"Absolute Power" is a 2024 American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics. As part of the Dawn of DC initiative, the main limited series will be written by Mark Waid, with art by Dan Mora, and debuted on July 3, 2024, and will conclude on October 2, 2024. The event takes place in the aftermath of "House of Brainiac".[1]
To neutralize the ability of every metahuman around the world, Amanda Waller recruits Failsafe and the Brainiac Queen into the Suicide Squad, beginning a campaign of hate and fear over people. In response, the Justice League and the remaining heroes form a resistance.[2]
"Absolute Power" is a crossover event published by DC Comics and was released July 3, 2024. The main limited series of four issues is written by Mark Waid and drawn by Dan Mora. During the Dawn of DC initiative, a "Trinity of Evil" was teased,[3] featuring Amanda Waller, leader of A.R.G.U.S., Checkmate and the Suicide Squad, alongside the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, a Silver Age character who was reintroduced in 2022 during the "Failsafe" arc from Batman (vol. 3) #125–130 by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jiménez, and the Brainiac Queen, a female variation of Brainiac who was introduced in 2024 during the "House of Brainiac" storyline by Joshua WIlliamson and Rafa Sandoval.[4]
In response to recent events involving metahumans, Amanda Waller decided that superpowers, regardless of coming from both superheroes and supervillains, are already dangerous to be left unchecked. She gains the approval of the Council of Light (later revealed to be several clones of Brainiac in disguise) to take drastic measures. To archive her goal, Waller takes over the Hall of Justice, founding the Bureau of Sovereignty in order to discredit both the Justice League and Titans as berserk heroes. She even coerced Dreamer and Green Arrow to work for her in taking over Gamorra and create an exclusive prison for metahumans.[5]
Meanwhile, in Gotham City, Batman developed Failsafe, an AI robot with the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh's personality, who is determined to eradicate all crime, even if that means not following his creator's moral code. He created his own army of Amazos to achieve his goal. He was defeated by Batman and his family, but Waller took Failsafe's body.
Finally, in Metropolis, Brainiac created the Brainiac Queen as a mean to experience the feeling of love he lost during his previous planetary invasions. Her primary functions involve devouring the abilities from the worlds he conquered until she gains her final form. After admitting his last defeat against Superman, Brainiac sends the Queen away, but in the process, she lost her memories.
After the Brainiac Queen awakens from her slumber, Waller and Failsafe recruit her to help them complete their agenda, which includes using her powers on a special device that causes power draining over the metahumans, transferring these to Failsafe's army, which Waller named as "Task Force VII".[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 scared citizens, who proceed to beat Animal Man to near-death. Batman and Robin watch news channels to report on Animal Man's attack and on videos depicting superheroes committing acts of violence and destruction across the globe. Batman deduces the videos are fake, and were created by artificial intelligence to discredit superheroes.
In the Hall of Order, Amanda Waller reveals to Sargent Steel that the videos were created by Brainiac Queen as part of her plan to take down every superhero on the planet due to the heroes having too much power and answering to no one. Failsafe arrives and is ordered by Waller to enable Task Force VII, a task forced composed of Amazo androids equipped with power-syphoning technology which allow them to depower any superhero.
Back in the present, Superboy and Jon 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 attack, depower and capture the majority of superheroes (including Wally West, Jay Garrick, Bart Allen, the Justice Society of America, Aquaman, Tempest, and the Doom Patrol) around the world. Batman deduces that Waller would not start such an attack if she hadn't already won, and is suddenly attacked by Failsafe.
