Absolute Power

Absolute Power

by Mark Waid, Dan Mora (Artist), Joshua Williamson

The heroes of the DC Universe are powerless... but their spirits are unbroken! With the Trinity of Evil in power, the resistance begins in DC's most explosive blockbuster story in years.

The superstar team of writer Mark Waid (Kingdom Come) and artist Dan Mora (Batman/Superman: World's Finest) unite for Absolute Power, an epic event that sees DC's heroes tested like never before!

Following a career of machinations, and thanks to the combined might of the unstoppable android Failsafe and the otherworldly Brainiac Queen, Amanda Waller has finally achieved her goal: stealing the metahuman abilities of every hero and villain on planet Earth. As chaos erupts in the streets and a massive misinformation campaign sways public opinion to her side, the founder of the Suicide Squad methodically targets each superhero dynasty one at a time, starting with Superman.

But even in this darkest of hours, a resistance is forming... and Batman is out for vengeance. Can these powerless heroes defeat the Trinity of Evil and their army of living weapons known as Task Force VII?

It's a shocking blitzkrieg across the globe that is decades in the making--and will shape the course of the DC Universe for years to come!

This volume collects Absolute Power #1-4 and Absolute Power: Ground Zero.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Batman

200 pages, Hardcover

First published February 4, 2025

About the author

Mark Waid (born March 21, 1962 in Hueytown, Alabama) is an American comic book writer. He is best known for his eight-year run as writer of the DC Comics' title The Flash, as well as his scripting of the limited series Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, and his work on Marvel Comics' Captain America.

Reviews

[Molly™☺ · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rushed event that looks fantastic but lacks the complete package to make it really pop. It is a jigsaw with one too many missing pieces, and the amount of gaps ruins the final product. When something relies so heavily on reading tie-ins to understand properly, it is not well executed; excessive extra reading should not be a requirement to merely understand the basics. It's a shame to see talent go to waste, and whilst I own all of the spin off content and will read it in due course, what you get with the TBP isn't enough to sell this story.

actual rating 2.5 stars

[Sean Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Waid a minute...I want Mora that!

...and with that I've used up all of my funny for the week. And it's only Tuesday.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7 stars

[Pruett · Rating 1 out of 5]

With all due respect to Dan Mora’s nice looking art, this reads like a parody of superhero comics, and I hated it. It sucks so bad. Absolute Power is pointless, exasperating, cliché and nonsensical. This event was an overdrawn excuse to bring a Justice League comic back onto stands. Heads up, DC Editorial? You can do that without commissioning an awful event series to go with.

[Paxton Holley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really well done DC event. Not surprising as it’s designed by Mark Waid and Dan Mora.

Amanda Waller enacts a plan to first discredit all the meta-humans on Earth, steal their powers using upgraded Amazo robots, then incarcerate them in a super max black site prison.

This trade is only the 4 main, core issues of the event. Really solid read. Lots of fun, crazy twists and turns. Reading a few of the tie ins really helps as well. I don’t normally do that but there was a lot of good talent here so it felt worth it.

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced, all-out war against the system. I enjoyed this book, but the reason I could not give it five stars is that too much is missing. I know that these are shown in the individual heroes/ heroine books. It is okay if the other books act as a companion, but more than 50% of the story is in the other books. That is not okay with me. I could even see why some would give it three and a half stars.

Amanda Waller hates the meta-humans, but now she has allies (some by choice and some have no choice), as well as the rest of humanity behind her. Who is her trinity of evil? What trump cards does she have up her sleave? Is this war already over before the heroes even know it? Betrayal, manipulation, and, of course, heroics.

On a personal note, I would have liked to see more of Batman in this book, but I know that they are trying to pass the torch over, but I still don't like it.

The artwork is awesome. The story is good as much as is shown in this book, and it does setup the next evolution of DC. The book is finishes with a huge thumbnail varient covers gallery.

[Jake Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Looks great, but I shouldn’t have to invest in ALL of the tie ins to understand your four issue event. I will die on that hill, because other people have done it so Mark Waid can too.

So yeah. Looks good, too many missing pieces between issues.

