Warning: Contains Spoilers for Absolute Power #3!Amanda Wallerhas the entire world ofDC Comicswithin her grip. She’s long past suicide missions with Task Force X or trying to stop the Justice League by circuitous routes. She’s enacted a plan that has leveled every hero and made her the autonomous ruler of earth - and beyond. But that’s not enough. In her most recent story,Amanda Waller takes control of Braniac Queen’s body, finally making her a true supervillain.
TheAbsolute Powerevent by Mark Waid and Dan Mora has been rattling DC for months, and the most fascinating part of the evil plans being executed in this world-shattering miniseries is that they’re concocted by a non-superpowered villain. Amanda Waller is just a human woman with an ambition like Batman - albeit with wicked intent. However, when her plan starts going awry inAbsolute Power#3, she has to seize the controls herself.
Just as Braniac Queen starts to lose hermanipulation of Jon Kent’s body,Amanda Waller puts in an override that allows her to control the villain’s body. This gives her the one thing she’s been lacking in this fight: superpowers like a real Justice League villain.
Who is Brainiac Queen? Learn about the villain’s origins in theHouse of Brainiacevent by Joshua Williamson, Rafa Sandoval, and others.
Amanda Waller Is Now DC’s Ultimate Villain
Amanda Waller Will Do Anything to Win
Amanda Waller has done a lot without powers.She’s been redefined as Batman’s oppositethrough the inverted tragedy of her daughter being murdered in an alleyway, like Bruce Wayne’s parents. She has many similarities to Batman, especially in how she uses both gadgets to get the job done and fear as a device to spread her power. Though the methods match, her end goal couldn’t be more different.
It was only a matter of time until Amanda Waller stooped to the level of the heroes she hates.
Amanda Waller is an ultimate contingency planner like Batman.Normally, she works through blackmail, government red tape, and in the case of the Suicide Squad, bombs embedded in criminals' necks - all to further her end goal of no more superheroes and an entire world under the law of Amanda Waller. These goals are a far cry from Batman’s, and until now, she hasn’t needed superpowers to achieve them. But every DC hero is rebelling against her, and soshe overrides her own pawn- Brainiac Queen - to take control of the situation.
Amanda Waller Makes Her Final Evolution to a Supervillain
Braniac Queen’s body with Amanda Waller’s superimposed face is exactly what the climax ofAbsolute Powerneeds. Her influence will only get her so far in DC’s world of gods and heroes. Though hercontingency plan renders even magic users useless,she can’t stop the indomitable spirit of the Justice League.For that, she needs to become a full supervillain. Goodness certainly isn’t her superpower, so she has to settle for something else.
Learn more about Waller’s motivations in the years leading up to her takeover of the DCU inAbsolute Power: Origins, a DC Comics miniseries by John Ridley and Alitha Martinez.
It was only a matter of time until Amanda Waller stooped to the level of the heroes she hates. She’s trying to rid the world of capes, and unlike Batman with his no-kill rule, she has become the very thing she despises in order to win. In becoming a supervillain,Amanda Wallerhas truly become something the entire world ofDC Comicsneeds to fear.
ABSOLUTE POWER #3 (2024)