Batman tries to warn the heroes from their secret communication channel, but is intercepted by Green Arrow, who is now working for Waller. He tells Batman that Waller made sure no help would arrive: she brokered a deal with the United Planets to make sure no one arrives or leaves Earth, along with locking down the Multiverse, the Timestream and the Microverse, and mocks the heroes saying there is no reverse mechanism and that their powers are never coming back. Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location, Jon Kent awakens to being augmented with cybernetic enhancements by the Brainiac Queen and no memory of who he is.[8]
The rest of the heroes regroup in the Fortress of Solitude to regain their strength. Amanda Waller, Brainiac Queen and Failsafe have taken over The Hall of Justice while trying to find the rest of the resistance. Superman heals up from his wound and the rest of the heroes start arguing who should be the lead of the resistance. Nightwing helps calm everyone down and everyone decides Nightwing should be the leader of the resistance. Nightwing asks Batman to find if Amanda Waller has a Mother Box, Superman has to gather allies in the multiverse, Black Canary needs to find out why Green Arrow is working for Waller, and Wonder Woman alongside Robin find out more of Waller's prison. As everyone suits up and gathers weapon, a possessed Jon Kent alongside Brainiac Queen attack them. Brainiac Queen captures Yara Flor, Wonder Girl, Red Tornado while the rest of Amazon robots arrive.
Dreamer arrives but is disturbed with how callous Amanda Waller is to the heroes. Blue Beetle and Mister Terrific decide to use the Phantom Zone projector to escape, and Superman asks the Fortress of Solitude to self-destruct. Wonder Woman and Aquaman destroy the glass container of the shrunken city of Kandor 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 blows up. Brainiac Queen repossesses Jon Kent again, while Green Arrow grabs a mysterious hourglass. [9]
Batman is trying to gather resistance in Bludhaven and believes the plan to stop Amanda Waller is in the Titans Tower. He sneaks in the tower, where he meets a captured Cyborg. Cyborg 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 with Flash and Wonder Woman to tell them what happened, and plans to recruit Catwoman to steal the Mother Box. [10] [11] Bruce Wayne convinces Catwoman to help him with his heist, while encountering an evil sorceress, 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 the evil sorceress wake up and confront Batman and Catwoman. [12]
| Title / | Issue(s) | Writer | Artist(s) | Colorist | Premiere date | Finale date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batman (vol. 3) |
| 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 | Trish Mulvihill | May 5, 2024 | rowspan="2" | |
| Titans (vol. 7) |
| Tom Taylor | Lucas Meyer | Adriano Lucas | May 21, 2024 | ||
| Action Comics |
| Joshua Williamson | Rafa Sandoval | Alejandro Sánchez | June 25, 2024[14] | "House of Brainiac" tie-in | |
| Superman (vol. 6) |
| ||||||
| Title | Issue(s) | Writer | Artist(s) | Colorist | Premiere date | Finale date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suicide Squad Dream Team |
| Nicole Maines | Eddy BarrowsEber Ferreira | Adriano Lucas | March 12, 2024[15] | June 11, 2024[16] | |
| Green Arrow (vol. 7) |
| Joshua Williamson | Eric Gapstur Phil Hester Sean Izaakse Amancay Nahuelpan | Romulo Fajardo Jr. | May 28, 2024 | June 25, 2024 | |
| The Flash (vol. 6) |
| Simon Spurrier | Vasco Georgie Ramón Pérez | Matt Herms | June 25, 2024[17] | ||
| Title | Issue | Writer | Artist | Colorist | Premiere date | Finale date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute Power | 1–4 | Mark Waid | Dan Mora | Alejandro Sánchez | July 3, 2024[18] | October 2, 2024 |
| Absolute Power: Task Force VII | 1–7 | Jeremy Adams John Layman Pornsak Pichetshote Alex Parknadel Dan Watters Leah Williams Stephanie Williams | Khary Randolph Max Raynor Calire Roe Pete Woods Marco Santucci Caitlin Yarsky | Alex Guimarães | July 10, 2024[19] | September 25, 2024 |
| Absolute Power: Origins | 1–3 | John Ridley | Alitha Martinez | July 24, 2024 |
| 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 | |
| Absolute Power: Super Son | Sina Grace Nicole Maines | Travis Mercer John Timms | September 18, 2024 |
| Title | Issue | Writer | Artist | Premiere date | Finale date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batman (vol. 3) | 150–152 | Chip Zdarsky | Mike Hawthorne | July 3, 2024 | 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 | 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 to Comicbook Roundup, the event so far received an average rating of 7.9 out of 10 based on 47 reviews.[20]
In July 2024, DC announced the end of Absolute Power will conclude the Dawn of DC initiative, giving birth to the DC All In initiative, which will be overseen by Joshua Williamson and Scott Snyder, and will begin in October 2024.[21]