Written by Matheus
Filmmaker by day, Wishlistmaker by night. Kamala Khan’s unofficial PR team since 2014.
DC's Absolute Universe has been the talk of the town these last few months (and our town rarely shuts up about anything!). If you have no idea what the hell this thing is and are kind of embarrassed to ask… Well, Beyond the Panels has you covered.
This new line of comics has been running since October of last year, spanning six titles and generating reprint after reprint. By every measure, it’s a major success and it’s here to stay. Think of it as something similar to Marvel’s Ultimate line: a whole new alternate universe rebuilding the major characters from scratch. They’re designed as fresh jumping-on points for new readers, while also offering bold new takes to grab the attention of long-time fans. You get your favorites without the weight of decades of back issues to catch up on.
Scott Snyder, one of the main architects behind the line, describes this new setting as being shaped by “Darkseid Energy” (don’t do a BD-energy joke here, Math… do not do it!) - the opposite of the traditional DC Universe, which he says is steeped in “Superman Energy” (he’s a punk rocker, yes he is). Basically, that means the heroes in this universe have to hustle like never before. The world is chaotic and catching fire and they have to be forged in the middle of the flames.
But these aren’t just darkboy2012 versions of the characters like in so many Elseworlds stories. Instead, these books strip away some of the heroes’ most conventional traits to see if the myth still holds up. A challenge for the characters, and also a test for the writers and the readers. The books all have an indie sensibility varying between fresh, cool and inventive while all pushing the publisher forward. Honestly, what more could you ask for?
This August, the titles are finally being collected, with Trade Paperbacks and Hardcovers dropping simultaneously. Which means you can finally see what the fuss is about - and at the very least, make your single-issue friends stop acting like they have some secret treasure you can’t touch yet (we single-issue people are annoying, but we mean well).
So here’s every single title in this first year. Let's break it all down.
Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta
“What's the selling point, kid. You have one minute. GO!”: Batman is not rich. Bruce is a working-class guy that grows up in the slums of Gotham like any other poor bastard out there. And his bat symbol in chest turns into this cool axe.
Our Opinion: Absolute Batman was the main book that needed to work in order for the whole line to justify itself and it's very much a winner. Scott Snyder was the one who reinvented the characters for the New 52 reboot and this is a testament on how he is the perfect guy to take on this challenge again.
The switch-up twist here always seemed kinda of a a easy thing to pull-off - almost 100 years in, we've seen our fair share of working class heroes and we're all very much trained in suspension of disbelieve to fill-in any gaps of missing logistics but is not that twist that makes this excel per se.
Snyder's building of this new Gotham is genius. Most of our favorite villains are not figures that Bruce looks from above in judgment, instead, they're the kids that grew up with him. Penguin, Riddler, Two-Face are part of his friend group, and are in on the Batman secret. It gives Batman both the same doubt and poison to stray that Gotham afflicts in their poor tax payers while also making his rise to the challenge even more impressive and riskier.
It's a chessboard being constructed and it's a Batman book that takes its time to unlock its full picture while never getting you bored or lacking action. The tension is the selling point, the waiting game of seeing how people fall to the same characteristics we know them for while giving you a glimpse of hope that things might not be what you assume. It's enticing and intriguing. The designs here are also perfect, the coolest every character has looked in a while thanks to Dragotta. The Mr. Freeze retelling.. ugh, chef's kiss.
Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman
“What's the selling point, kid. You have one minute. GO!”: Diana does not grow-up in a paradise Island raised by noble goddesses, instead, she is raised in Hell by Circe, a cast-out witch.
Our Opinion: If I tell you enough good things about Absolute Wonder Woman, It wouldn't be me because I would never stop telling you good things about this book as long as I live. If Batman was the test for the line in a market sense, Wonder Woman is the test for the reaches of the storytelling challenge.
Diana is flipped on her head and still resists with a strong sense of revindication for her place amongst the mount rushmore of American comics. Even more, the values of the franchise are highlighted with blood while Wonder Woman, still being true to her core, is presented in the coolest, punkest, badass and heart-pounding form ever. It feels almost spiritual how this little change of perspective only solidifies her presence.
The comic is ethereal at the same time it's approachable and it can convince even the more cynic of us of the value of persistence and purpose in life. Do you know the idea that characters in comics can feel religious? - not in the church-going religion sense but in the purest form of devotion to their own figures (I know, I know I'm drifting here but truly is the way this comic made me feel about Diana for the first time ). To even continue the praises, I think Kelly Thompson should be up there in the conversations for best of her generation and I'm probably not the first or last person to tell you Hayden Sherman is a unicorn - truly a privilege to see to artists at their level playing around while also being completely aware that neither have reached their peak yet (and that is the best spot for any artists).
Gods and myths and magic spells mixed with kaiju-like demons and a lead that has faith not in the miracle of the glorious perfect divine but the divinity of the flawed and misunderstood and the role we each play in making the world whatever we think it deserves to be.
Absolute Superman by Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval
“What's the selling point, kid. You have one minute. GO!”: Superman does not come to Earth as a baby. Instead, he is raised in Krypton and sees its downfall until he is forced to leave.
Our Opinion: Jason Aaron has done his fair share of good comics at Marvel but this is truly his first big step into DC Comics, and he gets the big-one. I think this Absolute Superman is what a defender of the oppressed and champion of good would look like if was created today and not in that other more black and white morality world that we're not in anymore (and truly, have never truly been anyway). This is a Superman who saw how bad greed and hunger for power can destroy beautiful places. And how often these beautiful places are only beautiful on the surface, with those surfaces carefully crafted by people who stand to gain from them in the first place. Defiance, like his parents did, simply won't ever look pretty.