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the first issue. Waid is a fantastic writer but this didn't work for me.
Too much happened in tie ins and was skipped over here. This was poorly paced, just rushed. I think it needed to be six issues with more happening in here so that readers didn't need to buy all the other books.
Civil war and house of m are good examples of what I mean. They aren't perfect stories but they have all of the information you need to understand the stories and enjoy them. The tie ins expand on what is happening within and add depth, they don't tell key parts that were missing from the event.
Second onwards, some action scenes were difficult to follow - I love MorA's art. This was the only time I had a negative thought about it.

[Jordan Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This event is one of those events where the tie in issues really do matter. If you were to just read the four issues of absolute power, this would feel like a rushed event. Credit where credit is due, the authors of their respective titles contributed immensely to make the story make sense.

However, I feel that this story was rushed. It’s ironic to say something like that when the entire arc is 30+ issues. However, when you build something up to be so big to the point where the only way to end the story is to stack
Deus Ex Machinas on top of each other to defeat the villain in a way that makes sense, it’s going to feel rushed.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't as bad as I expected to be. I could happily go my whole life without ever reading about Amanda Waller again, but ugh I just love Nightwing so much, and it was nice to see some of the more obscure heroes here.

[Cristhian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buena idea, half ass execution

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't generally like these big crossover event things, but I figured, if anybody's going to get one right, it'll be Mark Waid.

Guess nobody's getting one right.

Yeah, there are a few good bits - Nightwing was a bigtime leader. Mora's artwork. And... umm...

Too many characters, most of which are just clickbait cameos (Oooh, look there's Ralph Dibny for a panel being captured!), never any real sense that Waller's going to succeed (maybe for a page at the end OF THE FIRST ISSUE, which basically means three straight issues of the heroes scoring win after win), too many characters disappearing for long stretches (by pure happenstance, I actually got the SUPERMAN trade that tied into this at the same time. It was 100% unintentional, I had no clue the books were connected, so at least I have some clue what happened to Superman off-page, although it DIDN'T MATTER A WHIT). Good thing Aquaman just happened to be carrying black mercies around in a bag. Or that Waller did basically no work-up on Dreamer's personality and psyche profile, so she couldn't see that betrayal coming 100 pages in advance.

My two biggest takeaways - this all happened because the Justice League disbanded, BUT THE JUSTICE LEAGUE WAS TALKING STRATEGY LESS THAN TEN PAGES INTO THE STORY. They were collaborating better than they usually do! So yeah, the big finale felt absurd. (Also, I had ZERO clue the JLA was disbanded. It isn't referenced in ABSOLUTE POWER anywhere. I don't really keep up with most DCU titles, so that's partly on me, but if it matters - No, if it's the big message, the moral of it all, it should be in the book and it should be a continuing theme. The continued chatter on the omnipresent "superhero communication channel" undermines that entirely. They operated as the Justice League for the entire book, which makes the final few pages inane.)

Second - Again, I don't keep up with the DCU in general. I'm not sure I've read an appearance of Amanda Waller since ... maybe John Ostrander's SUICIDE SQUAD (the FROM THE ASHES miniseries he did long after the regular series ended). I don't know what's going on with her lately, I admit it. But man, I HATE seeing Wall as a mustache-twirling villain. It's so fucking lazy. I had the same reaction twenty years ago when Max Lord got his Snidely Whiplash on. True story: I didn't discover JLI until ten years after it was originally published. (I wasn't reading comics when it came out.) When I read it, Max was in limbo. I assumed some lazy comics writer had taken a full heel turn with Max, so I was actually surprised when that didn't happen until 2006ish. Moral ambiguity has only one path in superhero comics - straight into full-on, looney tunes supervillainy. Cue the evil monologue! (It's true; it's what brought Waller down!) It's ironic coming from a guy who loves Superman like I do (the only DC Comics I more or less keep up with, and even then, I'm a library reader rather than a buyer), but the inability of superhero (DC?) comics to deal with moral complexity is really discouraging and frustrating. It pisses me off to see the Wall treated this way. She's a bad person, but she's not a world conquering wannabe despot. It's creatively lazy and morally unimaginative.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as event goes this was a fun one I really like the build up to this and showing how Waller used AI and deepfakes and disinformation using online media to make people hate heroes and all that and its so easy to do and you see the parts from House of Brainiac and Failsafe tying into this and well how the heroes are in the backfoot and having lost their powers and being hunted by the people who they wanna save and all that and the way they have to regroup after being defeated like that is awesome!

