Revolutionary Superman Refuses to Join the AI Age: A DC Comic Exclusive
The Darker Side of the DC Universe: A Review of Absolute Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman
When DC Comics’ Absolute line was leaked and announced in 2024, one image stood out: the widest, squarest version of Batman anyone had ever seen. The idea that veteran Batman writer Scott Snyder would remake the character from the ground up in a darker setting, with artist Nick Dragotta’s first directive being to make him "frick-kin’ yuge," was intriguing, to say the least.
A Glimpse into the Dark Timeline
Kal-El’s parents, meanwhile, have been constructing their own ship for the paltry few laborers they can fit on it. What happens next? Do the elite Kryptonians survive? Do Kal’s parents? So far, they’ve only been seen in flashback, so I guess I’m waiting for Absolute Superman #4 to find out.
For comics readers, the Dark Timeline is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Maybe there’s a dark future the heroes need to avert, or a thing could have gone terribly wrong if only What If…? Or it’s the future and nothing’s as good or easy as it used to be. Or maybe there’s an entire multiverse where things turned out so bad that the universes inside it are good for nothing more than kindling in a cosmic forge. "A familiar setting, but shockingly worse" is an easy well to return to.
A New Kind of Heroism
When the Absolute setting was announced as a darker version of the DC universe, created by the evil god Darkseid for someday-to-be-revealed dark purposes, it felt like mere repetition. "In this universe, the heroes come up in ways that make them underdogs," Scott Snyder said in an announcement video, making the case that direr origins would make it resonate even more when Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman — and upcoming Absolute heroes like Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and the Flash — inevitably made the decision to fight against the darkness anyway.
I didn’t think Snyder and the rest of the folks on DC’s Absolute books would be able to execute on that idea so quickly and consistently across three creative teams and three very different revisionary concepts. These first three Absolute books aren’t just solid, they’re incisive, meaningful, and gorgeously told. Thompson and Sherman’s Wonder Woman is about love in the face of self-denial, and claiming your identity even in the face of divine censorship. Aaron and Sandoval’s Superman is about action and striving and tragedy, but also the joy of writing and the power of telling the truth.
A Message for Our Times
In an era where corporations are censoring references to queer or trans characters out of fear of backlash, there’s a resonance in having Wonder Woman defy divine law to speak the word "Amazon" aloud. In particular, there’s resonance in giving that moment to a queer-coded character. (And often, lately, thank goodness, a straight-up queer one.) I do want to see Wonder Woman defying rules imposed on her from above. I do want to see Superman rejecting generative AI as a homogenizing, lie-spreading force. I do want to see him navigating a metaphor for the billionaire-backed push to escape Earth’s climate problems by building a Mars base on the backs of indentured labor.
Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Superman: Punching the Real Ones in the Face
Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Superman are going there: Not just making up harsh alternate futures for the sake of grim-and-gritty storytelling, but presenting them as our harsh futures, with the promise that they’re shaping heroes to fight back. I get enough "dark timeline" vibes from life in the 2020s. The least my comic book dark timelines can do is punch the real ones in the face once in a while.
