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
Today: Green Arrow #16, Absolute Power: Task Force VII #7 (of 7), Absolute Power: Origins #3 (of 3). Also Titans #15, which happens before the event but links (weakly) to it. Flash #13 was also released today, but seems to tell a largely unconnected story that happens shortly before the event.
Also, I get the sense that it is subtly confirmed in the pages that somehow Absolute Power will lead into the "All In"-related event, which I am still ambivalent about.
I will avoid spoilers.
Titans #15 is a good enough story, with some interesting choices. The subject matter is perhaps a bit too much of a rethread, but it is handled better here than in past stances. It may or may not lead directly to next week's big resolution. My complaint about the team composition being rigourously the same as 44 years ago has been slightly addressed; this is not the exact same team as that of #1, or even #9. Oddly, there is not as much use of the roster as I would expect.
Green Arrow #16 answers as many questions as it creates. This issue brings the Absolute Power event somewhat closer to the foreground than previous issues did, and has a bit of good character work. I still think fail to see how Ollie could possibly see any sense in Amanda Waller's plans. Yes, he has been something of a rebel in the past... in quite the opposite direction from where Waller is going towards.
Task Force VII #7 is essentially a book about the current status of the Global Guardians and related groups. It gives interesting insights on Waller's mental and emotional state right before the showdown to come in #4 of the main series, as does Green Arrow #16.
Origins #3 was a slightly frustrating read to me. I don't really know what it meant to say and expect that it will be a somewhat divisive book. It does establish that some form of the key interactions between the post-Legends Suicide Squad and Batman have survived the various events since, and gives a bit insight of how Waller and Rick Flagg Jr. reacted to those. I don't think we saw Rick Flagg since mid 2022; he is a strong candidate for the mysterious voice who spoke with Flash recently during this event. This three-parter does give a lot more detail about her family than we ever had before, and it is interesting too; hopefully that will figure into the conclusion of this event.
Right now I feel that Amanda is artificially being made a bit more of a cypher than she has any right to be. For far too many reasons, I want to see her dealt with for good already. She has worn out her welcome, far as I am concerned. I am hoping that for once she gets her just deserts and we see some sort of attempt at rebuilding, perhaps centered on Rick Flag and/or Sarge Steel. For a dark horse, we could have Nightwing renewing his ties to spy work and taking a role in whatever comes next.
I have no idea of where Ollie stands in all this, nor where he will be when the event concludes. Which I suppose may be a good thing?
I read Green Arrow 15 (it finally showed up on DCUI Ultra), and it's just as preposterous as Cap described. And oh, man, does the Arrow family need thinning. (By retirements, preferably; I don't need to read a bunch of death and angst from people who can all shoot parachute arrows at a moment's notice.)
But the main thing I want to respond to is a question of Cap's when he talked about this issue. In the opening scene, Ollie uncovers a box.
Cap wrote:
One last thing: The flashback scene with Arrow and … who is it, Captain Cold? … in some snowy place doesn’t ring a bell, so maybe someone can tell me where it’s from. Also, the device that Martian Manhunter gave him … is that a new scene, or have we seen that before? Those scenes need an explanation.
I'm not sure who he's talking to in the snowy place, but it might be Waller herself. I honestly don't know. The buried box comes from the end of No Justice, right before the launce of Scott Snyder's Justice League run. Martian Manhunter had given it to him as a safeguard against JLA overreach... and from there, Ollie buried it it became a dangling plot thread for the next 6 years.
(revised, as I previously overestimated how long the box has been around.)
ETA: Further looking into this reveals that the person in the parka is Waller, who spoke with Ollie in No Justice #3. No Justice #4 is when J'onn gave Ollie the mystery box.
I didn't get to the LCS last week, so I went yesterday (Wednesday) for two week's worth of Absolute Power. But Lunar shorted my LCS on a number of titles (while sending them a shipment of something they didn't order). They are not optimistic about getting it fixed. So I ordered what I missed at MyComicShop. What I have:
What I'm waiting for:
Collecting comics is hard!
Absolute Power #4 was released today, ending this event.
Avoiding spoilers, I will say that it was largely a satisfactory ending. We do not restore status quo fully, though; there are some significant surprises and consequences that make for an interesting new situation. Some of the tie-ins also have at least a hint of interesting consequences.
