Exploring DC's Absolute Universe

Chapters

• 3:12 DC's Absolute Universe
• 12:57 Booster Gold's Evolution
• 21:48 Darkseid's Influence and the Multiverse
• 31:23 otential for Minor Characters in the Absolute Universe

Transcript

Yes. Welcome to the Nerd or Doe. You are listening to I Am a Nerd. Where we celebrate nerdy things old and new with our like minded peers and youth. I'm your host Joe Expeditions and today we are talking about So I have here with me the, I had it written down. I didn't use it, but zero cool is with me. 

What's up zero? I have an intro and you, and you missed it. Damn it. I had put it together and I used it before, but I didn't write it down. It's somewhere in my notes. I'm having to go back and put it. That's all right, everyone. [00:02:00] You'll just listen next time. We'll get it. Good to be here. Good to be here. But we've been trying to put this episode together. 

Um, I mean, they put out at least three different, you know, sequential issues since we started talking about it. Yeah. I think when we originally was going to do it, they only had up to three issues, absolute Wonder Woman just ended her. 

Yes. I think that one came out this week. Her fifth issue just came out this week. Uh, Bats is, I think he's on a six. He's got a six plus. And they're up to part five right now on the Zoom. Yeah, and then Superman's at four. 

But to get in and get this absolute universe done for, some of those who are interested and want to jump into it. So we figured we'd give you like a quick overview or something along those lines. Especially since, you know, so far we've done a lot of media. Yeah. A lot of [00:03:00] movie, a lot of TV. This is our Our first kind of real foray into the, comics and what a great place to start for us. 

Yeah. It's starting with something that is brand new in the DC universe. Oh yeah. I mean, DC in their infinite wisdom, and it's or not, has started this brand new line in their publishing and I gotta say I'm pretty excited about it because as you know, I am a. I'm a super big fan of the alternate realities. 

Yes, me too. Type deals. That's always been one of my favorite genre of books to read as far as comics wise because, you know, we've been with some of these characters for 50, 60, some of them 80 years. Yeah. A lot of stories have been told, especially with, you're talking about a character like Batman. Oh yeah. 

You know, DC loves to go to the well because they make money with Batman. [00:04:00] I understand that. But. At some point, it kind of gets a little monotonous. Repetitive. Repetitive. Yeah. With that. And when they come up with these alternate universes, these alternate realities, these alternate lines, you get these fresh tastes on characters that you've grown to love over the years. 

But you get to see them in a different light. It's like, let's say for lack Yeah bogged down by the history of the 80 years. And you having to refer to issue number 17 where Batman knocked out O'Chill. From 1964. Yeah. You don't have to refer. 

It's almost, that was the only way that I could read Batman. Is when they started doing the Elseworlds. Oh, absolutely. Like, um. Batman White Knight, when that series came along, I was picking it up like hotcakes, because it was, it was the new iteration of Batman, and everybody loved it. [00:05:00] So, now we got Absolute Universe in this instance, and a part of DC's All In initiative, and again, it's that, that fresh new take, on those heroes, and we wanted to, I'm going to jump into it 

first, like we usually do, how did it all start? And that was back when, it's been a while since we read it, but it was, it came out as a result of Absolute, and that's where Amanda Waller, she attempted to neutralize the ability of every metahuman around the world, not just within her city. We talked about it in our Captain America run, where that government wants to control. 

Some people are not happy with that because they can't contrive instances. It makes for good storytelling at times. Sometimes it can get a little bit overdone. They've [00:06:00] gone to the well on that one quite a bit as well. But, the remainder of the part of that is that people are always going to to be fearful of what they can't control. 

And, that really summarizes Waller's entire approach to everything that she does within the DC universe. Yeah, and she didn't care if it was hero, villain, average citizen that had abilities. She wasn't controlled over at all, and she did use the Amazer robots to take all of the power from the heroes. 

They form the Resistance. able to like mess up Wallace evil imaginations or whatever and their powerful return. Then came DC's all in initiative and this was, they said not a DC, doesn't like to call them relaunches, but in a sense I feel [00:07:00] whenever there's a new issue, number one, it's a relapse. Let's call it what it is. 

