| "Absolute Power" | |||
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.jpg) Cover ofAbsolute Power #1 art by Dan Mora. | |||
| Publisher | DC Comics | ||
| Publication date | July 3 – October 2,2024 | ||
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| Main characters | |||
| Creative team | |||
| Writer | Mark Waid | ||
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| Colorists |
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| Editor | Paul Kaminski | ||
"Absolute Power" is a 2024American comic bookcrossover storyline published byDC Comics. Serving as the conclusion to theDawn of DC initiative, the main limited series was written byMark Waid, with art by Dan Mora. The storyline ran between July 3 and October 2, 2024. The event takes place in the aftermath of "House of Brainiac".[1] The main event received positive reviews, with critics praising Mark Waid's writing, the art, the action, and the satisfying conclusion.
To neutralize the ability of everymetahuman around the world,Amanda Waller recruitsFailsafe and theBrainiac Queen into theSuicide Squad, beginning a campaign of hate and fear over people. In response, theJustice League and the remaining heroes form aresistance.[2]
"Absolute Power" is a crossover event published byDC Comics and was released on July 3, 2024. The mainlimited series of four issues is written byMark Waid and drawn by Dan Mora.[1] During theDawn of DC initiative, a "Trinity of Evil" was teased,[3] featuringAmanda Waller, leader ofA.R.G.U.S.,Checkmate and theSuicide Squad, alongside theBatman of Zur-En-Arrh, aSilver Age character who was reintroduced in 2022 during the "Failsafe" arc fromBatman (vol. 3) #125–130 byChip Zdarsky and Jorge Jiménez, and the Brainiac Queen, a female variation ofBrainiac who was introduced in 2024 during the "House of Brainiac" storyline byJoshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval.[4]
In response to recent events involvingmetahumans,Amanda Waller decides that superpowers, regardless of whether they come fromsuperheroes orsupervillains, are too dangerous to be left unchecked. She gains the approval of the Council of Light, a group of clones ofBrainiac, to take drastic measures. To achieve her goal, Waller takes over the Hall of Justice, founding the Bureau of Sovereignty to discredit theJustice League andTitans. She additionally coercesDreamer andGreen Arrow to work for her in taking over Gamorra and create an exclusive prison for metahumans.[5]
Meanwhile, inGotham City,Batman develops the androidFailsafe to counter him should he ever go rogue. Failsafe creates an army ofAmazos before being defeated by Batman and recovered by Waller.
InMetropolis, Brainiac creates the Brainiac Queen as a means to experience the feeling of love he lost during his previous planetary invasions. Her primary functions involve devouring the abilities from the worlds he conquers until she gains her final form. After admitting his last defeat againstSuperman, Brainiac sends the Queen away, rendering her amnesiac.
After the Brainiac Queen awakens, Waller and Failsafe recruit her to help them complete their agenda and create a group of Amazos dubbed "Task Force VII" to drain the powers of superheroes worldwide.[6]
In Metropolis, a group of robbers attempt to escape using a helicopter. Superman tries to de-escalate the situation, but one of the robbers fires his pistol at Superman, which manages to injure him and causes him to fall from the sky.[7]
In Keystone City 28 hours earlier,Animal Man and Animal Girl land in the park and are met by a mob that nearly beats Animal Man to death. Batman andRobin watch news reports on Animal Man's attack and videos depicting superheroes committing acts of violence and destruction across the globe. Batman deduces the videos are fake, created byartificial intelligence to discredit superheroes. In the Hall of Order, Waller reveals toSergeant Steel that the Brainiac Queen created the videos as part of her plan to take down every superhero on the planet. Failsafe arrives and activates Task Force VII.
