One of the best Batman comics currently on shelves is getting an animated adaptation alongside some other exciting projects! According to reports, DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation are partnering on a series adaptation of Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta’s Absolute Batman. The studios jointly announced the new series at the Annecy International Film Festival on Thursday, with Warner Bros. Animation President Sam Register hosting, and Peter Safran, DC Studios Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, and James Gunn joining him on stage. In addition to Absolute Batman, the group announced Joker: Laugh Riot, an adult animated series, and an untitled kids-focused projectstarring Krypto the Superdog.
What is Absolute Batman?
Scott Snyder, who writes Absolute Batman for DC Comics, will executive produce and showrun the series, with Nick Dragotta producing. If you’ve not read Absolute Batman, I highly recommend it. The series is an extreme take on the Dark Knight that goes hard on reinventing every character. In the series, Bruce Wayne is a working-class hero whose self-appointed mission to change Gotham City goes terribly wrong when villains start getting big ideas. While that might sound like your garden-variety Batman book, I promise you, it’s not. Absolute Batman is essentially a remix of Batman lore, with Wayne being friends with some of Gotham’s most notorious villains before terrible circumstances transform them into twisted versions of themselves. The Bane arc is positively bonkers, and the recent arc featuring Poison Ivy is a blast!
“We could not be more excited about this. We are in very early stages of development on this with executive producer and writer Scott Snyder and the artist Nick Dragotta,” said Register, showing some very early previzualization artwork. “It is a full CG show… It’s going to be a whole different tone and a whole different take again on Batman as well,” Register added.
Joker: Laugh Riot
Executive produced by Jim Krieg, Joker: Laugh Riot will be directed by Yasuhuro Aoki, who took animator credits on ChaO and The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim. It sees Joker face an existential crisis when arch enemy Batman is killed.
The logline reads: “When Batman is murdered, the Joker launches a ruthless crusade through Gotham’s underworld to find the killer who took away his greatest adversary. But as his violent quest for answers pushes him closer towards vigilante than villain, Joker is forced to confront the truth that without Batman, he doesn’t know who he is.”
“Our first ever anime series. We’re producing this in Japan with director Aoki who did Steamboy. This is an original story that is very spooky and very dark. We’ve just begun production and we’re very excited to be doing our very first anime series out of Japan,” said Register.
More Krypto is on the way
Executive produced by C.H. Greenblatt, the untitled Krypto Project sees Krypto tag along with a gang of misfit criminal wannabes who live down the block. As he follows them into misadventures and poorly laid plans, Krypto’s pure nature slowly ends up redeeming them, whether they want it or not.
“Krypto is really one of my favourite characters in the DC canon and we are thrilled he is finally getting his own show. We’re in early stages of this Wonderful show with C.H. Greenblatt. It’s funny, it’s full of heart and because it’s Krypto, thoroughly chaotic,” said Safran.
In addition to revealing DC and WB’s new animation projects, the Annecy crowd also got a sneak peek at upcoming shows, including Creature Commandos, Batman: Caped Crusader, My Adventures with Superman, Mister Miracle, DC Superpowers, and Starfire.
Hell yeah! The DC animation slate sounds better than the comic company’s live-action offerings. Straight up, I’m looking forward to most of the projects announced at this year’s Annecy presentation. How about you? Which of these announcements are you the most excited for? Let us know in the comments section below.
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