For whatever accusations of militaristic propaganda that comics get - that can be equally truthful but also cynical simplifications - this feels like a book of an america in crisis with its own image. Truly, America having to deal with the idea that the imagery they were presented and sold on since they were kids are truly the horrifying things and symbols most people outside of that bubble were always quite clear about.
Any crisis of image, especially on what looks like a very rude awakening, comes with its wonkiness and imperfections, but I think Aaron is out to look for something interesting to add. When I think about this book I think of how crowded Superman feels in every panel, always being hit with bullets or punches or whatever, like a symbol being aggressively oppressed to not show itself. And that kinda is the book.
Can this symbolism even be anything amongst the constant horror is the question being seeked. And then there's Kansas green pastures and the cape can fly on the wind and glow in the sun, up until government controlled clouds make it dark all over again.
Absolute Flash by Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles
“What's the selling point, kid. You have one minute. GO!”: Wally West comes into power without Barry Allen as a mentor. Without a symbol and roadmap of good, he's all alone to figure out himself on what he wants to become.
Our Opinion: Of all the books Absolute Flash feels the less-twisty in general, instead being a straight-up modern update on a beloved character. We have our fair share of legacy characters, and they always come in the shadows and they often have an end goal of how they can prove themselves and become “worthy” of their symbols. Think of Miles, Kamala, Connor, Jon, Damian and many others. DC is very much the publisher of legacies being carried and West is probably the most successful one.
For many people, Wally is the Flash, and even for people who fall in love with the television or cinematic versions of Barry Allen, it is not a far reach to say how a lot of those traits are actually way more Wally than they ever were from Barry at all. I think Lemire is writing a book interested in two things: looking at whatever it comes up with when you free a character of being so tied with one specific path (one so beloved) while also being as cool as they can.
The visuals here are truly the strongest thing going for it. Absolutely cool, and although Flash kinda always looked cool, this is truly being written by an author not afraid at all of having his words outshined, and in that approach, excels and makes a point of how character design is half the job done in comics (and man, the more comics you read the more you can see this).
But we also know that no cool-design can sustain itself for too long without a character to go along with (or at least I tell myself that at night even knowing that some actually can) but Wally was always a good character with heart and this is no different. You feel invested in this guy immediately.
Lemire is someone who has reached several peaks in his career and had no obligation to be this excited with Flash or JSA so it's truly incredible to me that we still have someone reaching his level with indie work being interested in playing around here. If this is not enough to understand how worthwhile this whole Absolute- line actually regards and conducts itself, I don't know what is.
Absolute Martian Manhunter by Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez
“What's the selling point, kid. You have one minute. GO!”: Hmm.. It's like green and white martians are this spiritual energetic force that can possess and control and give a form to human emotions (I think?). So we follow FBI agent John Jones having to live with this alien force in himself that defies our understanding of physical form and consciousness
Our Opinion: Dude, if you think this sounds cool as shit and are shocked Absolute Martian Manhunter is a thing, welcome to the journey. I don't care for whatever legacy the Absolute titles leaves in the industry in the next few years, I will always be thankful for giving space to things this experimental to exist while also putting it in the best selling lists month after month. Truly a message to the big-two of how comic book audiences are craving for new and interesting things and they should never stop taking risks and believing in creators.
This is a Vertigo book basically with all the things that made that imprint special while also going to fresh and new perspectives. You know how you look into post-crisis comics and discover that DC used to give a lot of characters their own series with their own unique feel to it and stick with them for a long time? This is very much that series. It has its own personality and style while never stops being funny and clever as hell. Between this Ultimates and Assorted Crisis Event, Camp is the new voice we begged the gods for.
Very much political and with a point-of-view and very much human at its core. The art by Rodriguez is an absolute masterpiece in storytelling and a love-letter to imagination - and comics as an extension of that - not having boundaries or rules
Absolute Green Lantern by Al Ewing and Jahndy Lindsay
“What's the selling point, kid. You have one minute. GO!”: A green dome takes over an American city. In it, these mysterious alien figures judge the citizens trapped there. Jo Mullen, Hal Jordan, John Stewart and other familiar faces fall into different spectrums. It's all a big mystery to be unfold,
Our Opinion: Absolute Green Lantern is the hardest book to talk about since at the time of writing this, we have less information of where the plot is going towards. This is kind of the reason that made this the least well-received title of the first year of titles but it is also the reason that makes this the more intriguing to me personally.
I love Ewing as his work at Marvel especially with things like Ultimates and X-Men: Red, I think those were bold takes that also need a bit of time and space and patience to appreciate. And if we're championing this line as giving authors space to reinvent and rediscover, this is the type of book that we also should support.
What I find interesting is the deconstruction of the corps and the lanterns and the idea of willpower. This is not a story of the corps as intergalactic cops (we have that already!), but it might be a story of the weird logic of aliens and different philosophies dictating what is right or wrong and what qualities and defects make you fall into this spectrums of value as a person. But also, being completely honest, it can also not be any of this. That's why I'm kinda into it. Also, I like how it levels up all the characters' journeys, so we can have Jo (one of the newest creations in comics from the awesome Far Sector) and all the others we love share the limelight.
I also like how it is exploring the darkness and the haunting journey of Hal Jordan, something DC sometime hides in the backburner because it complicates the figure of the good boy american man™ - but it was always what made Hal stand all from all of their Silver Age characters, or any big-two lead character to be honest. So, good writer, good characters, and add this cinematic art HBO-ready art by Linday, you got a good buy.
