Absolute Power (comics)

"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".

Premise
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.

Publication history
"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, 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.

Background
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.

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".

Issue #1
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 and cause him to fall from the sky. In Keystone City, 28 hours earlier, Animal Man and Animal Girl land in the park and are met by scared citizens, which 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.

Batman
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.

Trinity of Evil

 * Amanda Waller
 * Failsafe
 * Brainiac Queen

Bureau of Sovereignty

 * Sarge Steel

Suicide Squad

 * Dreamer (Nia Nal)
 * Green Arrow (Oliver Queen)
 * Peacemaker (Christopher Smith)

Task Force VII

 * Depth Charge
 * Global Guardian
 * Jasestone
 * Last Son
 * Paradise Lost
 * Velocity

Resistance

 * Aquaman (Arthur Curry)
 * Batman (Bruce Wayne)
 * Flash (Wally West)
 * Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
 * Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz)
 * Superman (Kal-El/Clark Kent)
 * Wonder Woman (Diana Prince)

Bat-Family

 * Nightwing (Dick Grayson)
 * Oracle (Barbara Gordon)
 * Robin (Damian Wayne)

Flash Family

 * Barry Allen
 * Bart Allen
 * Jay Garrick

Justice League Dark

 * Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson)
 * John Constantine
 * Spectre (Jim Corrigan)

Shazam Family

 * Mary Marvel (Mary Bromfield)
 * Shazam (Billy Batson)

Super-Family

 * Superboy (Kon-El/Connor Kent)
 * Superman (Jon Kent)

Titans

 * Cyborg (Victor Stone)
 * Tempest (Garth)

Other heroes

 * Animal Man (Bernhard Baker)
 * Doom Patrol

Daily Planet

 * Jimmy Olsen
 * Lois Lane

Release order

 * Free Comic Book Day 2024: Absolute Power Special Edition
 * Absolute Power: Ground Zero
 * Absolute Power #1
 * Batman (vol. 3) #150
 * Absolute Power: Task Force VII #1
 * Green Lantern (vol. 7) #13
 * Superman (vol. 6) #16
 * Wonder Woman (vol. 6) #11
 * Absolute Power: Origins #1
 * Green Arrow (vol. 7) #14

Critical reception
According to Comicbook Roundup, the event so far received an average rating of 7.9 out of 10 based on 47 reviews.

Future
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.