*I feel like it should be obvious this will contain spoilers, but I’m posting this warning anyway, since some folks just need to see a warning*
DC Comics has been pretty buzzworthy in recent years, due to some high profile creators involved with some big initiatives pushed. While Marvel may dominate the box office, DC seems to be more…innovative than the competition lately in the comic area, which is not easy for me to say. Before we get into all of this, I feel I need to “set the table”, so to speak. When I first got into comics, I entered through the DC door. Sure, I had a passing understanding of Spider-Man and the X-Men, but everyone knew Superman, and Adam West-starring Batman was a mainstay in syndication. Marvel was out there if ya looked for it, but DC just seemed to be everywhere. So, when I discovered comics in that fateful Waldenbooks, there were more DC books on that spinner rack than Marvel, and Majority won out. Pretty quickly, though, Spidey & the X-Men eventually spilled into the reading pool, since the X-Men cartoon on Fox Kids was the New Hotness at the time. Before I knew it, I had dual citizenship in both universes.
It seems that Marvel emerged from their late 90s bankruptcy a beautiful swan, as everything they touched turn to gold: Ultimate Spider-Man, Grant Morrison on New X-Men, and an Avengers roster comprised of *only* familiar characters, to name a few examples. Even some of the things we never talk about anymore, like the mature readers MAX imprint, the attempt to chase nascent anime fandom with the Tsunami imprint, and the brief return of the creator-owned Epic imprint, were still seen as innovative at the time. The big takeaway from Marvel was that they seemed willing – and excited – to try new things. They cultivated new talent, as they knew man could not live on John Byrne and Peter David alone. Things didn’t work that way, however, across Midtown at the DC offices.
DC, for a time, was almost like the “Tiffany Network” in the comic industry because, at the end of the day, it was The Home of Superman. Yeah, Batman and Wonder Woman round out the “Trinity”, but Superman was AMERICA. Sure, Marvel had Captain America, but DC having Superman was almost like having Uncle Sam on the payroll. He’s had radio serials, sold peanut butter, and once hung out with Jerry Seinfeld in a commercial! So, they were understandably proud, but this also caused them to get lazy, sometimes sloppy. They never ventured too far out, because they had to stay close to Superman. Ya leave the dance with the one that brung ya. Even as National Publications (DC’s old dba name) gobbled up the competition, like Charlton Comics, they eventually realized they had to do something, because there was a lot of history wrapped up in these new acquisitions and, frankly, that didn’t line up with Superman. I’m, of course, putting words in mouths, but this was an old DC, where Batman didn’t hold the company’s attention as much as now (Can you believe that?!). DC would try to start new things, but they’d eventually fall back to the familiar. They make big swings, but nothing really changes – especially where the “crown jewels” are concerned. For example, 2011’s New 52 reboot affected every franchise except two: Batman and Green Lantern. Sure, there were minor tweaks, but so much work had gone into both, by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns respectively, and they had sold VERY WELL, so DC didn’t want to rock the boat. After several mini events and tweaks, the present day DCU doesn’t look all that much different from that of 2010. The main takeaway from DC was that they’re so busy reminding you of where they’ve been that they’re constantly tripping over themselves trying to decide where they’re headed.
So, where do I come in? I entered this whole thing in 1992 and never looked back. During that time, I’ve been a fan, and I’ve also worked within the industry. I’ve been there for all of the events and Crises. I’m also a sucker, so I’ve bought into all of the hype. For everything. SO much money wasted… Sure, some were better than others, and some were more impactful than others. What I tend to tell friends these days, though, is that you should probably only be a Big Two comic fan for about 15 years. After that, the industry just rehashes old ideas, but with a new spin. Malibu Stacy has a new hat! If you’re fine with that, enjoy the ride, but the Guaranteed Fresh Date doesn’t apply after 15 years. That’s a pretty good run for anything, really. It’s time to settle up with the bartender, and step out into the sunlight. Unfortunately, many of us hate ourselves, so we reenter the bar, go back to our stool, and tell the bartender, “Another one, pal.”
