After two issues of tight, unnerving, psychologically rich Scarecrow storytelling, ABSOLUTE BATMAN #21 slams on the brakes and veers off into a completely different lane. Not bad. Not great. Just…there. And coming off the momentum of #19 and #20, that makes the shift feel even more jarring.
This issue isn’t doing anything wrong on a craft level — the art’s solid, the writing’s competent, and the world still feels like the same Gotham we’ve been living in. But the problem is simple: we were in the middle of a really damn good Scarecrow arc, and this issue has absolutely nothing to do with it. No follow‑up. No escalation. No connective tissue. It reads like a side quest that wandered into the main book by accident.
There are a few interesting character beats sprinkled in, and the creative team clearly isn’t phoning it in. But the pacing takes a hit, the tension evaporates, and the narrative momentum stalls. After the psychological fever dream of the last two chapters, this one feels oddly out of place — like someone swapped the playlist to a different album mid‑song.
Look, I liked some of the stuff included in this issue — though I’m still not sure what to make of the Robo-Robins. Also, I like how Harley Quinn is depicted in this title. I just wasn’t ready to move on from The Scarecrow storyline just yet. I feel like there’s a lot left to be resolved…like how much was real or hallucinations?
Bottom line: #21 is OK, but it’s a detour at the exact moment the story didn’t need one. If #22 snaps us back into the Scarecrow plot with purpose, this will go down as a harmless bump. If not, well, stay tuned. – Bill “Jett” Ramey
GRADE: C+