Absolute Batman Vol. 2: Abomination sure does deliver on what the title promises.

It is a rare comic (or maybe just a rare mainstream superhero comic) that can evoke a visceral reaction. Books that are entertaining, sure; surprising, sometimes; but the kind of gut-check, jump scare, really sit back and say wow of the early Vertigo days is exceedingly rare (a reason, indeed, I did a read through of DC’s Hill House books a few years ago, specifically looking for a comic that would actually horrify me).

Abomination is such a comic, a book where the stakes get shockingly stacked against our hero, a book where the collateral damage is nigh perverse, as conceived by Scott Snyder and drawn in grotesque detail by Nick Dragotta. There were times I didn’t want to flip back through because I didn’t want to see that again, and I consider that a win.

It bears saying that Absolute Batman, flagship of the Absolute Universe, is a weird series. Snyder, Dragotta, and company shatter the boundaries of a DC series, almost a Black Label book, clocking a startling moment of gore in almost every issue, Batman done through Snyder’s horror chops that we didn’t see so often in his mainstream DC Universe work. But it’s also Batman through a Smallville lens (or Gotham, or, like, Strange New Worlds or what have you), a Batman twenty-somethings drama where you already know what everything’s building toward, references like Harvey Dent being “two-faced” dropped with a self-satisfied wink, and indeed, a lot of that is made good on here in only the second book.

And so we have an Absolute Batman series, a major factor in keeping DC Comics afloat right now, that is both gripping in a way that outshines its peers and also markedly, almost comically mundane.

How long can the center hold?

[Review contains spoilers]

The lore of Absolute Batman at the end of Absolute Batman Vol. 1: The Zoo is that Bruce Wayne fights crime as Batman with the halting help of his childhood friends, including Waylon “Croc” Jones, ruffian Ozzie Cobblepot, DA prosecutor Harvey Dent, and tech whiz Eddie Nygma. It’s unsubtle, and there’s no question what station this train will ultimately arrive in, any more than when Robin Lord Taylor was a low-level crook at the start of Gotham and Cory Michael Smith worked for the Gotham police.

It’s not so much I might say Abomination turns this on its head as that this status quo lasts far less time than I might have expected. For all the winks and nods, Bruce getting in and out of scrapes with the help of “Way”’s fists and Eddie’s genius might have had potential, what would probably have been Harvey and Ozzie playing angel and devil on his shoulders. But by the end of Abomination, we know that lore was incomplete — Bruce Wayne fights crime as Batman, while meanwhile his childhood friends have been ravaged by his enemies: Way turned into a humanoid crocodile, and Ozzie, Harvey, and Eddie all beaten near to criminal insanity by the villain Bane.

In this, Absolute Batman becomes something different than what the audience thought it was, but now also it becomes more like a traditional Batman title, what with the crocodile-man and Harvey’s got a split personality and Eddie’s saying “Riddle me this.” That makes it better, because now we’re not being constantly nudged about how Way likes reptiles? Worse, because now Waylon Jones isn’t Bruce’s confidant but rather a croc-man who lives in the sewers? I just have no idea.

I can say, Snyder sure doesn’t hold back getting there. Even before “Abomination” proper, we’re nine pages in to the first story, “Absolute Zero,” when Marcos Martín graphically depicts blood spewing from every one of Mitchell “Matches” Malone’s pores before he falls down dead in the street in front of Bruce. That’s the lead-off to skeletal mad scientist Victor Fries; a Bane drawn by Dragotta as a pulsating, fleshy “abomination”; two whole chapters where Bruce is submitted to harrowing surgical torture, where Snyder feints that Bruce has had his skull caved in; and finally the one after another after another reveal that Ozzie has been mutilated (the book at it’s most stomach-churning), and Harvey and Eddie both disfigured.

It is, again, horrifying, and bravo to the creative team for accomplishing that. Bane is a massively hard character to use in the main DC Universe as is, a character who’s first storyline was so defining that most every other use detracted from it. In this new continuity, Snyder has found a way to make Bane legendary again (elevating perhaps both versions), a villain now inextricable from Ozzie’s toe turned the wrong way toward the camera. It’s incumbent on Snyder to keep raising the stakes; maybe he can, maybe he can’t, but if he can, that’s a must-read comic.

I ought just enjoy the moment, but I can’t help wonder, how does it all end? DC, my belief is, doesn’t want an Absolute Batman #100 — that defeats the idea, real or imagined, that “regular Batman has too much continuity but this one you can just jump in!” How to resolve the tension between DC not letting Absolute Batman get too long in the tooth and also not killing their golden goose? A relaunch? A second “season”? If, with every issue, Absolute Batman gets closer to “regular Batman”’s status quo — Harley Quinn is here now too, and Dick Grayson — at what point is this just another Bat-title, only with more pathos between Batman and his rogues? Does the very “young Batman” makeup of Absolute Batman mean it must inevitably reach an end? Would DC really continue an Absolute Universe without an Absolute Batman?

It strikes me that Absolute Batman’s in the “die a hero or live long enough to become the villain” position — success carries it on, but that continued success brings the title ever closer to its possible doom. I don’t see the way out. Then again, this reminds me of my speculation some 17 years ago(!) as to how it was DC would separate Superman from a planet of New Kryptonians and where they’d put Batman Dick Grayson when Bruce Wayne returned from the dead to retake his cowl, I couldn’t imagine — and it all worked out fine and indeed it’s old news now. Maybe things for Absolute Batman will work out just the same.

Meantime, the next collection of Absolute Batman is out in September. Absolute Batman Vol. 2: Abomination is a thrill ride, and perhaps I haven’t said enough about its heart — the two issues of Way and Bruce’s other friends making sure Bruce isn’t Batman just to try to kill himself, which sets the emotional foundation for all the tragedy that comes after; and, as well, the flashback that runs through “Abomination” where Bruce and Selina Kyle enact a dangerous scheme all to preserve Way’s dignity in a boxing match. Gosh this Absolute Universe is a tightrope act for DC, but Scott Snyder can sure produce interesting comics.

[Includes original and 25+ variant covers]