Absolute Superman Reveals a Major Artifact (And It Has Horrible Implications)

The New Gods of New Genesis have devices known as Mother Boxes. They are effectively living machines that share a connection with the Source, DC’s progenitor being and basically God. They can do all kinds of miraculous things, from possessing near omniscience to opening up Boom Tubes to anywhere you need to go. However, while Mother Boxes draw their power from the light at the heart of the universe, there exists a counter that draws its power from the dark. Father Boxes are the Apokolyptian version of Mother Boxes. Where Mother Boxes are devices built to help and guide however they can, Father Boxes try to corrupt their user and enhance their dark emotions, harnessing the power of Anti-Life. Now, Absolute Superman has come into contact with a Father Box on Earth, and the implications of that are terrifying.

Superman Is Stuck with the Omega Men

Absolute Superman #9 picks up right where issue #8 left off, with the Omega Men having Boom Tubed Superman to their base to try and get the Kryptonite bullets out of him. Even with the Kryptonite sapping his strength, his body is too tough for them to do anything but try and jank the bullet out. The Omega Men pull out one, but Superman tears the room apart in the process. The other two are lodged between his ribs, near his lungs, and they can’t see to get them out, so Superman is forced to pull it out himself, guided by his X-Ray vision. He gets one, but it takes everything he has, and he can’t muster the strength to pull out the third. Seeing that they’re losing him, Primus brings out the Omega Men’s secret weapon; the Father Box. It lets out a low ping, and removes the bullet from his chest, but that’s not all.

The Father Box speaks to Superman. Not in words, but with visions of a burning planet packed endlessly with suffering people. It promises that this is the Earth’s fate. Obviously, Superman is willing to do just about anything to save the planet from that fate, and he’s not alone in that fight, for better and worse. The Omega Men are willing to fight until their dying breath to destroy the vile Lazarus Corp that is desecrating the Earth, but they are zealots who are begging Superman to rip the elites apart in a bloody, vengeful revolution, and the last thing Superman wants to do is kill anyone. Still, he works with the Omega Men to protect people from Lazarus, until he sees Primus and other Omega Men try to gun down defeated Peacekeepers, and how their passion and righteous fury makes him hesitate to save the man. He sees how the Omega Men are corrupting him, radicalizing him until he’s nothing more than a murderer who is willing to justify any atrocity in the name of a better tomorrow, and it terrifies him. He wants out, to find a place where a broken, terrified boy like him isn’t turned into someone else’s symbol or instrument of revenge, but he can’t leave yet. Jimmy Olsen, his first and only friend on earth, was captured by Lazarus, and only Superman can save him from Lois Lane. Of course, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, because if the Omega Men are being influenced by a Father Box, then things can only get worse from here.

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Darkseid Is Controlling the Omega Men

Primus, the leader of the Omega Men, says that the Father Box is a gift from God. She’s almost right, but it’s not the god she or anyone else thinks it is. If she’s heard any divine voice from the Father Box, then she heard the voice of the God of Evil, Darkseid. He merged himself with the very essence of the Absolute Universe, and is intending to use it to create his own evil Legion of Super-Heroes to conquer the main universe. It’s looking like he’s succeeding, and that’s in no small part thanks to the Omega Men. Not only did Darkseid manufacture a world where hope if nothing more than a torch in a windy night, but he’s selling the people fighting for their future a false promise of a way out. He created the evil, and he is telling them how to fight, but he’s telling them to fight in ways that will corrupt them and make them just as monstrous as the people they’re standing up against.

Omega is Darkseid’s symbol, and has repeatedly been shown to represent his influence in the Absolute Universe. While the Omega Men are true heroes in the main universe, here they are unknowing agents of Darkseid. Not only are they telling humanity that this is the only way they can fight, but they’re trying to convince Superman of the same thing. They are trying to turn Superman from the ultimate symbol of hope into a symbol of war. A Man of Steel in heart as well as skin. If this is Darkseid’s plan, it’s certainly having an effect as Superman is struggling to hold onto his morality in face of the death and darkness around him. And even ignoring any potential plan of Darkseid’s, the Father Box alone is a corrupting force, and the Omega Men have been listening to it. Things are very bad for Absolute Superman, and they can only get worse from here. 

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