DC Finally Reveals The Absolute Justice League (With An Incredibly Dark Twist)

Ever since the beginning of the Absolute Universe and its monumental reimagining of some of DC’s most beloved heroes, fans have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Absolute Justice League. There’s been some debate among fans about whether it would be too soon to introduce the classic team or not. After all, the entire ethos of the Absolute Universe has been to put the heroes on the back foot, and letting them organize into a true team could inadvertently lower the stakes. Don’t worry about that, as the Absolute Justice League is here, and they introduced a major twist to it, just like everything else.

In classic Absolute Universe fashion, they’ve fundamentally changed something about the League. Namely, its membership. While the original Justice League is the universe’s greatest coalition of heroes, the Absolute version is composed of the heroes’ worst enemies. They’ve decided that the ultimate nature of their universe is their corrupt system, so they must defend it from the heroes. They have Darkseid, their god, on their side, so their mission must be just.

A League Made for Evil

Throughout all of the ongoing Absolute titles, there have been two types of villains. The first is the immediate threat of the arc, the one the heroes deal with and conquer in a couple of issues. Think Bane, Clea, and Hal Jordan. There’s also been the second type, the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes. These villains are the overarching threats, the hero’s eventual archenemy that they will need to defeat. They are Ra’s al Ghul, the Joker, Veronica Cale, Hector Hammond, and Elenore Thawne. All of these villains sat in a room in the Absolute Universe’s Hall of Justice and discussed their shared superhero problem.

There have been heroes in the past, from the Sandman to Wildcat, but each of them was dealt with. Either they were killed or bought, but the new breed of heroes won’t be either. Cale suggested they all pull their resources together to eliminate the people upsetting their perfect order, as they are all high members of society with terrifying levels of control in the system. There was tension and resistance at first, but then Cale demonstrated that they had Hawkman serving as the government’s personal hitman, and the Joker gave a speech about working to preserve their twisted version of justice. 

Eventually, they all agreed to join forces. Far away in his Arctic base, Brainiac spied on the meeting with the aid of Mirror Master. They discussed how the Justice League being around would benefit both of their goals, but they needed another member. Cale balanced Thawne, while Hammond, Ra’s, and Hawkman kept each other in check, but they needed someone for Joker. After observing the regular DC Universe with Mirror Master’s help, Brainiac decided on Lex Luthor. In this world, he’s a family man and farmer, content with his life, but all of that is clearly about to change.

The Heroes Without Justice and a League

The villains becoming the Absolute Justice League is a major upset that puts the fledgling superhero community in serious danger. First off, there’s the obvious physical danger these villains pose when working together. The heroes have each struggled to battle these monsters on their own, each pushed to a different brink, but with their resources and powers combined, they could prove unstoppable. And while the Justice League is still the ultimate symbol for the world, in this universe, the world is dark and cruel, and thus, the League has been changed to reflect that. 

Hope is meant to be the underdog in the Absolute Universe. In the mainline universe, the Justice League is the ultimate organization of the world’s heroes, the ultimate showcase that they are willing to work together to save the day. Here, all of that community and the resources have been stripped away and given to the opposition. The Justice League always wins, and with the villains at the helm, this new team promises to crush the last embers of hope from this world by force.

In fact, this could be perfectly setting the heroes up for failure. Where the heroes always save the day in the mainline universe, especially when they first join forces, this major change could indicate that they are instead going to lose. The Absolute Universe is supposed to force the heroes to work harder than ever to survive and win any battle, and so their first team battle ending in utter failure could perfectly catapult us into the next year of Absolute books. They would change from individual people fighting individual battles to soldiers fighting in a larger war.

They would lose, they would be at their wits’ end, and maybe even without anything but the knowledge that others are fighting out there, but that could be enough. The heroes won’t win, but they won’t be beaten either. It would be the first step towards something bigger and finally changing the world for the better. Things would get darker, but that would just mean that they are getting closer to the dawn.

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