I'll start out with some caveats. I did not read any of Absolute Power so I don't have an understanding of what happened to the multiverse. I did not think I would be very interested in the Absolute line of books (although after reading a sneak peek of Absolute Batman I am pretty intrigued). With those two truths in mind, I didn't have major expectations from this book.
Snyder and Williamson do a very solid job here though, grabbing me more than I thought they would. For one, the recognize DC history here, both recent and more ingrained in an old reader like me. They bring in an interesting wrinkle about Darkseid to a truth in the longstanding DCU that I am surprised hasn't been touched on before. And they put forward a brief origin for the Absolute Universe, the Elseworld, that touches on DC history too.
And while I feel that the main goal of this book was to give people a taste of the Absolute Universe, the major push from the DC company, they also bring in some hints for new books on the main Earth.
The art is also fantastic. Wes Craig brings a raw, chaotic feel to the Darkseid side of the book and does an incredible job touring the DCU and timeline. On the flipside, Daniel Sampere brings his clean, crisp style to the main world story, a stark contrast in feel befitting the stories.
I liked this a lot. And it did it's job, making me <gasp> a little excited about some upcoming things. On to the book itself.
As a flip book, you read the two sides until the join in the middle. I think I read this in the easier order, starting with the 'Omega' side. Darkseid has cut off his hand to use his blood to power up a machine he has built.
When his elite, including Kalibak, tell Darkseid that Earth is ripe for the picking with the heroes reeling, Darkseid declines.
Darkseid felt some infusion in his own power when the multiverse was closed off and he needs to know why. Moreover, he has a plan. It starts with killing Kalibak to use his son's blood to fully power the device.
Look at this art, so perfect for the 'dark side' of the story.
In the aftermath of Absolute Power and all the other sort of events (Knight Terrors, Beast World, etc) the heroes decide to reform the Justice League. And everyone is getting a membership card.
With the machine ready, Darkseid begins hunting for someone. He heads to Hell and sees Blaze. He heads to heaven and sees Zauriel. He heads to the moon and confronts Eclipso. They promise Darkseid some boon (pain to his enemies, the return of his wife) if he stops his search but he continues until he reaches his goal.
He finds the Spectre, defies the Quintessence, and uses The Miracle Machine to fuse with the Spirit of Vengeance.
Craig gives us a rather craggy looking Quintessence that makes them feel ancient. And I'm a Legion fan. A Miracle Machine reference is a win.
Darkseid asks the Spectre for answers. And he gets some doozies.
First, Snyder and Williamson lean into the Doomsday Clock ending and says the hope of Superman is the core of the main universe. As a Superman fan, I am all over this.
But in a wrinkle, the writers bring up that Darkseid, while a multiversal god only exists in the main DCU. (The lack of New Gods on any of the other known universes is something which I have always wondered about.)
While physically he exists in the main, his power exists in other universes. The multiverse being cut off consolidated Darkseid's power.
Again, these are not truly new ideas. But presenting them like this, and explaining Darkseid's power and presence in this way, is a good hook.
Why not talk more about Darkseid and his failures.
Check out this walk through history. His first appearance on a computer monitor in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. Getting clobbered by the Kryptonian cousins in The Great Darkness Saga. Getting killed by Batman in Final Crisis.
Look, anytime you riff on Kara pounding Darkseid in Great Darkness, I am happy. But the other stuff, especially the Jimmy Olsen panel, reminds me how powerful DC history is.
Infused with his hew power, and defeated by the JLU, Darkseid releases his energy and creates a new universe. If the DCU is built on Superman's hope, Darkseid's universe ... the Absolute Universe ... is built on turmoil.
As I have said all along, there is a ton of DC history here. Now the 'Hand Krona Saw', the creator of the universe, is Darkseid in this world.
That is pretty cool.
We then get pages showing us Absolute Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, describing this as a dark world.
Great story, great Darkseid stuff here, and a nice tease of Absolute.
We'll get to the ultimate ending of the book soon ... because time to flip!
Check out Supergirl!
Is this the first time Supergirl has been in the JL since the James Robinson run?
I get the conceit. I am sure there will be a core group but the title is called Justice League Unlimited. And the writer is Mark Waid. Who better to handle an unlimited cast? Who better to bring heroes in for one story and not another.