Characterization is overall fairly good, as I have come to expect from Mark Waid. There are some unanswered questions as well, particularly about the new characters that some tie-ins introduced but also about a very classic character.
It does lead to the DC All In Special, which has a few surprises of its own, but the two stories stand by themselves.
My order from MyComicShop has arrived, filling in what I was missing from Sept. 18 and Sept. 25. And I got Absolute Power #4 today (Oct. 2), so I can race to the finish line!
ABSOLUTE POWER: SUPER SON #1
Rob Staeger wrote: I was weak and picked up another Absolute Power tie-in, Absolute Power: Super Son … and it was ... pretty inessential, at least to the ongoing AP plotline.
Agreed. We did see Jon capture Huntress and Vixen, though, which we didn’t know about before. I think.
And this issue introduces me to “Galaxy” and “Agent Berliner.” The book doesn’t explain who they are, so I guess I was expected to know already.
It's a closer look from Jon Kent's recovery from being controlled by the Braniac Queen, with a lot of dream sequences as he relives it, guided through them by Dreamer (who's still dead, so I guess we're supposed to believe it's his memories of Dreamer. More likely, Dreamer retreated into Jon's dreams at the moment she supposedly "died," because that's how comics roll).
Writers seem to love dream sequences, but I don't. You can pretty much summarize the contribution of any dream sequence to any narrative in a sentence. In this case, we learn a sentence's worth of plot, but have to plow through 44 pages to get there.
I think you’re right about Dreamer, in that she’s still around in some fashion. Otherwise, why spend all that time showing her and Jon falling in love? That’s going to come into play at some point.
It's decent enough comic book action, and there's a nice sequence where Jon remembers taking down the Helena Bertinelli Huntress (whom we haven't seen for a while).
Wasn’t she a big deal in the recent Justice Society revival? I didn’t read it, but I got the impression from the solicittions that she was traveling back and forth through time and she ended up staying in the ‘40s. Maybe I misinterpreted whatever I read, because lo, here she is.
Overall, the stakes are low since it's either fait accompli memories, or a dream sequence. We already know Jon gets better, so we're just seeing more detail as to how.
It’s 44 pages of minor details, narrative-wise.
That said, there's a great sequence at the end for people following Jon Kent and his love life. SPOILERS for that.
He has a conversation with his boyfriend, Jay Nakamura, and there's a moment when it gets pretty harsh. (A Suicide Squad mission Dreamer was on killed Jay's mom, so obviously he has strong feelings about her.) Jon tells him Dreamer is dead, and Jay says "Good." They argue for a moment, but at the end make up and decided to move in together when all this is over. Which seems simple... except here's what I'm speculating will happen next.
Dreamer reveals she's alive. And in the dream Jon had, well... there was some heat between them. Some romantic longing. And I think her return will drive a wedge between Jon and Jay, and Jon will start dating Dreamer (a much better match for him, IMO), and Jay will become a full-on revenge-driven supervillain (a much better role for him, IMO). At least that's what would happen if *I* ran the DC Universe...!
They wouldn’t have wasted pages on that if Dreamer was really dead and she and Jon weren’t going to have more romantic moments. I’d bet a dollar that she’ll come back somehow, then Jay and Jon will break up over his cruel attitude, and then Jon and Dreamer will address the “heat” of which you spoke.
Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said: Super Son is indeed very skippable, unless you are emotionally invested in Jon, Jay and/or Dreamer. And even then, it has clarity and pacing issues at the very least. I have not caught Rob's spoiler-proofed plot point, but I hope it is true. There is promise in following on that.
I think we’re all on the same page here.
SUPERMAN #18
Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said: Superman #18 is a considerably better book, with some nice character moments and good plot points that are in equal parts relevant to Superman and to the Absolute Power event. I hope we have more interactions between Superman and Zatanna in the near future; they play off against each other perfectly here. The supporting cast is in interesting places as well.
