Batman (2024) # 150 Absolute Power Tie-In

 By Mark Rodriguez

Absolute Power deals with Amanda Waller working with both Failsafe and the Braniac Queen to achieve the story's namesake. Failsafe was defeated by Batman and his crew, but due to the military busting into Blackgate Prison, they had to escape, leaving the renegade robot behind. Recently, Damian discovered that Failsafe is gone, having been removed from Blackgate.

"Be Better" opens with a man named Teddy sitting in a bar talking to the barkeep, Flannigan. During the events in the Gotham War, Teddy said he stumbled upon Batman's stuff, including his real name, and it must be worth something. Flannigan warns him not to mess with him. Teddy says he really needs the money and currently none of the major villains are hiring henchmen. Flannigan warns that something's changed with Batman, and he's become more dangerous.

A few years ago, Flannigan recalls some people calling him as they found Batman lying unconscious right outside his bar. They can't tell if he's actually dead, and one of the men decides to try to lift up his mask. Batman suddenly wakes up and grabs the man's hand, Flannigan recalls it was like watching a demon come to life. He advises Teddy to forget everything he saw or he'll end up with every bone in his body broken.

A man named Percy says to ignore Flannigan and says the info Teddy has is worth millions. He knows all the top players and he can arrange meetings with them, he just wants ten percent. Teddy and Percy toast to their upcoming fortune.

Teddy later wakes up at his home, where he arrived drunk at three in the morning and crashed. His wife Kim tells him that their son Yuto moved out and didn't want to tell him. Teddy says he's onto something big but Kim doesn't want to hear it. Kim says that Teddy always has 'something big in the works' while his son needed attention. She says his son worships him but she doesn't want that to turn into imitating. 

Teddy says all he's done is try to provide for his family. Kim says she has a regular job while he runs around being a henchmen for the psychopaths in Halloween costumes. Kim says it's not too late to start over. Teddy says that is exactly what's working on, starting over.

Later on, Teddy and Percy go to the meet-up. Teddy says he's only ever worked for the lower guys like the Ventriloquist and Firefly, but not someone like this. Percy says things will be fine, as long as he looks him in the eye, the right eye in this case. Percy is allowed to meet with Two-Face, who insists on meeting him alone.

Two-Face says he knows Batman's 'secret identity', but it doesn't mean he really knows who he is, like he does. Two-Face says he has fought with Batman many times and he could have undone his duality at any time. He asks which side he thinks Batman would choose if he had to choose between being the Man or the Bat. 

Two-Face admires the beauty in Batman's duality and says a pure Bat would destroy them all. The fun would be gone and he'd become a relentless monster that would feed off of anyone that dared to step out of his line. Two-Face draws his gun and says he won' let that happen. He tells Teddy to leave and soon enough he'll find out what he's dealing with. 

Percy asks what happened, and Teddy says he wasn't sure. He says Two-Face was about to kill him, but he cuts himself off as he sees Batman perched on one of the rooftops. Percy tells him to relax since Batman is staking out the major bad guys, and they're nothing in comparison. Percy says they have to move quickly. They'll skip the crazies on the list and go for the ones that understand business.

Percy and Teddy head over to the Iceberg Longue currently run by the Penguin's children (?????). He is advised to keep things to the point and not to bring up their father. Once in their presence, Ms. Cobblepot confirms that Teddy is asking for a million for Batman's name. Teddy says he will give the name to them, and only then for a million. Ms, Cobblepot says that is easily done, but her brother notices Batman on one of the security cameras. They say he will get his money once they deal with him.

Percy and Teddy wait for the money when one of the Penguin's men, Roger, arrives to warn them that they're going to be killed. Teddy recognizes him as they were both henchmen for Firefly once. Roger says they're not just going to let him walk out, the power of secret information is being the only one that knows it. 

Roger confirms that 'they got him' over the phone and just then there's a big explosion that sends Percy and Teddy flying. Roger tells the other henchmen that they were supposed to be quiet. One of the men, named Cutup, says they take what the want.  A henchwoman says they better pray that Teddy lives because he'll be no good to them if he dies. Teddy blacks out.

Teddy later wakes up surrounded by Roger and bunch of other former henchmen of the likes of Catwoman, the Scarecrow and the Joker. Teddy recognizes them and Roger explains that they rescued him. One of them, Belle, explains that they lashed out on their own and took some of their bosses' gear. One in particular stole some of Scarecrow's fear toxin but it's an incomplete version that only causes severe anxiety. Cutup wants to know Batman's identity but another henchman, Ahmed, says it's safer for them if they don't know Batman's identity. Ahmed explains they'll be safe if Teddy is with them since Batman won't want to send him to jail knowing what he knows. Teddy is afraid Batman will kill him. Belle says Batman is scary but he won't kill him. 

Belle recalls a fight between Batman and her boss at the time. Mr. Freeze. During the scuffle she was accidentally knocked off a building. Batman swung over and caught her, saving her life. Belle assures Teddy that Batman isn't a killer.

Cutup says Batman is weak and they'll take care of him if shows up the following day. Teddy asks about this and Roger says they're planning a bank robbery. Roger says their bosses just cared about showing the world how smart they are. They're in this for the easy money. Cutup says they'll really clean up since they have Teddy as their secret weapon.

The following day the crooks arrived at the bank, but they find Batman already waiting for them. Ahmed apologizes and says Batman told him he'd put in a good word with the cops. As the crooks shoot at Batman, Teddy runs and hides under a desk. Batman is standing on top of the desk and Teddy screams.

