In 2024, DC Comics launched the Absolute Universe, which offered interesting new spins on A-listers like Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and Flash. The entire line just completed its first full year, and the publisher used the opportunity to brag about how good it’s doing. And spoiler: it’s doing really good.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, the entire line has sold 8.2 million copies up, as of November 2025. The big earner is Absolute Batman, Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta’s very viral ongoing that sees a blue collar (and pretty big) Bruce Wayne fight crime and reinvented versions of his classic enemies in Gotham. That book accounts for 35% of the Absolute book’s success—so around 3 million copies overall—and its first issue is now on its 10th printing. Its five-bestselling books of 2025 include the recent Absolute Batman #15, Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s Batman #158, Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez’s Batman #1, the publisher’s Batman/Deadpool crossover, and Snyder and Javier Fernandez’s DC K.O. #1.
Anne DePies, DC’s general manager, credited the decision to keep the universe in its own continuity as a big win, ditto its “fresh look that inverted the fundamentals of our characters, and it’s an update that surprised our fans. It’s not so overwhelming that we are changing everything at once. That made a big difference. We knew it was going to do well, but we didn’t know it would do this well.”
Even beyond Batman, the majority of Absolute books are reportedly doing better than 2011’s New 52 and 2016’s Rebirth relaunches. Those five specific books weren’t listed by THR, which is the only outlet to see those retail numbers, but it did note that Absolute Martian Manunter from Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez has gotten orders in the six figures, something remarkable considering Manhunter’s not high-tier like his fellow headliners.
That book will be ending soon, but the Absolute books will continue for apparently as long as its various creative teams want, so if a particular book’s caught your eye, go ahead and jump in.
The start of the pandemic in 2020 sent ripples throughout the world, upending our way of life in ways we’re still feeling. Everything was affected by it, including the entertainment industry, with many Hollywood studios delaying the making and releasing of films. Eventually, though, some bit the bullet and chose to release something, even if it was just on streaming, and that’s how we wound up with Warner Bros. releasing Wonder Woman 1984on Christmas Day 2020 both in theaters and on HBO Max.
Watching a movie in theaters is an entirely different experience compared to just watching it at home, especially superhero movies. Without access to a big screen, I wound up watching the film on my phone back when it came out and then on my TV more recently. I will never know how I and most of us would’ve taken to this movie if it’d come out in a regular world, but in the one we are in now, it’s still surprising how not good it is.
Nothing about it has really gotten better with time, and if anything, elements like the parallels to Donald Trump and everything surrounding Steve Trevor have gotten worse. It’s open-hearted, sure, and goofy, yes, but it all makes for something that feels like work to watch even when you’re not actually watching it for work.
Another thing about it that’s aged badly? The concept of Wonder Woman as a multimedia franchise, of which 1984 will effectively remain the final word for the foreseeable future. Despite garnering a lot of views at the time, reactions weren’t feeling the sequel, and after popping in for short cameos in The Flash and Shazam 2 to remind you she was still around, Diana was put back on the shelf.
Her third solo movie was scrapped after James Gunn started fresh with a new DC movie universe—one that’s waiting a while to find someone new to take up the tiara and lasso. (For what it’s worth, Gal Gadot sure tried to fight the tide and stick around in this new continuity, but like Black Adam and Superman before her, that didn’t pan out at all.) And then earlier this year, we learned the Wonder Woman game announced back in 2021 had been cancelled; its creator, Monolith Productions, was also shut down, which was reportedly a whole saga unto itself.
So yeah, not an especially great time to be a Wonder Woman fan, which feels surprising to say given how much goodwill the first movie had earned back in 2017. WB spent years seemingly going out of its way not giving her a movie or even so much as giving her another TV show that the idea of her being in a film alongside Batman and Superman and getting a solo movie of her own the following year felt impossible. That her origin movie was good and had the box office to show for it feels like a lifetime ago. Her appearances, starting in Justice League’s 2017 version up to her last two cameos, didn’t really let her do much beyond letting the audience know she looked good in fights and had one of the most divisive musical themes in superhero history.
She’s not the first hero to fall into a creative rut; if anything, Wonder Woman’s just one of many, like Spider-Man, Black Panther, and so on, who’ve found themselves hit with various roadblocks across the different mediums their owners would very much like them to thrive in. It’s unfortunate that bad luck is one of the most powerful constants in the universe, but there you go: no one can blame the X-Men for currently being in a holding pattern until their MCU debut, just as it’s not Diana’s fault that Warner Bros. keeps threatening to fall apart across its various divisions every two weeks.
