For nearly two years, DC Comics’ Absolute Universe has been dominating the sales charts. Much of this success comes from its depiction of a world where iconic heroes must work ten times harder to fight a corrupt system ruled by the forces of evil. Darkseid did everything in his power to craft a world devoid of hope. He even turned some noteworthy superheroes into menacing villains who enforce this twisted regime. However, by corrupting several heroes, Darkseid unintentionally reformed some of DC Comics’ most notorious supervillains. In a world as dark and twisted as the Absolute Universe, even villains can become heroes.
The Absolute Universe is full of terrifying villains who are given insane upgrades and positions of power in society. Yet, even in a world as dark as this one, some villains find that they’d rather be heroes.
In the Absolute Universe, Wonder Woman seeks to liberate the Amazons and the rest of the world from the tyranny of the male Olympian Gods. Ironically, one of her supporters in this crusade is none other than Ares, the Greek God of War. In the main DC Universe, Ares is Wonder Woman’s archenemy and is a nefarious schemer. However, the Absolute Universe calls back to Ares’ mythological roots by having him cherish the Amazons and despise Zeus for imprisoning them. Most importantly, Ares would never dream of stopping Wonder Woman from setting into motion a war the likes of which Olympus has never seen. Ares exults the sheer chaos of war, and Zeus’s tyranny directly opposes his archaic nature. While Ares’s exact role in the ongoing Absolute Wonder Woman series is yet to be fully explored, what’s obvious is that he will support the Last Amazon’s righteous rebellion against Zeus and perhaps even aid her on the battlefield.
Whereas Absolute Joker commands the Robins, Absolute Batman has Harley Quinn on his side. Indeed, in the Absolute Universe, this entire list could be made up of all the Batman villains who were reimagined as his friends. For her part, Harley has so far proved to be one of his most essential allies. When Harleen was a child, her mother once sought to expose the Joker for his crimes. However, her mother was eventually brainwashed by the Joker into becoming his adoring and deranged lackey called Doctor Arkham, who oversees the horrific experiments at his Ark sites. If that wasn’t bad enough, Harleen also discovered that the Joker was her father. Horrified by what she had learned, Harleen ran away from home. She forged a new identity for herself as Harley Quinn, the leader of the anarchist rebel group the Red Hoods. As Harley, she and her followers became some of Batman’s greatest allies thanks to their gadgets and numbers. While Harley has currently severed her alliance with Batman, her war with the Joker is far from over.
Instead of a giant killer gorilla and conqueror who uses his telepathic might in his never-ending crusade to tear the Flash limb from limb and exalt his gorilla kind, the Grodd of the Absolute Universe is essentially the Scarlet Speedster’s pet. The product of Project Olympus’s mad science experiments, Grodd is a small green telepathic monkey. When Project Olympus tried to use Grodd to track down and capture the Flash, he looked into the teenage runaway’s mind and saw that they had both lost their mothers and were victims of the cruelty of the government. The realization of this connection caused Grodd to immediately turn on his handlers and join forces with the Flash. The unlikely duo quickly became best friends who always have each other’s backs. Many of the traits of the evil Gorilla Grodd of the main universe were instead inherited by Absolute Grodd’s father, in particular his disdain for humanity. Nonetheless, Absolute Grodd still manages to see the good in people and cherishes the Flash’s friendship.
The main concept behind Absolute Wonder Woman is that she’s a witch raised in Hell. To survive a place full of monsters and become a master sorceress, she was raised by none other than the witch Circe. Once the ruler of the island of Aeaea, Circe was banished to Hell for crimes against the Olympian Gods. Years later, Apollo visited Circe and gave her the infant Diana to share the witch’s imprisonment. While Circe initially thought to let the infant die, her attitude soon changed, and she came to cherish Diana as her adoptive daughter. Despite living in Hell, Circe did her best to give Diana a life full of comfort and love. As Diana grew up, Circe, with help from goddesses like Hecate, Artemis, Athena, and Aphrodite, trained the Last Amazon to become a mighty warrior and powerful sorceress. Absolute Wonder Woman wouldn’t be the powerful yet compassionate beacon of hope she is today without Circe’s guidance.
One of the biggest changes in the Absolute Universe was having Batman be childhood friends with many of his most notorious villains, namely Killer Croc, Two-Face, Riddler, the Penguin, and Catwoman. While each one of them has turned into vital allies in Batman’s war against the Joker, Waylon Jones, aka Killer Croc, deserves special recognition. Instead of being born with a reptile-like skin disease, Waylon was a regular guy until Ark M scientists kidnapped him and mutated him into a giant crocodilian monster with impossibly large jaws full of razor-sharp teeth. Yet even in this bestial form, Killer Croc still retains enough of his memory and humanity to help Batman escape Ark M. Although he initially retreated into the sewers, Killer Croc came to his friend’s help in the final battle against Bane. Batman then went through literal Hell to obtain a magical gem that could cure Croc of his ailment. And when it seemed like Batman’s other friends were giving up on him, it was Croc who got the band back together. Whether human or reptilian, Absolute Killer Croc is Batman’s most loyal friend.
