While Batman is known for a number of things — everything from his origin story, his personal rule against using guns, and his deep roster of foes just to name a few — there is another aspect of The Dark Knight that is iconic. That would be his gadgets. Across just about every version of Batman, the vigilante has his gadgets and tools that help him fight Gotham’s crime and Scott Snyder’s Absolute Batman is now different. While this version of the iconic DC hero has some sweeping differences, his gadgets it turns out is a constant — and this week’s Absolute Batman #4 just gave Batman what might be the most unusual tool in his utility belt yet: the Bat-Thumb.
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Warning: Spoilers for Absolute Batman #4 from Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, and Gabriel Hernandez Walta beyond this point.
Absolute Batman #4 takes place over two points in Bruce Wayne’s overall timeline — his childhood and the present day. In the past, we’re taken into how Bruce was impacted by his father’s murder at the city zoo by Joe Chill with young Bruce giving a victim’s impact statement, something that will come back around by the end of the issue in the present day. The other bit from Bruce’s childhood is that we see him developing his bat bridge and the thought process and innovation that went into — as well as the conversations with his father. Bruce’s development of his invention is key to the more present-day timeline as we see him working out early versions of his Batman persona but, perhaps most interestingly, we also see him testing a new tool: the Bat-Thumb.
So, what the heck is the Bat-Thumb? The best way to describe the Bat-Thumb is that it’s a sort of grappling hook, but not one that you have to wind up and throw. In the issue, we see Bruce testing a device worn strapped to his wrist that, when he bends his hand, extends and curls it so that it attaches to whatever surface the user intends to anchor himself to. Bruce is shown using two of the Bat-Thumb devices to climb in a window, giving him a seemingly more practical way to enter place that would otherwise potentially be inaccessible to him.
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By having his grappling hook type devices quite literally strapped to his wrist, this new gadget could give Batman a little bit of a unique advantage as compared to having to use a genuine grappling hook or grappling gun. It appears to be lighter weight and having it literally in hand would certainly be more convenient. Of course, the Bat-Thumb isn’t the only interesting gadget we get a look at in the issue. Absolute Batman #4 also introduces the tinies Batmobile ever, but this little set of wheels isn’t something that Batman is cruising around in himself. The tiny Batmobile is actually a remote-controlled device tricked out with some extras that Batman is able to use to disable a tractor trailer load of weapons before beating down the criminals hauling said weapons into Gotham.
Absolute Batman #4 is on sale now.
