Let’s go ALL IN with DC … Week 52!

Yes, good readers, we’ve come to the end of my noble (?) experiment. Back on 2 October 2024 — a more innocent time, I think you’ll agree, I picked up the first issues of DC’s ALL IN initiative and decided to check them out as they rolled out. Oh, the good times we had: Booster Gold becoming the linchpin of the entire DCU, Darkseid getting killed … somehow, VANDAL SAVAGE BECOMING POLICE COMMISSIONER OF GOTHAM CITY, Barda enjoying a sparring session, Poison Ivy finding a haunted town, and Captain Marvel fighting a giant robot in Philadelphia. So much fun! Well, all good things must come to an end, and after a year of getting almost every #1 issue DC put out (I think I missed two, so … oops?), this is the last week I’ll be doing it. I still plan to get some of the trade paperbacks of titles launched in this past year, but I won’t be getting the first issues anymore. It feels like it’s time.

The offerings this week make it clear that DC gave this a year and now they’re moving onto something else (they’re not revamping, just upping the ante in both the regular DCU and the “Absolute Universe”). First up, we have the hilariously named Absolute Evil #1 — hilarious because the comic is called that, but the actual story is called “Absolute Justice.” DC is mining that word for all its fucking worth! Absolute Evil is by Al Ewing, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Nesi, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Tom Napolitano. It’s 30 pages long and costs a measly $5.99. I mean, that’s just good value!

One thing that really annoys me about the Ultimate Universe and now the Absolute Universe is that it gives writers license to be unpleasant, because it “doesn’t count.” In this book, we begin — it’s a full-page splash! — with Hawkman talking to the House Un-American Activities Committee about how happy he’ll be to narc on the “Commie rats nibbling away at this great country.” Ooooo, look, Hawkman’s a big jerk! In the present, Oliver Queen is practicing Green Arrowing and ranting on the phone to Hats off to (Roy) Harper about the corrupt system of the world. I was under the impression that the “Absolute Universe” only just now saw the emergence of superhero-type people with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Martian Manhunter and it was something of a novelty, but we learn early on here that that’s just not true. Hawkman was active in the 1950s, and Green Arrow is doing vigilante stuff in the present, and we’ll find out about some more people, too. It’s a bit … disappointing? I mean, I thought the whole point of this was that these heroes were kind of unique, and while, because it’s the “Absolute Universe,” the writers can be more unpleasant — witness Hawkman being a douchebag — it still seems like Supes, Bats, Wondy, GL, Speed Dude, and Alien Dude aren’t as new and interesting as we were meant to believe. Unless I misread the entire thing.

Anyway, we switch to Hector Hammond on the phone, telling the bad guy that Oliver is pissed off at that Oliver won’t be a problem because they can just pay him off, and then he goes into a secret meeting with Veronica Cale, national security adviser. We meet the villains: a bearded and man-bunned Ra’s al Ghul (ugh), the non-joking Joker, and Elenore Thawne, as well as Cale. Cale tells them (and us) the secret history of the “Absolute Universe”: in 1939, Wesley Dodds invents better anesthetic compounds, gets rich, becomes the Sandman for a while, and gets killed for his troubles while the U.S. government uses his research to come up with new nerve gas weapons; Ted Grant overhears a factory inspector taking a bribe to overlook safety standards at a munitions factory making … oh, shit, the nerve gas that Cale claims won World War II, who could have seen that — but Grant does take a bribe, and lives happily for a long time as a boxing trainer, not a vigilante; Iron Munro fights for truth and justice in the 1950s, refuses to name names to HUAC (unlike Hawkman), and dies in a totally random chemical weapons test. Cale then brings us to the present, where she shows the group Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Superman, and Absolute Batman, who are making life difficult for those who uphold the status quo (she mentions the other Absolute heroes, but, come on, they’re second-tier). She points out that if these people are allowed to continue, they’ll wreck the world, so the bad guys should team up. Hammond isn’t convinced, because he says the rich and powerful has always dealt with people like our heroes, so why do they need the government or an alliance? To prove how more efficient an alliance could be, Ra’s brings in “Mr. Hall,” who’s wearing a combination Hawkman/Blackhawk costume and is wrapped like a mummy? Anyway, “Mr. Hall” dumps Oliver Queen’s dead body on the table. Oh dear. Hammond and Thawne still aren’t convinced, but then unfunny Joker gets to speechify, and he tells them they’ve found an “Omega particle,” which forms the “basic building block of all creation,” and which has, according to him, “a moral dimension.” He claims this means that the universe itself tends toward the kind of order that they have put in place, and that these heroes are going against the fundamental nature of the universe. Therefore, the people in the room need to form … a Justice League! Oh, fucking snap! Then, as a teaser, we get Brainiac talking to Mirror Master, and they seem to be working behind the scenes on this thing, and Brainiac says they need one more member, so he calls a yokel farmer out in the sticks named … Lex Luthor! Oh, double fucking snap!!!!

