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2024’s Absolute Universe, a line of comic books published by DC Comics, stands out as one of the publisher’s most exciting ventures. The first three titles published in the line, Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, and Clayton Cowles, Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Jordie Bellaire, and Becca Carey, and Absolute Superman by Jason Aaron, Rafa Sandoval, Ulises Arreola, and Becca Carey, reimagine DC’s classic trinity of heroes from the ground up, as if they were first appearing today.
The Absolute Universe puts these characters in a world where they are robbed of all their strengths and advantages, and the deck is stacked in favor of evil. These new circumstances push these heroes, all of whom are beginning their heroic careers for the first time, to fight stronger than before. Even when deprived of these resources, the characters still rise up to be heroes, embodying the spirit of their main counterparts despite the numerous changes made to their stories.
The Absolute Universe is dark and oppressive at times. Hope and heroism feel like underdogs in these books, fighting against a universe that is rigged for evil to win without resistance. However, the Absolute Universe does not wallow in misery or go completely into grimdark territory.
Instead, it shows that even in the harshest of conditions, people will still rise to be heroes. It twists and contorts the mythologies of iconic heroes without ever breaking them, demonstrating their power to inspire.
Darkseid’s World — The Absolute Universe’s Bleak Beginning
The origin of the Absolute Universe is relayed in DC All-In Special #1 by Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson, Daniel Sampre, Dan Mora, Wes Craig, Alejandro Sanchez, Tamra Bonvillain, Mike Spicer, and Steve Wands. The issue is split into two narratives. One of them follows Superman and the Justice League in the main DC Universe and the other, titled “Omega,” follows Darkseid and reveals how the Absolute Universe was created.
In “Omega,” Darkseid becomes aware of a great surge in power and seeks the Spectre, the embodiment of God’s vengeance, to understand what the surge of power means. Darkseid builds a Miracle Machine that turns thought and wish into reality to force the Spectre to bond with him.1
The Spectre reveals to Darkseid that the DC Multiverse is caught between two opposing forces: hope and life, represented by Superman, and restraint, embodied by Darkseid. The surge of power Darkseid felt came from the main DC Universe being cut off from the rest of the multiverse. The Spectre tells Darkseid that in time the main DC Universe will return to the multiverse, Darkseid’s power will eventually return to normal, and that Darkseid must accept his role as the embodiment of restraint.2
Darkseid, having grown tired of his role and becoming aware of the nature of his existence, refuses this and allows for Superman and the Justice League to kill him. He then awakens as the sole god of a new world within the Multiverse and shapes the new universe to his liking. While he cannot fully eliminate ideas such as goodness or hope, he creates a world empowered by his essence.
The heroes of this new universe are shaped by a crueler, harsher world, robbed of their mainstream counterparts’ greatest strengths and advantages. This is the Absolute Universe, where the main events of Absolute Batman, Absolute Wonder Woman, and Absolute Superman all occur.3
While DC Comics has been no stranger to reboots and relaunches over the years, such as 2011’s ‘New 52′, the Absolute Universe differs from past attempts to reboot the DC Universe. Unlike other DC reboots, the Absolute Universe books exist in tandem with DC’s mainline books. The New 52 reboot overwrote the previous years of DC Comics’ continuity as a result of the Flashpoint storyline, using it as justification to relaunch the DC Universe for a new audience. In contrast, the Absolute Universe exists within the larger DC Multiverse. The mainline versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman still exist and have their exploits published regularly, but newer, darker counterparts of the characters exist in the Absolute Universe.
Absolute Batman’s Advance Against Fear
Absolute Batman was the first ongoing series set in the Absolute Universe. Its place as readers’ introduction to the Absolute Universe helped set the tone of the setting. It also demonstrates how the line is unafraid to deviate from the established norms of the DC Comics characters.
The Batman of the Absolute Universe was not born into wealth and privilege like his mainline DC counterpart was. This version of Bruce Wayne was born in Crime Alley to a working class family, growing up to become a civil engineer. His childhood best friends are the characters who traditionally make up his rogues’ gallery.
