I just finished reading the latest compilation of Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman work, Absolute Power.

Wow. Just — wow.

This book isn't for everyone. I would like to think it's something a casual reader could pick up and enjoy, but I just don't believe it. There are too many cameo appearances by minor characters, appearances that won't make much sense unless you've read a small mountain of DC comics, particularly comics from the Silver Age (roughly speaking, the 60s and 70s).

But if you're a Silver Age fan, and especially if you miss alternate timelines and multiple Earths — wow.

This book has a simple premise: a trio of supervillains from the 31st century (Legion fans can guess who) decide that their troubles could all be reversed if they simply went back into the past, abducted the infant Kal El and the orphaned Bruce Wayne, and raised them as super enforcers who would rule the 21st century Earth in the service of their adoptive "parents". But from that simple premise, a wild ride ensues.

With the influence of the Kents and Alfred replaced by a vicious trio that includes a telepath who confounded their brains, Earth's two greatest champions of law and order become tyrants of order over all. As one of the last surviving heroes of what would be the Justice League in a different timeline, Wonder Woman assembles Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters (if you don't get the reference, you're kinda proving my point about Silver Age references) to battle Superman and Batman and try to restore the timeline. An accident with a time sphere ensues, and Superman and Batman are blasted into more alternate timelines: the post-Great Disaster world of Kamandi (more stuff from the Silver Age); a Gotham City where Jonah Hex, Cinnamon, Tomahawk, and other western and frontier heroes are modern day law enforcers (yet more Silver Age stuff); an Earth where Darkseid rules, along with the Superman from Kingdom Come and The Kingdom (modern age books, but books that were also tributes to the Silver Age, and that paved the way for this book); and an Earth where Thomas and Martha Wayne were never murdered, and thus Batman was never created, and thus his greatest foe was unopposed in his quest to conquer the Earth.

The story reaches its denouement at one of the iconic symbols of the DC Silver Age, the original Legion clubhouse. And it concludes with a tribute to the book that arguably closed the Silver Age. And when I read that conclusion, my reaction was: wow. Just -- wow. Prior to this, Jeph Loeb was an author whose name I recognized, and I kinda knew he did good work. After this, he's an author I'll search out on the comic racks.

It's hard to describe who the audience for this book is. It's too full of continuity to really make sense to the casual reader; but it also plays too fast and loose with the continuity to please those Continuity Cops who insist on trying to piece every single story into "one seamless tapestry".

Well, actually, there is sort of a description of the audience for this book. It's a one-word description: me.