This is basically an info-dump issue, which is fine, I guess. I mean, it’s stupid, but not fundamentally more stupid than any other superhero-adjacent comic. The idea that the “Absolute Universe” is topsy-turvy, with bad guys being the heroes and good guys being the villains, has been done a lot, but it’s not the worst plot point, so we’ll see. It’s a bit unclear why this needed to be one big issue, but that’s what happens in the DC and Marvel Universes these days — we need these “gathering the team” issues because we need to set up the next event. It’s dull, but … necessary, I guess? How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat kind of thing — we can’t see the “Justice League” start attacking our super-duper heroes unless we know exactly how they got together, right? So … yeah. Just kind of there. I do wonder why Hawkman is on the cover along with the six other “Absolute” heroes who have their own titles. Hawkman shows up twice in this book, one time in 1951 to rat out his friends, and in the present as Ra’s al Ghul’s hired killer. Yet he’s on the cover, specifically linked to the other heroes. It’s probably a clue, but I don’t care too much about it.

Anyway, this isn’t really necessary to get. Bad guys don’t like good guys, so they team up to take down good guys. You know the drill! There doesn’t seem to be much reason to go ALL IN with Absolute Evil!

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

One totally Airwolf panel:

Next we have the torturously named Justice League: The Omega Act Special #1, which is by Joshua Williamson, Yasmine Putri, Cian Tormey, and Dave Sharpe. This will set you back $5.99 and comes in at 30 pages. Not overpriced at all!

DC gives us a recap page, so if you haven’t been reading Superman comics, you can get caught up: the Time Trapper, who we saw way back in Superman #19, is really a highly evolved Doomsday, who’s trying to warn Superman that Darkseid’s “evil Legion” is coming for them. So now he’s at the Justice League Big-Ass Satellite, and we get footnotes throughout pointing us to the latest story in Superman, where I guess Superman rescued Booster Gold from the evil Legion? It’s not complicated!

Anyway, in the past, Lara — I assume this is Superman’s mother — and her buddy are exploring forbidden ruins on Krypton when they discover that whoever was working there was creating an “ultimate weapon.” Oh dear. Before they can find out, weirdo canine creatures attack them, and they have to flee deeper into the ruins. There they find an armory with what looks like an artificial heart lit up ominously that whispers “Darkseid is,” which only Lara can hear, and there’s also a giant vault door with an “omega” — a Greek letter, mind you, on Krypton — carved into it. As they leave, Lara tells her friend that she got the translation wrong: it doesn’t say “ultimate weapon,” it says “absolute champion.” Well, shit. DC is definitely smushing these two universes together, aren’t they?

Anyway, the main story is about Time Trapper and Booster trying to figure out what’s going. TT tells Booster that he thought, with Darkseid’s death, that things would be groovy, but his “omega energy” is spread out through creation and is messing everything up. TT, being Doomsday, couldn’t convince Superman of the threat, so he hoped Superman rescuing Booster would convince him. Booster tries to tell Superman, but TT stops time to tell Booster that it’s futile. When Booster argues, TT takes him to the future to show him that it’s futile. Flash comes along because TT’s powers don’t work on him.

