DC Comics’ Absolute Power event has just brought the Multiverse’s deadliest super team back for a battle with any hero still standing.

While the Flash Family and their allies are reeling from an encounter with the Amazo android known as Velocity in the pages of Absolute Power: Task Force VII #5, Steve Trevor is busy trying to keep up with whatever it is Amanda Waller has planned next. Unfortunately for Steve, that means watching on in silence as Waller calls upon yet another of her seemingly endless number of malicious agents to do her bidding. Worse still, the latest band of villains Waller has reached out to just so happens to be the Crime Syndicate that Steve Trevor hoped he would never see again.

Written by ALEX PAKNADEL Art by PETE WOODS Letters by DAVE SHARPE Main cover art by PETE WOODS Variant covers by TAURIN CLARKE, DAN MORA, SALVADOR LARROCA & MATT HERMS, STEPHEN PLATT & DAVE McCAIG, and JOHN TIMMS

DC’s original, Pre-Crisis Crime Syndicate was introduced in 1964’s Justice League of America #29 in writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky’s iconic story, “Crisis on Earth-Three!” The first Crime Syndicate consisted of Owlman, Ultraman, Power Ring, Super-Woman, and Johnny Quick, who were their native reality’s villainous analogs for Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and the Flash. In the years since, the Crime Syndicate has been reimagined just as often as the DC Universe itself, yet they have consistently maintained their status as the undisputed rulers of their world.

The current Crime Syndicate, led by the version of Donna Troy known as Superwoman, were introduced in the pages of 2013’s Justice League #23 by writer Geoff Johns and artist Ivan Reis. Like their predecessors, this version of the Crime Syndicate had already risen to power in their world before coming into conflict with the heroes of the primary DC Universe. After crossing over from the reality of Earth-Three to that of DC’s Prime Earth, this Crime Syndicate immediately set about attempting to bring the world of the Justice League under their collective control just as they had their own.

DC’s Absolute Power event marks the culmination of Amanda Waller’s long-running and deep-seated efforts to subvert the places of the world’s heroes and effectively destroy any superpowered opposition that might stand in her way. Through her army of Amazo androids known as Task Force VII, Waller has stripped many of the world’s most powerful heroes and villains of their abilities, purportedly permanently. As such, the world is experiencing a drastic shortage of heroes who might actually stand a chance of saving it, especially when so many of those still left standing are unable to call upon the powers they would usually command.

Absolute Power: Task Force VII #5 is on sale now from DC Comics.

Source: DC Comics