She is, as all of them are, just a casualty of what it means to be a well-known IP in this day and age: sometimes, your owners don’t entirely know what to do with you and make it everyone’s problem while they try to figure out what your next few years look like from medium to medium.
It’s the “figuring out” part that’ll be interesting to see; both this year’s Supermanand 2022’s The Batman looked to focus on key aspects of their respective heroes that weren’t as highlighted in their previous cinematic incarnations. The question then becomes if Wonder Woman will follow suit and what that means when her back catalog is much slimmer in comparison, something which likely played a factor in her first adjacent project in this new DC universe, a TV prequel focused on the Amazons rather than herself.
Maybe through that, WB hopes to find what Wonder Woman means and stands for in a way distinct from Gadot’s tenure while similarly informed by its highs and lows. Whenever that new Diana enters the picture, she’ll have some shoes to fill… maybe not big ones, but shoes to fill all the same. And hopefully by then, Gunn and whoever’s tasked with this new incarnation will have more than a movie’s worth of a vision for what to do with her.
The “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot, who is originally from Israel, is lashing out at the public for staying silent about the women who are currently being raped and kidnapped by Hamas.
“The world has failed the women of October 7th,”
Gal Gadot Continues Speaking Up for Victims: If anyone missed it, the Israeli actress slammed the so-called “Women Rights” organizations over their deafening silence and defacto rape apologia—voicing the unheard voices for the… pic.twitter.com/LHjn3lSDkh
“The world has failed the women of October 7th. We claim we stand against rape, violence against women,” Gadot wrote on Instagram. “We will not let women be victimized and then silenced. We say we believe women, stand with women, speak out for women.”
“On October 7th, the world witnessed Hamas carrying out its violent plans in real-time. Within hours of the October 7th attack, the first blood-chilling video emerged of Shani Louk being paraded naked and defiled by her proud assailants,” she continued. “Yet two months later women are still hostage to these rapists and the world has failed to call this situation what it is: an urgent emergency that demands a decisive response.”
“This is our moment as women and allies of women to act,” Gadot concluded. “I am beseeching all those who have done so much for women’s rights globally — from the U.N., to the human rights community to please join in the demand that Hamas release every single woman hostage immediately not after the next round of international mediation, not after another day. These women cannot survive another moment of this horror.”
Daily Mail reported that Gadot took to her Instagram back in October to sound off about the situation in her home country.
“Whoever can and wiling to donate, these people’s lives changed forever yesterday,” she stated. “They’ve lost so much and need help. Only if you can. If you have less empathy towards victims because of how you feel about their government, propaganda is working on you.”
“The goal of propaganda is to dehumanize. It works to dehumanize Israelis and works to dehumanize Gazans,” Gadot continued. “I like to think most of us are above propaganda. But this weekend reminded me how widespread it is. Because a lot of people reacted to this violence with justification, not empathy. I guess it’s not surprising but it’s still heartbreaking.”
“Propaganda is everywhere. It seeps into us over time. It seeks to block our empathy receptors. So when we see violence, we rationalize away our human response,” she concluded. “Killing innocent Palestinians is horrific. Killing innocent Israelis is horrific. If you don’t feel the same I think you should ask yourself why that is.”
Reuters reported that Gadot served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for two years, a stint which included participation in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. This led to Lebanon banning the Wonder Woman movie starring Gadot when it was released in 2017.
Last month, Gadot denied rumors that she had rejoined the IDF in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“She has not joined the Army in 2023,” her representative said.
This comes at a time in which much of Hollywood is staying silent about what is happening between Israel and Hamas. What do you think of Gadot’s remarks? Let us know in the comments section.
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Greta Gerwig should be feeling closer to fine these days. In just three weeks in theaters, “Barbie” is set to sail past $1 billion in global ticket sales, breaking a record for female directors that was previously held by Patty Jenkins, who helmed “Wonder Woman.”
“Barbie,” which Gerwig directed and co-wrote, added another $53 million from 4,178 North American locations this weekend, according to studio estimates on Sunday. The Margot Robbie-led and produced film has been comfortably seated in first place for three weeks and it’s hardly finished yet. Warner Bros. said the film will cross $1 billion before the end of the day.
In modern box office history, just 53 movies have made over $1 billion, not accounting for inflation, and “Barbie” is now the biggest to be directed by one woman, supplanting “Wonder Woman’s” $821.8-million global total.