Teddy wakes up in a dorm, just as his son Yuto and his friend show up. Yuto's friend ducks out and Teddy doesn't know where he is. Yuto asks if his father is so wasted he doesn't realize he's in Gotham University. Teddy asks his son why he never told him he was in the university. Yuto says he doesn't deserve to know anything about his life. He used to look up to him, thinking he was cool, coming back and forth as he pleased dropping off cash. He'd argue with his mother and Yuto would take his father's side.

Teddy said he hustled to put food on the table and risked his life for them. Yuto says he hurt people and helped out monsters because he was afraid of being a husband and a father. Teddy says Yuto must be up to something too since he could afford to go to Gotham University. Yuto explains he once wanted to be just like his father, and he went looking to be hired to be a henchman. He would get hired by the Scarecrow and worked on getting supplied until Batman showed up.

Yuto explains that during the fight, Scarecrow tried to use his fear toxin on Batman, not caring that he also gassed his henchmen. He was using an incomplete version which only gave Yuto increased anxiety. He asks his father how he could do this every night, risking making him an orphan and making his mother a widow.

Batman helped calm Yuto down, he somehow knew both him and his father. He pushed him to apply to school and got him set with a scholarship program. Yuto asked him what he wanted in return and Batman said he only wanted him to 'be better'. 

As Teddy walks out of the university, he sees Bruce Wayne. Teddy tells him he has to go since everyone in the city knows what he knows. Bruce has a job lined up for him at Metropolis and a new identity. Teddy hopes his son can grow up to be a better man. He realizes he could tell everyone who Batman is, but that would prevent him from helping people like how he helped his son.

Bruce tells Teddy to leave Gotham and become the man he wants Yuto to be. He says if enough time passes he can return, and Batman will be there to help.

The Absolute Power Lead-In opens with Bruce pondering how easy it was for Joe Chill to kill his parents with a gun. Even though he brought Joe to justice, it didn't fill the void left behind. As soon as Bruce was old enough, he bought out that gun manufacturer and shut it down. He wonders how far he would take things, and he if would take the ones that create guns out. He ponders that Failsafe was his gun, and Amanda Waller took him. They sent an army of Amazo robots with the powers of superheroes and sent them after his friends. Batman ponders how this is his fault, since Waller couldn't have done this without the help of Failsafe.

Batman sneaks into the Titans Tower, hoping to find the one man that can shut down the Failsafe robots. Cyborg is connected to the tower's systems and tell Batman that Waller is trying to infect him with a virus and he's barely able to fight it off. Batman tells him he's spending too much energy doing so and soon Waller will try to physically shut him down. Cyborg is detecting a strong power source coming from south of Gamorra and determines that Waller has a Mother Box.

Just then one of the Amazos busts in and says it assumed that Batman would be there. Batman dodges the robots attacks and states his top priority is to protect Cyborg. He notes that the Amazo has a Victorian accent. 

Cyborg grabs onto the Amazo, but it manages to sock Batman away and punch Cyborg off of it. The robot tells Batman that he matches its will but lacks its power. The Amazo punches Batman right out of Titans Tower.

Failsafe orders the robot to return to base since it is needed. The robot ties up Cyborg with the Lasso of Truth and flies off with him. 

Batman survives the fall and ponders on his fault in all this. The Flash arrives and relays messages between him and Wonder Woman as he zips back and forth between the two. Flash has to constantly keep moving so he can't be tracked and captured like the rest. Batman tells Wonder Woman via Flash, that Cyborg was taken but he knows about Waller's power source. Flash also relays this information to Superman.

Batman says he will go get the Mother Box. He monologues that Waller took his gun so he will now take hers. He says this heist will be dangerous, so he will need to recruit a thief as a cat walks in front of his feet.

My thoughts-

This is my type of tie-in story where you still get a regular issue and then the tie-in is a few extra pages. This way the comic doesn't stop the current plot in favor for an issue devoted to some crossover event. 

This story gives a look at one of the many henchmen that works for the major villains in Gotham City. It's something we don't see too often, most of the time the villains already have henchmen at their disposal but we don't get to see how they get 'hired'. It's kinda funny to think of tough guys going to random bars and trying to get the word on if the Penguin or Two-Face are currently hiring. And who the hell would willingly work for the Joker even if he was hiring???

Another thing to think about is how Batman knew that Teddy, and by extension his son, weren't 'all bad' and deserved a second chance at life. Now I know Batman will save a henchman's life during a fight, like when he rescued that woman that was knocked off the roof during the fight with Mr. Freeze, but what about the 'not so bad' ones? Like in the heat of battle, how Batman know to go all-out on some henchmen but then go easy on the ones that 'aren't that bad'? "It's Teddy's boy, I'll rough up the other ones but I'll let that particular guy go."

I was confused by 'the Penguin's children' but it seems they were recently introduced in a Penguin comic series. 

Otherwise a good story and shows how other people view Batman. Teddy does seem like a down on his luck guy, but more concerned with trying to make easy money than getting a regular job and watching over his family. It's good to see he's been given a chance to turn it all around.

I also liked the mention of Scarecrow's incomplete fear toxin that mostly causes anxiety. It seems Scarecrow was trying to steal supplies to complete the formula with the help of Yuto and some others and Batman stopped them. We can assume one of his henchmen stole the formula before it was complete, and he later joined Roger's crew. It's fun to connect the dots.

Speaking of Failsafe he is still around causing trouble, since his body was taken after his defeat at the end of 'Dark Prisons'. Even without the Zur personality, he's still dangerous. I wonder how the next issue will deal with either the end of the Absolute Power crossover event, or if we will start the next saga in Batman's life.