The newly announced Absolute Batman animated series is still in its earliest stages, but according to Scott Snyder, the creative vision is already clear.
Speaking on the AIPT Comics Podcast, Snyder revealed that he and artist Nick Dragotta are deeply involved in shaping the project, with Snyder serving as showrunner and Dragotta acting as an executive producer.
“We have started working on it,” Snyder said. “I’ve had our initial development conversations.” In fact, Snyder said he and Dragotta were meeting this past weekend to dig in.
Building the series from the ground up
Right now, Snyder says the team is focused on developing the foundation of the show rather than individual episodes.
“The first steps are just writing a series format, kind of a Bible for the whole series, and showing how many episodes we think it is and the structure of it,” Snyder explained.
Snyder praised the support from Warner Bros. Animation, specifically calling out Peter Girardi, as well as DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran for making sure he and Dragotta remain creatively involved throughout development.
“I can’t say enough good things about how creator-forward they are, about how hard they work to make sure that Nick and I can really be part of the creative drive of it.”
The sheer idea of Dragotta’s lines being animated is tantalizing.
Credit: DC Comics
The goal is to bring the comic to life
Rather than dramatically reinventing Absolute Batman, Snyder says the series aims to faithfully capture the comic’s visual identity.
“We want it to be as though the comic is just almost a bigger, better, more robust version of the comic on the screen,” Snyder said.
He emphasized that the show is not intended to resemble live action, but instead preserve the distinctive style that has helped make the comic one of DC’s biggest hits.
“It really looks like the comic book come to life three-dimensionally in the coolest way.”
Animation creates new storytelling opportunities
Although the comic serves as the blueprint, Snyder says animation offers different storytelling tools that allow the creative team to expand the material.
“A giant moment in a comic is a splash,” Snyder explained. “When you’re writing animation, a giant moment… can be two seconds.”
That additional flexibility gives the team room to explore emotional beats, relationships, and character moments that would be harder to fit into a monthly comic.
“A lot of it is building out connective tissue, making sure the emotionality is really there.”
Snyder compared the approach to his upcoming adaptation of Wytches, which expands the original story without changing its heart.
“It’s a huge expansion of the story of that first arc, but it’s still true to that first arc,” Snyder said. “The same approach is what we’re going to take to the animated series here.”
Might we get even more scenes like this one fleshing out Batman’s friends?
Credit: DC Comics
A different medium requires a different approach
The conversation echoed Snyder’s broader philosophy about storytelling, which he discussed throughout the interview.
Just as he believes comics should embrace the strengths of the monthly format, he says animation should take advantage of what that medium does best.
“There are things that work really well in comics… and some things for animation through different strengths,” Snyder said. “Trying to really be cognizant of those.”
While no release date has been announced, Snyder’s comments suggest the animated series won’t simply recreate Absolute Batman panel for panel. Instead, it will use animation to enrich the world and characters while remaining faithful to the comic that inspired it.
Our chat about the animated series was just the tip of the iceberg in conversation topics.
Don’t miss our full interview now running on the AIPT Comics podcast episode 387!
You must be logged in to post a comment.