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.
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Okay, I have the 2024 Free Comic Book Day Absolute Power Special Edition, the Absolute Power Ground Zero Special, all four parts of Absolute Power proper, all three parts of Absolute Power: Origins, all seven parts of Absolute Power: Task Force VII and Absolute Power: Super Son. I've got, I think, all but one of the tie-in issues from Green Arrow, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman.
Harder to find are all of the setup issues -- I never saw Suicide Squad: Dream Team #1 or #2 anywhere -- and the further out we are from when they were in stores, the less likely I think it will be that I will find them. I hate to give up on that, but I'm not one to order them online or wait for the trade; that feels like cheating to me.
Anyhoo, I've read what I have, the main part, spinoffs and tie-ins, up to Absolute Power #2. I'll offer thoughts on what I've read so far.
* I'm finding that the seeds of this have been planted for a while, out of other stories and crossovers that I haven't read, in Teen Titans ("Beast World") and Superman and Action Comics ("House of Braniac"), Justice League (which, for some stupid reason, has been disbanded) and maybe some others. Those I'm not concerned about trying to dig up.
I got the gist: the result was that Amanda Waller established a power base to clamp down on superbeings everywhere (why aren't they calling them "metahumans" like they used to?). The Hall of Justice has been renamed the Hall of Order, and Waller and minions Peacemaker and Sarge Steel have been capturing C- and D-list crooks to do their bidding. Somehow -- maybe it was in the two parts of Suicide Squad: Dream Team I wasn't able to find -- Dreamer was in Waller's camp but figured out what she was up to and fled, and was captured. The group Waller sent after Dreamer -- Clock King, Bizarro, Black Alice, Deadeye and Harley Quinn -- were sympathetic to Dreamer but weren't going to risk getting their noggins blown up to side with her. Also, Green Arrow has done a heel turn and has fed Waller with all of the Justice League's secrets.
* One thing I liked in Suicide Squad: Dream Team is the way writer Natalie Maines characterizes Bizarro. He's as childlike as ever, but Maines dispenses with the confusing Bizarro double-talk. I wish more writers would follow Maines' lead on that (although they may not have the opportunity).
* So, what we have, at heart, is DC's take on Civil War. Why isn't this series proving to be as divisive as that one?
Well, here you have a clear villain: Amanda Waller. Her bleating "I'm the good guy, here!" is unpersuasive, as she does numerous bad things, including kidnapping various D-list villains and inducing them to blow up in experiments to get their powers to work in service to her aims. There are limits to "We have to be as dirty as the bad guys to get the job done."
Another, maybe, is that it didnt posit that some of the superheroes would buy into the idea of imposed regulation and others would form an organized resistance, causing the first group to fight the second group, and in turn causing readers to choose which side they were on, Team Iron Man (regulation) or Team Cap (freedom)..But in Absolute Power, here, all of the heroes are targets of the authority.
(Yeah, I was unabashedly Team Cap; the side he's on is of course the right side because of course he would choose freedom. But I digress; I don't want to re-litigate Civil War.)
* Speaking of bad guys, one of the problems I have with this series is one I had with Civil War: Why do both of these series begin with clamping down on the heroes? Why not at least nominally begin with clamping down on the villains -- y'know, the ones who steal stuff, cause property damage, and every now and again invade countries and try to take over the world? Why start by going after the ones who try to stop them?
Like in the movie Captain America: Civil War: the Sokovia Accords are passed because the Avengers fought the Incredible Hulk and a huge mess ensued. My take is, when the fire department fights a fire at your house, they may punch holes in your roof, break windows, punch more holes in your walls and spray water all over everything, but nobody expects them to rebuild your house! We all understand that's somebody else's job. The superheroes are there to deal with the immediate emergency; the rest is up to us. Why don't the likes of Amanda Waller understand that?
Oh, yeah, she's about "round them ALL up and there's no problem." Until somebody new comes along ....
* Another problem I have with this series is one I had with Dark Infinite Final Identity Crisis Flashpoint at Zero Hour in the Brightest Day after The Darkest Night, the part where another one of Batman's plots to murder control his fellow heroes has gotten away from him and innocent people are sheathed in destructive OMACS -- really? Bruce Wayne's a billionaire, but he doesn't have THAT level of resources! Certainly not to do such a thing on a global scale and do it secretly! He's got nobody but Alfred, doing meatball surgery in the Batcave whenever he's had a really bad night out on the town! Even Lex Luthor isn't THAT rich! I'd have bought it if Wayne had Elon Musk levels of wealth, but he doesn't.
(A digression: Before this week, I've heard Musk described as a James Bond villain. He has definitely cemented that description as completely true.)
As an aside, the OMACs bit goes so deep into the "Bat-Psycho" realm that it left a bad taste in my mouth and set me further down the path of not regularly reading the Batman titles, which is sad because I used to get all of them. Unfortunately, other writers did things that were just as bad if not worse (the Justice Protocols? the Batman of Zur-En-Arr? Failsafe?) which makes me question the sanity of any Justice Leaguer who thinks they should keep him around. (But I digress.)
It's more plausible that Amanda Waller can do these things because she has the resouces of the United States government behind her, but only somewhat. There can't be THAT much "fraud, waste and abuse" in the federal budget to cover secretly owning all major prisons like Blackgate and Arkham Tower, invading other nations like Gamorra, etc., etc. and so forth.
* Also, since when has Waller been the public face of anything? She's always been the spook pulling the strings and getting others to do her dirty work.
There's maybe more, but it's late, so I'll stop now. Plus, I have more to read!
* Also, since when has Waller been the public face of anything? She's always been the spook pulling the strings and getting others to do her dirty work.
Amanda Waller was exposed to the public as the head of the clandestine and criminal Suicide Squad fairly early in the original John Ostrander run (#25, published in late 1988 or early 1989). That was a fair while before she was arrested for the first time in #39. At the time they set up an actor to play her supposed successor. He made a few other appearances, up to and including #39 when she was arrested and Suicide Squad was formally disbanded.
As of the close of Beast World (a late 2023 and early 2024 event) Waller was very public indeed with her "Bureau of Sovereignity".
Generally speaking, she has become more ruthless, more unethical, more hypocritical and also more public in recent years. At this point I half expect her to teach advanced villainy to Luthor once he unavoidably resumes that path.
ClarkKent_DC said
The other writers may not have the opportunity to follow Natalie Maines' lead on that because Bizarro got shot to death by Deadshot, presumably with a blue Kryptonite projectile. But is he really dead? As Bizarro is an imperfect duplicate of Superman, I always figured he was an unliving being, like Solomon Grundy, and can't be killed. Am I mistaken?
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