DC’s Batman reboot promised hope, but Wonder Woman and Superman delivered

When DC Comics’ Absolute line leaked and was subsequently announced in 2024, one arresting image sucked all the air out of the room: the widest, squarest version of Batman anyone had ever seen. The idea that when veteran Batman writer Scott Snyder was given the opportunity to remake Batman from the ground up in a darker setting, his first assignment to artist Nick Dragotta was to make him damn yuge was intriguing to say the least.

The images of Definitely Batman‘s siblings books, Absolute wonder woman And Absolutely supermanwere not that surprising. Wonder Woman has worn a sword and worn pants before; Superman has had shaggy hair. Batman was So wide, he made his fellow heroes’ reimagined designs look normal in comparison. It’s no wonder Definitely Batman became the book to fixate on.

But three months after the circulation of each book, Absolute wonder woman And Absolutely superman sprinting to comic book status of all time, in part because the writers and artists were able to keep their biggest, most current twist on two very old superhero stories completely secret until just the right moment. Perhaps they were hidden behind the younger Batman’s remarkable size?

A new year is a time of reflection. I’ve thought about it, and I’m willing to say it: DC Comics’ Absolute Universe rules much harder than I ever expected, in ways I thought were impossible. It gives me a dark timeline that actually feels good to visit.

(Ed. remark: This piece contains some spoilers for each of the first three issues Absolute wonder woman And Absolutely superman.)

I now understand why writer Kelly Thompson and artist Hayden Sherman wanted to preserve its details Absolute wonder woman on the down-low during the first project announcement. Even though their first issue is literally set in hell, it’s wonderfully quiet, slow, and gentle in a way that monthly superhero books rarely happen, and in a way that would, in short, suffer. They deliver a Diana separated from her Amazonian heritage by divine command, but determined to be a bulwark between humanity and terrible monsters, even if it requires spitting in the face of the gods. I won’t spoil it here either, but issue #3 reveals something about Diana’s… physicality… in such a casual way that it hits like a Mack truck.

Meanwhile, in the first three issues of Absolutely supermanwriter Jason Aaron and artist Rafa Sandoval have crafted a steady series of subversions of the Superman story we think we know. Better yet, they’ve taken the time to show that those differences have meaning, beyond the shock of the unexpected. Their Superman still grew up on a farm – a farm in Krypton, an extremely stratified society in which his family belongs to the working-class caste.

Superman’s relationship with his doomed homeworld is traditionally distant, but Kal-El, the curious preteen, gives Aaron and Sandoval a vehicle to show the shortcomings of Kryptonian society up close. Absolutely superman #2 where little Kal gets an essay at school (remote only) for writing an essay himself, instead of using the computer to generate one based on the Kryptonian database of all approved knowledge. They capture all these details in just two panels that will hit any school-age child, parent or teacher with the chilling blow of an effective ghost story.

The third issue, released on the first day of 2025, puts another sharply modern spin on Superman’s origin story. In this version of the story, Krypton’s leaders do not refuse to believe the warnings that their planet is dying, and thus going down with it. Here they support the illusion that everything is normal and under control, while secretly building huge escape ships only for the elite castes.

Meanwhile, Kal-El’s parents are building their own ship for the few workers who can look after it. What happens next? Will the elite Kryptonians survive? Do Kal’s parents? So far they’ve only been seen in flashback, so I guess I’ll wait for it Absolutely superman #4 to find out.

For comic readers, the Dark Timeline is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Maybe a dark future that the heroes must avertotherwise something could have gone terribly wrong even if only what if…? Or it is the future and nothing is as good or easy as it used to be. Or maybe there’s an entire multiverse where things have turned out so badly that the universes within it do nothing but ignite in a cosmic forge. “A familiar environment, but shockingly worse” is an easy source to return to.

When the Absolute setting was announced as a darker version of the DC Universe, created by the evil god Darkseid for dark purposes yet to be revealed, it felt like mere repetition. “In this universe, the heroes emerge in a way that makes them underdogs,” Scott Snyder said in an announcement video, arguing that a more evil origin would make it resonate even more as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman – and upcoming Absolute heroes like Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and the Flash inevitably made the decision to fight the darkness anyway.

I didn’t think Snyder and the rest of the folks at DC’s Absolute books would be able to execute that idea so quickly and consistently across three creative teams and three very different revised drafts. These first three Absolute books are not only solid, they are perceptive, meaningful, and beautifully told. Thompson and Sherman’s Wonder Woman is about love despite self-denial and claiming your identity even in the face of divine censorship. Aaron and Sandoval’s Superman is about action, striving and tragedy, but also about the joy of writing and the power of telling the truth.

In an age where companies censor references to queer or trans characters for fear of backlash, Wonder Woman defying divine law by saying the word “Amazon” out loud has resonance. There’s particular resonance in giving that moment to a queer-coded character. (And lately, thank goodness, often a downright stranger.) I Doing I want to see Wonder Woman defy the rules imposed on her from above. I’d like to see Superman reject generative AI as a homogenizing, lie-spreading force. I’d like to see him navigate a metaphor for the billionaire-backed push for escape the climate problems on earth by building a Martian base on the backs of indentured servitude.

Absolute wonder woman And Absolutely superman are going there: not just inventing harsh alternative futures for the sake of grim stories, but presenting them as us A harsh future, with the promise of creating heroes who fight back. I’m getting enough “dark timeline” vibes from living in the 2020s. The least my dark comic book timelines can do is punch the real one in the face every now and then.