DC’s Most Underrated Villain Deserves A Major Return, Here’s How It Could Happen

Published Oct 4, 2026, 3:50 PM EDT

Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot.

The inherent joy in a brand-new DC or Marvel continuity is that comic book readers are treated to novel interpretations of classic characters. If nothing else, it’s an excuse to shatter the restrictive molds of their typical status quos and refurbish them with redesigns that challenge the stagnation of their iconography, and supervillains are usually who capitalize on this opportunity most brilliantly. Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta’s Absolute Batman series, for instance, has fascinatingly reimagined many of Batman’s rogues.

Ra’s and Talia al Ghul migrated from one iconic DC superhero’s mythology to another in order to be main antagonists in Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval’s Absolute Superman series. However, in 24 issues thus far, Absolute Batman has churned out plenty of Batman villains for its own book, some of which have been around longer and are much more paramount to the overarching story than others. As for the dwindling number of villains who haven’t yet had the fortune of being adapted to this continuity, there is one exclusion that will hopefully be reconciled soon: Victor Zsasz.

Zsasz Is Itching To Carve His Name Into Absolute Batman

To be fair, Zsasz does already exist in DC’s Absolute universe. Zsasz was teased from a distance in Absolute Batman #21, but we never got a good look at him, and he hasn’t appeared since. Name-dropping “Victor” and detailing his flesh-fileting methodology ensures that this is Zsasz’s debut in the series beyond a shadow of a doubt, even if it’s more of an Easter egg than a full-fledged character reveal, and Snyder could have made this person any arbitrary, no-name individual, rather than explicitly confirming that he is this universe’s iteration of a villain from Batman’s traditional rogues’ gallery.

For all we know, Harvey Dent/Two-Face did truly gun Zsasz down with a pair of machine pistols while he was galavanting with a woman under each arm. It’s deliberately left open to interpretation whether or not Two-Face did kill Zsasz, and it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for the book to later recall how the coin flip determined Zsasz was to be spared that day.

Zsasz Is Having A DC Renaissance

Giving Zsasz a full reveal as a villain in this upcoming era of Absolute Batman, following the massive climax in issue #25, would be quite fortuitous timing-wise. For example, Zsasz has been adapted into DC’s stunning medieval fantasy continuity lately as Prince Victor Falcone in Dark Knights of Steel II. And, if it’s true that Sebastian Stan is playing Zsasz and not Harvey/Two-Face—maybe Zsasz will be one of Harvey’s dissociative identity disorder (DID) alters, come to think of it—then it’s possible we’ll see Zsasz as a main villain in The Batman Part II.

It’s also safe to assume the Absolute universe’s Zsasz didn’t originate from one of the many alphabetized Arks, due to the fact that he hasn’t already publicly presented himself as some ungodly monster like Poison Ivy or Clayface has, though anything’s possible. It’d be refreshing to have a new villain who isn’t from an Ark or some terrifying creature, even if that’d risk hobbling the sky-high momentum and breakneck pace the book boasts.

Absolute Batman’s Black Mask is an ordinary human, of course, but he was an appropriate introductory antagonist who could establish the story’s relevant breadcrumbs before Batman or readers themselves knew of the horrors that lay in wait at Ark facilities. Zsasz could be a neat first villain for the Bat to defeat on her own, though there’s a higher likelihood that, if there are indeed plans to adapt him as an antagonist, Zsasz would be deployed as the central conflict between Batman and Two-Face, with Bruce and Harvey disagreeing on how to best deliver him to justice.

Besides Zsasz, it would be excellent to see DC’s Absolute universe adaptations of antagonists such as the Phantasm, Magpie, and Jane Doe. We hopefully haven’t seen the last of Absolute Batman’s Calendar Man, either, as he debuted in Harley Quinn’s devastating new origin story with an extraordinary and harrowing redesign.

Absolute Batman #25 is scheduled to be released on October 28, 2026.

One of DC's most iconic heroes, Batman is the vigilante superhero persona of billionaire Bruce Wayne. Forged by tragedy with the death of his parents, Bruce dedicated his life to becoming the world's leading martial artist, detective, and tactician. Recruiting an entire family of allies and sidekicks, Bruce wages war on evil as the dark knight of his hometown, Gotham City.