DC Comics build up to the ABSOLUTE POWER (2024) crossover with the return of Brainiac and the creation of an even bigger threat who’s set to play a major role in the impending event. In the new DAWN OF DC era, Lex Luthor has made Superman the head of LexCorp – now redubbed SuperCorp – so he can use the organisation’s resources to protect Earth. With guidance from the ‘Lex Luthor’ hologram LL-01, as well as Lex’s daughter Lena Luthor who’d be raised by Brainiac in the future (as reference to the pre-Flashpoint story Y2K), Superman has been working to improve Metropolis and give some of his biggest foes a second chance. All of which is made easier since Lex Luthor restored Clark Kent’s secret identity (during KAL-EL RETURNS).
Superman’s family has continued to grow, with Lois Lane and Clark adopting the lost Kryptonian twins Osul-Ra and Otho-Ra, while extended family members Supergirl, Superboy, Power Girl, Super-Man and SteelWorks members John Henry Irons and Natasha Irons have all grown closer. But the decision by the United Planets to quarantine Earth will allow Brainiac to use their bond against them. But what’s his connection to the mysterious Council of Light (first seen during DARK CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS) and how does his new army connect to Lobo?
Crossover: This six-part crossover event is bolstered by a handful of additional tie-in issues.
Must-Reads: Issues marked with a ✔are essential to the story.
Character Debuts: Despite much of pre-Flashpoint history now becoming the history of Earth-0/Earth-Prime, pre-Flashpoint characters who appear in this story despite not having been seen since before Flashpoint, are still considered to be making their debut appearance.
Spoilers: The issue descriptions and fallout section contain spoilers, so be warned!
Previous events that directly impact this story:
- Y2K – Lex Luthor’s deal with Brainiac-13
- DAWN OF DC – Superman takes over SuperCorp
- THE CHAINED – The true powers behind SuperCorp emerge
Want to keep it simple? Here’s the chronological reading order without story descriptions, or spoilers:
- Green Lantern #10 [2/2]
- Green Lantern #11 [2/2]
- Green Lantern #12 [2/2]
- Action Comics #1064
- Power Girl #8
- Superman #13
- Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 [1/3]
- Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 [2/3]
- Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 [3/3]
- Action Comics #1065 [1/2]
- Power Girl #9
- Power Girl #10
- Action Comics #1065 [2/2]
- Superman #14
- Action Comics #1066
- Superman #15
| Must Reads | Title, Issue & Synopsis |
| Green Lantern #10 [2/2] (pp.1-2) With the Green Lantern Corps under new management (namely the United Planets), Guy Gardner’s been ordered to track down Lobo. He finds him fighting on the show ‘Wrestling Across the Multiverse’. Three days later, Guy heads to the planet Valax 4 to apprehend Lobo while he records an apisode of the show. Guy takes the cuffed Lobo out to space, but the ‘Main Man’ whistles for Space Dolphins to rescue him… | |
| Green Lantern #11 [2/2] Guy hides from the Space Dolphins while his captive insists he’s not Lobo. Three bounty hunters show up, looking to claim the price on Lobo’s head. Guy and ‘Lobo’ are suddenly transported to a place full of Czarnians… | |
| ✔ | Action Comics #1064 (pp.1-8) Lois Lane is making the most of her one day off in the year. |
| Power Girl #8 (pp.1-6) Dr Paige Stetler (secretly Kara Zor-L, aka Power Girl) texts Axel Gust to ask if he’s flirting with her. He admits he is, but he’s stolen away by a teleport beam. Omen senses something else is wrong… | |
| Green Lantern #12 [2/2] Guy is now trapped along with all the Czarnians in their shrunken bottled city in Brainiac‘s possession. The Czarnian and Guy search for a device to aid their escape. Guy finds the Eye of Krona, while the Czarnian locates the device he was looking for before they’re transported out of the bottled city. But they’re now falling toward planet Earth… | |
| ✔ | Action Comics #1064 (pp.9-21) Robot drones and Czarnians rain down on Metropolis. Superman knows Brainiac is behind it. The sentient AI LL-01 reveals to Lex Luthor that he’s an agent of Brainiac before teleporting Lena Luthor and Mercy Graves away. |