Since we had kids, my comic reading has taken something of a hit. It’s weird, because I’ve got Imposter Syndrome over this. I love comics. I go to the shop every week (sometimes multiple times!). I love the ceremony and ritual of it. BUT I DON’T READ THESE BOOKS. I know, I know…we’re not here to discuss my mental health. I pay people for that. I have spent an embarrassing amount of money on something that I “plan to get around to one day”. Some people buy a shell of a boat that they’re gonna “fix up after retirement”, but that day rarely comes. This is my boat, my hot rod in the garage. I know this, and it’s the one thing that could keep me up at night, if anything could accomplish that. So, when I manage to steal the time, I read things that are miniseries or don’t connect to broader continuity – low stakes, low commitment. I still keep up with big industry storyline news, though, so I know the goings on for both Marvel and DC. I’d decided that Absolute Power was going to be my grand return to Big Two Event Comics in quite some time. So, that’s what I’m bringing to today’s discussion.
Absolute Power was a four-part miniseries that seemed to be promoted with shifting intent. When first announced, it was promised as an exciting event story from the fan favorite Batman/Superman: World’s Finest creative team of Mark Waid and Dan Mora. It was going to show what happens in the DCU when power broker Amanda Waller finally decides “Enough is enough”, in terms of letting super powered people runaround unfettered. She was going to depower them and we’d have to read along to discover if the heroes can save the day (Of course they will). Good vs Evil story. Got it. However, things got confusing when, around the time the second issue was scheduled, there were rumblings that DC was about to announce Something Big, which would turn out to be the Absolute line – yet another attempt at copying Marvel’s success with The Ultimates, and its surrounding universe.
For backstory, one of the Bold, New Moves that Marvel made in 2000 was the creation of Ultimate Marvel, which was basically an imprint focused on modern reimaginings of their characters and universe. The idea was that these stories would harken back to the core of the characters, but these series would provide “jumping on” points for new readers, who might want to experience the characters without all of the continuity baggage (In fact, the original concept for the project was called “Ground Zero”, which would have been pretty awkward a few months after launch…). This initiative not only put writer Brian Michael Bendis on the map, but the Ultimate Universe was an early influence on what would become the Marvel Cinematic Universe. DC has wanted their own version of this, and they have tried quite a few times.
First up, there was the All-Star line, mainly comprised of All-Star Superman and All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder. They got it wrong, though, because they put superstar talent, such as Grant Morrison and Jim Lee, on the books, which led to delays and other problems. They didn’t take away the lesson that Marvel was cultivating their Up and Comers, as opposed to trying to workshop a sales blockbuster. While All-Star Superman is still popping up on annual holiday gift giving lists, All-Star Batman was never completed. Then, DC pivoted the idea to original graphic novels, called Earth One. Again, they hired top talent for these books, focusing on everyone from Superman to the Teen Titans. It was a stripped down, modernized approach to their biggest heroes. The quality varies across the line, but the books never form a cohesive universe, and it would appear the project has been abandoned. So, I guess they thought “Third time’s the charm”?
Anyway, eagle-eyed fans noticed that Absolute Batman was set to launch the same time that Absolute Power was ending, yet there were no overt connections between the two projects, other than both using “Absolute”. Now, this is an important descriptor in the halls of DC, as they take it to mean “the utmost” version of something. Their high end collections, above the standard omnibus, iare the Absolute Editions, which are oversized and come in fancy slipcases. To DC, Absolute implies The Best, so those were pretty big shoes for each project to fill, also seemingly independently.
Still, the situation was rife with brand confusion, which was made even worse when DC announced All In – yet another somewhat nebulous initiative designed to provide jumping on points for new readers. It would be kicked off with the DC All In Special…which would be shipping the same day as Absolute Power #4? Confused yet? Well, seeing as how the release day was last Wednesday, I can clarify it for ya: Absolute Power, as a story, ends in Absolute Power #4. Then, the DC All In Special could best be thought of as the epilogue for Absolute Power, but it serves more as a bridge, because an event in that book sets into motion not only All In, but also the universe in which launch titles Absolute Batman, Absolute Wonder Woman, and Absolute Superman will be set. Oh, and to make things even more crazy, the stories in both universes (All In for main continuity, and Absolute for this new universe) would basically be telling parallel stories for the roughly the next year. So, just as the on-page narrative converges at the center of the All In Special, it would be appear all of DC is heading toward the same finish line, in whatever form that ends up taking.
