It should be noted that Amanda Waller has really, really good intentions. She wants to take over the world, but maybe she might be able to stabilize things. The DC Universe is suffering from some crisis or other every few months. Maybe she could help settle things down. Writer Mark Waid illustrates why this ISN’T going to happen in Absolute Power: Ground Zero #1. The big kick-off to this summer’s big DC crossover features three different stories of three different characters that include work by Nicole Maines, Chip Zdarsky and Joshua Williamson. The stories flow across the page courtesy of artists Skylar Patridge, V Ken Marion and Gleb Melnikov.

Dreamer has been sent to the island nation of Camorra to capture Jay Nakamura. Why? She’s not entirely certain. She’s following orders from Amanda Waller, who is threatening her family. Meanwhile, John Starr is sort of being resurrected...by Amanda Waller. She needs him to help her...sort of resurrect Failsafe: an android created by Batman, who probably had a few good reasons for doing so. Finally, Waller is hanging out with a girl in cyberspace. It’s not a casual sort of a hang-out though: the girl in question is part of the consciousness of Brainiac. Waller’s clearly assembling some sort of team.

Waid  orchestrates a fun “getting the team together” sort of an issue that keeps arch villain Waller at a distance while focussing itself on a few characters that all seem interesting in their own right. Zdarsky harnesses an interesting version of Starr as he tries to work out from underneath Waller’s commanding presence. Maines frames an engrossing conflict between Jay and Dreamer. The more interesting of the three stories features Williamson telling the tale Waller teaching a fledgling Brainiac Queen. It’s a fun launch for the summer’s biggest DC crossover.

Patridge fuses the more physically aggressive action to the page with quite a bit of visceral impact. Marion is quite deft with the moody tensions of the John Starr tech drama. A forced work sort of a situation on a high tech facility could have easily hit the page with kind of a dull thud given the relatively static nature of most of the drama, but Marion does a really good job of bringing out the visual appeal. Nowhere is the visual appeal of the story more dazzling than in Melnikov’s story of Brainiac Queen, who moves from childhood to adulthood in a twisted sort of a coming-of-age AI drama. 

It’s going to be a huge crossover. Waid and company have clearly staked out the specifics of their territory in a crossover that’s meant to be the culmination of a few other crossover evernts that have happened in the recent past. There’s no way it’s going to live-up to its intended intensity, but judging from the opening chapter, it’s going to be fun to watch everything develop anyway. DC is clearly moving around the talent quite well in terms of opening issue. 

Grade: B