DC's Absolute Power event has certainly not been lacking in terms of big twists and explosive events. Amanda Waller and the rest of the Trinity of Evil have spent the last few months capturing as many metahumans as possible, stealing their powers, and imprisoning them on Gamorra Island. Closer to home, they've also destroyed Superman's Fortress of Solitude, turned his son Jon Kent into a brainwashed cyborg, and – possibly – killed Dreamer.
I say possibly because Dreamer's apparent death in Absolute Power #2 seemed honestly a little ambiguous to me. Having been forced into working for Waller, Nia Nal finally snapped and turned on her, attacking the Braniac Queen and telling Waller to "go f-" before apparently being killed in the explosion that took out the Fortress of Solitude. It was a grand, heroic moment for the character, but the age old rule of pulp storytelling – if you don't see the body, they ain't dead – meant that it was hard to feel like Dreamer was really gone.
Well, in today's Absolute Power: Super Son #1, which focuses on the recovery of Jon Kent, we finally get some clarity...
Spoilers for Absolute Power: Super Son #1
The issue opens on Themyscira with Jon Kent in recovery. He's been freed from the Braniac Queen's control, but as Lo points out, just because Batman destroyed the technology that was controlling him, that doesn't mean that he's completely free of the "sickness" that infected his mind, body, and soul. He's undergoing therapy that helps him to understand what happened to him, but in the process the walls of fantasy and reality become a little bit slippery. Notably, he starts to have visions of Dreamer, though if it's really her or just an illusion remains unclear – by the end of the issue both readings seem valid.
These visions force Jon to confront a couple of truths: namely that he has some unresolved emotional feelings towards Nia, though the precise nature of them remains vague. Secondly, he comes to terms with the fact that, yes, she is in fact genuinely dead. (DC has seemingly reinforced this by publishing an interview with the issue's co-writer Nicole Maines that tackles Dreamer's death head on.)
Later in the issue Jon is reunited with his boyfriend Jay Nakamura and breaks the news. It does not go well – Jay's response is simply "GOOD." It's cold hearted, but perhaps understandable given that his mother Sara was killed by the same Suicide Squad that Dreamer was forced to operate with. This division looks like it might threaten Jon and Jay's relationship, but by the end of the issue the two seem to be on the same path once more. Jon has even suggested that they move in together in San Francisco once this latest crisis has been dealt with.
While it's a seemingly cathartic moment for the couple this issue marks a tragic end for Dreamer. Yes, there's a degree of resolution here – Jon and Nia get to share a tender moment together for the first time since last December's Action Comics #1060 – but it's still the end of the road (at least until the inevitable-because-comics resurrection) for this groundbreaking character. Meanwhile Jon looks set to be burdened with guilt about what he did under Waller's control and about Dreamer's fate for the foreseeable future. As big comics events go, this one isn't pulling its punches...
Absolute Power: Super Son #1 by writers Nicole Maines and Sina Grace, artists John Timms and Travis Mercer, and colorists Pete Pantazis, Rex Lokus, and Adriano Lucas is out now from DC.
Earlier in the year Nicole Maines talked us through Dreamer's recruitment into the Suicide Squad.