I love how crazy it got with how the heroes are being hunted and all and regrouping and there are tie-ins where they go on their separate missions and its fun reading that but I love the way how it has two battles like in Fortress of Solitude and then on Themysciria like each time its Nightwing taking the lead and assigning people their mission and yeah #2 and #3 issues feel very similar in the way of how its written and structure of the comic. But then again its conveying the panic of the moment and how they have to fight back against the villains and their onslaught and even hiding from them and coming up with a plan.

I love that moment where Jon gets infected and there is this great emotional moment of father vs son and how they save him and it really highlights Nightwings role as a lead of the DCU after Dark crisis and Beast world and thats awesome seeing the elevation of one of DC's premier heroes and omg that part where its showing what Barry has to with the multiversal variants popping in and it shows how far Waller has planned.. its insane and just shows the lengths this woman will go to ensure her absolute power which is a great contradiction to her original motives!

I love how the battle ends and its obvious and not everybody will like it, but its cool and it will be interesting to see how the heroes handle the stuff with the multiverse and power swaps and thats the exciting part of the next chapter of DCU!

Also love Mora's artwork here and he has to draw so many superheroes and its not easy but he does it so well and its cool to see! He really levelled up here and am glad he is gonna be drawing the main JL series next and its gonna look so good paired with Waid's writing!

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm using this to cover the various tie-ins etc for this series, one that I had both hope and doubts for. The doubts arise from some of Waid's comments published over the years regarding how he think some of these characters should be handled, and frankly I disagree. The other is-

Could this title's events at least feel like they mean something? Multiple small intra-company crossovers had been leading up to the event series and often the payoff hasn't been there (ex: Snyder's Metal event and its various spin offs).

This series, while smaller in scope than many comic book company events series ( ex: Marvel's Spider-Man an X-Men events) what takes place here feel like it makes sense to me. Amanda Waller, when executed well, has always been an intelligent woman with a plan/plans, I mean you don't usually outthink her. She's been laying the plans for taking out the heroes, and sowing public mistrust in them for awhile in various titles.

And, now she succeeds by making allies with those who yearn for control as much as she does.

Spoilers













I will admits that I think the restoration of the heroes' powers was a bit of a Deus ex machina, and dropping hints some of them now have altered or new abilities doesn't work for me short term.

On the plus side is Waller's portrayal. For those not familiar with her I recommend Ostrander's portrayal in the Suicide Squad, and Ridley's in the Absolute Power Origins tie-in series.

I'm not certain how I feel about the multiverse being written out of DC Comics again. My initial reaction is that it will return in a few years.

The end of this series leads well in the DC All In/Absolute Power book where Snyder convinces me he might be able to write super heroes despite what I think about Metal (side note: I really like his series American Vampire which is why my expectations for Metal wee so high).

[Ya Boi Be Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

An explosively fun event teeming with plot points and ideas from the overall rebellion of depowered supes to smaller ones like Jon Kent’s robotification or the Amazo robots gaining some of the heroism themself. It’s got a fair amount of moving parts and lots of fun action chockful of wonderful art from the GOAT Dan Mora. Any DC event with Dan Mora on the art you know is gonna be worth it on that alone. The story itself is a fun Rebellion story of depowered supes fighting against impossible odds. Twists and turns abound and some nice characterization goes to some characters with Dreamer being a highlight. Dreamer debuted in DC comics during Dawn of DC iirc and her introduction has been immaculate especially here with her finale with Amanda where she wipes Waller's memories just out of reach and also continues to develop the Jon Kent bisexual love triangle I'm dying to read more of in that one series coming out of DC All-In.
It does tie-in to some of the larger Dawn of DC stuff (Birds of Prey team and characters, Failsafe, Waller’s whole deal for this entire time of DC, the leadup Suicide Squad miniseries) which I enjoy since this is the real end of the Dawn of DC but nit too much which is a bit of a shame. This is THE finale and I get they only have four issues but still. Maybe the tie-ins deal with that? Speaking of, I do wish we got the Amazo robots a bit more fleshed out but that is the nature of comic events. Usually those “fleshing out” things are done on the side in tie-ins which seems to be collected in the Task Force VII trade which I hope to read next.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually love a Waid/Mora team-up, but this one faltered for me.