I thought Zatanna’s confession about her magic being all she has and all she is was the most characterization she’s had in the last 50 years put together. I hope they follow up on that. I plan to read the current Black Label Zatanna story when it’s collected, but I doubt it will touch on what occurred here. I’d enjoy seeing her as a semi-regular in the Super-books, especially in Action Comics, where her dad had his strip in the ‘40s. She seems more of a Superman character than a Batman character. Also, Superman’s supportiveness of a woman he has no romantic interest in is just so Superman.
Superman’s dealings with Neron, as the demon says, aren’t over. But he seems to have pulled a fast one, meaning he’s smarter than Peter Parker. We’ll see how Neron flips the script (because that’s what devils do), but I hope he doesn’t stick around long—I just think he’s too poorly designed visually to be DC’s Mephisto. Seriously, gold and green? He looks like a football mascot.
Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said: Wonder Woman #13 is easily the best "Absolute Power" book of the week. It reads best after Absolute Power #3 and Superman #18, but it isn't a deal breaker if you do not take that care. It makes great use Diana, Steve and even Damian. It has great pacing and a good plot.
Agreed! Diana’s big moment was, to me, both heroic and perfect characterization.
And it definitely advances both the titular character plots and the Absolute Power story in organic ways. It even has some intriguing cameo character interactions. Tom King is doing a great job here. The second feature (Trinity’s) is a very different kind of story, but I fully recommend it as well.
There’s great characterization throughout, especially Damian’s spot-on 13-year-old reaction to adults kissing.
We also got to see a number of faces that sparked my interest. Both Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian were there in their natural states, but didn’t indicate any extra-human abilities. (Still very curious about that, and hope Task Force VII #7 will shed some light.) Frankenstein is there, and I assume still inhumanly strong. (But I could be wrong.) Other characters we didn’t know were captured were shown in crowd scenes, and I guess it doesn’t matter, since who’s captured and who isn’t is now moot.
A lot of people have reacted to Plastic Man’s remark that indicates it hurts when he stretches. That would be interesting in some way, but by and large would change the character fundamentally and I prefer to think he was joking. (It is Plastic Man, after all.)
Jeff of Earth-J said: I'm not following "Absolute Power" but I do read Tom King's Wonder Woman. Yes, I will be happier when this crossover is behind us, but in the meantime I feel I get a sense of it through this title (and this discussion). The "Trinity" chapter is last issue's main story, told years later from Damien's POV. Very funny.
Absolutely! A story we’ve already seen objectively (in Wonder Woman #12) told from Damian’s perspective is, of course, hilarious! That neither Jon nor Trinity believed him was a perfect touch. I want to read all these backup stories, but I don’t know if they’re included in the few trades available from this series.
ABSOLUTE POWER: ORIGINS #3 (OF 3)
Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said: Origins #3 was a slightly frustrating read to me. I don't really know what it meant to say and expect that it will be a somewhat divisive book. It does establish that some form of the key interactions between the post-Legends Suicide Squad and Batman have survived the various events since, and gives a bit insight of how Waller and Rick Flagg Jr. reacted to those. I don't think we saw Rick Flagg since mid 2022; he is a strong candidate for the mysterious voice who spoke with Flash recently during this event. This three-parter does give a lot more detail about her family than we ever had before, and it is interesting too; hopefully that will figure into the conclusion of this event.
So that bit about Batman breaking into Belle Reve had happened before? It would not surprise me if it had, and I forgot. I assume the reason would be to let Amanda Waller know that he knew what she was doing and to knock it off. Come to think of it, that sounds familiar.
I guess now we’re seeing it from Amanda’s POV, and naturally, she thinks the whole point was to humiliate her personally. Which is exactly the wrong lesson to take from it. She later refers to the scene as her staring down the ugliness of the world without flinching. Yeah, to her, Batman is the ugliness of the world. And she assigns herself a heroic role in what was for her an utter strategic failure. That’s messed up. As her daughter later says, “you’re busted, Mom.” She really is.
But we do learn how Amanda learns Batman’s secret ID, if we hadn’t before. Honestly, it’s so easy that I’m amazed more haven’t done it. Which we have discussed on this board before.
Incidentally, the daughter’s name is Coretta Waller here, whereas it’s Leota Adebayo in TV’s Peacemaker. I wonder if James Gunn will line those up somehow.
