Hey everyone,

Paul here…

Beginning in October, DC Comics will be launching an ambitious new, two pronged, publishing initiative called DC ALL IN. There are two major components of the DC ALL IN Initiative. The first part is all about reinvigorating the main DCU, encouraging their artists to “take big creative swings”. However, this isn’t a universe wide reboot, like The New 52 Era. The main, classic, Earth-1 DC Universe will continue, with some of the industry’s best creators, and a new publishing mandate to take chances, try new ideas, and as said before, “take big creative swings”. The goal is to create jumping on points for fans, new and old, while also getting people excited about comic books again. Across both parts of DC ALL IN, there seems to be something tailored to every kind of fan.

For example, some of DC’s flagship books will be debuting exciting new creative teams, writer Tom Taylor and artist Mikel Janín jumping onboard Detective Comics. Fantastic comics like Wonder Woman written by Tom King with art by Daniel Sampere, will continue on with the same creative teams, while launching major new story arcs. We can also expect to see few brand new titles, like Justice League Unlimited by Mark Waid and Dan Mora, and The New Gods by Ram V and Evan Cagle.

However, it’s the second part of this initiative has been really excited: ABSOLUTE DC. Basically, this is the DC version of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, but I don’t mean that like it’s a bad thing. In this new Absolute Universe, all of the typical, iconic, external elements associated with these characters are gone, but the fundamental essence of who they are remains.

DC ALL IN is spearheaded by writers Joshua Williamson and Scott Snyder. If I had to choose, I’d say Scott Snyder is probably my favorite working comic book writer, so his involvement here is a huge plus for me. This quote from Snyder puts it well…

“The creation of the Absolute Universe is how I always imagined coming back to DC, and DC All In will be a great jumping-on point for new readers as well as lapsed fans to discover new stories to love and the chance to explore the new directions in store for DC’s core series lineup,”

DC put out the video below, featuring Williamson and Snyder officially revealing the details of the DC ALL IN and Absolute DC. It’s extremely interesting and they explain everything I’m discussing in this article much better than I could, so I highly recommend giving this a watch;

However, it’s the second part of this initiative has been really excited: ABSOLUTE DC. Basically, this is the DC version of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, but I don’t mean that like it’s a bad thing. In this new Absolute Universe, all of the typical, iconic, external elements associated with these characters are gone, but the fundamental essence of who they are remains. Complete, top to bottom reimaginings of DC’s most iconic characters, starting with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. This is a Bruce Wayne without the fortune, the mansion, the butler, and high tech arsenal. Superman doesn’t have The Kents or Lois Lane. The only thing we know for sure is that Krypton exploded. Wonder Woman isn’t from Themyscira. These are some pretty drastic departures from your average stories about DC’s Holy Trinity of Heroes. The Absolute line is keeping the core of who these characters are, but anything else is fair game. These are some really wild changes that I’m sure some people hate and some people will love. Anyway, I’ll get into a little bit more of the details about each of these book, along with some of the cool art that’s been released.

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ABSOLUTE DC

Absolute Batman

Writer: Scott Snyder

Artist: Nick Dragotta

Release Date: 10/9/24

  The first Absolute DC book to debut, Absolute Batman, alongside artist Nick Dragotta, this series Scott Snyder’s return to The Dark Knight and his world. As I’ve already mentioned, I’m a huge Scott Snyder fan. Snyder came onto the mainstream comic book scene with his incredible series, American Vampire and crafted one the greatest Batman noir, mystery tales with Batman: The Black Mirror. In fact his New 52 Batman title that he wrote alongside artist Greg Capullo is my favorite Batman run in the character’s history. Not to mention his excellent work on Dark Nights: Metal and Dark Knights: Death Metal. Bottom line: this guys knows how to write the hell out of Batman. So his return to the character, with a fresh take, is definitely something to be excited about. Snyder talks more about what we can expect from Absolute Batman in the video below:

A few details we know about the new series, is that Bruce is a city engineer, Alfred is an old guard MI6 spy/assassin, and the first villain is Black Mask. Below are some character designs from Nick Dragotta as well as some preview art from Absolute Batman #1…

Concept Art:

Preview for Absolute Batman #1:

Variant Covers:

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Absolute Wonder Woman

Writer: Kelly Thompson 

Artist: Hayden Sherman

Release Date: 10/23/24

Thompson has described this Wonder Woman as “lava under rocks”, which is a pretty hardcore description. Absolute Wonder Woman is the last Amazon and literally raised in Hell. She’s also the first publicly recognized “superhero” of the Absolute Universe. Oh, and she’s a witch. Beyond what I’ve already covered, there isn’t much else that we know about Absolute Wonder Woman. I guess we’ll just have to wait for Issue #1 to find out more, but I’m really intrigued about this one! Below is some concept art from artist Hayden Sherman, some art from Issue #1 and the cover for issue #2…

