The Absolute Joker has been lingering in the shadows and sidelines of Scott Snyder’s Absolute Batman saga, but not anymore. The DC Comics December 2025 solicitations are out, and it has just revealed the most terrifying Joker to date – a nightmare body horror creature straight out of the darkest pits of Hell.
This new design by Nick Dragotta reimagines all the familiar features of the DC villain: the pale face, green hair, and bloody, carved smile shrouded by a manic energy that’s palpable even through the pages of a comic book. But nothing is as it seems in the Absolute universe, starting with the characters.
Absolute Joker is no different. After teasing his arc for the past 11 issues of Absolute Batman, DC Comics has now revealed his “absolute” form, and it may have something to do with Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight.
Is Absolute Joker Inspired By Heath Ledger’s Arc in The Dark Knight?
In the 2008 Oscar-winning rendition of Heath Ledger’s Joker, the iconic villain terrorizes his enemies by sending them his calling card. 40 minutes and 25 seconds into the film, a similar card is found hidden among the pages of a legal document as Judge Surillo reads out criminal charges against dozens of criminals. It is meant as a sly threat, hiding a bigger and more sinister scheme.
17 years later, the Joker’s design on that card sent to Judge Surillo can now be seen mirrored in the Absolute Joker. With the devil’s tail, the hunched pose, and the animalistic hind legs, there are more than just a few similarities between what Christopher Nolan envisioned and the Absolute Joker design.
But that’s not all. Nick Dragotta has pierced the veil of abnormality and birthed a creature that is inhuman, aberrant, and mutated beyond recognition.
First look at Absolute Joker in the ‘ABSOLUTE BATMAN’ comic series. pic.twitter.com/BEv3nIN29c
The Absolute Joker has ram’s horns jutting out of his head in a shape that mimics a jester’s hat. His back is covered by jagged green dorsal plates (inspired by Godzilla) that descend all the way down his spinal column and flow out into a leathery tail pointed at the end like an arrow tip. The devilish imagery extends to his extremities, designed like a raven or a crow’s hind legs, with talons for toes.
The creature’s face is a portrait of nightmares. With bloodshot eyes dug deep into the bony facade, the rest of his face disappears behind a monstrous, ear-to-ear carved “smile” (if it can be called that), with scores of pointed teeth framing the open-jawed mouth, and a curled serpent’s tongue lashing out. The rest of his bleach-white body is covered by rivulets of visible green veins, and his freakishly long arm extends into even freakishly longer fingers.
Moreover, an epilogue to issue #6 of Absolute Batman revealed the Joker receiving a blood transfusion from several infants piled draped around his body. His mutation, whatever the cause or purpose, transformed him from a human over the course of 12 issues into a Lovecraftian creature.
The Absolute Joker is a Frankenstein’s Monster of the most corrosive and dangerous predatory creatures known to man, and Dragotta’s design does justice to this manifestation of evil that has horrified Gotham for an eternity.
Absolute Batman Upcoming Issue: Plot, Release, and All You Need to Know
Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta’s Absolute Batman series has released 12 issues so far. In the upcoming issues, Batman will spiral further down into the machinations of Bane, a scheme that was revealed to be masterminded by Joker himself. The two will battle it out before a grand showdown between Batman and his eternal archnemesis in the final issue.
The fully mutated Joker will debut in issue #15. The plot of the issue will revolve around Alfred (an MI6 agent in the Absolute Universe) revealing to Bruce the story of the elusive criminal (Joker) that he has been hunting for years.
Below is a table with release dates for all the upcoming issues of Absolute Batman:
The Absolute Batman collected edition for issues #7-14, titled Abomination, will release on February 3, 2026.