The inciting incident of his childhood was a field trip to the zoo, where his father, a school teacher in this continuity, was killed in a mass shooting. Even with the support of his friends and his mother, Bruce becomes a juvenile delinquent before eventually devoting himself to becoming Batman.4
These changes to Batman’s character and lore go beyond being merely cosmetic. In an interview with Polygon, Scott Snyder described the process of reinventing the character for the modern era and realizing that taking away his resources and wealth turns Batman into a force of chaos against a system of order gone very wrong. Snyder also wanted to put Batman in dialogue with the fears of the 21st Century. In the interview, Snyder says:5
“…if you pit him against your worst fears, what’s the worst fear a kid has these days, when it comes to the trauma they could face? It felt disingenuous not to try and put something in there like a mass shooting, a [kind of] event that really feels like we live with them every day. And it wasn’t to be prescriptive, necessarily, or even to be explicitly political, but just to be honest that that’s what a kid is afraid of, that’s what a parent is afraid of. It’s not a mugger in an alley. That’s where all of it came from. It wasn’t ‘Something’s broken.’ It was ‘How [do you] more powerfully apply what Batman is to this moment?'”6
In the first arc of the series, Gotham City is in dire straits. The city is in the midst of a crime wave orchestrated by the Party Animals, a group of criminals hired to destabilize Gotham by Black Mask, who works to further the interests of his wealthy backers so they can enact their own designs in Gotham.7
Fueled by financial incentive and sadism, they bring a new kind of brutality to Gotham City. In a city that seems powerless against their violence, Batman takes on the Party Animals, Black Mask, and the powers behind them. This version of Bruce Wayne doesn’t have access to the same resources or allies as his mainstream counterpart. In this darker version of Gotham, Batman is forced to match the viciousness of his foes in combat, going further in a fight than his mainline counterpart ever has.8
However, despite the Absolute Universe’s darker take on Batman and his world, the heroic core of the character shines true. Like his main counterpart, the Absolute Universe’s version of Batman refuses to take a life. He may be an angrier and less refined version of the Dark Knight, but his mission is still motivated by a desire to stop acts of violence from happening.9 While he may be an angrier and less refined version of the Dark Knight, his mission is still motivated by a desire to stop other acts of violence from happening.10
He still plays a role in the lives of his childhood friends, eventually letting them into his mission as Batman.11 Bruce’s friends bring him out of the dark by telling him that Batman has to be more than Bruce Wayne’s death wish.12
Batman isn’t the only one fighting for Gotham. Martha Wayne, Bruce’s mother, is alive into his adult years, working as the deputy mayor to Jim Gordon and ardently believing that people need to come together to save Gotham. Even as the rest of Gotham is ready to embrace Gordon’s mayoral rival, Hamilton Hill, overlooking his corruption to achieve a sense of safety, Martha is stalwart in her belief that fear cannot be the answer to saving Gotham’s soul.13
When the mayoral race is all but lost, Martha tells Gordon that while people in Gotham can surprise her and Jim in horrible ways, they can also be surprising in good ways.14 The finale of the series’ first arc features a flashback of Martha comforting Bruce after the death of Thomas Wayne, telling him,15
“What you went through, you’d have every right to say to hell with it all. Live angry or afraid. But that’s not who you are. The way you got back out there with your friends. What you said to Jim at the funeral… because the other thing you can do when bad things happen is use the pain to be even more determined, more hopeful. You wear the pain like a damn cape. And you work every day to stop those bad things from ever happening again. That’s how you win against the nightmares. How you win against all of it. Always.”16
The Absolute Universe’s Batman is different from his main DC counterpart in so many ways. He’s a younger, angrier crime fighter without the resources and allies that the character is traditionally depicted with. He faces battles against vicious foes and a system that feels unstoppable in a Gotham City more on the brink than ever before and fights back against wealthy powers with their own machinations and designs for the city. However, this version of Batman is unquestionably a hero fighting to save lives and the soul of Gotham City.
He is still driven by tragedy, but he draws strength and purpose from that tragedy, using it as fuel to fight against the fear inspired by Black Mask and villains like him. In a city as harsh as the Absolute Universe’s Gotham, a version of Batman not only exists, but retains the heroic spirit of his traditional counterpart.
Heroism From Hell — Compassion & Defiance In Absolute Wonder Woman
Like Absolute Batman, Absolute Wonder Woman deviates from its title character’s standard origin. The series’ deviations from DC Comics’ traditions for the character are not changes made for the sake of change. Instead, the series uses the changes it makes to underpin the essential aspects of Wonder Woman.