As a comic fan, I wanted to feel the hype, and ride the wave of excitement. Plus, it was all SO MUCH, yet we weren’t getting any real info on what was actually going down. I’ll admit that I didn’t like anything I had seen so far for the Absolute books. There’s a hulking Batman, with a battle axe and hideous chest symbol. Wonder Woman has Dwayne Johnson tribal tattoos. Superman has the long hair we remember from that time he died for a few months back in the 90s. I mentioned my thoughts on social media, and some tastemakers swore to me it looked “fun”, but it really came off as more of an opportunity for them to flex that their status had gotten them early access to read the books. Nothing here looked fun, and it just felt like another example of DC getting lost up its own grim and gritty asshole. Still, it felt like something was brewing, so I was determined to read it all for myself instead of getting spoiled by some comic news site. As we’ve covered, I’d already been buying the main series, but was stockpiling them for “one day”. I grabbed the final issue of Absolute Power as well as the DC All In Special, and I checked online to find the proper reading order for the rest of the books I’d bought. Here’s how I proceeded:
- Absolute Power: Ground Zero One-shot
- Absolute Power Prelude (Free Comic Book Day 2024)
- Absolute Power #1
- Absolute Power: Task Force VII #1
- Absolute Power #2
- Absolute Power #3
- Absolute Power: Super Son One-shot
- Absolute Power: Origins #1
- Absolute Power: Origins #2
- Absolute Power: Origins #3
- Absolute Power #4
- DC All In Special
What you just read highlights the first problem of the series: its structure. This series did not need what amounted to 2 different preludes, especially since they have different content. The FCBD book should have just been a teaser of some pages from the Ground Zero book. Otherwise, they’re a waste, as they accomplish very little. Through them, the story wants to appear like it’s starting in media res, but that’s not entirely the case. You’re not “thrown into the action”, but rather forced to figure out what happened prior to the beginning of this particular story, as there’s no real “launching point”. This highlights the next problem: Marvel storytelling.
Historically, Marvel and DC have taken very different approaches to their line-wide crossovers. Beginning with 2005’s House of M, Marvel’s annual crossover events have had something of a cumulative effect on the entire Marvel Universe. Not only do these events change the status quo for the foreseeable future, but they also sew the seeds of the next line-wide event. Scarlet Witch’s actions in House of M (depowering all but 198 of Earth’s mutants) sewed the seeds of public mistrust of super powered beings, which exploded in 2006’s Civil War. While Civil War splits the heroes’ allegiances down the middle, the volatile situation was made even worse in 2008’s Secret Invasion, when the heroes discovered shape-shifting Skrulls had infiltrated their highest ranks. The heroes had to question whether the friends they’d been fighting were actually their friends, or if they’d secretly been swapped with Skrull imposters at some earlier date. The fallout from Secret Invasion included Norman Osborn gaining command of S.H.I.E.L.D., renaming it H.A.M.M.E.R., and it’s in 2010’s Siege that he makes his power play. As you can see, it’s a snowball effect that continues to grow, consistently raising the stakes to keep readers engaged. It’s like a speeding train that never stops, but it never wastes the momentum it has built. If only the same could be said about DC.
DC handles their events in their various fiefdoms. The Bat books might have a crossover between their books, or the Superman books might have a crossover between their books. But the line-wide crossovers, involving all characters, are fewer and far between. DC tends to reserve these for anniversary years, and they usually have Crisis in the title. Starting with 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, which was DC’s attempt to merge all of their properties and acquisitions into one shared timeline, every 10 years there’s another Crisis event, which is to remind you of the original’s importance, but also tends to affect The Flash and the concept of the Multiverse. Up to that point, when something didn’t mesh with previous stories, it was said that the story took place on another Earth. After some time, there were too many Earths, and that needed to be remedied. Crisis concluded with the end of the Multiverse, with everything consolidated on one Earth, as well as the death of a Flash.
