Popverse's top stories

• Vision actor Paul Bettany says he's pretty sure he'll be in Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars, but Marvel could change their plans at any moment
• Ask Rosario Dawson, the Daredevil: Born Again cast, the Amazing Digital Circus cast, the Hart of Dixie cast and more questions at Florida Supercon 2026!
• Doctor Who 2026 Christmas episode is cancelled as the BBC announces the future of series is open to bidding

If you went into a bunker with no access to the outside world in 2008 and reentered society in 2026, you would likely be shocked by what had unfolded over the past nearly twenty years. The guy from the Twilight movie is now Batman. An Aquaman movie grossed over a billion dollars at the box office. Robert Downey Jr. won an Oscar for a role in a Christopher Nolan movie. The youths today are listening to cassettes again for some reason. The President of the United States is... yeah. In other words, norms have changed, and Absolute Batman writer Scott Snyder has reflected on it. 

On the ComicPop Returns podcast, Scott Snyder opened up about the changing pop culture landscape in terms of superhero stories over the past two decades.

"I think the Absolute Universe and 'All In' was a breaking point for us where, I've said it before, Josh [Williamson] and I were reacting to what was a criticism, culturally, of superheroes because people were sick of that happening with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC cinematic universe, and Star Wars. They were getting tired of these huge, epic franchises with, I think, so many different components from multiple TV shows, and video games, and that," the writer began. 

"It's ironic because that was the very thing that was so exciting about them when they started. They were taking our playbook from comics and making these amazing multibranch narratives. Kevin Feige and them were amazing at it. It was a huge triumph. But then it runs its course and people get sick of it, and they don't want another spinoff, they don't want another B-list character with another show off of it, and they're tired of it," Snyder said.

It makes sense now why the Absolute Universe has taken its time expanding since its launch in the fall of 2024. There really can be too much of a good thing. 

Here's an update to date guide on the Absolute Batman release schedule.