She says, “I lost my husband and two children to people who didn’t give a damn about the law.” Well, that’s one interpretation. I read Absolute Power: Origins #1, and don’t share it. Also, it’s not like Amanda herself gives a flying fig about the law. She’s about control, not legalities.
In fact, Flag argues that very thing in this issue. He notes that Waller is going to surveil American citizens without court orders to catch Batman. “@#$%, Amanda. How many Civil Rights are you gonna @#$%, trying to ‘save’ democracy?”
Then later, she herself says “I don’t want to hear about the Constitution.”
So who is it, again, who doesn’t give a damn about the law?
But I finally have an answer that I’ve been asking for all along, as to how Waller squares the circle in her own head on what she’s doing. People here have been telling me, but I just couldn’t make it make sense. This issue made it make sense to me. So good writing.
ABSOLUTE TASK FORCE VII #7 (OF 7)
Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said: Task Force VII #7 is essentially a book about the current status of the Global Guardians and related groups. It gives interesting insights on Waller's mental and emotional state right before the showdown to come in #4 of the main series, as does Green Arrow #16.
This issue introduced me to a whole bunches of international super-teams. Most – well, probably all – pre-existed this issue, but many are new to me. It’s not a handbook, so we have to make some judgment calls as to who’s in what.
Intercorps: Described by Jack O’Lantern as “the Communist space army.” The only characters clearly with this team are Red Star (formerly Starfire, first introduced in Silver Age Teen Titans), Ghost-Breaker and Rising Sun. Tuatara seems to be with them physically, but may be on the Global Guardians. There must be more.
Global Guardians: Thunderlord, Belphegor, Owlwoman, possibly Tuatara, unidentified others (including one with what appears to be fairy wings).
New Global Guardians: Jet, Tasmanian Devil, Jack O’Lantern, Freedom Beast and a Mirror Master. Possibly others.
Eurocorps: Wild Huntsman, Little Mermaid, Fleur-de-Lis, Nightrunner. Possibly others.
Some other interesting bits:
We see that Frankenstein can lose a limb and have it re-attached, just like before he met an Amazo. Which indicates they don’t reduce everyone to baseline human, but just baseline whatever they are. Which means Aquaman, who is half-Atlantean, should still breathe water. Of half-breathe it, anyway. But he can’t. And Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian should retain native Martian abilities, like shapeshifting and telepathy. It’s not clear from their brief appearance in Wonder Woman #13 if they do. I know I’ve said before that it’s obvious Amazos can do whatever the plot requires, but I still want it to make sense.
We don’t know how any of the other Amazos got their names, but in this issue the Martian Manhunter Amazo is dubbed “Global Guardian” by Amanda Waller, since he captures all the international teams.
It’s explained that the Amazos can self-repair thanks to time-travel technology. Evidently the damaged part goes back in time to before it was damaged. I didn’t know self-repairing robots needed to be explained -- don't most of them do it anyway? -- but since it has been exlained, this is obviously a plot point, and why Green Arrow is up to something timey-wimey.
In the backup, Steve Trevor and Diana haven’t yet linked up, as they do in Wonder Woman #13, which came out the week prior.
GREEN ARROW #16
Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said: Green Arrow #16 answers as many questions as it creates.
Agreed.
This issue brings the Absolute Power event somewhat closer to the foreground than previous issues did, and has a bit of good character work. I still think fail to see how Ollie could possibly see any sense in Amanda Waller's plans. Yes, he has been something of a rebel in the past... in quite the opposite direction from where Waller is going towards.
This issue has Black Canary explain why Ollie did all this, and of all explanations I’ve heard and come up with myself, this is the most damning. It rings true, and doesn’t let him off the hook.
But he’s still doing something with time travel, though, and I still wouldn’t be surprised to find out he’s working with the League. Or just has his own plan to defeat Waller.
I think it was a fantastic panel when someone called Ollie a fascist. That’s what HE always calls everyone ELSE. And you know what? He IS being a fascist, moreso than Hal Jordan or Superman or the Justice League ever were.
Well, for now. Still, it was a great callback and made me laugh.