While the original Crisis was well intentioned, it caused almost as many problems as it solved. The new timeline shifted things, like Wonder Woman did not come to “Man’s World” as early, so she could no longer have been the Justice Society’s secretary in WWII. So, that meant it was now her mother, Hippolyta, in that role. All of the main characters were reintroduced, so readers saw the “new” first meeting between Batman, Superman, etc. And it was good…until it wasn’t. By 1995, it was clear that there needed to be some tweaks, which led to the event Zero Hour: Crisis in Time. When the dust settled from Zero Hour, the Multiverse was restored. Then, 2005’s Infinite Crisis was a 20th anniversary celebration of the original Crisis, revisiting a lot of its themes and loose ends. Then, leading up to the New 52-spawning Flashpoint, the company went all out with both Final Crisis and Blackest Night. Whereas Marvel’s events build on each other, most DC events could be skipped unless you love that particular character group, as the fallout from those rarely affected the greater DCU as a whole. That said, the reader had been trained to know that anything with Crisis in the title was where the Big Moments occurred. Final Night may have been a midterm, but Infinite Crisis was the final exam, worth 60% of your grade.
Now, however, it’s clear that DC is taking a page from Marvel’s book, in that Absolute Power is actually the culmination of several recent smaller events, including 2023’s Lazarus Planet, Knight Terrors, and Titans: Beast World, as well as 2024’s House of Braniac. If you happened to have read all of those, then you were eatin’ GOOD in Absolute Power. You’d witnessed the build-up, and the payoff to some other things. That said, this also means it’s not New Reader Friendly. To return to my earlier exam analogy, some folks might argue one shouldn’t take the final if they never even took the quizzes, but these publishers are hoping for big sales on these things, which means they’re going to have to appeal to more than just the regular monthly readers. There’s a delicate balance, where there needs to be a rewarding experience for those who have been along for the whole ride, but it should still have stops for new readers to hop on. Absolute Power was not for New Readers, and having skipped the lead up series that I mentioned, I was in the dark.
All of these crossovers force the solo books to have tie-in issues, and these are usually superfluous. They really just mess up the flow of the series’ regular writer, and are notoriously known as an inconvenience justified only to put the event name on the cover. For Absolute Power, though, it became clear that those tie-ins were necessary reading. If you stuck to the main 4-issue miniseries, every issue began with the feeling that you’d missed a ton between issues. That’s because there was also the 7-part (!) Absolute Power: Task Force VII miniseries, running concurrently with the main series, which focused on the villains’ Amazo drones as they rounded up heroes. Leaning solely on history, I skipped that series because I thought it was a cash grab, but there were clearly important plot points going on there, as well as the single issue tie-ins of the different monthly books. When I was done reading, I didn’t feel like I had read anything that amazing, yet I also found it somewhat unbelievable that the best bits might have been in books that were not part of the core miniseries.
So, why didn’t I like the story of Absolute Power? Well, it’s sort of a book where nothing happens. I mean, sure, things occur, but it never feels like anything matters. Superman is wounded in the first issue, so he’s not at the top of his game at any point. In fact, he runs around in his black containment suit, again from that time he died for a couple months, toting a bazooka. Batman is oddly neutered. Not only is he proven wrong time and again (which is supposed to be shocking, as DC has basically made him infallible in recent years), but he also never really seems bothered by it. I know he’s been dealing with his own stuff in his solo books, but it’s almost eerie how out of character he appears here. In fact, the only member of the Justice League who seems to figure prominently is Green Arrow, which is ill-timed since Arrow has been off The CW long enough that the shine has long since worn off that character. For Big Events, you expect Big Characters, front and center. That was not the case here. In fact, they seem to have taken yet another odd page from Marvel’s playbook.
I have to take a deep breath here, because we’re about to dip into murky waters. A few years back, Marvel caught some heat when they seemingly replaced their main characters with legacy characters who also happened to be part of an underrepresented minority group: Iron “Man” was Black girl Riri Williams, as Tony Stark was in a medically induced coma; Asian genius Amadeus Cho was the Totally Awesome Hulk, and I honestly don’t remember where Banner was at the time. Vision was even replaced by his own daughter, Viv Vision. Sam Wilson was formally Captain America, as Steve Rogers lost his serum, and physically aged up to his appropriate age. Most of the characters would go on to be members of The Champions, but many of them fulfilled their predecessors’ roles on teams like the Avengers. Old School Fans (infer from that what you will) thought that Marvel was “pushing an agenda”, and the era didn’t last all that long.
