This Absolute Batman Tribute With a Kevin Conroy Twist is a Must-See

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Absolute Batman #5 cover Image via DC Comics

Jason is an award-winning journalist whose writing career dates back to when he developed the ability to use a crayon. He, most notably, worked previously as a "professional fan," as he likes to call it, at CinemaBlend, for which he wrote about anything and everything under the pop culture umbrella... especially Batman. His passion for the art of cinema began even earlier, stemming from repeat viewings of The Wizard of Oz.
This initially led him to pursue a career in filmmaking -- and even work briefly in the industry as an extra in the straight-to-video family film, Alice Upside Down -- before deciding that his talents would be better served discussing and showing appreciation for the various forms of entertainment he is passionate about.

Some Batman fans, when reading a DC comic, can only imagine the voice of one person coming out of the Dark Knight's mouth: Kevin Conroy. Anyone who ever wanted to hear the late actor's take on Absolute Batman no longer has to try too hard to imagine it themselves.

Voice actor Aleks Le shared a video on his official Twitter (or X) account that adapts an excerpt from Absolute Batman #13 into an audible motion comic. Le plays the vigilante with a voice that, as he notes in the post, has "hints of that classic Kevin Conroy sound."

The nearly two-minute video, which was edited by Diego Woods and also features Frank Todaro as the voice of a news anchor, borrows from an intense moment in a recent issue of the popular, relatively new series. Absolute Batman hijacks a local news station to, at first, deliver a message to the people of Gotham regarding the city's corrupt authority figures.

By the end of his speech, however, it evolves into a threat against a criminal who nearly broke the bat, Bane, whose ass Batman promises to beat. The clip concludes with Le's pitch-perfect delivery of the Dark Knight's ultimate quote: "I'm Batman."

The video does not just end there, however. Le also includes a bonus stinger in which he provides his take on Absolute Bruce Wayne's voice. It sounds almost nothing like how Conroy portrayed the man behind the mask, but does sound more believably like a person in his early 20s, as he is depicted in Absolute Batman.

Before his death in 2022 at the age of 66 from intestinal cancer, Kevin Conroy played the Caped Crusader in multiple animated DC adaptations, from the Emmy-winning Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s to the posthumous release of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three in 2024, earning a reputation as the best Batman voice actor by many. He even had the opportunity to play his animated superhero role in live-action as a retired, corrupted version of Bruce Wayne on Batwoman, as part of the Arrowverse's Crisis on Infinite Earths event.

Aleks Le has won awards for his work as a voice actor, which includes anime series like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and the popular animated film, Ne Zha, and its sequel. The Vietnamese-born actor even had the previous opportunity to play Batman in the interactive streaming series, DC Heroes United, in 2024.

What Is Going On In Absolute Batman?

Absolute Joker transforms and eats his stranded island victim from Absolute Batman 15 Image via DC Comics

Le also mentions in his social media post containing his Absolute Batman tribute video that the series is what got him interested in reading comics again, and he is likely not the only one. Even longtime, dedicated readers cannot get enough of author Scott Snyder and illustrator Nick Dragotta's refreshing take on Gotham City Lore.

The most recent issue of the series, Absolute Batman #15 (featuring artwork by Jock, Frank Martin, and Clayton Cowles), reveals new information about Absolute Joker, who is scarier than any of the Clown Prince of Crime's more traditional counterparts. That might not seem possible, but turning the DC villain into a hulking monster with demonic features like horns, an elongated tongue and razor-sharp teeth certainly does the trick.

Absolute Batman takes place in Snyder's Absolute Universe imprint, which launched in 2024 and introduces wildly inventive reinterpretations of classic DC characters like Superman and Wonder Woman. For instance, in this continuity, Bruce Wayne is a middle-class twenty-something whose mother is still alive, is childhood friends with the likes of Harvey Dent and Oswald Cobblepot and finds an unexpected ally in a grizzled special forces operative named Alfred Pennyworth.

Absolute Batman #15 is in stores now.

Absolute Batman Volume 1 The Zoo Cover Image

Writer Scott Snyder

Penciler Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Nick Dragotta

Colorist Frank Martin

Publisher(s) DC

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