The main part is we're excited about this. Absolute universe. And the reason why, to me, is that we get a chance to look at these characters in a different light, but it's not just a different light, it's a whole different essence to their characters. 

Because what's happened is that the entire absolute universe is different from the regular universe. And that's what we were talking about how did we get there. It was like, because of DC's All In initiative. They did an All In special. And it was the Flip was, right? 

Have you, yep. It is a, uh, dual issue. Uh huh. In Flip. One side tells the story of Superman and restarting the Justice League. Because the Justice League has been gone for a while, but I was happy in the sense that it gave other [00:08:00] characters a chance to shine. And I know your boy Nightwing got to step up, you know. 

And I really thought that the Titans idea to replace the Justice League would have been okay. Except that, and this is not just DC, it's all of them, they just can't give up their main character. Yeah, they can't. They can't move on. Yeah, they can't. And hence, we're kind of right back where we were, you know. 

It's a moneymaker. Because they're moneymakers, and you know, that's what they're in business with. Yeah, it's entertainment for us, but they're in business to make money. Mm hmm. Granted, I'll give them that. So, the D. C. Island Special, it was, uh, on one side you had the Superman and the relaunch of the Justice League. 

Uh, and on the other hand, you had Dark Side. The focus was on Dark Side coming back, and the establishment of the Absolute Universe. Here's the great part about it, man. This must be where the [00:09:00] historians come in, or there's gotta be some kind of creative bubble in there that they figure this out. Or they just threw it in there. 

I don't know. But, the Absolute Universe starts with a brand new Earth. Yeah. Okay. But we didn't just find out about it. We actually found out about this Earth. Back in 2021. Okay. During the last, issue of Dark Knight's Death Medal. Okay, and I skipped the Death Medal. I didn't find it interesting. Death Medal, to me, wasn't quite as good as Dark Knight's Medal. 

Mm hmm. Dark Knight's Medal is probably one of my favorite storylines of all time. Okay. Death Medal Ehhh It was Hmm They tried to capitalize off of Dark Knight's Medal. And, Darkest Night, popularity, and then wrapped it up, and you saw through the entire line of the Justice League, through the totality, 

But the, but the, the crazy thing about it is somebody somewhere, I don't know if it was Scott Snyder who did it, [00:10:00] but they inserted the Easter egg of the elseworld or earth alpha that eventually has become now, three and a half years later has become the absolute net. 

And to me that's an amazing thing, like you said, we talk about these people that are at DC and Marvel historians, they know this, they know how, but the actual interweaving of all of these writers, getting to the disseminating, well, we put this in here, if you want to use this later 

on, nobody can explain it I'm sure, I'm sure they have a system, blah, blah, blah, I'm going off topic, they say they do, I'm going off topic, but I thought it was very interesting that they planted the seed for Absolute Universe three and a half years ago. 

And to me, I thought that that was, you know, interesting [00:11:00] in itself. Now, if you didn't read Death Metal, you wouldn't have known that. I don't know. I did not know that. I thought it all came from, just out of this DC special. And towards the end where Darkseid comes back and he tries to murder Spectre, he finds out in a sense that he's been missing power. 

He He's a singular being, like throughout the multiverse, there's no other dark side. So basically he's a constant. Yes. Within all of the multiverse. Let's say nature. Yeah. Nature encompassing all of them. Yeah. Only one. Yeah. Everyone else has a version somewhere out in the multiverse, except for Darkseid. 

And he finds this out through all of the cosmic, and he goes in search of that missing power. And of course, Justice League is there to stop him. And when they stop him, He's dispersed, separated from the spectra and dispersed. And this, in turn, this is where I thought the Absolute Universe came from. And he finds this Universe Alpha, and then he pours his [00:12:00] essence into it. 

So basically, and that's, that's really what happened. But, uh, the Elseworld and that particular multiverse was created during the upheaval through Darth Maul 

trying to invade the Omniverse. That's Baltimore Universe. Multiverses within the Omniverse, blah, blah, blah. Well, not anymore. Not anymore, but it's still there. Yeah. The fact that we, that DC has their heroes cannot get out of it. Okay, so they, they're still there. It's just that the prime DC universe can't reach. 

