I’ll be perfectly honest with you here: so many wild, game-changing events happen in DC Comics‘ Absolute Evil #1 one-shot, I wasn’t sure which one to focus on in the headline of this article, let alone the article itself. And yes, I’m going to put a massive spoiler warning for the issue, which is on stands today, written by Al Ewing with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Nesi. Because not only does it turn a classic DC comics character from hero to villain… It kills another hero, introduces a huge villain we haven’t seen yet in the Absolute Universe, and twists one of the greatest team’s in comic book history in a way nobody could have seen coming.
To that end — and did I mention spoiler warning? — I’m going to break down the big events of Absolute Evil #1 and what they might mean for the future of the Absolute Universe, below. But you should really read the issue for yourself first, then come back here as we break it all down.
No? Just diving right in? Okay, here we go.
Hawkman Is A Bad Guy, And The Justice Society Is Dead And Gone
You can somewhat see where this is going from the very first page of the issue, but Hawkman, in a flip on what happened in the main DC Universe, agrees to work with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to report on his fellow superheroes, who he calls “commies.”
In case you’re not totally familiar, the HUAC is a real thing that was active in the 1950s, as the government, led by Senator Joe McCarthy, launched a Communist witch hunt, asking Americans to report on their fellow Americans as Communists… Which many did, whether the people were Communists or not. It ruined lives, and that’s exactly what Hawkman seems to have done as well.
The comic book twist on it, though, is that Hawkman, in the present, seems to be a masked, faceless, silent assassin working for Veronica Cale and other bad guys of the Absolute Universe. Whether that’s the same Hawkman from the 1950s or someone else? TBD. The mask certainly seems to imply some sort of twist there.
But that’s just the start of it as we see what happened to some other classic DC heroes. Sandman (Wesley Dodds version) was killed by his own gas. Wildcat, aka Ted Grant, started up his vigilante career only to accept a bribe to give it all up — the same sort of money that was offered to Batman by Black Mask in Absolute Batman, which Bruce refused. We also check in on Iron Munro, who refused to name names — unlike Hawkman — and was killed in a “weapons test.”
Is the rest of the Justice Society out there somewhere? Or did Hawkman sell them out? Seems like that might be a story for another day.
Green Arrow Is Killed… By Hawkman
The beginning of Absolute Evil also seems to be a back-door pilot for Absolute Green Arrow, which is coming next year from writer Pornsak Pitcheshote and artist Rafael Albuquerque. But that book is not going to be about Oliver Queen, unless it’s in flashback. That’s because the shocker mid-issue is that Green Arrow is dead, killed by Hawkman.
Before that, though, we see the classic Oliver Queen, a billionaire fed up with other billionaires. And in particular, Jubal Slade, who was — in the main DC Universe — a slumlord in the first part of the “Hard Travelin’ Heroes” storyline, which teamed up Oliver and Hal Jordan, aka Green Lantern. He’s going after Jubal Slade because he, in shades of Epstein Island, is shipping kids out by the plane-load. During the initial scene, Oliver is pretty much straight up the Green Arrow we know from the mainline universe, down to an Arrow Cave, the classic uniform, the beard, etc, etc, which makes the reader wonder: what is the Absolute Universe-style twist on this concept?
Well, the twist is he’s beaten to death by Hawkman, with his body thrown on a conference room table to show that the billionaire villains of this universe don’t give an inch to traitors. Given that Absolute Green Arrow likely isn’t Hawkman doing Weekend at Bernie’s with Oliver Queen’s dead body, what will the title actually be about?
The easy answer is that it’s going to be about Roy Harper, usually known as Speedy and/or Arsenal — not Oliver Queen. The reason is that Oliver is on the phone with Roy at the top of the issue. Roy is trying to talk him down from going all one-man-army on Jubal Slade, and in a certain sense, Roy is right. But it stands to reason that Roy will feel regret about letting Oliver go it alone, and take on the Green Arrow mantle to go after Jubal and others.
Another note that backs this up, though it’s not in the issue? At WonderCon back in March, I saw Pichetshote effuse about being obsessed with one-man army stories. Seems like he was getting some early research in.
The Legion Of Doom Is… The Justice League
There’s yet another big reveal in the issue, which ties into something we haven’t discussed yet: what the actual comic is about. In it, Veronica Cale, Ra’s al Ghul, Hector Hammond, Elenore Thawne, and Joker all meet to discuss what to do about the rising tide of heroes in the Absolute Universe.
Joker, though, suggests they don’t need to do anything. He’s discovered that the universe is suffused with Omega Energy, which comic book readers know (though Joker doesn’t) is the energy of Darkseid that the Absolute Universe is built on. He explains that the basic building blocks of reality are geared so that they are meant to win — not these “heroes.”
In an extremely winky, meta speech, Joker lays it out. “The sore losers in the game of life see their fate — woven in the fabric of creation — and rail against it. Call it doom. There’s a philosophical term for that perspective. ‘The Just World Fallacy.’ And imagine being so twisted. So filled with hate. So paralyzed by fear. Imagine thinking it a fallacy… That the world could be just.”
The thing here, in case it isn’t clear, is that this is how billionaires see the world: that they are lifting it up and doing the right thing by centering themselves at the top of the pyramid. They’re not, they are dragons (heck, Joker is a literal dragon in the AU), and that pyramid is a pile of gold they’re not willing to share. But Joker continues:
“But the world is just. We have evidence. Not of doom. But of a natural order, worked upon the world by a higher power. If spoiler little anarchists like the late Mr. Queen here would stand against that order… That, I call injustice. And injustice must be fought. Chaos must be fought. We must fight it. And how can we fail? God is on our side.”
There’s a kicker to this little speech, though, which as you can see is threaded throughout with words like “doom” and “injustice.” You see, this group isn’t the Legion of Doom or the Injustice League. As Joker explains, “Here in this room — our watchtower, looking down from high above the herd — we can be in league. Between us we can ensure the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. A toast, then, to an ordered world… And to our Justice League.”
…And yep, we “cut” to a wide shot of none other than the Hall of Justice, where it turns out they’ve been meeting this whole time. Not only that, the real title of the issue is revealed. It’s not Absolute Evil… It’s “Absolute Justice.” So the Absolute Universe finally has its Justice League, and it’s not Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman… It’s the bad guys. Yuh-oh.
Lex Luthor Arrives, Ready To Help
There’s one final twist waiting in the book, though, an end-credits scene if you will. Jumping over to Brainiac, he’s consulting with the Absolute Universe version of Flash villain Mirror Master, who first appeared in DC’s Free Comic Book Day special, consorting with his main universe double. Brainiac muses that the members of the Justice League all balance each other, except one: Joker. But in the “Mirror World” — aka, the regular DC universe — Brainiac has glimpsed someone who can.
So Brainiac gives that man a call. He’s relaxing with his wife, watching the sun set, talking about their kids and how he used to be an “angry young man.” It’s a pastoral setting, like the Kent Farm in Smallville, and the man is wearing a sun belt, flannel, and is revealed to have a red beard and hair.
“This is Lex Luthor speaking,” the man says. “How can I be of help?”
When Jason Aaron first launched Absolute Superman, he talked about how you wouldn’t see Lex Luthor in the first 12 issues. Well, we’re 12 issues in, and though it’s in another title, Lex has arrived. He’s already vastly different than his main universe counterpart — though how much is TBD. And whether he’ll show up in Absolute Superman or elsewhere is also TBD. As is, though, the introduction of Lex means ever more bad things for this universe. And perhaps, given what Brainiac is teasing… Joker.
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