10 Things Absolute DC Has Done Right

DC Comics is having something of a renaissance lately. The publisher has been ruling just about every sales chart out there since the end of 2025, with Absolute DC being the crown jewel of what is a stellar line of books. It all started in 2024. Marvel had been ruling the roost as usual, and had pulled ahead even more with their new Ultimate books, which had began in 2023. The Absolute line seemed like a response to those books, down to a villain creating an Earth where evil won. Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, and Absolute Wonder Woman hit the scene like a predictably powerful atom bomb, but then something happened: they not only kept selling well, but they started to sell even better. Suddenly, DC was running the table, and the addition of Absolute Flash, Absolute Green Lantern, and Absolute Martian Manhunter blew things into the stratosphere.

The Absolute books are amazing, and they have the sales to prove it. Over 2025, these six books have sold over eight million copies, and have reinvigorated what was once an ailing giant. They’re actually bringing new readers into comic stores, who are buying other DC books. Fans are coming out for the Absolute books because of these ten reasons, proving that the oldest superhero publisher still has the goods.

10) The Perfect Creative Teams

A good creative team can make or break a book, and it’s a delicate balancing act to find the right one for a single comic, let alone six. However, DC editorial has created an amazing team of writers and artists for the Absolute books, and each of them have given the books something special. Scott Snyder, Jason Aaron, and Kelly Thompson formed the perfect nucleus of writers, with Jeff Lemire, Al Ewing, and Deniz Camp stepping into the universe and making it better. The art is amazing; the regular art teams consist of superstars like Nick Dragotta, Rafa Sandoval, Hayden Sherman, Nick Robles, Javier Rodriguez, and Jahnoy Lindsay, and even the fill-in artists are able to make magic happen. This line has the perfect mix of talent, and things are only going to get better with the upcoming teams for Absolute Green Arrow, Absolute Catwoman, and Absolute Aquaman.

9) Darkseid As God

Darkseid is DC’s greatest villain, but let’s be honest: the character can get stale. In the modern day, only writer Grant Morrison has been able to use the God of Evil flawlessly, as most creators just make him a titan looking for the Anti-Life Equation. We rarely get a new story with the character, so the Absolute books showing us a world where Darkseid is capital G God is something else. This one idea – a universe where Darkseid’s energy is at the center of all things – is something new, and it’s led to one of the greatest alternate universes in comics history. While he’s rarely appeared on the page, his presence is always felt and it makes the books so much better.

8) Embracing Queer Themes

DC has long innovated when it came to queer characters, starting back in the ’80s with the work of queer creators like Grant Morrison and Rachel Pollack. While it can’t be said that DC’s queer rep has always been good, the Absolute books are embracing queer themes perfectly. Absolute Wonder Woman has very heavy lesbian undertones; instead of catering to the male gaze, it centers women’s sexuality. Absolute Green Lantern is basically toxic yuri, with the relationship between Jo Mullein and her ex-wife Chase Cameron a key part of the book’s narrative. The Absolute version is Black Canary is more androgynous than before, a “muscle mommy” that appeals to queer women as much as she does to men. The Absolute books don’t shrink from this moment in time by centering queer themes and representation.

7) The Sex Appeal

Speaking of sex, the Absolute line has something for everybody. There’s traditionally handsome men like Superman and Batman, the hot cast of Absolute Green Lantern scorching up the place, and Absolute Wonder Woman giving readers a Diana that actually look Greek for once. Captain Cold is surprisingly sexy. The women are gorgeous in general, but their appeal isn’t as “male gaze”-y as it would usually be. Just look at the reactions from all sexes towards Absolute Catwoman or Zatanna or Black Canary; the Absolute line is a smorgasbord of beauty that will appeal to everyone.

6) Redefining the Justice League for a New Universe

The Justice League is DC’s greatest team, but they also exist in a universe powered by the hopeful energies of Superman. What would the League be in a universe where Darkseid had replaced hope with despair? Well, they would be the ultimate power of evil. Readers got their first glimpse of this new League in Absolute Evil #1, a one-shot that joined together the villains of the Absolute books – the Joker, Hector Hammond, Veronica Cale, and Elenore Thawne, with Brainiac secretly watching and Hawkman showing up as their enforcer. It’s the perfect Justice League for a universe of evil and yet another Absolute-ly stellar idea.

5) Absolute Green Lantern Redefines the Lantern Mythos Brilliantly

Absolute Flash and Absolute Green Lantern are looked at as the lesser Absolute books, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. Absolute Flash is a standard hero story that hits the right notes, but Absolute Green Lantern goes in an entirely new direction with its source material. We’re all familiar with the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum, but it’s quite different in the Absolute Universe, an unfolding mystery that is taking Jo Mullein, Hal Hordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Tomar Re, and numerous Lantern characters on a journey unlike any readers have seen before. Add in a heaping helping of cosmic horror, and Absolute Green Lantern is doing something that most of the other Absolute books aren’t doing: changing everything readers thought they knew about how the Lanterns work.

4) Absolute Superman Brings Back the Man of the People

Superman can be a tough nut tocrack, especially in a setting as different as the Absolute Universe. This is a world where evil wins, so an all-powerful, all-winning Superman wasn’t in the cards. Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval went in a different direction. Instead of giving readers a more Silver Age-inspired Supes, they went back to his golden roots. This Kal-El is a man of the people, fighting for the downtrodden against the corporate class in the person of Ra’s al Ghul’s Lazarus Corporation. This Superman is almost directly inspired by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s original idea for the character, and it’s amazing.

3) Absolute Batman Embraces the Horrors of a New Gotham City

Absolute Batman was always going to be the bestselling book. Scott Snyder is the biggest name of the Absolute writers, and Nick Dragotta is one of the greatest pencilers of the last twenty years (seriously, his work on East of West and Ghost Cage is amazing). A poor Batman in a new Gotham was a surefire seller, but Snyder reached into his bag of tricks to bring out the horror of this new Gotham. Everything is bigger and scarier, the violence is more extreme. This Gotham is a land that makes people into monsters, whether they are fighting for power or fighting to survive. This is a Batman horror book, and it’s outstanding.

2) Absolute Wonder Woman Is Perfection

Absolute Wonder Woman is the kind of book that rarely comes around. Writer Kelly Thompson has proven to be a master of superheroines, from street level to cosmic, so putting her on Wonder Woman was the perfect idea. Add in artist Hayden Sherman and readers are getting the best Diana they’ve gotten in years. Raised in Hell by Circe, this is a very different warrior than the one we knew, and it’s been a revelation. This is the book that everyone talks about when they talk about the best of the best on the stands right now. We’re going to look back fondly on this one for decades.

1) Absolute Martian Manhunter Is The Best Surprise in Years

When the second wave of Absolute books were announced, Absolute Martian Manhunter was a dark horse. Writer Deniz Camp and artist Javier Rodriguez are both captivating talents, but no one really what knew to expect from the book. What they got was one of the most surreal, deep stories of the 21st century. The story of John Jones, the Martian, and the Jones family is a feast for the eyes that hits the emotions perfectly. Camp and Rodriguez feel like they’re working with one mind on this book, and it’s outstanding. Word of mouth has made this one of the biggest surprise hits of 2025, and its ending in 2026 is turning heads. Absolute Martian Manhunter is shockingly brilliant, and there are no other books that can match it anywhere.

What’s your favorite part of the Absolute books? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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