Instead of being raised on Paradise Island by the Amazons, the Absolute Universe’s version of Diana was separated from her sisters by the Greek Gods and sent to the Isle of Hell to be raised by Circe, who is traditionally Wonder Woman’s nemesis. While the gods intend for Diana to die, having imprisoned the other Amazons and even forbid Circe to speak the word “Amazon,” Diana survives in the Isle of Hell. The creatures that try to kill her become her friends and Circe goes from taking only a passing interest in Diana to embracing her as a daughter. In the Isle of Hell, Circe nurtures Diana, teaching her how to use magic to defend herself and helping to shape her into a protector of Man’s World that can carry on the Amazons’ mission.17
While the environment in which this version of Wonder Woman was raised changed significantly, robbing her of paradise and her sisters among the Amazons, her characterization is very close to that of her main DC counterpart. Even in a much darker world, Diana remains a paragon of compassion and empathy. The creatures of the Isle of Hell try to kill her, but she meets all of them with kindness instead of rage, which slowly endears her to the wildlife of Hell. Her compassion also softens Circe’s heart.18
When Steve Trevor washes ashore on the Isle of Hell, Diana learns that she can only send him back home by sacrificing something. She does not hesitate to sacrifice her arm to send Steve back home. As Circe performs a spell with Diana to send Steve home, she thinks to herself:19
“I had known for a very long time that she was exceptional. But even still, I had underestimated her. Her capacity for love. Her capacity for pain. Her capacity for sacrifice. Her capacity for honor. This child would change the world.”20
It is clear throughout Absolute Wonder Woman that Diana’s love and compassion for the world around her, whether it be the Isle of Hell or Man’s World, is her greatest strength. When Gateway City is unable to evacuate in time to escape the Tetracide, which will emit a sound that compels people to approach it and die, Diana must cast a spell that will make all of Gateway City deaf. She uses a news broadcast to explain what’s happening to the people of Gateway City and tells them “Wonder Woman believes in you” before casting the spell.21
When Wonder Woman is back in the Underworld and forced by Hades, Greek god of the Underworld, to choose between two doors, facing the possibility of gaining freedom but never returning to the Underworld and seeing Circe again. Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, reveals that Diana ate one of the Pomegranate Seeds she was once tricked into eating by Hades. This forces Diana to stay in the Underworld for six months. Unlike Persephone, who was tricked into eating a seed, Diana makes the choice to eat one without hesitation out of love.22
While the love and compassion Diana has for the world around her are powerful, the love she inspires in other people is just as strong. Wonder Woman is only able to best the Tetracide by using a lasso called Sacrifice, a powerful weapon made by Circe out of love for her daughter. When Diana uses Sacrifice to turn into Medusa and loses herself, Steve Trevor approaches her. He reminds Diana of who she is and helps her break free of the transformation.23 The love and compassion Wonder Woman has for the world around her transforms it, and that same love comes back to save her.
Kelly Thompson notes this in an interview with DC,24 stating: “What I found was that Diana transforms nearly everything she touches in the best of ways. Leaning into that became our guiding star.” Absolute Wonder Woman creates a version of Wonder Woman that comes from Hell. In doing so, it demonstrates that compassion can come from anywhere.
Unlike how mainstream depictions of Wonder Woman know paradise as a child, the Wonder Woman of the Absolute Universe knew Hell. She never grew up with the same kind of sisterhood that the main DC version of Wonder Woman did. In spite of that change, Diana remains as compassionate as she has ever been. That compassion reverberates around her and changes the world for the better.
Absolute Superman — Champion Of The Oppressed
Absolute Superman makes some wild deviations from the main Superman’s origin and setting, creating a new vision of the Man of Steel tailored for the 21st Century. In the process of reinventing Superman as if he were debuting for the first time today, Absolute Superman deviates the most of the Absolute Universe books from DC’s traditions with its title character.
