Absolute Flash #17: Brainiac Turns Lex Luthor's World Into a Chainsaw Nightmare
1A 1 by its headline: leader & pioneer, and therefore the opening.
DC Comics' Absolute universe takes a truly brutal turn in Absolute Flash #17, delivering a shocking origin story for an alternate Lex Luthor. Brainiac, ever the puppet master, tortures Luthor by forcing him to watch his family get murdered with chainsaws. His goal? To break the happy, unassuming Lex Luthor of this parallel world and forge him into a new, twisted villain for an "Absolute Evil Justice League."
This isn't your standard Lex Luthor. In the Absolute universe, he’s been living an idyllic rural life, even sporting a full head of hair. Brainiac, following intelligence from the Absolute Mirror Master, sought out this different Luthor. Now, he's using unimaginable cruelty to mold him into a familiar partnership – but one born from pure trauma. This pushes the boundaries even for the grimdark "Absolute" imprint.
Meanwhile, the main focus of Absolute Flash #17 centers on Wally West. After seventeen issues, he finally gets a superhero name and discovers new abilities, including a healing factor. He and the Rogues are battling to free Colorado from Grodd's grip, adding another layer of chaos to this darker DC landscape.
“Brainiac tortures him by forcing him to watch his family get murdered with chainsaws.”
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Jeff Lemire and Haining helm Absolute Flash #17, while Jason Aaron and Juan Ferreyra guide the parallel horrors unfolding in Absolute Superman. This shared universe is clearly not pulling any punches.
Reading the one
The arithmetic is unremarkable and worth doing anyway: 280 across 11 words, reducing to 1. The weight sits in “Nightmare”, which carries 50 on its own and reduces to 5.
What the 1 brings is initiative. Its named subject, Lex Luthor, reads as a 9 (humanitarian & sage), so the report and the thing it describes are pulling in different directions. Whatever else this report is doing, it is doing it with the 1's appetite for a clean, decisive beginning.
Heart's Desire 2, Personality 8: cooperation underneath, power on the surface. The gap between them is where the story is most interesting.
The 1 asks you to notice what had to not exist for this to be possible. The 1 mistakes being first for being right. Several of these texts describe launches that mattered enormously for a year and then mattered to nobody. The other reports that reduce to 1 are collected on The Opening.
Catzye Take
The 'Absolute' line continues to prove it's not for the faint of heart, pushing beloved DC characters into truly horrific scenarios. Fans of grimdark narratives and alternate universe tales, common in many popular manga, will find this a particularly brutal read. We'll be watching to see just how dark this 'Absolute Evil Justice League' can get. The headline reduces to 1: beginnings, leadership, and the will to act alone. That is the frame we read it in.
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