I've gotta say, I really liked the Absolute Power Ground Zero Special. I decided to buy this, and the main Absolute Power series (minus the sub-series and the tie-ins) on paper, waiting for the secondary stuff to show up on DCUI. And so far, I'm a fan.
This book is broken into three stories, each co-written by Mark Waid. The first shows the Suicide Squad tracking and capturing Jon Kent's boyfriend, Jai Nakamura, the son of the recent president of the island nation of Gamorra. The next shows Amanda Waller coercing D-list time-travel villain Time Commander into helping her with her plans. The third shows Waller enlisting and securing the help of the Brainiac Queen, who first appeared in the recent crossover in the Superman books.
As I've probably written, I've moved away a bit from the anti-Waller bandwagon; I feel like her time on Earth 3 is sufficient motivation for a heel turn for someone who was already skeptical of superheroes, and while not every writer will play her on what I feel his her new moral line--I think there are some things she still won't do, as she still has protection of regular (American) humans as one of her core motivations--I can blame that on the creators, not the character. I think Waid and Dan Mora (and this series) will do right by her, in general.
And Dreamer! I honestly love what's being done with her, because it's so surprising to me. She's DC's flagship trans character, and you'd think they'd be wanting to keep her untarnished, always choosing the right thing. That's what I'd expected from DC, and also from writer Natalie Maines, who obviously has a very personal stake in the matter. But she's a much more daring writer than I'd expected (as seen in Suicide Squad: Dream Team, which this follows up on), and is taking some pretty huge risks with Nia. And having such a conflict between her and Jai is honestly the best thing ever for both characters, as well as Jon (who hasn't had a lot of great character moments since he aged up during the Bendis run on the Super-titles). I think this facet of the story will have great benefits.
The Time Commander story was fun, and made me want to go back and read his last appearance, in Batman: Urban Legend. I hope to do that soon.
As for Brainiac Queen, my only regret is that I spoiled the end of the Superman books for myself for reading this. But I like Waller's devotion to raising/indoctrinating her, and it was presented well. Ultimately, these stories give Waller very different relationships with all of her main allies: Dreamer, Failsafe, Brainiac Queen, and Green Arrow. (Who knows what his deal is? But as has been pointed out elsewhere, he's expressed distrust for superheroes for longer than Waller's been around, so there's certainly precedent...though I'm hoping for better from him eventually.)
So bring on Absolute Power! I think this will be exciting as hell.
Replies
I will be following this series with a lot of emotional investiment. If it ends in some way that is not decisive punishment for Waller, I will be very disappointed indeed.
That's what I'm hoping for too, Luis. I want this to be the culmination of a great villain arc, complete with justice being served. And then a few years down the line, I can imagine a redemption storyline building for her again, because she's too good a character to waste in a prison cell.
I will have to disagree. At this point she is far worse than Luthor, and deserves to be removed permanently. She, and Peacemaker.
I'm against the idea of "deserves to be removed permanently" for fictional characters. Morality-wise, there's a case to be made for that. But for a storytelling basis, there are a lot of great stories left in her.
So bring on Absolute Power! I think this will be exciting as hell.
Your enthusiasm is infectious. I will be following the disussion (with an eye toward giving the series a try).
Excellent! I'll be following most of it a month late on DCUI, but I'll talk about whatever I can here.
Of course, I'll be in Spain for a week starting tomorrow, so I probably won't post about issue 1 until I get a chance to get to my LCS. (There's a comics & game shop in Madrid I'm planning on hitting, but it'll be on Tuesday, before issue 1 comes out!)
I remember having a Taxi "Louie DePalma moment" when I first encountered Amanda Waller in the Legends mini-series, but I'm not familiar with her more recent activities. The last I remember is seeing her locked away in the pages of Suicide Squad years ago.
From what I remember, Amanda was locked up durng the Ostrander/Yale/McDonnell/Isherwood run of Suicide Squad for a while, and she might have wound up behind bars a second time when the series finished. But that was ages (and several timelines!) ago...
She was in jail for a year during the Ostrander run, but that turned out to be pointless. Her ego won't allow her to feel punished. The series simply time-jumped the whole year between issues and put her in a situation in which she could build herself a new niche of power out of some combination of political convenience and blackmail.
Apparently she had other brief stays since. But for her that is almost irrelevant, and will become ever less relevant if she keeps being released and given black ops power.
It may be a realistic, believable pattern of events. But it is not one that I want to see in comics that I read - and certainly not for decades.
To me she is comparable to General Wade Eiling (who himself went unpunished for far, far too long) and Major Force. A lovely villain to utterly hate. But there must be a falldown to make it worth all the disgust.
That was a great debate about Waller, and I know it was great because I kept changing my mind depending on what was being said. Good points all around. In the real world it comes down to what the writer (or editor) decides, and they'll probably decide on a death that can be undone when someone else wants to do a Waller story. I think death instead of jail, because that would be so prosaic after attempted mass murder. It's a story, not real life, so the punishment will fit the crime in order to satisfy the reader, and that would probably be (temporary) death.
But it's by Mark Waid, so no matter what happens, the trip will be worth it. It should be a good, well-thought-out story, with a mind-boggling twist on some forgotten Silver Age concept. (In this case Amazo.)
So now I'm curious if anyone read "War for Earth-3," "House of Brainiac,' Suicide Squad: Dream Team and "Beast World." They all lead to this, and It would help to have a brief summary of what those stories were about or just notes on what elements of those stories apply to Absolute Power.
I don't ask for much, do I? :) But I might end up getting the whole shebang in HC and clear a space on the shelf for it, if it's as good as it sounds, so how much do I need?
Also, have we ever learned who the Council of Light, or whatever that group is, that Waller demands stuff from? My impression is that they started life in the Young Justice cartoon. (I don't know if they were revealed there, either, although they could be entirely different folks in print.)
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 11 Next