It's unreachable. The other most, and that was another thing that came out of Absolute Power. Except for a few individuals. A few time travelers. Tachyon Radiator. I, I remember we had talked about that. A part of, the DC all in Special [00:13:00] Booster Gold. I know you love Booster Gold. I have always thought Booster Gold was an idiot. 

I have always thought he was just, I, and I remember I was not in my top five, but I, I remember reading Booster Gold back in the eighties. I remember Booster Gold from the beginning. What a gem. The 80s weren't kind to Booster Gold. No, they were absolutely not. They weren't kind to Guy Gardner either. James Gunn hasn't been kind to Guy Gardner either. 

But he is accurate, so we're going to let that one, we're going to let that one roll. But, in this particular iteration, and I've never really respected Booster Gold as a, but it really seems that That, as of late, they're trying to reinvent Booster as a more mature hero. [00:14:00] Where he's not performing based on likes, based on social media attention. 

He's actually come to understand the purpose of what he's doing. Yeah. And I think that really sums it up when you're reading the issue. That Superman And we all know how I feel about Superman, but Superman is the ultimate hero in the DC Universe. Oh yeah, there's no doubt about that. But Superman's been keeping his eye on Booster Gold and what he's been doing for a long time. 

You must be doing something right if the premiere hero is watching what you're doing. Yeah, and I think the thing with Booster Gold was they didn't start that maturity approach with him. Uh, until they ran that Heroes in Crisis. Which was a great series. It was not action packed, but it [00:15:00] was, it was a breakdown of how super hearing really affects. 

Yeah, deal with trauma and all of that stuff. The mental health of it, the, if you're, all the stuff that they see and how it weighs on them. Yeah, that was, it was a huge, huge story. And it was something you never think about. And all we think, like, yeah, I mean, exactly. They just go on about their business. 

They save the world, you know. Hundreds of people die, but we save the world. And, you know, we prevented blah, blah, blah, da, da, da, da. Booster is that they didn't start their maturity till 

Which obviously is a big deal for him because he comes from the future where he's seen what the outcome of a Justice League is. He was inspired by, you know, things that these heroes had [00:16:00] done in the past and, he took that inspiration. He had a lot of things going on in the future. He made some mistakes, he made some bad choices, but he took that inspiration. 

Now, granted, His way into being a superhero. He had to travel. He's asking to be in jail. He stole all that stuff. Numerous, numerous, uh, items, you know. But he traveled across, you know, centuries to, to, to perform at a time where it was very important in history to be a part of that. And that's what inspired him. 

And even though he did it maybe for the right reasons, maybe he did it for the wrong reasons, maybe he did it for selfish reasons. The character that we see from when he first appeared, to now, may look the same, but just like Superman said, he's seen the growth, and we've seen the growth. And, [00:17:00] once again, I'm not a huge Booster Gold fan, but I can respect them bringing that part out in the character, and including him as one of the only ones that can travel to this point. 

Yeah. And they made mention that it was based off of tachyons, but I don't remember saying any other characters. Well, you gotta, you gotta assume any of the time travelers, anytime you travel through time, tachyon particles are a part of it. Okay. So. But this, how many of those are in the DC universe? The only one I remember that jumps to mind is Rip Butler. 

When we were talking about traveling across the DC universe, the first one that comes to mind was the Flash. And they travel willy nilly. You know, vibrate at different frequencies, and I'm stepping next door. And, but, here's the thing about it, they were traveling not only to different time periods, which the Flash [00:18:00] paradox, you know, could change history, could do time traveling, but they They also were traveling to the other multiverses. 

Which was a big thing. And that kind of got wrapped in together. When there are actually two different things. Because the history of this multiverse is completely different from the history of the other, another multiverse. Time traveling and multiversal traveling is, is two different. Yeah, so. Agree with you there, yeah. 

So when we're looking at straight time traveling. People that are responsible for the, I mean, you have, uh, Dr. Faith's tower that's in the, I can't remember, is it called the Nexus, or? I, I think it was the Nexus of Baltimore. Yeah, so. But, I thought that was like a focal point. It is, it is a focal point. Yeah. 