Well, I see a similar thing happening here: From the prelude special, it becomes apparent that the major players in Absolute Power are a hero named Dreamer, Superman’s son, Jon Kent, and Jon’s boyfriend, Jake Nakamura. And I know more about these characters in passing than I know from reading any of their pre-Absolute Power stories. I know that Dreamer is a trans hero, introduced in the Supergirl TV show, whose comic stories tend to be written by the actress who portrayed her, Nicole Maines. I knew Jon Kent when he and Damien Wayne starred in the various Super Sons series, and I LOVED their dynamic together. Then, when Bendis did his underwhelming stint at DC, he had the bright idea to age Jon up to late teens. At that point, Jon came out as bisexual, and began a relationship with pink-haired Jake Nakamura. And I have to say that all three of these characters are written horribly. I know the danger there. A lot of folks are going to want to claim I don’t like them because of their sexuality, when I actually don’t like them because they’re poorly written.
At no point in the story is Dreamer’s power set described, nor are her powers clear through their execution. Because of this, new readers not only don’t know her potential, but she’s also used as Deus Ex Machina Girl. Teenage Jon SUCKS. I know they did the whole thing where he took over for his dad while Superman was away at Warworld, but I find myself looking at him, and wondering why we need a Jon Kent “Superman”, when we not only have a Conner Kent “Superboy” (of roughly the same age, mind you!), as well as good ol’ regular Clark Kent Superman. I know they want to surround Superman with a family, so he doesn’t feel so lonely, but him being the Lonely, Last Kryptonian was kind of a big part of his gimmick. Now, he’s got a cousin (Kara/Supergirl), he’s got all the folks I just mentioned, and, Hell, even China has their own Superman now! How is Superman special if there are so many versions of him now? And what’s so special about Jon if he’s just like his dad? Absolute Power seems to want to answer that question, but I’m not sure it truly ever does.
Then, we’re left with Jake. So, it turns out that Jake’s mom was the President of the island nation of Gamorra. When Amanda Waller conquered the country to build her headquarters, she had the president deposed. Well, as the TikTok kids would say, she unalived her. So, the entire damn story, Jake’s just whining about “They killed my mom!” He eventually finds out that Dreamer – whom he’d thought of as his friend – was involved in the president’s death, so then he pivots to “You killed my mom, and I’ll never forgive you!” At one point, Jon thinks Dreamer died in battle, and when he breaks the news to his beau, Jake simply replies “GOOD.” I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but Jake doesn’t come off as a great person here. Yes, his mom was killed, but that’s pretty much the only thing you can say about him. There are parts – especially in the Super Son one shot – where it’s implied that Jon also had feelings for Dreamer, which he’d never gotten to tell her. That said, his inner monologue is constantly wrestling with how much he supposedly loves Jake, and wants to build his future with him. Now, I know he’s been through a lot, and processing some confusing feelings, but he’s “talking out of both sides of his mouth”. Maybe it’s setting up future drama, but I just see it as A Character I Used To Love must decide between A Character I Don’t Really Know and A Character I Strongly Dislike. Not a whole lot to build an event around!
While we’re talking about characters, Amanda Waller – as depicted in this storyline – doesn’t work for me. I have always loved the character, as created by John Ostrander, Len Wein, and John Byrne, where she was this stocky Black bureaucrat who wasn’t scared of Batman, and got whatever she wanted by wheeling and dealing. I used to feel that Night Court‘s Marsha Warfield must have been the inspiration for her design. Anyway, her secret weapon was Task Force X, colloquially known as the “Suicide Squad”, where she gave villains a second chance by doing her dirty work. They were all expendable, though, because she could trigger a detonator placed in their brain, should they step out of line. Then, the New 52 happened, and Amanda Waller changed. She got skinny, for one thing, and they gave her a military background. This carried over to her depiction in the Arrowverse shows. Hell, it’s a big part of her character in the My Adventures with Superman animated series, and it sort of remains with the Viola Davis portrayal in the movies. Through various “not reboots”, like DC Rebirth, Infinite Frontier, and Dawn of DC, Waller has returned to the physical form most folks are familiar with. But her motivation just ain’t matching what goes down in this story.