CONCEPT ART:

ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #1 Interiors:

VARIANT COVERS:

ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #2 Cover:

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Absolute Superman

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artist: Rafa Sandoval

Release Date: 11/6/24

Jason Aaron was behind the definitive modern Thor run, as well as working on books like Avengers and Doctor Strange. His original creator owned work like Southern Bastards, is phenomenal as well. I think he’s perfect for this kind of book. He recently had this to say about the series…

He recently gave an interview, which you can check out below, where he reveals some intriguing new details about this upcoming series. He still managed to dance around anything too specific to preserve the surprise and avoid spoilers, but there were still definitely some cool details that he revealed here. I recommend giving it a watch if you really looking forward to Absolute Superman:

Concept Art:

Variant Covers & More Promo Art:

ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #2 Cover

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Looking ahead, Absolute Green Lantern and Absolute Flash have also been announced, but all we really know about them are the creative teams, some promotional artwork, and few interesting little details. 

COMING SOON

Absolute Green Lantern

Writer: Al Ewing 

Artist: Unknown

Release Date: TBA

Ewing is another exciting writer, with his killer work on books like Immortal Hulk and various X-Men titles. I’m not 100% certain who the artist is on this book. DC hasn’t revealed a lot about Absolute Green Lantern beyond the creative team, some teaser art, and that it’s a “complete reimagining” of the property. However, DC has also described it as first-contact style in story, that will feature classic Green Lantern characters like Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and relatively new characters like Jo Mullein, who made her first appearance a few years back in the miniseries “Far Sector”.

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Absolute Flash

Writer: Jeff Lemire 

Artist: Nick Robles

Release Date: TBA

The fourth ongoing series in DC’s Absolute Universe, Absolute Flash by Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles. Like Absolute Green Lantern, very little is known about the new series except for the creative team and some teaser art. Right off the bat, just from the promo art, we can tell Absolute Flash’s powers work very differently from what we traditionally see. You can see what appear to be faces in the energy coming off of Wally, in agony, as if they’re trying to escape. However, it’s been confirmed that this is Wally West in the teaser image and he’ll be The Flash in this new iteration. On a sidenote, even though DC made the decision to bring back Barry Allen over a decade ago and focus on him in the comics and all other DC media, it doesn’t change the fact that the best, the fastest, the one true Flash IS Wally West. More specifically, in this series, it will be a teenage Wally West according to writer Jeff Lemire.

It’s been reported that 7 or 8 Absolute titles in total, have been planned by DC. Which means they have at least 2 more Absolute books coming that we don’t know anything about. As one of the main voices guiding the DC All In/Absolute DC initiative, Snyder has been clear that we shouldn’t expect any big crossovers anytime soon. Unlike DC’s Earth One, a series of graphic novels that tried to reinvent DC heroes, all of the Absolute DC titles exist in the same universe. Aside from some easter eggs and references, according to Snyder it will be at least 13 issues before we can expect to see any major overlap among the Absolute DC books. It may even be longer, Snyder only referenced 13 issues because that’s how many issues of Absolute Batman he has written and in the can, at the time of this article. So by Absolute Batman #13, the heroes still haven’t had any significant crossovers. Which makes a lot of sense because what they’re trying to establish is a very stripped down version of these characters. They don’t have the support systems around them that we typically associate with these heroes. They’re isolated and alone, in a more dangerous world. So Batman and Wonder Woman popping up in each other’s books in issue 3, would undercut the central themes and ideas in this Absolute line. However, that doesn’t mean we’re never going to see team-ups among the Absolute DC characters. As one the main creative architects, Snyder confirmed that these heroes and villains will definitely crossover, just anytime in the near future.

Absolute DC is all about showing us radical and very different takes on Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman (and more to come) with some of the best writers and artists in the business. Personally, I love this kind of stuff and was very excited when it was announced. The art immediately captured my imagination and I’m really looking forward finding more when the comics hit the shelves. So, as a huge comic book advocate, this was something that I really wanted to draw peoples attention on. Because if you like superhero movies or TV shows, and thought about picking up a comic book at some point, this will be the perfect time to do it. You’ll find these comics at your local comic book stores, you can read them online through apps like Kindle and Comixology. Even Target of all places will be carrying some of these books.

DC’s new era officially kicks off with DC All In Special #1 on October 2nd!

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