Back in the present,Superboy andJon Kent arrive and see Superman injured and falling to the ground. They manage to grab him, but are depowered and captured by Amazo robots. Amanda Waller starts a world-wide broadcast, stating her intention to solve the super-powered being problem permanently. At the same time, the Amazos of Task Force VII consisting of Depth Charge, Global Guardian, Jadestone, Last Son, Paradise Lost, and Velocity attack. They depower and capture the majority of superheroes around the world. As Batman deduces that Waller would not start such an attack if she had not already won, he is attacked by Failsafe. Batman tries to warn the heroes on their secret communication channel, but is intercepted byGreen Arrow, who is working for Waller. He tells Batman that Waller made sure no help would arrive: she brokered a deal with theUnited Planets to make sure no one arrives on Earth or leaves Earth, along with locking down theMultiverse, the Timestream, and the Microverse. Meanwhile in an undisclosed location, the Brainiac Queen gives Jon Kent cybernetic enhancements and renders him amnesiac.[8]
The remaining heroes regroup in theFortress of Solitude. Waller, Brainiac Queen and Failsafe have taken over the Hall of Justice while trying to find the rest of the resistance. While Superman heals from his wound, the rest of the heroes argue who should be the leader of the resistance. Nightwing calms everyone down, and the heroes decide Nightwing should be the leader of the resistance. Nightwing asks Batman to find if Amanda Waller has aMother Box, Superman to gather allies in the multiverse, Black Canary to find out why Green Arrow is working for Waller, and Wonder Woman and Robin to find Waller's prison. A possessed Jon Kent and Brainiac Queen attack the heroes. Brainiac Queen capturesYara Flor,Wonder Girl, andRed Tornado while the rest of Task Force VII arrive. Dreamer arrives, but is disturbed by how callous Amanda Waller is to the heroes.Blue Beetle andMister Terrific use thePhantom Zone projector to escape and Superman asks the Fortress of Solitude to self-destruct. Wonder Woman and Aquaman destroy the glass dome containingKandor, which allows the miniature Kryptonians to distract Brainiac Queen long enough for Dreamer to send the rest of the heroes to the Phantom Zone before the Fortress explodes. Brainiac Queen repossesses Jon Kent while Green Arrow grabsTime Commander's hourglass.[9]
In Gateway City, Hawkgirl asks for backup as she andMammoth are attacked by Amazo robots. The remaining heroes land onThemyscira whereDonna Troy andWonder Woman convinceNubia to provide refuge. Barry Allen manages to getKryptonite from the Fortress of Solitude,Black Canary and Green Arrow's team have gone out to uncover Green Arrow's motivations, Hal Jordan retrieves Waller's weapons, and Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, and Damian have gone out on their separate missions. Nightwing instructsAquaman, Blue Beetle, Red Tornado andYara Flor to go take out John Starr in Amanda Waller's headquarters, Donna Troy and the Amazons defend Themiscyra, and the rest will have to save the remaining heroes. Failsafe attacks the Minster ofShanghai, and Brainiac Queen starts absorbing data from all Internet servers. Amanda Waller is enraged that the Amazo robots are gaining morality and sentience and tells Failsafe to initiate a partial reboot. Aquaman's team is attacked byBizarro, but they quickly dispatch him and find Starr. They are then attacked byBlack Alice and Deadeye. During the chaos, one of Aquaman's team members is killed. Brainiac Queen and Jon Kent attack Themiscyra, but with the help of Nightwing, Mister Terrific andArtemis of Bana-Mighdall, Jon is freed from Waller's control. Jon Kent defeats Brainiac Queen by showing her that Waller is the true enemy. Batman and Superman arrive and they teleport Brainiac Queen to Pluto by using the Mother Box, withZatanna reporting that she and Superman have unlocked the Dark Paths to enable teleportation, and Batman confronts Starr on how he can return everyone's powers. Meanwhile, Barry Allen is directed bySteve Trevor to head to the basement of Waller's base, and discovers that she is assembling a multiversal army.[10]
The rest of the heroes launch an attack on Waller's base on Gamorra while her multiversal allies attack Barry. Hal Jordan intervenes, giving Barry time to shut down the gateway. Task Force VII overwhelm the heroes while Nightwing is forced to deal with Failsafe and Waller weakens Jon Kent with kryptonite. Batman and Ted Kord meet with John Starr (Time Commander) where they realize the reason why Task Force VII can regenerate is they used Starr's technology to reverse their wounds before they were attacked. Starr plans to use his hourglass to override one of the Task Force VII robots, which will cause a chain reaction that will destroy Task Force VII and return the heroes' stolen powers. Starr and Batman are knocked out before they can use the device, but Green Arrow picks it up and shoots it at one of the robots, shutting down Task Force VII and restoring the heroes' powers. This also causes Failsafe to be deactivated, while Wally West andJay Garrick combine their willpower with Hal's to hold off the multiversal army. Green Arrow explains that he knew Waller would not trust him because she had telepaths around her, which is why he had Martian Manhunter put in a telepathic input that made him believe in Waller's cause until it timed out. Dreamer returns and knocks out Waller before she can attack Nightwing, and explains how Jon dreamed of her constantly while under Brainiac Queen's control, which pulled her into the Dreamscape and allowed her to heal from her wounds. Barry is forced to sever their Earth's connection to the rest of the Multiverse to stop Waller's army from coming through, while Waller goes on a rant about how she won by manipulating the world to hate metahumans. Unknown to her, Nightwing hasAir Wave record her and broadcast her speech to the world.