Since there’s not enough real estate in the main story to deal with the villain’s motivations, Waller is the focus of the concurrent, 3-issue miniseries Absolute Power: Origins. Without the military background, this Waller isn’t planted on a firm foundation. Instead, she is depicted as a married mother of 4, living in the ghetto. When the local drug dealer assaults and murders Waller’s oldest daughter, her husband goes after him, resulting in both men killing each other. When Waller finds out the police report stated her husband died while committing murder (She thought he was “making the community safer”), she becomes upset, as this means the insurance company won’t pay out his policy. The investigating detective just sort of waves her off with “Well, them’s the breaks! He broke the law.” So, now she’s a widowed mother of 3, who has to bring her kids up in a world that she feels is working against them. Meanwhile, she begins to notice the rise of vigilantes, recognizing that the same laws don’t seem to apply to them. And this upsets her greatly. This kicks off a series of events where she inserts herself into local politics, eventually rising through the ranks of the federal government, culminating in her role as founder of Task Force X, who has the ear of the sitting president whenever she wants. That put her in the position to be able to pull off the events of Absolute Power. But it’s all a little too rushed for me.
Written by John Ridley, Origins is a clunky affair because it tries to explain why Waller is who she is, but it fails at every turn. First off, we’re to know that she’s a Black Woman. Blackity black. So Black, in fact, that she named her children Martin, Jesse, and Coretta. She’s meant to be seen as a Florida Evans (Good Times) type, but she’s too diabolical for that. The entire time she’s screwing people over, she insists that she’s doing it for her kids. Even as her actions drive them away, she reminds them “I’m doing this for YOU.” But at no point is that really evident. She’s doing it for herself, to feed some hunger for power whose origin is never truly addressed. What began as something of an “It’s not fair!” attitude to how heroes and vigilantes are given a pass eventually gives way to a fiery jealousy. If she can’t join them, she’ll beat them. And this is where she ceases being Amanda Waller, and is really just Lex Luthor at that point. Why turn Waller into Luthor when you already have a Luthor. Not to mention the optics of making the Angry Black Woman the villain of a mega event. There are two ways to look at that: either it’s “racist”, as it plays into society’s preconceived notions of Black women OR it’s the epitome of “equality” as a Black woman has risen to the heights of the world’s most diabolical White man. The biggest sin, however, is the mini doesn’t end with a pivotal event that justifies her ramping up her efforts. It closes with her kids kicking her out of the birth of her first grandchild, and she’s basically muttering on a bench, “I’m doing it for them. They’ll see.” I could fix this problem in one action: kill her kids.
Hear me out: Waller is estranged from her children in their adulthood. Their relationship became strained because she was too busy working on her revenge plan. Meanwhile, crazy things have been happening in the backdrop of the DCU: Ra’s Al Ghul’s Lazarus pits give powers to folks, some new villain haunts everyone’s dreams, and then Beast Boy’s powers are exploited to transform folks across the world. With each event, Waller is awarded more and more authority from the US government. But she always sort of acted with a “They’ll eventually come around” mentality. But they can’t come around if they’re dead. Have her remaining kids killed in the ensuing carnage of, say, the Beast World event, and now you’ve got the catalyst for Absolute Power. You’ve got the “They’ve finally gone too far” moment. As it stands, though, there’s no such event, and it’s noticeable.
When the dust settles, it’s almost like nothing happened. Waller is vanquished, but not killed. Ya know – to someday rise again. All the heroes are fine. Hell, even the “dead” ones are alive by the end. None of Waid’s reputation as a “comics historian” is on display, as this was clearly a rush job for the paycheck. It becomes obvious that, for all of the parallels (there’s even a line from a villain, saying something like “You know what a Flash does during a Crisis”), this was NO Crisis. It was marketed like it wanted to be, that it was supposed to be a Crisis, but it zigged, when it should have zagged. Like someone got scared. As a result, it ends up feeling like it was only designed to set up the pieces for the Next Big Thing, but not in anything close to an organic way. And that Next Big Thing kicks off right in the DC All In Special.
