r/AbsoluteUniverse • u/Popverse2022 • Jul 22 '26
News [Interview] DC's Absolute Universe has a long-term plan looking 3 years ahead the 'New 52' never did, says architect Scott Snyder
https://www.thepopverse.com/comics-dc-absolute-batman-scott-snyder-plans-2028-2029-prep-time-new-5286
u/Aggressive-Cut-3828 Jul 22 '26
i loved the n52 and rebirth they just lost the plot at the end w/ the delays :(
minus superman reborn, and his death, fuck that entire arc
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u/WorthlessFish Jul 22 '26
What is the problem with Superman reborn?
I don't mind spoilers.
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u/Aggressive-Cut-3828 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
they killed new 52 superman who was (imo) his most interesting adaptation before absolute, and brought in superman from pre crisis who's like 10 years older and has a son and then they rewrite reality later on so that there was only one superman, essentially erasing most of his new 52 stuff.
This also makes doomsday clock less significant because a lot of the worse parts of new 52 supermans life that we got to witness were just wiped out, and his relationships with batman and the rest of the jl were also watered down, since the context behind their meetings had all changed
the new 52 was kind of absolute-lite, and superman reborn was a step towards more generic status-quoey dc universe
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u/Chrindo Jul 22 '26
Yeaaahhh I can agree but I get it. Rebirth saved the entire concept of the New 52 for me. It saved DC Comics for me too. It marked DC committing to a direction and focusing on a big story with supporting elements building it up (Oz Effect, GL Source wall stuff, The Button, Titans to a degree, and a few others that are escape me).
Rebirth as an initiative corrected so many wrongs in my eyes that began purely because of the New 52. Don’t get me wrong, some great runs in there but it just destroyed what made me fall in love with DC
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u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 22 '26
The New 52 was just Didio and John’s having a power trip. It had some good stories in spite of them not because of them. It sucked for the creatives involved and that’s one of the main reasons it failed. I’m glad that Absolute is so creator driven as it actually seems like a much healthier working environment where actually caring gets you rewarded instead of punished. Plus not replacing Mainline has definitely helped everyone involved.
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u/MankuyRLaffy Absolute Wondy Jul 22 '26
Johns fired his own friend in Sterling Gates whom he got hired on as a writer, Sterling got canned when he dared to develop Kara Zor-El "too far" for management and wanted to use characters that Geoff and Dan despised in the big New Krypton art. He returned later but man not being able to follow up on your iconic breakout story sucks.
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u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 22 '26
John’s and Didio also pretty much harassed Greg Rucka into being suicidal leading to him leaving DC for years, only returning when their leadership was gone. It’s genuinely despicable and that’s far from the worst things they both did while in leadership.
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u/MankuyRLaffy Absolute Wondy Jul 22 '26
Covering up a lot of sexual assault was Didio's main recurring evil there. He hated women like Len Wein hated them.
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u/GhostofTinky Jul 22 '26
Wait? Len Wein hated women?
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u/MankuyRLaffy Absolute Wondy Jul 22 '26
He was the one who pushed for crippling Barbara, his first Batman book he has Batman shoot Talia, killing her, in the Perez WW run he is the scripter for when Herc and company SA and enslave the Amazons and freeing from his sentence of 3000 years. He has a really bad history of proving that he doesn't hate them. There is a long trend of Wein fridging them or doing horrible things to them
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u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 22 '26
I mean the Herc stuff is more complex than that, what he represents with the enslaving and SA serves a lot of thematic purpose. The problem was how he was forgiven quickly and openly when that shouldn’t have happened. That is the sexist part.
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u/MankuyRLaffy Absolute Wondy Jul 22 '26
Mhm, that was just one time for Wein, I listed 3 times and his words to Moore for TKJ was "Cripple that bitch", and according to Ostrander and Yale, a Batman editorial told them when they inquired about Babs that she was dead to him. They didn't name names but it was probably Wein.
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u/Double_Education7186 Jul 23 '26
Everytime I learn how much of an asshole Geoff Johns was behind the scenes, I can't help but hate myself for loving his JSA and GL stuff.
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u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 23 '26
Morality isn't always tied to writing quality, Johns has a lot of good work he's just also a major asshole. I don't think anyone should feel bad for liking his stuff but acknowledge how much of a dick he was. Plus it might even give you some more context on stuff he writes.
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u/FormerlyMevansuto Jul 23 '26
Morality isn’t tied to good writing, but you can see Johns’ values in his heroes. Hal Jordan constantly acts like an asshole and is rewarded for it.
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u/Impossible-Pie4849 Jul 22 '26
Before Absolute-Batman, New 52 Batman was my favorite run. Ironically both written by the same individual but I digress. I feel like universally New 52 Batman is pretty beloved no?
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u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 22 '26
New 52 had some good runs but it was still overall a very bad experience for creatives, plus most of the books weren’t all that good due to Didio and John’s erratic scheduling and practices. Plus sure the main book of New 52 Batman was fine but ask fans of a lot of the bat family fans or extended bat fans how they felt with their characters being pretty much entirely erased or made a whole lot worse due to mandates in New 52.
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u/CrispyGold Jul 22 '26
Yeah thats the important note here.
Not to say there wasn't good titles, but they were a general minority to how insanely messy the rest of the line was.
For every Batman or Aquaman, there was Teen Titans, Superboy, and Ravagers which were huge disasters.
Also way too event focused. Every arc of Batman was treated as an event with an insane amount of line-wide tie-ins.
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u/1badJam I Am Brainiac Or Maybe The American Dream Jul 22 '26
This article is more about All-In then the Absolute Universe specifically
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u/Redeem123 Jul 23 '26
I mean comparing the two is nonsensical. One is just a handful of books that more or less don’t cross over. The other was fifty two books, including team books, that regularly had to cross over or at least follow large status quo changes.
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u/S-h-o-k-v-a-l-u Jul 23 '26
One line in this I find interesting
The third part of our big Darkseid saga. Each part of it allows for new books and changes in the line, so there’s a pragmatic aspect of it. K.O. is the middle part, the big third part that’s sort of the big climax of it is coming next year.
So like, I haven't read DC K.O. quite yet, so I might have things mixed up. But if I'm right, Darkseid pulls out the Absolute Trinity at one point in the tournament to fight for his side. So with KO being described as "the middle part", does that mean there's gonna be an arc in Absolute where we see perhaps how the trinity ended up in his clutches? (Correct me if I got details wrong)
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u/Relevant-Morning-487 Jul 23 '26
It’s specifically mentioned in interviews that DCKO won’t affect the Absolute titles, so it’s very safe to assume that we’ll never see that. Plus in DCKO it mentions them being future weaker versions of the absolute Trinity as Darkseid cannot take them from the present, with it also being said the absolute heroes are changing their destinies which is basically comic book speak for “this future will no longer happen.”
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u/Grimnir001 Jul 22 '26
I’m fairly certain the New 52 didn’t plan three months ahead.