Coming Soon—Absolute Power
DC’s Summer Event continues an ongoing story involving the place of superheroes in the DC comics book universe.
Last summer we had Knight Terrors (an unusually Halloween themed crossover for the summer, but I supposed Marvel is currently following suit with Blood Hunt). Beast World followed over Christmas and into the New Year taking elements of Knight Terrors and adding the Titans (if you are looking for more info on Beast World without any spoilers check out our round-up).
The fallout of Beast World is now leading into Absolute Power which is bringing DC crossovers back to DC’s holy trinity of superheroes, Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman. They’ve never gone too far from the main focus of DC Comics. There are so many Batman comics coming out in any given month it’s impossible to forget these characters.
If the promo pages are anything to go by, the holy trinity of heroes have a holy trinity of opposition in the Absolute Power four-issue series starting at the beginning of July. With superstar comic creators writer Mark Waid and artist Dan Mora at the helm is has the potential to be a significant summer event.
DC is doing a good job of making the stories different and continuous. We’ve gone from a little nightmare horror to animal transformations. Now we’ll see Amanda Waller undertake a plot to steal all the metahuman of all the heroes and villains.
Waller appeared at the end of Knight Terrors before taking a significant role as antagonist in Beast World and has shown a willingness to get involved in the mystical powers of Doctor Hate as well as manipulating politics and social outrage to get her the backing for her Bureau of Sovereignty (want to know more about Doctor Hate? We’ve got you covered).
Waller is ruthless and unyielding. Her ability to manipulate situations to her favour is impressive. She sacrificed Chester Runk (he creates black holes) in order to destroy Starro Beast Boy (who was warped by Doctor Hate as Waller’s request).
After the superheroes saved the world from Necrostar and then the Starro version of Beast Boy, Waller manages to turn the Justice League’s Hall of Justice into her own Hall of Order.
What can we expect?
Without doubt, Waller is going to have a number of problems in store for the heroes. It is likely that an agent within the ranks of the superheroes (revealed at the end of Beast World—no spoilers here) will be helping out Waller.
In order to combat Waller, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman are going to need to work with other superheroes, so there is a strong possibility of an informal Justice League. Because Waller is also intent on stealing super villain powers, there might also be a few villains on the roaster.
We won’t have to wait until July to get a glimpse of this event. Free Comic Book Day is bringing an Absolute Power special with an original story by Waid and a recap of the Knight Terrors and Beast World information relevant to the crossover. Look over for a few hints and a lot of questions.
A one-shot prelude will arrive in the form of Absolute Power: Ground Zero in June which will be connected to Superman's House of Brainiac storyline. The current Zdarsky run of Batman stories is also likely to be relevant. Batman’s alternative personality inhabiting the Failsafe android appears on the cover alongside Waller.
In the last couple of crossovers, DC has connected storylines while also maintaining a consistent and complete story. With Absolute Power continuing previous story lines, we can expect that it will also set up for DC’s next crossover.
Pick up your copy of Knight Terrors (this is a paid affiliate link and as an Amazon Associate I will earn a small income from qualifying purchases, but won’t cost you any more).