Yes, if everyone is special than no one is. But I understand the concept here. Let Waid run wild.
Beautiful art by Sampere throughout.
The rip in the universes remains open. Superman calls it 'the Elseworld', an appropriate name.
I really liked this Orion visit as I think this plants the seed for Ram V's New Gods run. With Darkseid gone, there will be a power vacuum. I am in for that book.
An evil Darkseid JLU membership card is a bit silly, perhaps the only clunker to the whole issue.
But something happens when he gets to the Absolute World, some ripple resets things and strips Booster's trip from the heroes mind. Gold is on his own.
Good stuff all around.
And then the big ending.
Booster sees Darkseid's Legion, a dark take on my favorite team, drawn beautifully by Dan Mora.
A Miracle Machine nod AND a dark Legion.
Can we get a real Legion??
Anyways, I liked this a ton. And it made me interested in both the new DCU books as well as the Absolute books. All around win.
Overall grade: B+
5 comments:
It was fun, wasn’t it? Am I right in remembering that we have had a Justice League Unlimited, back in the days of the Yazz League?
"Is this the first time Supergirl has been in the JL since the James Robinson run?"
No, Kara was a member of the Martian Manhunter's JL United and Jon Kent's refounded League.
Shame on me for forgetting JL United.
I didn't even remember that Jon refounded the League in Dark Crisis ... a blink in time.
Oh and Justice League 3000? She was team leader for a hot second... JF
Solid Review. This issue was decent, and it did manage to provide a better justification for the Absolute Universe's setup than I thought would be the case given much of the marketing and previews related to the Absolute line. With that said, what really made this issue worthwhile for me was the content in the Alpha section, and by extension what it implies for the future of the mainstream DCU. Part of that is that I can't help but look at this and not see the echo of the DCAU's Justice League Unlimited, which is arguably still one of the best takes on DC's IP in any medium. That show did a brilliant job of integrating the wider cast of D.C.'s heroes into an expanded Justice League in a way that allowed for their characterizations to be meaningfully fleshed out through well developed, character driven plots that also successfully developed the world around them while still giving established, major characters such as the trinity ample opportunities to shine. In particular, two strengths of that series were spotlighting interactions between relatively obscure characters who often don't meet such as Huntress and the Question, and allowing characters who often get overshadowed by more established counterparts to star in compelling narratives that helped give them a more distinct personality place in the universe beyond what had previously been given to them in the DCAU (incidentally, Supergirl's arc with Cadmus and her ultimate decision to leave Clark and join the Legion was probably the best example of that).
The choice to give the new series the same name as that show feels like an unambiguous homage, and more broadly it seems from this special and solicits for upcoming issues as if Waid and other creators involved with the new Justice League Unlimited series are looking to achieve a similar kind of balance in the stories they're seeking to tell in that series. Obviously I expect them to create something that's fundamentally in line with the contemporary comics' DCU rather than a straight up tribute to the DCAU, but if they do take some broad inspiration from that show's storytelling methods while crafting new narratives that intelligently make maximum use of the revived league's expanded roster I think the new Justice League Unlimited series will be a bright chapter in the annals of D.C's league titles.
As for the Omega side of the book, the most I can say about that is that it made the Absolute universe seem like it might have some potential. The risk remains that the Absolute Universe's creators will lean into the trap of confusing darkness with sophistication or narrative quality. Darkness for its own sake is fundamentally meaningless at best, and often outright pretentious and annoying. The consistent emphasis in the Omega section on the Absolute universe's bleakness leaves me wary that D.C.'s management learned the wrong lessons from Marvel's Ultimate line.
To the extent Ultimate books worked, it wasn't because they were darker than mainstream MCU books. They worked because not being encumbered by the weight of decades of canon allowed for well crafted, novel characterizations and plot developments that wouldn't have been possible within the established framework of the mainstream MCU. I'll reserve judgement on whether D.C.'s management got that lesson until I read the actual titles, but it's disappointing that the omega side of this book didn't do more to dispel those doubts. For what it's worth I'm particularly skeptical of the Absolute Superman book's prospects given how bad Jason Aaron's recent run on Action Comics was. I would like to be proven wrong and see good results from that title and the Absolute line. In the meantime, I hope that the positive vibes from the Alpha chunk of this book really do indicate solid near-term prospects for the titles set in the mainstream DCU.
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