Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics, Justice League, Superman | Tagged: absolute, Absolute Batman, Absolute Green Lantern, Absolute Joker, al ewing, grant morrison, Rick Flag, slam bradley
The 20th Century History Of The Absolute Universe, Exposed (Spoilers)
Absolute Green Lantern #19 brings in Slam Bradley, Grant Morrison, the Absolute Joker and anyone ever called a Manhunter (Spoilers)
Article Summary
- Absolute Green Lantern #19 maps the Absolute Universe History across the 20th century through Manhunter, ARGENT and the DEO.
- Paul Kirk, Slam Bradley, Rick Flag and Uncle Sam are revealed as one shifting legacy at the center of Absolute Universe History.
- Grant Morrison riffs, Yellow Aliens, Hawkman and deep-cut DC lore fuse into a cosmic conspiracy behind the Absolute Universe.
- Amanda Waller, Belle Reve, the Absolute Joker and Kyle Rayner set up the next phase of Absolute Universe History.
Absolute Green Lantern #19 by Al Ewingand Jahnoy Lindsayhas been a bit of a runt of the Absolute Universe line, an esoteric look at an alien invasion from aliens who are exactly that, alien, multi-dimensional, with familiar Green Lantern imagery, lines and characters broken apart and used in very different ways. And today‘s is no different… but it also sets up the Absolute Universe through the twentieth century, placing all the pieces to be picked up by other books, other events, other crossovers, as well as riffing off the original DC Universe as well as its recreation in the eighties from British writers other than Al Ewing… And it begins with Paul Kirk in 1935. Classically, in the original DC Comics line, Paul Kirk was the Manhunter, a plainclothes amateur detective, created byJack Kirbyand Joe Simon for Adventure Comics #58 in 1941, before Adventure Comics#73 in 1942,introducing a new Manhunter, Rick Nelson, a wealthy big-game hunter who returned to the city to hunt criminals, then that storyline was merged so he was named Paul Kirk. The character was then revived in 1973 in Detective Comics, a globe-trotting conspiracy thriller, as a ruthless superhero working against a villainous group called the Council. Before he died, the identity of Manhunter was passed on, including an army of corrupt robots called Manhunters whose design resembled Kirk’s original 1940s costume.
Oh yes, classically, Wing Brady was a DC Comics pilot and soldier in the French Foreign Legion, created by Henry Kiefer for New Fun Comics in 1935, and it ran for around 50 issues. Classically, Sandra McLane, better known as Sandra of the Secret Service, is one of DC’s earliest characters and its first female lead. A U.S. Secret Service agent in the mid-to-late 1930s, code-named “Number 37”, her cases take her against spies, schemers, and dictators. She first appeared in New Fun #1, created by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholsonand Charles Flanders. In 2022, Wheeler-Nicholson’s granddaughter Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson and Lee Marrs revived the character as “Sondra of the Secret Service” in a serial for David Lloyd‘s Aces Weekly.
A shaved Paul Kirk does look quite a lot likeGrant Morrison. Whose work on Animal Man, classically, revived the Yellow Aliens. In their original stories, they are a pair of yellow-skinned invaders in Strange Adventures #184 in 1966, created by Dave Woodand Gil Kane and behind Buddy Baker becoming Animal Man. Grant Morrison reused them in the late 1980s Animal Man series as agents of the power that brings the DC universe into being.
Anais Guillot is one of the women who used the name Mademoiselle Marie, classically, a French Resistance fighter in World War II fromStar Spangled War Stories #84 in 1959, created byRobert Kanigherand Jerry Grandenetti, a French farm girl who joined the Resistance, marked by a red beret, and worked with Allied forces, including Sgt. Rock and Easy Company. Hofman is a real person, the inventor of LSD, whose bicycle became a major plot point in Doom Patrol.
Here, Absolute Green Lantern joins those two Grant Morrison influences together, aligning with Paul Kirk looking just like Grant Morrison. While also throwing in all the H.P. Lovecraft forbidden knowledge and cosmic horror…
And as Bad Idea Comics makes its first incursion into the Absolute Universe, we learn of André Blanc-Dumont, classically, a French adron who operated as M’sieu Machine, created by Will Eisnerand Chuck Cuidera for Military Comics #2 in 1941…
1941 brings us the OSS, which did exist, the precursor to the CIA, as well asWild Bill Donovan who founded it, as Paul Kirk gains the name Control, classically the unnamed bureau chief of DC’s fictional version of the Office of Strategic Services, later tied to Task Force X. Created byRobert Kanigherand Ric Estrada forG.I. Combat #192 in 1976, his origin was filled in in Showcase #104 in 1978. During World War II he and his wife, Dina, worked as OSS agents in occupied France. They were captured; he was offered Dina’s life in exchange for the French underground network and refused. She was executed. After he was rescued, he was made “Control,” the London bureau chief trusted to send agents on missions that could kill them. In 1951, President Truman put him in charge of Argent, the domestic, civilian side of Task Force X, the military side being the Suicide Squad’s ancestor. Well, in the Absolute Universe, Paul Kirk is Control, and Task Force X is Argent.