Also, we finally learn who Bright is. He’s the White Lantern of Earth-3. Does that make him the Earth-3 version of our Black Lantern (William Hand)? Or maybe the Black Canary of Earth-3? He said he used to team up with Deadeye and Power Ring, which would be the Green Arrow and Green Lantern of Earth-3, and maybe he has light powers instead of sound powers. Was he romantically attached to the Deadeye of Earth-3, and that’s going to be the Big Reveal? Or is he the Earth-3 version of Kyle Rayner, who was the White Lantern of our Earth? Or what?
You know, I have always said that I really didn’t care who Bright is (given the multiversal possibilities) and was tired of the writer harping on a mystery whose solution I knew would be a letdown. And sure enough, the great secret is revealed … and I shrugged. Even if he turns out to be gay for Ollie, and that’s why he hates him so, which is the best twist I can come up with. But that’s still not enough to justify all the build-up. It all gets a big “who cares” from me.
TITANS #15
Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said: Titans #15 is a good enough story, with some interesting choices. The subject matter is perhaps a bit too much of a retread, but it is handled better here than in past instances. It may or may not lead directly to next week's big resolution. My complaint about the team composition being rigourously the same as 44 years ago has been slightly addressed; this is not the exact same team as that of #1, or even #9. Oddly, there is not as much use of the roster as I would expect.
I haven’t been paying attention to Titans, and only picked it up because you talked about it. And yeah, Wolfman and Perez did the Trigon thing decades ago, and I would not be surprised if various writers have haven’t done their own version since (like every FF writer doing a Galactus story). It’s nothing new. Raven has declared her independence from Dad again, but I have no confidence it will stick this time any more than all the others.
I’m not really clear on Amanda’s deal with Trigon. Did she promise him Earth in exchange for the Titans? Or the other way around? Either way, you know what they say about deals with the devil, so that's a pretty bad deal any way you look at it.
You mention the roster, Luis, but I kind of like that I recognize all of these people, and that they represent the team’s foundations. Except for not having Wally West and Roy Harper, it’s the Silver Age Teen Titans (Dick, Wally, Donna, Roy, Garth) combined with the New Teen Titans of 1980 (Dick, Wally, Donna, Gar, Raven, Vic, Kory). These are old friends, and as Donna says, “we’ve trained our whole lives for this.” Which is not what you could say about some of the ‘90s and ‘00s Titans, who weren’t even kid sidekicks.
ABSOLUTE POWER #4 (OF 4)
I’m not going to spoil anything, so I can't say much.
I seem to have missed some of the set-up. I think I should have been reading Flash, too. But it’s OK, I can roll.
There’s a Hal Jordan/Barry Allen team-up. I hadn’t realized how much I missed those.
Every other plot thread we‘ve talked about got tied up, I can’t think of any that Mark Waid missed. (But then, he wouldn’t be Mark Waid if he did, would he?) We guessed some of the twists, didn’t guess others. I'm amazed they were able to wrap it up in a single issue, especially since Waller has many contingency plans. She HAS to, or she's not Waller. But they are addressed.
Martian Manhunter gets off a great one-liner to Batman. Go read it.
That’s all I can say without spoiling anything. I’ll give y’all tine to read it, although I don’t know if we can wait a month, Rob Staeger!
J'onn's line to Batman was great.
Amanda Waller had a couple of significant interactions with Batman during the original run of the John Ostrander Suicide Squad back in the late 1980s. The prelude was a four-way crossover halfway through "Millenium", which brought Waller's crew to Batman's attention. That was during Suicide Squad #9. In #10 Batman infliltrated Belle Reve to investigate and Waller made him turn back by threatening to find out his secret identity and reveal it. Then there was the crossover between JLI and SS in #13 of both titles, which culminated in a drawn-out fight between Batman and Rick Flagg Jr. Later Waller ended up arrested for abuse of power in #39 (a recently featured cover in this forum's popular thread) and was released to recruit Batman as an ally in #40. It was an uneasy alliance.
Did you notice that the new Swamp Thing was in Titans #15, Captain? That is not Alec Holland, but the new Swamp Thing, Levi Kamei. He is a member (a part-time one, apparently) since the resolution of "Beast World" in #5. It is a nice acquisition for the team, but he did not leave a lot of impression in this issue.
I want to read all these backup stories, but I don’t know if they’re included in the few trades available from this series.
I don't know either (because I'm buying the periodicals), but they are being collected in the specials (two so far).
