruce visits Harvey and Oz in the hospital. Instead of gratitude, he’s met with fury. Oz shouts that Bruce is great at saving Gotham, but maybe next time he should try saving one of his friends. Bruce leaves in shame.
That night, as Batman, he slips into the Gotham Museum of Natural History and uses the Amulet of Hecate to summon Wonder Woman. He tells her what happened to Waylon Jones and asks if there is any magic that could restore him. Diana explains that only her lasso Sacrifice could transform someone so deeply—but using it on a mind as fractured as Waylon’s would be catastrophic. There is, however, something else. Something in another realm. The journey will take weeks, but only two days will pass on Earth. Bruce agrees. Diana opens a portal to a dimension between Earth and the Underworld, and together they step into a landscape of shifting danger.
They cross a vast desert, trading pieces of their histories—Diana’s upbringing in Hell, Bruce’s memories of his father’s death. After sixteen grueling days, they find the skeleton of a fallen king lying on a stone plinth, coins resting where his eyes once were. Diana explains that he died fighting Akrolis, the guardian of the bridge they seek, and the coins are meant to pay Charon for passage to Elysium. Bruce wonders why a failed king would be honored so lovingly. Diana answers that heroism isn’t measured by victory, but by devotion. When Bruce asks whether the coins truly grant passage, she admits no one knows—some say they buy entry, others say they grant dreams.
From the ridge above, they finally see Akrolis’ bridge. They make camp and prepare for the challenge at dawn.
Back on Earth, Alfred Pennyworth drags a cart of raw meat into the sewers for Waylon. The increasingly feral Waylon nearly attacks him, and Alfred barely escapes by threatening him with a gun.
That night in the other realm, Diana explains that Akrolis is a centaur and a master of transformation—his arrows can turn “two legs into four, and four into two.” Many of the creatures they’ve encountered were once people he changed. Bruce admits he’s overwhelmed by the sheer strangeness of the world around them. Diana smiles and says his world is just as strange to her. She gives him a potion to protect him from Akrolis’ magic. When he asks whether she truly believes he can win, she tells him that everything he needs is already inside him.
After Bruce falls asleep, Diana gently places the king’s coins over his eyes.
Bruce dreams of his father. He confesses that he thinks Thomas was a hero for saving everyone at the zoo that day, but Bruce himself only seems to hurt the people he loves. Thomas tells him that saving Bruce wasn’t a single moment—it was every day he spent raising him, teaching him, building him. Heroism, he says, is like construction: not one grand act, but steady work, brick by brick, making the world better.
Bruce wakes wanting to tell Diana about the dream, but she says there’s no time. Akrolis awaits.
At the bridge, Diana warns that she can help in the fight, but only Bruce can earn the artifact they came for. Akrolis attacks with brutal speed. Together, they bring him down, but the centaur kicks Bruce off the bridge into the abyss. A Pegasus dives from the sky and catches him. Akrolis fires a magic arrow at Diana; Bruce, riding Pegasus, intercepts it and takes the hit. Diana knocks another arrow aside, charges Akrolis, and defeats him.
She rushes to Bruce. He’s alive. She snaps the arrow’s shaft but leaves the glowing head embedded in his shoulder. Bruce whispers that he failed. Diana tells him he hasn’t—remember what I told you. She lifts him in her arms as he loses consciousness.
Bruce wakes in his apartment at 5 AM on Sunday, alarm blaring. Remembering Diana’s words, he pulls the broken shaft from his shoulder and sees the arrowhead still glowing.
On Monday, he returns to work with his arm in a sling, telling Mr. Fox he slipped in the shower.
Deep in the sewers, Waylon finds one of Bruce’s knives stuck in the wall. Hanging from it is the arrowhead on a cord—and a note.
It tells Waylon to wear it. And that he is never alone.
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Appearing in "Bat Out of Hell"
Featured Characters:
• Batman (Bruce Wayne) (Also in a dream sequence)
• Wonder Woman (Diana of the Wild Isle)
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Supporting Characters:
• Alfred Pennyworth
• Mr. Fox (First appearance)
• Harvey Dent
• Oz
• Pegasus the Flying Horse
• Thomas Wayne (As a spirit) (In dream sequence only)
• Waylon Jones
Antagonists:
• Akrolis (First appearance)
Other Characters:
• Cyclops (Cameo)
• Giants (Appears only as a corpse)
• Centaur (In picture only)
• Minotaur (In picture only)
• Sphinx (In picture only)
• Amazons of Themyscira (Mentioned only)
• Bane (Mentioned only)
• Circe (Mentioned only)
• Charon (Mentioned only)
• Eddie (Mentioned only)
• Gods of Olympus (Mentioned only)
• Hecate
• Gotham City Police Department (Mentioned only)
• Selina Kyle (Mentioned only)
Locations:
• Absolute Universe
• Earth
• United States of America
• Gotham City
• Gotham General Hospital
• Gotham Museum of Natural History
• Gotham Presbyterian Hospital
• Gotham Sewers
• Veteran's Stadium (In ruins)
• Gotham Zoo (Mentioned only)
• Greece
• Aeaea (Mentioned only)
• "The Other Realm" (First appearance; unnamed)
• Hell (Mentioned only)
• Hades/"Underworld" (Mentioned only)
• Elysium (Mentioned only)
• Dreamtime
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Items:
• Akrolis' Bow (First appearance)
• Akrolis' Arrow (First appearance)
• Magic Arrowhead (First appearance)
• Athena Blade
• Bat-Axe
• Batarang (Cameo)
• Batsuit (Also in a dream sequence)
• Utility Belt
• Bracelets of Submission
• Lasso of Sacrifice (Mentioned only)
• Talisman of Hecate
• Wonder Woman's Tiara
Vehicles:
• Batcycle
Concepts:
• Magic
• Summoning Spell
• Metahumans (Unnamed)
Notes
• Batman's story chronologically continues from Absolute Wonder Woman #15.
• Wonder Woman's story chronologically continues in Absolute Wonder Woman 2026 Annual #1.
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*Note: Appears to be an “AI” Generated Cover in my opinion (Wonder Woman’s sword appears to be going through Batman’s shoulder).