Three movies that were co-directed by women are still ahead of “Barbie,” including “Frozen” ($1.3 billion) and “Frozen 2” ($1.45 billion), both co-directed by Jennifer Lee, and “Captain Marvel” ($1.1 billion), co-directed by Anna Boden. But, “Barbie” has passed “Captain Marvel” domestically with $459.4 million (versus $426.8 million), thereby claiming the North American record for live-action movies directed by women.
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New competition came this weekend in the form of the animated, PG-rated “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and the Jason Statham shark sequel, “Meg 2: The Trench,” both of which were neck-in-neck with Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” also in its third weekend, for the second-place spot.
“Meg 2” managed to sneak ahead and land in second place. It overcame its abysmal reviews to score a $30 million opening weekend from 3,503 locations. The Warner Bros. release, directed by Ben Wheatley, currently has a 29-per-cent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and a B- CinemaScore from audiences. The thriller was released in 3D, which accounted for 22 per cent of its first weekend business.
Third place went to “Oppenheimer,” which added $28.7 million from 3,612 locations in North America, bringing its domestic total to $228.6 million. In just three weeks, the J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic starring Cillian Murphy has become the highest grossing R-rated film of the year (ahead of “John Wick Chapter 4”) and the sixth-biggest of the year overall, surpassing “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
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“Oppenheimer” also celebrated a landmark, crossing $500 million globally in three weeks. Its worldwide tally is currently $552.9 million, which puts it ahead of “Dunkirk,” which clocked out with $527 million in 2017 and has become Nolan’s fifth-biggest movie ever. It’s now among the four top grossing biographies ever (its company includes “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Passion of the Christ” and “American Sniper”) and the biggest World War II movie of all time.
Paramount’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” was close behind in fourth place with an estimated $28 million from 3,858 theatres in North America. Since opening on Wednesday, the film, which is riding on excellent reviews and audience scores, has earned $43.1 million.
Listen, I get that you’re new here. From what I understand, you transferred out of Anime High because you couldn’t sit with the most popular anime boys and girls of all time. But why did you think Superhero High would be any different? You’re NOT one of the popular superheroes. I don’t even think you’re super at all! HOW DID YOU EVEN GET IN HERE? DID YOU BREAK INTO SCHOOL GROUNDS? HOW DID NO ONE NOTICE?
Okay, maybe your superpower is that you’re so unpopular you’re basically invisible. Cool. Whatever. Why don’t you go and sit with the other invisible kids. They’re around here somewhere—I think? That could be them over there. Or maybe that table is just empty? Idk. Go sit down. If you sit in Captain Invisible’s, it’ll probably be the most action he’s had all year.
You’re still HERE? Okay, listen. If I introduce to the popular heroes you will you PROMISE to leave?
*sigh*
Okay fine. Let’s go.
10. Iron Man
(Marvel Entertainment)
Okay, see the guy whose lunch box is feeding him with mechanical arms? That’s Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. He’s what we call “new popular”. He wasn’t really all that cool when he first hit the scene. I mean, don’t get me wrong. He was still pretty popular. There was like… a Black Sabbath song about him I think? Idk some Dad music. But he got SUPER popular when he was played by Robert Downey Jr. in 2008. And it’s all been uphill from there.
9. Thor
(Marvel Entertainment)
Thor is also what we call “new popular”. He wasn’t really all that back when his first comics started. Tbh I thought he looked like kind of a dork with the winged helmet. He debuted in Journey Into Mystery #83 all the way back in the 1960s. But it wasn’t till the Avengers movies took off that he saw his popularity soar. The first Thor movie was okay, but he didn’t hit home with fans. But then the people at Marvel had the bright idea to make him comic relief in movies like Thor: Ragnorok and the fans went wild. And who wouldn’t go wild over Chris Hemsworth, am I right?
8. The Incredible Hulk
(Marvel Entertainment)
Okay so the Incredible Hulk was always cool, but a lot of people didn’t give him the time of day because his mild-mannered Bruce Banner persona wasn’t as cool as, say Bruce Wayne. I mean Bruce Banner is kind of a nerd, and nerds weren’t really in for a while. Now nerds are so in; basically everyone on Earth is a nerd in some fandom right now. Just wasn’t the case back then. But what’s not to love about a guy who turns huge and green and smashes things when he gets mad? I wish I could do that.