Two days later, the world is recovering from Waller's attack. Wally and Jay Garrick confirm they cannot access the Multiverse. It is revealed that whatever Barry did to separate their world from the multiverse also severed his connection with theSpeed Force. Dreamer erases Waller's memory of the heroes' identities and leaves her alone in her cell inBelle Reve. Green Arrow calls a meeting with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman at the Secret Sanctuary to explain his actions. They begrudgingly accept his apology, with Batman revealing that while most of the heroes' abilities returned, other have their powers mixed up with other heroes. Green Arrow admits that his undercover plan was not the smartest, but insists that the whole event would never have happened if they had been more communicative and never disbanded the Justice League. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman show him the schematics for the newWatchtower.[11][12]
Waller explains how she suffered the tragedy of losing her family due to crime, which led her to found theSuicide Squad. Moreover, her experience on Earth 3 has caused her to be more radicalized and hate the metahumans.
Task Force VII are tasked with depowering and capturing any heroes who escaped the initial attack, but they also absorb some of the heroes' morality, causing them to begin rebelling against Waller. Meanwhile, Steve Trevor reports to the metahuman prison base on Gamorra so the Bureau of Sovereignty can monitor him. Sarge Steel imprisons Trevor, but he escapes and learns that Waller is working with theCrime Syndicate.[13]
Batman is trying to gather resistance inBludhaven and believes the plan to stop Amanda Waller is in theTitans Tower. He sneaks in the tower, where he meets a capturedCyborg, who tells Batman that Waller is in the south of Gamorra, and she has a Mother Box. An Amazo robot tries attacking Batman, but he quickly escapes. Batman meets withFlash and Wonder Woman to tell them what happened, and plans to recruitCatwoman to steal the Mother Box.[14][15] Bruce Wayne convinces Catwoman to help him with his heist, while encountering Black Alice, Bizarro infused with Brainiac's technology, and Deadeye (Amanda Waller's nephew). They escape from them, and realize that cyborg was sensing a Boom tube that is constantly opened and realize the Boom Tube is somewhere else. They find out the Mother Box is in a building that has been shrunk in a bottle on the desolate planet of Czarina. Just then, Bizarro, Deadeye, Gunsmith, and Black Alice wake up and confront Batman and Catwoman.[16]
Despite Batman instructing Team Arrow to remain on Starfish Island, as they were the only heroes who were not targeted by the Bureau, they instead decide to captureProfessor Ivo, believing he may know of a secret weakness in Task Force VII. Meanwhile, Green Arrow recovers a box that contains the key to defeating the Justice League. He and his allies then battle Waller's enforcer Bright and theTomorrow Woman. Bright kidnapsCheshire and her daughterLian before Green Arrow arrives and tells him to let them go.[17]
Hal Jordan is arrested in the initial attack and taken to the Hall of Order, but later escapes and recovers his ring. After being attacked by guards, he usesAbra Kadabra's wand to teleport himself and a vast quantity of weapons to Themyscira, the Resistance's new headquarters.[18]
After escaping the Fortress, Superman and Zatanna search for the Map ofMordru which would allow them to access the Dark Roads. They were able to make their way to theOblivion Bar where most of the world's magic users and supernatural creatures are hiding.Neron reveals that he has the map and offers to make a deal for it.[19]
After being depowered, Jon Kent is captured by Task Force VII member Last Son, who delivers him to the Brainiac Queen. The Queen wipes his memories and converts him into a cyborg under her control.[citation needed]
