Written by: Mark Waid
Art by: Dan Mora
Colors by: Alejandro Sanchez
Letters by: Ariana Maher
Cover art by: Dan Mora (cover A)
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: October 2, 2024
Absolute Power #4, by DC Comics on 10/2/24, brings DC's biggest event of the year to a close with an all-out attack on Amanda Waller's base while her army of multiversal metas threatens to invade.
Is Absolute Power #4 Good?
Imagine a very expensive seafood dinner at a high-class restaurant where the house's special dish is a mound of crab legs. You decide to treat yourself to the most expensive entree on the menu, so you order away with a hopeful yet nervous smile on your face.
When the waiter returns with your meal, a steaming pile of uncracked crab legs, you dig in with gusto.
The shell cracker turns from steel cold to toasty warm as your fist clenches and unclenches the tool with the speed of an accelerating steam engine.
Bits of sharp-edged shells fly in every direction, seemingly intent on missing your bib by the invisible hand of Fate.
Beads of sweat materialize as you delicately work the long-necked fork into every nook and cranny of every crab leg to tease out the morsels of delectable meat.
When your intense workout of extraction is finally over, you look down and see the amount of delicious crab that you could reasonably extract isn't enough to fill a small tin cup the size of a thimble. Exhausted and disappointed, you sit back and wonder, "Was it worth it?"
That's what Absolute Power #4, the conclusion to DC's biggest event of the year (maybe the decade), is like. You put in all the effort, get bombarded with tons of mess and noise, and pay way too much money for a story that doesn't have enough meaningful content to fill a small thimble. To answer the question, "No, it wasn't worth it."
When last we left the collection of heroes in one of the umpteen tie-in books, Jon Kent freed himself from Brainiac Queen's influence (and possibly expressed feelings for the late Dreamer), Diana and Damian Wayne successfully staged a prison break of all captured heroes from the Supermax prison on Gamorra Island, and Batman confiscated Waller's secretly hidden Mother Box.
In Absolute Power #4, the hand-waving begins in earnest. The collection of heroes uses the weapons stolen from Gamorra Prison to assault Waller's stronghold. Batman, Blue Beetle, and Time Commander somehow sneak into Failsafe's Electronic Lab undetected and create a counter-gadget to the rewind devices in all the Amazos. Flash and Green Lantern race to the portal Waller built to prevent a multiversal backup from arriving to aid Waller.
After a lot of frenzied action and convenient cameos (Dreamer's death isn't so permanent). The Amazos are destroyed, sending everyone's power (almost) back to where they belong. Waller is in custody with her mind partially wiped to keep her secrets from getting out, and the Earth is cut off from the multiverse (somehow) when Barry destroys the portal.
What's great about Absolute Power #4? To Mark Waid's credit, you get plenty of fast-paced action, twists and turns aplenty, and a conclusion that ties up all the major plot points in one fell swoop.
What's not great about Absolute Power #4? The down points fall into two discreet categories - shortcuts and outcomes.
Yes, several shortcuts were needed to get this story across the finish line. The lethal weapons carried by Waller's stormtroopers all malfunction at exactly the right time with the thinnest of explanations.
Two incursion teams infiltrate the heart of Waller's stronghold without raising an alarm or encountering any resistance.
Dreamer's "resurrection" is just plain lazy. Marvel readers familiar with Iceman's recent "resurrection" will see a lot of disappointing parallels.
The destruction of the Amazos relies on one Time-based hero having just the right tool for the job at the very last minute when there are multiple Time-based heroes who could have worked out the same problem long before now. Time Masters, Anyone?
Then, there are the outcomes. Waller ends up in prison with her dangerous secrets locked in her mind in a place she can't access. You know she's coming back, so why bother with the setup?
Everyone gets their powers back except for a handful who either got nothing or got their powers switched. Isn't this the same outcome from Lazarus Planet? Does anyone believe that change is going to stick?
Destroying Waller's portal cuts off the Earth from the Multiverse. How? There are dozens of ways DC characters have traveled the Multiverse, so why would destroying the portal be a dealbreaker?
Ugh. The list goes on, but the thing to take away from this issue is just how little there is to take away. Nobody died, almost all the heroes and villains are back to the way they were, and the Justice League is ready to reform.
In effect, all the toys went right back into their toy box. If you peel away all the tie-ins, interruptions to ongoing titles, and supplementary material, the main plot could have started and finished in three issues.
No, it wasn't worth it.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
Final Thoughts
Absolute Power #4 technically wraps up DC's biggest event of the year by putting almost everyone and everything back the way it was, confirming the mountain of tie-ins and interruptions was completely pointless. Absolute Power isn't a multi-month, epic crossover to shake the pillars of the DC Universe. Absolute Power is a three-part miniseries that got blown way out of proportion and cost with little to show for it.5.5/10
We hope you found this article interesting. Come back for more reviews, previews, and opinions on comics, and don’t forget to follow us on social media:
Connect With Us Here: Weird Science DC Comics / Weird Science Marvel Comics
If you're interested in this creator’s works, remember to let your Local Comic Shop know to find more of their work for you. They would appreciate the call, and so would we.
Click here to find your Local Comic Shop: www.ComicShopLocator.com
As an Amazon Associate, we earn revenue from qualifying purchases to help fund this site. Links to Blu-Rays, DVDs, Books, Movies, and more contained in this article are affiliate links. Please consider purchasing if you find something interesting, and thank you for your support.