In the Absolute Universe, Kal-El was raised on Krypton and born at the bottom of a caste system. Unlike the classic versions of Superman, the Absolute version knew Krypton and saw its destruction firsthand. Consequently, Kal-El wasn’t adopted by the Kents and never took on the identity of Clark Kent. This new version of Superman is a drifter without a place to plant his roots who defends oppressed workers from the Lazarus Corporation, a massive conglomerate headed by Ra’s al Ghul that exploits the planet so he can rid the world of overpopulation through a mass genocide. His only companion is an AI by the name of Sol.25
Absolute Superman deviates the strongest from the main universe DC book that it is based on. It uses these changes to establish a darker setting for the Man of Steel that forces him on the back foot. Like Absolute Batman, this book presents its main hero as younger, less experienced, and angrier at the world than his mainstream counterpart. However, Absolute Superman is still a Superman story in dialogue with the character’s earliest adventures. Jason Aaron elaborates on this in an interview with AIPT Comics:26
“To me, it’s about creating a Superman who speaks to 2024, looking through that lens and asking, ‘What would we change or do differently if we were creating this character today,”27
Superman’s first appearance in 1938’s Action Comics #1 gave him the title “Champion of the Oppressed,”28 and Absolute Superman speaks to this idea by imagining what it means for Superman to be that champion today. The main villain of the series so far isn’t an alien invasion or a mad scientist. It’s a corporation that exploits workers and the planet for its own gain. The Lazarus Corporation is built upon the suffering of its workers in the same way Krypton was built on the backs of the lower class. Superman finds himself enraged by their actions and fighting against them to protect the people and planet they exploit.
Absolute Superman also uses the changes of the Absolute Universe to explore how the people Superman saves feel about him. These people, all of whom are under the boot of the Lazarus Corporation, look at Superman and hope that he will soon kill every member of the corporation.29
When Christopher Smith, a member of the Lazarus Corporation’s private army called “The Peacemakers,” kills civilians, Superman hunts him down with relentless fury before stopping and admitting to Sol that he’s afraid of his fury and what he’ll do to Smith.30 People want Superman to be furious, but he doesn’t want to be motivated solely by rage. The heroic core of Superman, who wants to help and do what’s best for the people around him, remains intact, but the world around him is different now. An anger at the fate of that world swells within him, yet that anger is born out of his grief for Krypton.31
By revisiting Superman’s roots as a champion of the oppressed, Absolute Superman reinvents the character as if he were to debut today. Jason Aaron uses the themes of the Absolute Universe, particularly the idea of the DC Comics heroes emerging in a world in which they don’t have their strengths or advantages, to tell a Superman story that exists in dialogue with his earliest characterization.
Absolute Superman shares its own vision of what the character of Superman would look like if he were to be written in today’s world: a Superman who comes from a doomed world and seeks to save his new world from suffering the same fate. The Absolute version of Superman demonstrates the enduring spirit of heroism within the Absolute Universe while still being recognizable as Superman.
The Absolute Universe (2024-) — Heroism As A Light In The Dark
By making sweeping changes to the characters of Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, the Absolute Universe demonstrates how the heroic qualities of these characters will always shine even in the darkest of conditions. A Batman without wealth or resources in a more dangerous Gotham still rises up as an incredible hero. A Wonder Woman raised in Hell retains the compassion and love she is known for. A lonelier, darker Superman haunted by the destruction of Krypton finds a way to become a defender of his new home.
The changes the Absolute Universe make to the DC Comics characters, which deviate strongly from what readers expect from them, showcases the enduring legacy of these characters and their broad applicability. These superheroes, titans of pop culture, can be heavily altered without losing the qualities that make them recognizable.
By embracing how malleable these characters can be, the Absolute Universe recognizes that successful stories about popular comics characters needn’t adhere to canon ardently. There is room within the medium for bold new takes on these characters. The Absolute Universe’s versions of DC’s iconic trinity and its reinventions of other DC characters don’t take away from their mainstream counterparts. Instead, they stand tall as their own stories.
These new versions of the DC characters, having been written in dialogue with the world of today, introduce another element of their appeal. They speak to the fears and anxieties of the 21st century. The characters rise to meet those fears head-on, fighting for a better world even when they are on the back foot. By doing so, these characters, in both their classic counterparts and their Absolute reinterpretations, become inspirations in the real world.
They give their readers the strength to face their fears and prove that in a world that can feel overwhelming, heroism can emerge like a lone light in the dark.
