Absolute Batman #24 Hits Shelves With Widespread Printing Damage — Again

Retailers are once again finding banged-up copies of Absolute Batman before the book even hits shelves. Ahead of Absolute Batman #24's September 23 release, shops have been posting photos of shipments arriving with bent covers and cracked spines, and the reports are widespread enough that it looks like more than a one-off shipping mishap.

This isn't the series' first run-in with printing trouble. Issue #20 suffered damage so consistent that CGC took the unusual step of announcing it wouldn't count printing-stage defects against a book's grade going forward — a small acknowledgment of just how often this title's presses seem to struggle with its print runs. That #20 fix hasn't stopped #24 from showing the same symptoms.

Part of the problem is scale: Absolute Batman has been ordering around half a million copies an issue since Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta launched it in 2024, and a print run that large leaves a lot of room for defects to slip through. DC hasn't issued a statement on this round of damage yet, so retailers are watching for word from Lunar Distribution on how replacement copies will be handled.

Original reporting: Bleeding Cool.