DC’s new and ongoing Absolute Universe is taking the comic book world by storm, but despite the obvious excitement and anticipation for an Absolute version of the Justice League, the endeavor is more complex than it might seem at face value. Born out of the energy of the New God and multiverse-level conqueror Darkseid, DC’s Absolute Universe creates a completely new DC reality with different and re-invented versions of its heroes, villains, and everyone in between. Absolute DC kicked off with its re-invention of DC’s Trinity, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman (in that order), with numerous other DC characters following suit, including The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and the newly announced Green Arrow.
Since the inception of Absolute DC, a crossover of Absolute DC’s heroes leading into the formation of the Absolute Justice League has been where the excitement of many DC readers has been headed. With the Justice League’s status as DC’s staple team of superheroes, an Absolute Justice League certainly goes without saying. However, it is worth looking over what the pros and cons of an Absolute Justice League really are, and how DC Comics can lean into the strengths of the former while avoiding the pitfalls of the latter.
Pro – DC’s Absolute Universe Is Radically Different (& Begs for a Radically Different Justice League)
From the beginning, the selling point of DC’s Absolute Universe has been the new reality’s wild spin on DC’s most iconic superheroes, an endeavor it has delivered on in nothing short of epic fashion. The introduction of DC’s Trinity in Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman showed each through a whole new prism – Absolute Batman a 24-year old construction worker with the body of a power lifter, Absolute Wonder Woman a warrior raised in Hell itself, and Absolute Superman a crusader for Earth’s oppressed with an AI-powered super-suit on his side. These changes to the Trinity’s backstories set the template for everything Absolute DC has become, and things have only gotten wilder from there in the makeovers given to The Flash, Green Lantern, and Absolute DC’s very mind-boggling version of Martian Manhunter.
With the entire concept of DC’s Absolute Universe lying in presenting DC’s hero roster in dramatically altered ways, the obvious culmination of that would be to finally unite them all in an Absolute version of the Justice League. Especially given the Absolute Universe’s origin from the essence of the League’s sworn enemy Darkseid, an Absolute Justice League uniting each of DC’s re-imagined heroes together in a new and darker spin on their comic book origins is too big of a chance to make comic book history to ignore, especially with the epic scale battle against Darkseid that an Absolute Justice League promises to deliver.
Con – DC’s Absolute Universe Has Thrived on Individual Stories (& Introducing the Justice League Could Run Up Against That)
For as exciting a concept as an Absolute version of the Justice League surely is, realizing DC’s legendary League of heroes would also be rather stark shift from the very thing that has made the Absolute Universe such a blast for comic book readers in the first place in the individual nature of each character’s re-imagining. Working from the basis of the Absolute Universe being a completely fresh Elseworlds canvas in the comic book world, DC has really been able to put each hero under the microscope in a way rarely seen in modern times and tweak them wholly unexpected was. Because of that, the changes that the Absolute Universe has made to each DC superhero have stood out and been that much more impactful because of it.
Had the Absolute Universe pulled a New 52 and kickstarted with the Justice League’s first team-up, the re-workings made to Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter would have still be prominent and significant. However, their impact would also likely have felt at least somewhat diluted with the Absolute Universe’s first story being a team-based one. By centering on each individual hero and giving them extended and ongoing singular runs, DC’s Absolute Universe has given room for each hero really grow and evolve into their Absolute incarnation. As soon as they form a Justice League, the individual focus placed on each of them would inevitably shift, and could have the potential to place the very novelty that as made DC’s Absolute Universe so compelling in the backseat.
An Absolute Justice League Is Inevitable (but Has To Be Introduced Carefully)
Even with the potential drawback of swapping the individualized storytelling of Absolute DC for a re-focused team story, the appeal and possibilities of an Absolute Justice League are also far too exciting to ignore. Not creating an Absolute Justice League would simply be far too big of a missed opportunity, and as with DC’s mainline universe, there’s no reason why the characters’ individual books couldn’t continue alongside the Absolute Justice League. However, the road to the League’s formation in the Absolute Universe also must carefully account for the biggest challenge of all, that being that the Absolute versions of DC’s heroes would most certainly be the ones least compelled to form a Justice League.
Even by his own standards of brooding and crime-fighting, Absolute Batman is a dark and gruff loner who surely has never dreamt of working with other heroes when readers first meet him. Wonder Woman’s upbringing in Hell has also undoubtedly made both more prone to lethal methods and very likely more prone to distrusting other heroes, while Superman is far more content to hide from view and cut out the middle-man on his missions than DC has ever shown him to be. While Wally West is still a fairly happy go-lucky kid one could envision wanting to join a superhero team and Absolute DC’s multiple Green Lanterns would probably have a similar attitude to forming a League with other heroes, Martian Manhunter’s Absolute backstory is also one steeped in paranoia and Matrix-level cerebral storytelling that could very conceivably make him reluctant to join a team. All of these are factors that an Absolute Justice League would have to account for in order for the League’s formation to not feel like a gimmick but the true pay-off to DC’s new alternate reality. An Absolute Justice League is undoubtedly going to make its debut in DC Comics (especially after the news of Green Arrow being the newest hero to get the Absolute treatment), but doing the League justice in DC’s Absolute Universe will require not only a careful transition from individual to team storytelling, but also presenting a believable scenario in which DC’s Absolute heroes decide to from a Justice League in the first place.