But, at that point, can you go to any other ones? Not saying that Dr. Faith does that, but what I'm saying is there's multiple [00:19:00] instances in the D. C. where people have traveled. Yeah. And I was very surprised that there weren't more time travelers included in this ultimate justice league that we're getting, that we only saw Booster Gold, which was fine. 

I mean, they're trying to include everybody, but you can't get every damn character on the page. Oh, they won't try. They won't try, but they can't get everybody. Yeah. So I wasn't, I wasn't too surprised when it was Booster Gold was the one that was going to travel to the new Absolute Justice League. Yeah, and because he's, because his character is more in the everyday, whereas Rip Hunter's character is more on the overall keeping the time streams, TVA, blah, blah, blah, blah, keeping, you know, yeah, DC's TVA, yeah, they're more responsible of keeping time intact, whereas Booster Gold, he has his feet planted in the here and now.[00:20:00]  

Which makes him actually a better idea of a person to send to elsewhere. Yeah, and you know what, and the thing about it is, is he's still there. Yeah, yeah. He's still there. We don't know what happened to him. We don't know what happened to him. Cause, so, at, like, to this point in time, and I think we've got, like we were saying, like five, six, six issues out of most of these four or five, in this absolute universe, somewhere, Booster Gold is still in that universe. 

Somewhere, somewhere. Yeah. Uh, they haven't given us an answer as to what happened to him, and, uh, maybe they gonna touch on it? I think eventually one of these characters in the Absolute, now, so far we've only got Batman, we've got Superman, and we've got Wonder Woman. Right. But we're going to add additional characters to the Absolute Universe. 

We're looking at Graven and Martian Manhunter. Yeah. You've gotta assume at some point [00:21:00] that all three of these characters, or all of these characters are going to end up. Collaborating. That's, that's my theory. And someone is going to figure out that they're different. And it's either going to be an interaction with Booster Gold in some form. 

Or they're going to find out and they're going to have to go find Booster Gold. That's my opinion. That's the way I kind of see that leading out. Okay. Because eventually, right now, it looks like, you know, They don't know that they're part of it. Right. Right. This is all they know. Well, I, I thought they said that it was more or less a newer universe. 

Yeah. Yeah. The Elseworld, or the, the, that Universe Alpha, or that. Yeah. It's more or less a newer universe. And, if they do happen, they run into Boots of Ghost, or Dark Side. Those are the only two. In England. Of. [00:22:00] Something else. It's a multiversal spectrum. Absolutely. At this point, that we know. Yes. We know. 

There could be, there could be a Michael Holt in, in this Absolute Universe that's already figured it out. They could be. But another thing they also teased, that we haven't got to see again, the center point of the All In Special, is they did the opposite. Yep. And, the giant splash page, where each book end, that's the way it ended there. 

I haven't seen anything else, or heard anything else from them. And Legion of Superheroes. was more or less the future king. Yeah. 48th century or something? I can't remember. The flight rings and all that. I mean, that's where, that's where Booster, the, the, the Legion had already been established because that's one of the things that Booster Gould stole from the museum was the Legionnaire flight ring. 

That's what gives him his ability. I mean, he's naturally athletic. He's, we'll say somewhat smart [00:23:00] ish. But think about it. All of his abilities come from the legionnaire flight wing. Yeah. You're right. It's already been established that that's already happened. 

That things like that. But now with a newer twist that, what we saw in the pages of the All In Special was that now Darkseid controls the legion. Yes. And I mean, that's the biggest essence of what the Absolute Universe has become, or what they've done, is that after Darkseid separated from the Spectre, he realized that he was less because there were so many multiverses. 

But in this new universe, he could go and be more. And his whole purpose was to change the dynamic. All the multiverses that we had seen so far up to now, life has been the, the, the moving [00:24:00] factor in, in what moves on, life evolves, things like that. Right? I would say except maybe one or two. Because they had the whole thing with the antimatter monitor. 

The antimatter universe, and they had the crime syndicate. Okay, but once again, life was still moving. Whereas, in this new universe, Um, Darkseid is kind of, looks like he's infused this new universe with his essence of conflict. Right, yeah. Of control. Because that's why he is the only one in the other Miracleverses. 