Oh, feel free to talk about the end of Absolute Power! It's only the side issues I'm reading online; I bought the paper issue today!
Oh, and Cap: The Huntress in JSA has been Helena Wayne, from approx 20 years in the future -- the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. But Bruce and Selina broke up, and her future is gone, and she'd been trying to make a place for herself here. (Though she found a new place in issue 11 of JSA.)
I don't know either (because I'm buying the periodicals), but they are being collected in the specials (two so far).
But then I wouldn't get the main stories! I want it all!
I checked out the back issues on MyComicShop, and they only have a couple of the lesser variants of issue #1 (like the blank one) for around $7.00. I don't want a blank $7.00 cover, but I'm considering it. I am NOT considering the $75.00 CGC-slabbed one. Jeez. I want to READ this 2023 book, you sleazy grifters. Maybe it's time to join Rob's Month Later Squad.
The Huntress in JSA has been Helena Wayne, from approx 20 years in the future -- the daughter of Batman and Catwoman.
Good guns! A second Huntress! It--uh--must be an illusion!
Oh, feel free to talk about the end of Absolute Power!
OK!
The book starts very quickly – there’s a lot of ground to cover – but there’s still time for some character work, which is awesome.
It turns out that Green Lantern and Wally have returned from the Hall of Justice with intel on Gamorra—and Hal’s ring, fully charged. It’s implied that with Jadestone MIA, nobody’s coming for it.
He has Batman use the mother box he stole from Waller to bring all the freed (but de-powered) superheroes together in a gigantic D-Day invasion of Gamorra.
Well, all the heroes except Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, who are tasked with stopping whatever Waller’s got in her basement. (It’s a conduit to the multiverse, where Waller’s evil Leaguers are champing at the bit to come to our Earth and kill everybody.)
They succeed in stopping anyone from coming over, with classic Hal and Barry team-up dialogue. The downside: The multiverse is closed off, and Barry has lost his powers. We learn this at the end, but there’s no reason not to tell you now.
And Batman and Ted Kord have a different task: Finding John Starr and creating a device to neutralize all the Amazos. I'm not sure how this ties into Arrow's search for John Starr tech but it must, somehow.
So he wasn't a traitor. Green Arrow was working to betray Amanda Waller all along, but to do so, he had to be able to pass Amanda's mind-readers. So he had Martian Manhunter put a "telepathic patch" in his head where he would pass mind-readers as 100% on board with no plans to betray her. It was geared to time out at a specific time, after he had passed muster. J'onn was supposed to tell the others, but was captured and power-wiped too quickly.
Martian Manhunter's zinger came when Batman complained that Arrow's plan was fine in principle, but he should have told the others first. J'onn says to Batman, “You lecturing us about keeping secret plans is highly ironic.” Also, Arrow points out -- correctly -- that the Justice League didn't exist at the time. So who did he have an obligation to tell? And they weren't united and prepared when Waller came for them.
This is a good point, one that should have been brought up ... oh, I dunno, when they dissolved the League in the first place. Which I thought was stupid at the time. Look, if the Big 7 don't want to League any more, you don't dissolve the whole organization -- you find substitutes who are committed to the team. Like the Avengers did in "The Old Order Changeth" almost 60 years ago. It was a monumental stupidity to just junk the whole organization. If nothing else, who was going to clean, maintain and guard the Hall of Justice? Not to mention pay the light bill. There's dangerous stuff in there, both physical weapons and everybody's secret identity. Then, you know, there will "come a day, a day unlike any other ..." Maybe Superman and Batman should have been reading Avengers, where they've already figured all this out.
So one of the big points of this series is that it IS stupid to dissolve the Justice League, which is how it leads into "All In," where basically the whole DCU is in the Justice League. I thought this had been tried before, but I don't remember enough to discuss it. Anyway, whether it's happened before or not, it's happening now.
Also, I'd like to point out that if Arrow's plan became common knowledge among the supers, as soon as they were de-powered and captured, WALLER would know, thanks to her telepathic agents. It was really for the best for Arrow to keep the plan to himself and MM, who was somehow not telepathically interrogated.