Wonder Woman,Billy Batson, andDetective Chimp are on the run, whileSpectre,Mary Marvel, andMadame Xanadu are captured and depowered.[20] Wonder Woman and Robin interrogateCaptain Boomerang to learn the location of Waller's metahuman prison, eventually learning that it is on Gamorra.[21][22]
| Title / | Issue(s) | Writer | Artist(s) | Colorist | Premiere date | Finale date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batman (vol. 3) | #145–149 | Chip Zdarsky | Jorge Jiménez | Tomeu Morey | March 5, 2024 | June 18, 2024 | "Dark Prisons" story arc |
| Free Comic Book Day 2024: Absolute Power Special Edition | One-shot | Mark Waid | Mikel Janín | Patricia Mulvihill | May 5, 2024[24] | — | |
| Titans (vol. 7) | #11 | Tom Taylor | Lucas Meyer | Adriano Lucas | May 21, 2024 | ||
| Action Comics | #1066 | Joshua Williamson | Rafa Sandoval | Alejandro Sánchez | June 25, 2024[25] | "House of Brainiac" tie-in | |
| Superman (vol. 6) | #15 | ||||||
| Title | Issue(s) | Writer | Artist(s) | Colorist | Premiere date | Finale date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suicide Squad: Dream Team | #1–4 | Nicole Maines | Eddy Barrows Eber Ferreira | Adriano Lucas | March 12, 2024[26] | June 11, 2024[27] |
| Green Arrow (vol. 7) | #12–13 | Joshua Williamson | Eric Gapstur Phil Hester Sean Izaakse Amancay Nahuelpan | Romulo Fajardo Jr. | May 28, 2024 | June 25, 2024[25] |
| The Flash (vol. 6) | #10 | Simon Spurrier | Vasco Georgiev Ramón Pérez | Matt Herms | June 25, 2024[25] | |
| Title | Issue | Writer | Artist | Colorist | Premiere date | Finale date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute Power | #1–4 | Mark Waid | Dan Mora | Alejandro Sánchez | July 3, 2024[24] | October 2, 2024 |
| Absolute Power: Task Force VII | #1–7 | Jeremy Adams John Layman Pornsak Pichetshote Alex Paknadel Dan Watters Leah Williams Stephanie Williams | Khary Randolph Max Raynor Claire Roe Pete Woods Marco Santucci Caitlin Yarsky | Alex Guimarães | July 10, 2024[28] | September 25, 2024 |
| Absolute Power: Origins | #1–3 | John Ridley | Alitha Martinez | Andrew Dalhouse | July 24, 2024[28] |
| Title | Writer | Artist | Colorist | Premiere date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute Power: Ground Zero | Nicole Maines Mark Waid Joshua Williamson Chip Zdarsky | V. Ken Marion Gleb Melnikov Skylar Patridge | Patricio Delpeche | June 25, 2024[24] |
| Absolute Power: Super Son | Sina Grace Nicole Maines | Travis Mercer John Timms | Hi-Fi Rex Lokus | September 18, 2024 |
| Title | Issue | Writer | Artist | Premiere date | Finale date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batman (vol. 3) | #150–152 | Chip Zdarsky | Mike Hawthorne | July 3, 2024[28] | September 4, 2024 |
| Green Lantern (vol. 7) | #13–15 | Jeremy Adams | Fernando Pasarín | July 10, 2024 | September 11, 2024 |
| Superman (vol. 6) | #16–18 | Joshua Williamson | Jamal Campbell | July 17, 2024[28] | September 18, 2024 |
| Wonder Woman (vol. 6) | #11–13 | Tom King | Tony S. Daniel | ||
| Green Arrow (vol. 7) | #14–16 | Joshua Williamson | Amancay Nahuelpan | July 24, 2024 | September 25, 2024 |
According toComicscored.com, theAbsolute Power four-issue limited series received a "Very Good" rating, with a Comicscore Index of 84 based on 82 ratings from critics.[29] TheAbsolute Power: Task Force VII seven-issue limited series received a "Good" rating, with a Comicscore Index of 71 based on 74 ratings from critics.[30] TheAbsolute Power: Origins three-issue limited series received a "Good" rating, with a Comicscore Index of 77 based on 24 ratings from critics.[31]
According to Comicbook Roundup,Absolute Power received anaverage rating of 7.8 out of 10 based on 222 reviews.[32]
Absolute Power concluded the Dawn of DC initiative, giving birth to theDC All In initiative, which was overseen byJoshua Williamson andScott Snyder, and began in October 2024. Snyder said that All In will not consist of any reboots or relaunches to current titles.[33]