In the aftermath of Absolute Power, the DC heroes have decided they need to change their approach to how they handle things. In the past, the Justice League had been secretive and insular, so they’ve decided to open up membership to virtually EVERYONE. There are people who wouldn’t even make The Outsiders (Detective Chimp, for example) who’re given invitations to join. And they all meet up at the Justice League’s new Watchtower space station. Let me unpack something for you, which seems to have been lost on the folks at DC: All of the heroes just got out of a massive conflict where Amanda Waller had sewn distrust amongst the populace by publishing “fake news” to reliable news outlets. Even though her confession, similarly broadcast, is what takes her down, that’s not how that works. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube on that one. No, there would still be the public sentiment of “OK, so maybe Superman didn’t kill that bus full of people, but that still doesn’t change the fact that he could…” Ya know how, traditionally, humans hate mutants in the Marvel Universe? That’s how things should have played out here. Joe Q. Public doesn’t trust the heroes as much as he once did, and what do they go and do? THEY BUILD A FUCKING SPACE STATION TO LORD OVER HIM, LIKE GODS! In no way is this the first time they’ve had a space base, but when Brad Meltzer wrote Justice League of America some 20 years ago, he explained that the Watchtower was being retired because the Justice League needed to be grounded, to be amongst the people they’re sworn to protect. That is the exact sentiment that’s needed now, but no. DC needed them in space, because that setting was necessary for All In, which bridges to the Absolute universe.
I’m gonna rush through this part, because you’ve read enough, and it’s just so bad. All In focuses on Booster Gold, as he’s invited to join what he thinks of as the real Justice League, and not the wacky versions he’d joined in the past. While everyone celebrates at the Watchtower, Darkseid shows up, combined with the power of the Spectre! That’s so overpowered it’s insane. That’s like saying “Thanos just popped a Viagra and he’s about to fuck the Dark Phoenix!” The narrative talks about how there’s a balance to the universe, where every universe has a Darkseid, which is basically Despair, yet every universe has Hope, usually represented by Superman. While the events of Absolute Power cut off heroes’ access to the Multiverse (Whoops! That’s a Crisis for ya!), Overpowered Darkseid ripped a tear in space and time, with a new universe bleeding through. So, instead of being able to access all the other worlds of the Multiverse, they can now only access this new world – a world where Darkseid established rule before Hope appeared. So, it’s a younger universe, where we will see the dawn of Hope, as heroes begin to appear – heroes like Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, etc. So, the Absolute is a dark, hopeless, grim universe. Yay. But you begin to understand the meaning of “All In”: For the next few months, the stories in both universes are basically racing towards the same destination, as evidenced by how the special itself is a flip book, with the parallel stories converging at the center of the book. It’s a clever narrative device, but it also means that you’d better care about the Absolute stuff if you care about the mainline DCU stuff, and vice versa. They’re both gonna be chasing the same dragon.
Sadly, I’m not the guy. I feel almost like this special was tailor made to make me hate it, as it encompasses everything I hate about the DC Universe. I loathe Darkseid. I know it’s a Hydrox/Oreo situation with Darkseid and Thanos, but I just like Thanos more. Darkseid comes with too much New Gods baggage, and I hate every single one of them. In the new universe, there’s a Legion, but instead of having the “L” flight rings, they have Darkseid’s Omega symbol on their rings. Ugh, the Legion – one of the most convoluted aspects of DC continuity in ANY universe. I HATE The Legion. After all of this, I feel like I was bamboozled into some giant bait & switch. There aren’t really any new things happening here. They did not learn the right lessons from Marvel. No, they just took us for a ride to once again circle back to old legacy shit. And that’s why DC stays losing: they’re so busy reminding us of where they’ve been, that they’re constantly tripping over themselves while deciding where they’re heading. Typical DC. This would also probably be a good time to point out that next year will be the 40th anniversary of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths…
I guess we’ll see how this plays out, but if you’re curious as to where my comics perspective came from, I wrote my 5-part “origin” story years ago, which you can find here:
At Long Last – My Comic Origin!
I haven’t read it since I wrote it, but I don’t really have the personal style anymore that’s on display here, so let’s all embrace the cringe together!