| Power Girl #8 (pp.7-9) Omen is teleported by a beam. Power Girl is attacked by Czarnians. | |
| ✔ | Action Comics #1064 (pp.22-24) Supergirl, Superboy, the rest of the Superman Family and every metahuman in the city are also teleported away. |
| Power Girl #8 (pp.10-11) The Czarnians facing Power Girl all disappear as they’re teleported off-planet… | |
| ✔ | Action Comics #1064 (pp.25-30) Lex takes the teleport shot fired by the Czarnian General Cachal that was meant for Superman. Now, the Man of Steel is the only one left to face Brainiac. What he doesn’t know is, aboard the villain’s ship, there’s a whole army of Brainiacs… First appearance: Brainiacs of the Multiverse (full) |
| Power Girl #8 (pp.12-14) Power Girl surveys the damaged Metropolis and returns home to find Streaky gone. Superman arrives and suggests she probably wasn’t taken due to her Earth-2 frequency being a little different. He asks her to protect Metropolis while he goes after Brainiac… |
| Must Reads | Title, Issue & Synopsis |
| Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 [2/3] (pp.1-4) Perry White’s mayoral election campaign is going badly. And he’s not even getting support from the Daily Planet… | |
| ✔ | Superman #13 Lobo charges into the Warriors bar in Coast City. Superman quickly arrives and demands to know where Brainiac is. Superman and Lobo head into space (avoiding detection by the United Planets) but are set upon by Cachal and the Czarnians. The shrunken metahuman prisoners aboard Brainiac’s ship see the villain falter when he talks about creating something new. When he recovers, he agrees to a conversation with Lex Luthor. Supergirl and Superboy escape their cells but are still tiny and powerless… |
| Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 [2/3] (pp.5-8) The biggest threat to Perry’s campaign is his charismatic opponent, Garon Blake, who wants to rid Earth of aliens. | |
| ✔ | Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 [1/3] Years past, to save Czarnia, General Tribb gave up the city infested with its most violent immortals to Brainiac. The city also contained the secrets that granted the Czarnians immortality. Its removal left the Czarnian scientists to live it peace. But Brainiac betrayed Tribb and sent his drones to destroy Czarnia, anyway. For some reason, Brainiac changed his mind and decided to let them live. Returning years later, he found the Czarnians had died… New identity: Miss Tribb as General Tribb |
| Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 [2/3] (pp.9-10) Blake challenges White to a debate in A-Town to discuss his take on aliens living in Metropolis. | |
| ✔ | Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 [3/3] The fight between Superman & Lobo and the Czarnians rages on. Amanda Waller contacts her backers, the Council of Light, who reveal themselves to be the multiversal Brainiacs. They want to eliminate Earth’s superhumans and gain ultimate knowledge. Angered by their deceit, Waller severs all ties. Brainiac is working on what appears to be a female Brainiac… |
| ✔ | Action Comics #1065 [1/2] (pp.1-15) Superman and Lobo escape the Czarnians, but have lost Brainiac’s sight of ship. The diminutive Supergirl and Superboy dodge the Doomhounds and break the regular-sized Livewire and Parasite from Brainiac’s machines. They find the weapon that can restore their size and the four of them take the fight to the Brainiacs, though they’re quickly restrained. With Luthor’s help, Brainiac restores a part of his home planet Colu from bottled-city to full-size, adding it like a crown to his Hiveship. Supergirl takes Lex Luthor and escpaes. Brainiac orders their deaths. |
| Power Girl #8 (pp.15-20) Power Girl, Hawkgirl, the original Steel (John Henry Irons) and the new Steel (Natasha Irons) protect Metropolis. Power Girl finds the Czarnian Crush in A-Town, but is quickly defeated by her. Elsewhere, a group of rogue Czarnians who refused to follow Brainiac come out of hiding and are loose in Metropolis. And they have the means to transmute Earth technology… | |
| Power Girl #9 (pp.1-4) Lobo’s daughter, Crush, releases Power Girl when her fellow Holliday Girls realise their mistake. | |
| Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 [2/3] (pp.11-12) Perry White gets campaign advice from Bibbo Bibowski. | |