Footnotes
- Snyder, Scott, Williamson, Joshua, and Craig, Wes. “DC All-In Special #1.” Omega. DC Comics. 2 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, Williamson, Joshua, and Craig, Wes. “DC All-In Special #1.” Omega. DC Comics. 2 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, Williamson, Joshua, and Craig, Wes. “DC All-In Special #1.” Omega. DC Comics. 2 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Dragotta, Nick. “Absolute Batman #1.” The Zoo: Part One. DC Comics. 9 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
- Polo, Susana. “How Absolute Batman reimagines ‘the greatest character in literature’” Polygon. 9 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
- Polo, Susana. “How Absolute Batman reimagines ‘the greatest character in literature’” Polygon. 9 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Dragotta, Nick. “Absolute Batman #3.” The Zoo: Part Three. DC Comics.18 Dec. 2024. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Dragotta, Nick. “Absolute Batman #1.” The Zoo: Part One. DC Comics. 9 Oct. 2024 ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Dragotta, Nick. “Absolute Batman #1.” The Zoo: Part One. DC Comics. 9 Oct. 2024 ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Walta, Gabriel Hernández. “Absolute Batman #4.” The Zoo: Part Four. DC Comics. 8 Jan. 2025. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Dragotta, Nick. “Absolute Batman #5.” The Zoo: Part Five. DC Comics. 12 Feb. 2025. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Martin, Marcos. “Absolute Batman #8.” Absolute Zero. DC Comics. 14 May 2025. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Dragotta, Nick. “Absolute Batman #1.” The Zoo: Part One. DC Comics. 9 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Dragotta, Nick. “Absolute Batman #5.” The Zoo: Part Five. DC Comics. 12 Feb. 2025. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Dragotta, Nick. “Absolute Batman #6.” The Zoo: Part Six. DC Comics. 19 Mar. 2025. ↩︎
- Snyder, Scott, and Dragotta, Nick. “Absolute Batman #6.” The Zoo: Part Six. DC Comics. 19 Mar. 2025. ↩︎
- Thompson, Kelly, and Sherman, Hayden. “Absolute Wonder Woman #1.” The Last Amazon: Part One. DC Comics. 23 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
- Thompson, Kelly, and Sherman, Hayden. “Absolute Wonder Woman #1.” The Last Amazon: Part One. DC Comics. 23 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
- Thompson, Kelly, and Sherman, Hayden. “Absolute Wonder Woman #3.” The Last Amazon: Part Three. DC Comics. 26 Dec. 2024. ↩︎
- Thompson, Kelly, and Sherman, Hayden. “Absolute Wonder Woman #3.” The Last Amazon: Part Three. DC Comics. 26 Dec. 2024. ↩︎
- Thompson, Kelly, and Sherman, Hayden. “Absolute Wonder Woman #3.” The Last Amazon: Part Three. DC Comics. 26 Dec. 2024. ↩︎
- Thompson, Kelly, and Iulis, Mattia de. “Absolute Wonder Woman #7.” The Lady Or The Tiger: Part Two. DC Comics. 23 Apr. 2025. ↩︎
- Thompson, Kelly, and Sherman, Hayden. “Absolute Wonder Woman #5.” The Last Amazon: Part Five. DC Comics. 26 Feb. 2025. ↩︎
- Jaffe, Alex. “Absolute Interview: Wonder Woman is Gonna Need a Bigger Sword.” DC. 25 Oct. 2024. ↩︎
- Aaron, Jason, and Sandoval, Rafa. “Absolute Superman #1.” Last Dust of Krypton: Part One – Down In The Dirt. DC Comics. 6 Nov. 2024. ↩︎
- Brooke, David. “Interview: Jason Aaron reveals bold new vision for Superman.” AIPT Comics. 5 Nov. 2024. ↩︎
- Brooke, David. “Interview: Jason Aaron reveals bold new vision for Superman.” AIPT Comics. 5 Nov. 2024. ↩︎
- Siegel, Jerry, and Shuster, Joe. “Action Comics #1.” Superman, Champion Of The Oppressed. DC Comics. 18 Apr. 1938. ↩︎
- Aaron, Jason, and Sandoval, Rafa. “Absolute Superman #4.” Last Dust of Krypton: Part Four – Chasing The Storm. DC Comics. 5 Feb. 2025. ↩︎
- Aaron, Jason, and Sandoval, Rafa. “Absolute Superman #5.” Last Dust of Krypton: Finale – Ad Astra Per Aspera. DC Comics. 12 Mar. 2025. ↩︎
- Aaron, Jason, and Sandoval, Rafa. “Absolute Superman #2.” Last Dust of Krypton: Part Two – Sun of Nothing. DC Comics. 4 Dec. 2024. ↩︎