Superman/Batman Vol. 3: Absolute Power

In the aftermath of the devastating battle with Darkseid, the Earth wakes up to a brand-new world orderone in which Batman and Superman rule with an iron fist. Humankind has a choice: obey or die. How did things get this way? Is there anyone left who can stop them?

Grade 10 Up–When baby Superman's spaceship crashes into a Kansas field, three superbeings kill the Kents and take him for their own. Later, Bruce Wayne's parents, walking along Broadway, are shot right before the hood gets riddled with bullets himself. With the superbeings intervening at the so-called origin moments of both heroes, they then raise them to rule Earth. This scenario is carried to its logical limits, if its logical limits include random time-travel and the grown Bruce Wayne murdering his parents' murderers before they can perform their fated crime. Superman, given a similar chance, does not save the Kents. Obey or Die reads the inscription on the gigantic statue of Superman and Batman that replaces the Statue of Liberty, and do they ever enforce it. In the end chapters, though, they wake from their evil reverie, realize they've been raised by monsters, and repent by setting time right and canceling all other alternate worlds except the original one, in which they are beacons of good. It's a touching ending, but dystopian stories always seem more forgettable than classic morality tales.–John Leighton, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
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