Is because life is trying to expand, it's trying to explode from constraint. Where Darkseid is all about control. Constraint. Yes. He was interested in creating this new universe. That was driven by, and That's the main difference is from [00:25:00] all of the superheroes there. What makes them, them, in the normal DC? 

Uh, for instance, Wonder Woman,  

the mascara, all of that, The tech, the gadgets, the family. The money. The money. Superman, also, the family. The, just as the American way. It's, all of that's wiped away, and they want to find out, or they want us to see, at the core what these characters are, essentially. Basically, what are they about? 

How are they going to be the superheroes that we know, but facing different circumstances? How are they going to overcome a, basically a universe that's really set up against them to fail? Yeah. Yeah. Are they going to be able to rise above it? Are they going to be able to overcome all [00:26:00] the, the constraints, the obstacles to be the superheroes that we know? 

 I can see why they did this and I really like the idea that they did this because a lot of people from what I've read and I've seen comments and things like that, for a long time they, people have been complaining about how dark the DC Universe is. It's becoming. Yeah. Right. So what they, apparently, what the, the editors at D did was they listened and said, oh, well, in the main universe, we're gonna make it a little bit more hopeful, a little bit more lighter. 

It's not gonna be quite as dark nights ish. Found a way to do that with the absolute universe. Mm-hmm . This is a grittier, this is night fights in the alleys. Yeah. This is, this is. Looking at the face of people being, exploited. That turmoil. That challenge. Not all the endings are going to be a happy ending. 

You're not always going to save the day, or you're not always going to save the hostage. [00:27:00] Overcoming, overcoming the adversities of living in a hellish landscape. Yes. You know, things of that nature. That's what this universe is going to, to do for us. And I, I really do. I like that because, to me, in these books, you see a more realistic glimpse of what our real world really looks like, to me. 

This is more of a realistic painting of what goes on in our everyday lives. The struggles that everybody faces, that we have to overcome, that we live in a world is essentially an amazing place. Yet, we still have issues like poverty, racism, ignorance. How is it that we haven't overcome? 

The absolute universe, I think, is going to delve into how to [00:28:00] overcome those type of things. And I really, like I said, really enjoy the fact that these are more dark stories. Because Let's be honest, if you looked at this on the whole, people trying to take over the world, people trying to destroy your planet 

that's not good stuff. That's dark, that's some dark and we're relying on, on these individuals that they've taken up the mantle for us. Yeah. But we're still relying on these individuals to save us from certain death, doom. They're really the only ones who can. Whatever. But now Even though they've changed the dynamic, we're still seeing these characters rise above. 

Yes, they still hold the line. And we've talked about the core titles that came out of this DC All In Special, or the Absolute Universe, it started off with Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, and Absolute Wonder Woman. And we're gonna We're going to delve into those a little bit [00:29:00] deeper, later on, but, starting this month, March, we're getting, this month in March, yeah, we're getting three new Absolute titles that takes a different spin on some of our more well known titles, 

Green Lantern and, uh, Martianette. 

We talked about some of the Essential Core titles, they've gone without something that makes them. And with the Green Lantern one, he's supposed to lose the Green Lantern ring and no willpower. And those are 

That's pretty much all you need to be a Green Lantern. So we're talking about the Absolute Flash, which drops on March 19th. March 19th. That'll be the first of the new three. It's not[00:30:00]  

until the end of the month. Twenty six. Twenty six. And I would say, out of the new, incoming threes, 

just by visuals alone. And it's almost scary, with the not knowing how that works. Well see, Martian Manhunter, he can be a, he can be a real, keystone. Just think about this character. I mean, if he got upset, who the hell is going to stop him? Superman. Not the only one. Batman will stop him. That was great. But Marcia Mann Hunter is going to drop on, uh, on the [00:31:00] 26th with Absolute Green Lantern dropping on April 26th. April 2nd. Okay, April 2nd. So, within the next month. Before we take a deep dive into some of the other Absolute, Absolute Superman apps, are there any titles, any Absolute titles that they haven't announced? 

