In DC’s Absolute Superman, the hero refuses to use generative AI

When DC Comics’ Absolute line was leaked and then announced in 2024, one striking image sucked all the air out of the room: the widest, squarest version of Batman anyone had ever seen. The idea that when veteran Batman writer Scott Snyder had the opportunity to remake Batman from the ground up in a darker setting, his first directive to artist Nick Dragotta was to do so fucking yuge was intriguing to say the least.

The visuals of Absolute Batmanbrothers and sisters books, Absolute Wonder Woman And Absolute Supermanwere not that surprising. Wonder Woman once wore a sword and pants; Superman had shaggy hair. Batman was SO in a broader sense, he made the reimagined creations of his fellow heroes seem normal in comparison. It’s not surprising Absolute Batman has become the book to focus on.

But three months after the release of each book, Absolute Wonder Woman And Absolute Superman are heading toward comic book status of all time, in part because the writers and artists were able to keep their biggest, most instant twists on two very old superhero stories secret until the right moment. Perhaps they were hidden behind the young Batman’s remarkable girth?

A new year is a time for reflection. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m ready to say it: the rules of the absolute DC Comics universe are much more difficult than I ever imagined, in ways I thought impossible. It gives me a dark timeline that feels good to visit.

(Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for the first three issues of each. Absolute Wonder Woman And Absolute Superman.)

I now understand why writer Kelly Thompson and artist Hayden Sherman wanted to preserve the details of Absolute Wonder Woman at its lowest when the project was initially announced. Even though their first issue literally takes place in Hell, it’s wonderfully calm, slow, and gentle, in a way that monthly superhero books rarely manage to be, and in a way that would suffer in summary. They deliver a Diana separated from her Amazonian heritage by divine edict, but determined to be a shield between humanity and terrible monsters, even if it means spitting in the face of the gods. Also, I won’t spoil it here, but issue #3 reveals something about Diana’s… physicality… in such a casual way that it hits like a Mack truck.

Meanwhile, in the first three issues of Absolute Supermanwriter Jason Aaron and artist Rafa Sandoval have produced a steady stream of subversions of the Superman story we think we know. Better yet, they took the time to show that these differences have meaning, apart from the shock of the unexpected. Their Superman still grew up on a farm – a farm on Krypton, an extremely stratified society in which his family comes from the working caste.

Superman’s relationship with his doomed world is traditionally distant, but Kal-El, the curious preteen, gives Aaron and Sandoval a vehicle to show the flaws of Kryptonian society up close, opening Absolute Superman #2 with little Kal written at school (distance learning only) for writing an essay himself, instead of using the computer to generate one by AI, based on the Kryptonian database of all approved knowledge. They establish all of these details in just two panels that will hit any school-age child, child’s parent, or teacher with the frightening punch of an effective ghost story.

The third issue, released on the first day of 2025, gives the familiar Superman story another decidedly modern spin. In this version of the story, Krypton’s leaders do not refuse to believe the warnings that their planet is dying, thus perishing with it. Here they maintain the illusion that everything is normal and under control, while secretly building huge escape ships for the elite castes only.

Meanwhile, Kal-El’s parents build their own ship for the few workers they can fit on it. What happens next? Do elite Kryptonians survive? Kal’s parents? So far they’ve only been seen in flashbacks, so I guess I’ll wait Absolute Superman #4 to find out.

For comic book readers, the Dark Timeline is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Maybe there’s a dark future the heroes must avoid, or something could have gone horribly wrong if only What If…? Or this is the future and nothing is as good or easy as before. Or maybe there’s an entire multiverse where things have gone so wrong that the universes within serve no purpose other than to kindle in a cosmic forge. “A familiar setting, but terribly worse” is an easy well to come back to.

When the Absolute setting was announced as a darker version of the DC Universe, created by the evil god Darkseid for a dark purpose that was to be revealed one day, it seemed like a simple repeat. “In this universe, heroes appear in ways that make them underdogs,” Scott Snyder said in an announcement video, arguing that darker origins would make him resonate even more when Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman – and the next absolute heroes like Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Flash inevitably made the decision to fight against the darkness anyway.

I didn’t think Snyder and the rest of the folks at DC’s Absolute books would be able to execute this idea so quickly and consistently across three creative teams and three very different revision concepts. These first three Absolute books are not only solid, they are incisive, meaningful and beautifully told. Thompson and Sherman’s Wonder Woman is about love in the face of renunciation and reclaiming one’s identity even in the face of divine censure. Aaron and Sandoval’s Superman is about action, effort and tragedy, but also about the joy of writing and the power of telling the truth.

In an age where companies censor references to queer or trans characters for fear of backlash, there is resonance in Wonder Woman defying divine law by saying the word “Amazon” out loud. In particular, there’s resonance in giving this moment to a queer-coded character. (And often, lately, thank goodness, a real queer one.) I TO DO I want to see Wonder Woman defy the rules imposed on her from above. I want to see Superman reject generative AI as a homogenizing, lie-propagating force. I want to see him navigate a metaphor for the billionaire-backed campaign to escape Earth’s climate problems by building a base on Mars through contract labor.

Absolute Wonder Woman And Absolute Superman go: not only inventing difficult alternative futures for the sake of dark and gritty storytelling, but presenting them as OUR a difficult future, with the promise that they will shape heroes who can fight back. I get enough “dark timeline” vibes from life in the 2020s. The least my dark comic timelines can do is punch the real ones in the face every now and then.