Classically, Samuel Bradley is Slam Bradley, the two-fisted private detective from Detective Comics #1 in 1937, created by Jerry Siegeland Joe Shuster. In the Absolute Universe, he is also Richard Nelson, the name the costumed Manhunter used in his first story, before an editor renamed him Paul Kirk. Here, it seems Slam Bradley did it himself. Classically, Kate Spencer is the modern Manhunter, and the first woman to use the name, and she wore red armour that echoed the red costume of the Golden Age Manhunter, Paul Kirk. Emily Hawke, codename Agent Zero, is an Absolute Universe character with no counterpart in the main DC timeline, who has kicked all this history off after being time-trapped for eighty years.
And classically, Donald Richards is the Quality Comics Manhunter, later folded into DC, a police academy graduate who finishes at the bottom of his class while his friend Jim finishes at the top. When Jim is framed for murder after refusing to kill for a corrupt politician, Richards becomes the masked Manhunter, clears him, and keeps the identity for cases the police cannot close. His partner is a dog named Thor, later retconned as a robotic sentry of the android Manhunter cult. His feature ran in Police Comics from 1942 to 1950, created by Tex Blaisdelland Alex Kotzky.
And we have met the Carter Hall Hawkman in Absolute Justice and Absolute Superman… and have seen what he did. And as Paul Kirk moves onto another dimension, Rick Nelson returns, changing his name not to Slam Bradley or Paul Kirk but to Rick Flag. And Donald Richards takes the narrative over.
Classically, Rick Flag Sr. is the World War II leader of the original Suicide Squadron, a military unit sent on missions expected to be fatal who first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #25 in 1959, created by Robert Kanigherand Ross Andru, while his son, Rick Flag Jr. is the modern field leader of Task Force X, the government team of convicts and expendable operatives better known as the Suicide Squad. And as Argent becomes The Agency, the DEO forms with Donald Richards, and Task Force X closes, taking Red Kate with it.
The 1950s brought the Un-American Activities Committees, Winston Smith is tortured by The Ministry of Love, in 1984, published two years previously. Oh and Thor is dead.
We saw Hawkman in Absolute Justice… sliding perfectly into this timeline.
As well as Absolute Iron Munro…
But the work continues. And Donald Richards is under the cosh. Classically, Darrell Dan, Doll Man, “the World’s Mightiest Mite,” was the first comic-book superhero who could shrink, and first appeared in 1939,created by Will Eisnerand Lou Fine.
It ended badly in the Absolute Universe. And so LSD is to be used on superheroes to see what happens.
And Harry Thompson replaced Don, killed by Rick Flag. Classically, Harry “Tex” Thompson is a wealthy Texas adventurer created by Ken Fitch and Bernard Baily,who later becomes the masked hero Mr America and the wartime spy Americommando and debuted in Action Comics #1.Later stories place him with the All-Star Squadron and the OSS, and sometimes call him the Coordinator.
As well as where Paul Kirk actually went. Sorry, I mean Grant Morrison. Sorry, I mean Control, who is in… control, Rick Flag is not. And they are happy to deadname him, and then use him.
And Rick Flag starts to get a better understanding of the role he played, looking out for self-interest, but sacrificing a world in the process.
And then they create a new version of him, from his original name, Slam Bradley, before that just Sam…
Slam Bradley, Rick Flag, all his other names, he is now Uncle Sam. As also seen recently inAbsolute Green Lantern, who has lived across the entire 20th century and into the 21st… and is an agent of the real powers.
And we have seen that curtailment in other Absolute Universe titles; here they are spelt out by Cameron Chase.
The Lazarus Corps, owned by Ra’a Al Ghul in Absolute Superman and K.J. Holdings, that’s Jack Grimm, the Absolute Joker inAbsolute Batman, all tied in. But there are some loose strings.
Kate Spencer, who left with Task Force X, and what remains of the condemned Belle Reve Psychiatric Facility. Will Lawler, classically,is the older brother of Chase Lawler, the 1990s Manhunter created bySteven Grant and Vince Giarrano.
And Renee Montoya, classically the Gotham City police detective who later becomes the second Question.
And we have who Red Kate Spencer is today, no longer red of hair, just red of wine… It’s Amanda Waller, bringing the Suicide Squad and Task Force X into the modern Absolute Universe.
And she is bringing Kyle Ryner into Absolute Green Lantern too. The history of the Absolute Universe behind all the other titles is right here. With more to come…
Absolute Green Lantern #19 by Al Ewing, Jahnoy Lindsay
As Jo and her Green Lantern Corps head home from the war, Cameron Chase is readying a bombshell of her own…the Manhunter File! What was the O.S.S. Section ARGENT, and what terrible secret did it learn about what waits beyond reality? For a year and a half, we’ve piled on the questions…it’s time for some answers! $4.99 7/10/26
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