In the future (the 853rd century, naturally), the Justice Legion is losing a battle against the evil Legionnaires, but before Booster and Flash can help them, the Ghost of Christmas Future takes them away to show them that it’s happening all over, in every future, and soon enough, the evil Legion will come to the DCU’s present. As they’re debating this, the evil Legion attacks them, but just as they’re about to defeat our heroes, Booster releases whatever energy is inside him and blasts them … somewhere. I doubt they’re dead, but they’re gone for now. Anyway, DoomsTrapper says that because Booster is “the only being to traverse both time … and the absolute,” it’s changed him and “made him more powerful” than he could imagine, which could be the key to defeating Darkseid. Oh, of fucking course it is. TT still wants to flee into the past, but Booster convinces him that they need to warn Superman and the Justice League. They go back to the JLB-AS and Booster says that the entire League has to hear this. Once again, DC and Waid’s “Everyone Is a Justice Leaguer, Damn It!” policy cracks me right the hell up. We get a big scene with a bunch of heroes in the background, and it’s the usual suspects and … Etrigan? Fucking Etrigan? Really, DC? Sheesh. They have a million fucking heroes that they could cram into the spot, and they choose fucking Etrigan? The demon? Who doesn’t give a shit about humanity? That Etrigan? Sigh.

Anyway, the final page has Lara’s new translation over a splash of TT telling Superman they have to work together, which leads us to … well, I’d call it the dumbest event in DC’s history, but man, there are a lot to choose from, so let’s just say the latest dumb event, in which characters are pitted against each other in single-elimination fights, because the DCU is now an MMA extravaganza, it seems (and I know they’re not going to be “fair” fights, they’re going to be “hey, which character is more popular because that one will win” fights, because when Marvel and DC did this back in the day, that’s how it went, so why change now?). We’re moving on, people!

Yes, it’s another info-dump, although this is slightly more entertaining than Absolute Evil, because at least it’s not evil dudes and dudettes sitting around a table, so Putri and Tomey (I’m not sure who does what here) get to draw some fun stuff. It’s still dumb and probably could have been handled as a short 2- to 5-page prelude in KO #1 (on sale in October!). But, as usual, what the hell do I know? I do know that even if it’s a bit more interesting than Absolute Evil, it’s still not a good comic. You can probably safely skip going ALL IN with The Omega Act!

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆

One totally Airwolf panel:

So what can we make of the ALL IN initiative? Well, it still doesn’t make much sense, but that’s ok. I was going to buy, say, Birds of Prey anyway, and I probably would have bought Metamorpho and Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Martian Manhunter (when it shows up), but I’m not sure I would have bought Taylor’s Detective, which is pretty good, and I’ll probably get at least one trade of Fraction’s Batman. I would have gotten Rucka and Scott’s Cheetah and Cheshire heist comic and New Gods (although Bill claims it’s disappointing!), but I don’t think I would have bought the Question and Challengers mini-series. I still might get the trade of the Gotham City Sirens series, and despite my better judgment, I’ll probably check out the next Fire and Ice mini-series, and I’ll probably get the Atom Project book. I probably would have gotten Sophie Campbell’s Supergirl series anyway, but that’s because Campbell is awesome. So, while I would have gotten some of these based on the creators (and based on my all-powerful love of Beatriz Da Costa), I don’t know if DC would have greenlit them if they weren’t doing this ALL IN thing, and I certainly picked up a few books because they were part of the ALL IN initiative. Whether they were good or not (and you know I didn’t love some of them), DC got me to get them, so overall, I think it was a success. The fact that they’re easing up ever-so-slightly on the doom and gloom of the recent past is nice, too. If that’s part of the rebranding and not just coincidence, good for them.

Anyway, I hope you had fun with this over the past year. As you know, despite my grumbling about the way superheroes are done far too often, I do dig them, so I’m always willing to give DC (and Marvel) chances if they do some revamps. I still can’t stand the prices of single issues, so I’ll stick to trades for the most part, but I am a bit more interested in DC going forward, which isn’t a bad thing. Excelsior!!!! (Oh, wait, wrong company …)

What did you guys think of the initiative? Are you more or less keen on DC than you were a year ago? We’re here to discuss these things!