Or if he was, I'll accept that having native telepathy all his life would make him resistant to telepathic interrogation. Speaking of which, once again I will make my argument that J'onn and Miss Martian should have retained their native abilities, like telepathy and shapeshifting. Just like Aquaman should have kept his native ability to breathe water, having Atlantean DNA.
Just like Wonder Woman was able to play bullets and bracelets in Wonder Woman #13! The speed necessary to do this -- at least with small-arms fire -- is native to Themyscirans (ti’s part of their annual contests, after all), and was not stolen by Paradise Lost. (Nor can Amazos steal training, it appears.) What she wasn't able to do without her super-power was absorb the impact. Without her super-strength and invulnerability, the impact of the bullets was incredibly painful, even though they didn't penetrate her armor. She says "I may have broken my arms" before passing out. She evidently didn't, as she is OK by this issue. Or maybe the return of her powers healed her up quickly.
I should also note that Waid doesn’t write this is a cakewalk. This is Waller, and she’s got all kinds of defenses, run by Sarge Steel. (Who, to my disappointment, was not a mole. Which means he should go down with Waller, and may be ruined for future use.) Most of the de-powered heroes go down.
As I said, the Amazos and Waller's defenses stop most of the heroes. Nightwing and Jon are the only two to make it to Waller, but she’s ready, because she’s Waller. Falisafe starts strangling Nightwing, and Waller has kryptonite to stop Jon.
Batman, Ted Kord and John Starr do make it to Failsafe’s lab, where they engineer the device to stop the Amazos. It activates the time-travel "healing" abilities of the Amazos (toldja that would be a plot point) to send them back to a time before they had absorbed all the super-powers. But it has to be attached to an Amazo to activate (which will then be broadcast to all of them, theoretically).
However, they are stopped by the Amazos before they can activate the device. But the device is snatched up by ... Green Arrow, of course, who attaches it to an arrow and hits an Amazo. (“Heroes gotta hero.”) All the Amazos are deactivated, including Failsafe. And the super-powers are released to their original owners ... or into the wild, which will be a plot point in the upcoming "All In."
In fact, we get a panel showing that Fire and Ice have switched powers, and Doom Patrol’s Beast Girl has somehow acquired Beast Boy’s powers. (She previously influenced people’s amygdalas.)
Anyway Dreamer, as we all speculated, is not dead. She was pulled into Jon Kent's dream world at the moment of her death. And she was kept alive there, because "he dreamed of me constantly." So we were right, there's a romance on the horizon. All that’s left to spculate on is how Jon and Jay will break up. Probably won’t be pretty and he’ll probably end up a supervillain.
Anyway, she emerges from the dream world I guess in a dream body? She’s physical, despite her original body dying in the Arctic, and finally gets to punch Waller in the face.
But Waller points out that the world still hates the superheroes. Nightwing taunts her into Full Supervillain Monologue, which he was hoping for – he had Air Wave (“a human Wi-Fi”) broadcast her rant on every device and screen on Earth. So Waller goes to jail.
Dreamer visits Waller in her isolation cell in, ironically, Belle Reve. Waller sneers that she will return, because she knows all the dirt on everyone, including the superheroes’ identities and headquarters. She’ll be back, she says.
Nay, nay, says Dreamer, who taunts her by asking her to try to remember any of that. And she can’t. Dreamer has isolated those memories – she didn’t erase them, because Identity Crisis taught us that’s a no-no – she just put them sliiiiiightly out of reach. On the tip of Waller’s tongue.
“You always complained about how squeaky-clean we do-gooders are,” Dreamer says. “Superman and his friends would never approve …
“… if they knew.”
She also implies that Waller has a brain-bomb, like Waller used on the Suicide Squad. Chances atre that’s not true, but it torments Waller just the same, because projection. It’s what she would do, so she’s terrified her enemies have done it to her.
It ends with the Trinity confronting Arrow. They reluctantly forgive him. (Wonder Woman: “It is all we can do to resist the urge to break your arms.”) Then he points out that breaking up the team was one reason this all happened, so Batman shows him the plans for the new Satellite HQ …
… to be continued in DC All In Special #1.
OK, team, did I miss anything?
But then I wouldn't get the main stories! I want it all!
Then your choices are either the tpbs and the specials (assuming the tpbs don't carry the back-ups) or the periodicals.
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