| Power Girl #9 (pp.5-20) Power Girl, the Holliday Girls and Lobo’s Dawg face off against the rogue Czarnians. The Holliday Girls are easily defeated and trapped with the Czarnians in a bar. Power Girl and Crush make a plan to free them. Symbio/Hamlet observes from the sidelines, though exposure to the Czarnians’ weapons begins to transmute him… |
| Must Reads | Title, Issue & Synopsis |
| Power Girl #10 (pp.1-17) Power Girl and Crush break into SteelWorks and build an EMP device to knock out their Nanoblasters. Together they defeat the Czarnians and free the Holliday Girls. Symbio kills the captured Czarnians when no one’s looking. | |
| ✔ | Action Comics #1065 [2/2] The Czarnians kidnap Vril Dox, son of Brainiac, and brings him to his father. Brainiac takes him to the cells where his mother is also prisoner on the restored planet Colu… |
| Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 [2/3] (pp.13-20) A day after the gauntlet is dropped, Perry has his debate with Garon Blake in A-Town. It goes relatively well, prompting at least one anti-alien voter to switch sides. | |
| ✔ | Action Comics #1065 [1/2] (pp.16-20) Delayed by the Czarnians, Superman and Lobo head to Hardcore Station where Space Cabbie reveals Brainiac has been stealing superhumans from other worlds. The Czarnians arrive, and Chacal offers up his role as Czarnian leader up to Lobo. To prove his worth, Lobo must kill Superman… |
| ✔ | Superman #14 Lex Luthor explains to Supergirl that the holes in Brainiac’s knowledge are driving him insane. Brainiac’s drones try to kill them, but they’re saved by Lysl Dox and Vril Dox II – Brainiac’s wife and son, respectively. Elsewhere, Superman takes his fight with Lobo out into space to avoid the otherwise-inevitable destruction of Hardcore Station. Chacal wraps Superman in Apokolitian chains and drags him back to Brainiac. The powers of Superman and his family are used to give life to the female Brainiac Queen. She kills all of the Czarnians (except Lobo) for fuel, but wants more power… 1st appearance: Brainiac Queen (full) |
| ✔ | Action Comics #1066 [1/2] The Brainiac Queen will consume all life across the universe until nothing is left. Lobo frees Superman and his family and together they face the Queen. Brainiac turns Lena Luthor into a processor to help him run his ship, drones and duplicates. Superboy’s tactile telekineses devastates the ship, robbing the Queen of her power. Lex Luthor initiates his plan to take control of Brainiac’s network while Superman and the others defend him from the Brainiacs and Brainiac’s mind-controlled family… |
| ✔ | Action Comics #1066 [2/2] Lex Luthor connects to Lena via his Brainiac helmet and convinces her to help him fight past Brainiac 13… |
| ✔ | Superman #15 Superman’s powers return in-full as he clashes with the prime Brainiac. Lex Luthor starts deleting Brainiac’s hive mind. The Dox family are freed from his control. Lobo gets the bottled cities to safety. As his intellect diminishes, Brainiac warns Superman of the Source Door, the Great Healing, the Millionth World and the Crisis Gauntlet. Brainiac sends the Brainiac Queen out in an escape pod while he succumbs to his exploding ship. Vril Dox builds a new world from the enlarged bottled cities. Superman and Lobo part on good terms. Lex Luthor’s memories are gone. And Doomsday is coming… 1st appearance: Colu 2.0 |
As a very recent DC Comics event, there’s very little fallout to explore at the time of this article’s publication. More fallout will be added to this page in due course.
| Must Reads | Issue & Fallout | Event/ Crossover |
| ✔ | Absolute Power: Ground Zero #1 (2024) The Bureau of Sovereignty find Brainiac Queen’s pod; finding her AI drives blank, Amanda Waller ‘raises’ Brainiac Queen as her daughter. Absolute Power #1 (2024) Brainiac Queen generates hours of false footage of superheroes killing civilians to stir up anti-metahuman sentiment; Brainiac Queen turns the caputured Superman (Jon Kent) into a cyborg. | ABSOLUTE POWER DAWN OF DC |
| Collected Edition Title | Collects… |
| Superman: House of Brainiac | Action Comics #1064-1066 Superman #13-15 Superman: House of Brainiac Special #1 |
Reading Order ©OmniverseComicsGuide 2024
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