Great first issue- Waller turns media and the populace against our heroes as well as Amazos to strip our heroes of their powers! And she also has Failsafe and Braniac Queen on her team?! This is gonna be tasty.

But then there are about 35 tie-in issues each with just a tiny sliver of information that moves the story forward, kinda. At least to the whereabouts of certain heroes. But then some Amazos gain so much power and don't do anything with it. Or grow a conscience because they absorbed the heroes conscience with the power.

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
Near the beginning, Waller only wants to depower the heroes so she can capture them all and put them in prison, but...Waller is smarter than that. Any non-captured heroes will obviously try to spring their friends. And a lot of the non-powered are the Bat-family and such, who are so formidable anyway. And she isn't above putting bombs in brains and killing or at least threatening to kill family members. So...honestly she should just kill our heroes.

And then at the end, when our heroes overcome everything (duh), Waller yells a rant confessing everything she does like it's a poorly written cop procedural. C'mon. I didn't love.

[Ethan Gohl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolute Power is Amanda Waller taken to her natural conclusion, which is something that feels LONG overdue. The buildup to it was pretty good but left a little bit to be desired, though compared to other DC events of late, the lead-in was outstanding.

As for the event itself? I'm a little disappointed. It reads like DC wanted to get it over with as fast as possible. We never really get to the height of the tension. The idea is that Waller is taking over and stripping heroes of their powers, but she never REALLY takes over. Plus the idea of heroes needing to find a way to beat her without any meta abilities, magic, or signature gadgets is really compelling, but at the end of the day, they stop her with... Powers from heroes who hadn't been depowered. Who are also most of the A-tier heroes. So we aren't even seeing a ton of fringe heroes needing to use obscure powers.

Dan Mora's art is fantastic of course, and the writing is pretty solid. Just rushed. Absolute Power could've been treated like 52, and I think that would've given it the time to really take off

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This latest DC event series is written by Mark Waid and drawn by Dan Mora. I don't think I need to say much else, that should really do all the work for me, but I'll go into a little more detail.

Amanda Waller manages to gaslight the world into thinking superheroes are all evil, and unleashes a group of Amazo robots to drain the powers from every DC hero and villain they can get their hands on. Because she's a cow. The heroes go underground, resisting as best they can, until they manage to muster up enough help to stage a counterattack.

Absolute Power pulls in threads from across the DCU - there's been set-up in Green Arrow, Superman, Batman, and beyond, and it feels like an all-encompassing event that affects all your favourite characters. The aftermath reverberates back through all of those titles as well, and while we don't have any massive deaths or turnovers in status quo, this is still as solid as you'd expect from a powerhouse team like Waid and Mora.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolute Power collects Absolute Power 1-4, Absolute Power: Ground Zero, and Absolute Power 2024: FCBD written by Mark Waid, Nicole Maines, Chip Zdarsky, and Joshua Williams with art by Dan Mora, Skylar Partridge, V. Ken Marrion, Gleb Melnikov, and Mikel Janin.

Amanda Waller has teemed with Failsafe and Queen Brainiac to convince the world that super heroes are a threat to humanity’s existence. Unleashing a firestorm of fake AI footage of heroes committing unspeakable acts against those they are sworn to protect, Waller puts forth a plan to lure heroes out into the open when she then steals their powers. With most of Earth’s mightiest heroes now powerless, they will have to rely on their cunning and teamwork to save the day.

A decent setup that just ultimately didn’t have any meaningful impact. So much of the story (as per the course for DC event books these days) happened in tie-in issues and not in the main event series. I think the biggest fault is that the stakes just never feel real. I know superhero deaths are played out as well, but this was the place for a big to hit home on Walker’s threat. At the end of the day, this just felt like a long Justice League arc instead of a major event.