Well, I mean, we've, we've kind of fleshed it out and talked about it before. I don't, I don't see any titles that I particularly want to see, but I do see them moving towards an Absolute Justice League. Me too. And when we were talking about Absolute Justice League, we kind of got into the point where we've got new takes on very familiar characters, but what's going to happen when we have to start, and they keep on with the Absolute Universe, in which it's separate from the regular and that[00:32:00]  

limited thing. They may not be separate. This is going to end in a big crossover. Oh, eventually, yes. But, how are they going to introduce a lot of the minor characters? That would be what I'm interested in seeing. I don't think they will. You think they're going to keep it just straight mainline characters? 

I think so. And like you said, we had talked about it a little bit before. And the two reasons I think is these characters are still new. Like this, it's a new universe. And these characters have essentially been heroes for say maybe a year or two. And with them being so new in that field. 

And I completely agree. It reminds me of the year ones, the year twos, that type of stuff. Like I said, when they introduced 52 where they de aged [00:33:00] all the characters, set them up brand new. But the thing about it is we're already seeing some of those minor characters. We're seeing Alfred Pennyworth, who is not the butler. 

I'll give you that, yes. But he's somebody else. We've seen Barbara Gordon. Barbara Gordon. We've seen any enigma. We've seen, Cobblepot. So when you say minor characters, when you tell, when you say minor characters, to me, I'm thinking, like, sidekicks and how they have these vast families, like, now Batman has Nightwing, all of the Robins, Batgirls. 

Do you consider the question a major character? The question? Yes, for now, no. 

So you, you say we should get an absolute question? Once again, that's what that's what I'm wondering about. I'm not saying we should, I'm not saying we shouldn't. I'm just wondering how they're going to do that. If they're going to at all. That's my biggest question is. [00:34:00] How do you introduce all of these minor characters? 

The 

JSA. Yeah. The JSA is a huge team, but you look at the makeup of it, you take out. Wildcat, you take out, uh, Alan Scott, you take out Jay Garrick, they're pretty much all minor characters. Adam Smasher, Stargirl. Yeah. You see what I'm saying here? Yeah. But they form the backbone of a major team. So how are we going to introduce those type of ideas? 

I'm not saying that we need to figure it out now, I'm sure the DC is going to show us. But I think it's going to be interesting. I guess it depends on what you consider a minor. because like I was saying, I I have 

take on, 

but will [00:35:00] there be a different version of let's say Jason Todd, right. Will there be a different version? Might not be a Robin. Yeah. He might. A different version of Dick Grayson. Yeah. The red hood. Yeah. Is actually a resistance movement within the absolute universe. The red hood is not a character. 

Yeah. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So it's gonna be, it's going to be different. I'm just wondering. Will DC take it far enough that, are they going to take this line, and like you said, there's probably going to be a crossover, absolutely, why wouldn't they, but are they going to take it far enough that we're going to get to see different versions of those type of characters? 

If they were smart, I think they would keep it contained, and not sort of walled, introducing everyone and Not open up Pandora's boxes? Yeah. Chaotic? Chaotic, because if you look at each family as It is now, in the regular DC universe. It's [00:36:00] grown, because at one point it was just about Superman. Now, it's Superman. 

It's, it's John Kent, it's Lois Lane, it's Supergirl, it's It's Superman, it's Superwoman, Superman of China. It's, uh, what's his name, Ken Ken something like that. And now, Superman's even adopted two Kryptonian teens. That's part of the Superman family as well. Same thing with Batman. Same thing with Wonder Woman. 

You have, look at the Flash family. The Flash family. Max Mercury. And you know, and for them to bring all of those into the Absolute Universe, I think it would flood it too quickly because it's confusing all over. Because 

I've read, I've read some comments about people getting excited about the Absolute Universe but they're saying they still want parts of the Old Universe. Like, for example, for Wally West If you're going to have a Wally West as a flash, well, [00:37:00] you have to have Linda Park. 

You don't have to. That's part of the Wally West legacy. But are people going to be expecting that? Or are they going to be looking for that? Because we can't Everybody loves familiarity. But unfortunately, familiarity breeds boredom. And sometimes when companies and entities take chances and do different things, The reaction is sometimes positive, sometimes negative. 

Yeah, it's always going to be that, I like this, but I wish it did And that goes along the lines of, you can't please anybody alright, well, um, anything else before we close this one out? No, let's talk characters. Alright.[00:38:00]