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Spoilers for Absolute Evil #1 follow. Read at your own risk.

Good news for DC Comics fans who’ve been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Justice League of America in the Absolute line: the team debuts in Absolute Evil #1. Bad news for DC Comics fans who’ve been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Justice League of America in the Absolute line: they’re not the JLA that you’ve probably been anticipating.

DC’s own description of the one-off special issue celebrating a year of DC’s Absolute line runs like this: “The emergence of superheroes has caught the attention of the world…and it’s certainly caught the attention of the people who run it. Ra’s al Ghul, Veronica Cale, Elenore Thawne, Hector Hammond, and the mysterious ‘Joker’ have worked at cross-purposes until now, but this growing threat requires new ways of thinking…and new partnerships. An insidious betrayal from within their ranks is imminent, and if they don’t take action, they’ll lose control of a planet that was built to be their playground!”

Sure enough, the issue features the primary antagonists of Absolute Batman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Superman, Absolute Green Lantern, and Absolute Flash meeting and discussing the history of the Absolute universe not only over the past year, but even earlier — with the Joker introducing a recent scientific discovery: ‘The Omega Particle,’ an elementary building block of the universe with a moral dimension that trends towards oppression and evil.

Fans know this is actually Darkseid, who infused the Absolute universe with his essence in 2024’s DC All In Special #1, and that this Omega Particle is actually Omega Energy, and therefore intimately related to what’s about to happen in DC K.O., but the Joker doesn’t know that — and, instead, takes a different lesson from this discovery.

“Existence is ordered and ordained. Water flows downhill. Those who have have. Those who have not, have not,” he explains. “The rich get richer. The poor get poorer. Some hold the winning cards… and some clutch at a handful of jokers. This is not chance. This is not accident. This is design.”

Those that stand in the way of this natural order, he argues, are perpetuating injustice — because, after all, doesn’t the existence of the Omega Particle prove that things are meant to be the way they are? — and therefore those in power have a moral obligation to maintain their power and stand against attempts to change things. “Here in this room — our watchtower, looking down from high above the herd — we can be in league,” he says. “Between us, we can ensure the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice. A toast, then. To an ordered world… and to our Justice League.”

Yes, that’s right: the Absolute Justice League are the bad guys. So… what happens when the good guys start to get organized to meet this threat? Don’t forget, the first meeting between two Absolute heroes is just a couple months away…

Absolute Evil #1 is available now.

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