[Raul Reyes · Rating 2 out of 5]

The event felt so incredibly rushed it's clear this needed to be more than 4 issues. Which makes it the more frustrating that the tie in issues couldn't really even advance the plot too much so that people only reading this could understand what's happening; at least that's what was happening until after issue 3 where suddenly the things the tie-ins did actually mattered all at once. Maybe I'm just overly bitter since this is my first time reading an event, but I was incredibly disappointed with the book. The first two issues were just a non-stop battle that made it really difficult to concentrate on what was happening, and the other two issues were just fine. The best thing this event did was launch the new wave of titles.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reads as the Cliffnotes of, 'Absolute Power'...

We get the essentials to the book, but the true details are split off and spread across several dozen other books. This will look SO much better as an omnibus edition with all the tie-ins included (imagine how $$$ that thing is gonna cost).

Storywise, depowered Superman doesn't really pop back up until his son is on Themyscira. We also lose the rest of the Trinity to their own titles (or tie-in series). It would have been interesting to have the 'Dark Trinity' square off more against DC's OG trio.
----------
Bonus: There's an awful lot of faith in..timing (to not spoil anything)
Bonus Bonus: If Waller is back to her old shenanigans in 6 months, we riot...

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

DC has produced a real crossover event in a way that Marvel hasn't been able to do for a long time. The problem is that I've never really liked this type of event. Here the tie-ins really serve a purpose instead of being pure cash grabs, but that's more than 30 titles to read for a 4-part event and frankly it pisses me off.

That said, the basic plot isn't bad and Waller, the villain you all love to hate, is well used. The plot is well done, there's tension and action, and Dan Mora's drawings are excellent.

In these dark times, when Marvel is reaching the bottom of mediocrity on just about all its licences, DC seems to have found the path to refreshing creativity. I can't wait for All-in

[Syed Syabil · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this begrudgingly so that I could understand the new Absolute comics but I realised by the end that I completely wasted my time. Also the story itself is not great! My suspension of disbelief can only go so far. The stuff Amanda Waller manages to pull of in this comic is genuinely ridiculous.

If you do insist on reading this you should probably read the Ground Zero prelude first. Event makes zero sense without the context. It honestly should have just been published as #1. I have no idea why they couldn’t have just included it and made the title 5 issues instead of 4.

[Luke Costin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full disclosure I only read this because I wanted to start reading the new All In line and I heard this was required reading.

The premise for this was pretty good but the execution was incredibly rushed and it felt like every tie in was essential to understand the story which is never good in an event.
My favourite part of the event was the Amanda Waller origins comic which massively fleshes out Waller’s motivations and completely makes you empathise with her.

Other than that, pretty weak.

[Alek Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad.
For a Mark Waid story it's not overly corny with its dialog or melodramatic like some of his other stuff. For the main event book it's only the pillars of the story. You will need supplemental reading to get the full version, but you dont need everything DC put out for it.

You only need:
Ground Zero #1
Absolute Power #1
Batman #150
Absolute Power #2
Batman #151-152
Wonder Woman #12
Absolute Power #3
Wonder Woman #13
Absolute Power #4

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leído del tirón, evento que me ha gustado mucho y no se me ha hecho pesado, que por lo general todos al final se me hacen un poco de bola. Amanda es una jodía que te cagas, hay mucho pijameo (demasiado sobre el final) y puedes entrar sin saber mucho de DC aunque puede que te pierdas cosas por no conocer a muchos personajes. El final un cliffhanger para que te leas el all in special y ya entres a los nuevos universos. Por mi parte entraré únicamente al Absolute

[London Heady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice, tight event. One of the first events I have read and thoroughly enjoyed. Some cool tie-ins, but ultimately unnecessary. Just these main ones pack a powerful punch with a great smart script from Waid and gorgeous artwork from Mora.

I can't believe my GOAT Animal Man got beat up by a mob...

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Waid knows how to make an event feel like an event. Blockbuster levels of heroism (superpowered or not) in this one. Amanda Waller is always gonna slay as that evil threat despite having no superpowers. This perfectly sets the stage for DC All In, and I'm here for it.

[John T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first couple books are great, but as a lot of reviews are saying all the tie-ins are missing and make this feel rushed and incomplete. Unlike most of the other reviewers I want to read the tie-ins because I was liking this - 3.5 I want to read the whole event so that brings it down.

[Sarospice · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept is strong but you'll have to read other individual titles to get any real effect. The best part of this particular trade is watching the rise and fall of Amanda Waller, who's been asking for it for decades!