My girlfriend was never interested in superheroes. She told me that her perception of them has mostly been shaped by the MCU movies (“Marvel movies,” as she calls them). While it’s easy for a snobby comic book reader to dismiss the opinion of someone who can barely tell the difference between Marvel and DC characters, she made a very interesting point: it feels as though MCU heroes are always there to preserve the status quo. According to her, the stories are almost always about some radical person or group who might have good intentions (to humanize them and make them relatable), but then go too far, and the heroes have to stop them. It’s a fairly simplified reading of decades of storytelling, but I do think it’s an interesting point, and it touches on something important.

Across DC and Marvel’s main continuities, there exists a form of equilibrium. Superman might be down on his luck today, and even Lex Luthor might be president, but this is an anomalous state for the world. When everything runs as it should, and villains are stopped without causing too much havoc, that is what I would call equilibrium. It’s not a perfect situation, as even a third-rate villain might be onto something, but they are dealt with quickly. It’s only when things really go south in a major event that this equilibrium is temporarily lost.

I believe the 'dark' universes, such as the Dark Multiverse, are evidence of this. Reading the Tales from the Dark Multiverse anthology books, much like many other 'dark' Elseworlds stories, is really fun because they explore universes that did not recover from temporary catastrophes (events) and instead remained in a state of disequilibrium. That is also why we don’t get ongoing series set in those worlds, for example, set in the universe of Batman the Silenced, a tortured and clinically insane version of Batman who fights his CEO and politician brother in the US government.

However, my girlfriend, as well as some friends who never really bothered with comics, really liked DC's Absolute series to varying degrees. Of course, they are not alone, as Western comic books (at least partially), thanks to the Absolute series, haven't been this popular in a long time. And I think I know why.

  
Read on: [Absolute Batman and the broader Absolute DC Universe resonate because they’re trying to change the world, not preserve it | Popverse](https://www.thepopverse.com/comics-absolute-dc-batman-superman-essay-kamyab-ghorbanpour)

[Essay] Absolute Batman and the broader Absolute DC Universe resonate because they’re trying to change the world, not preserve it