7. Wolverine
(20th Century Fox)
Wolverine was also always cool, but again, he didn’t get MEGA cool until he a Hollywood makeover. The original Wolverine is kinda ugly. He’s short, stocky, hairy, and looks like he got punched in the face one too many times. He’s not exactly movie-star quality. Then some genius of a casting director decided that Hugh Jackman would be a perfect fit and the rest was history. Besides, he’s got KNIVES IN HIS HANDS. So cool. Yeah he’s cutting up his sandwich with them. Wouldn’t you?
5. Wonder Woman
(Warner Bros.)
You see that woman with the rippling biceps? That’s Wonder Woman. She’s in the big leagues. She’s been popular forever, and is arguably the most popular female superhero of all time. She’s got it all: brains, beauty, and a hero’s heart. Ugh. I just wanna be her. She grew up in a community of Amazonian warrior women, and is the strongest of them all. She was always a heavy hitter on the popularity front, but her popularity shot up even further now that she’s played by the incredible Gal Godot in the movies.
6. Captain America
(Marvel Entertainment)
To be honest, America is kind of a scary place to be right now, but Captain America makes it just a little bit brighter. He was a symbol of American strength and resilience since the 1940s. He has his roots in antifascism, and he was pictured punching Hitler in his debut comic in 1941. He represents all of the best parts of American ideals: courage, optimism, and tolerance of all cultures and beliefs (except for fascism). It also helps that he was played by that hottie Chris Evans and now second hottie Anthony Mackie. Definitely a popularity booster.
4. Black Panther
(Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios)
WAKANADA FOREVER! Omg sorry I just get really excited whenever I talk about Black Panther. I’m a big fan. His popularity EXPLODED back in 2018 with the release of the first Black Panther film. It was the first Marvel film with a Black director and a predominately Black cast, and was also the first superhero film nominated for Best Picture. Needless to say, it’s a serious touchstone in pop culture. T’Challa was played by the late, great actor Chadwick Boseman. A modern cinema legend.
3. Superman
(Warner Bros.)
You see those three dudes in the middle of the table? Those are the Big Three. The most popular superheroes of all time. And you see that guy in the red cape who also looks suspiciously similar to a certain mild-mannered journalist at the Daily Planet? Yeah, that’s Superman. He was one of the first superheroes ever conceived. He also has antifascist roots. He was created by two Jewish illustrators named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938 to beat the shit out of Nazis, and his name, Kal-El, is a Hebrew phrase meaning “God is in everything”. This guy didn’t need Hollywood to make him popular, he had been a legend for DECADES.
2. Batman
(Warner Bros)
See that guy in the dark cape next to Superman? He’s vengeance. He’s the night. He’s totally NOT a billionaire playboy named Bruce Wayne. What gave you that idea? Batman was created by Bob Kane in 1939, and since then he’s aged like the fine wine in Bruce Wayne’s mansion. But again, he’s totally not Bruce Wayne. Batman has it all. He’s got the dark past, the utility belt full of gizmos, and the mind of a master detective, and the body of a black-belt martial artist. He also didn’t need help from Hollywood, but one could argue that The Dark Knight is the greatest superhero movie of all time. Bruce Wayne is even in it! And yes, it is totally a coincidence that he and Batman are never in a scene together.
1. Spiderman
(Marvel Entertainment)
Okay, see the cute kid sitting in between Batman and Superman? The kid who caught that redhead and her lunch tray when she tripped earlier? That’s the most popular superhero of all time: Spiderman. There have been a few Spidermans (a whole Spiderverse of them, actually) but the first and most famous is Peter Parker. He was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962, and has gone on to sell BILLIONS of dollars worth of comics and movies. Peter Parker is unstoppable, probably because he’s so charming! What’s not to love about a loud-mouthed kid from Queens? I know I love him. I pass notes to him in class all the time. He stopped opening them, but I know if I keep trying he’ll dump that ginger and take me to prom.
While early “social media impressions” of Black Adam were largely positive in the wake of its premiere, now that scored critical reviews have come rolling in, it’s much more of a mixed bag. At the time of this writing, 64 reviews are in for Black Adam, which has scored a 55% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it “rotten” by the designations of the site.
While many are content to wait for audience scores, which many believe are the superior metric (that’s a debate for another day), we can see how Black Adam stacks currently up against the rest of the DCEU. And it’s not great. With the 55% score, that means Black Adam is the fourth worst-reviewed DCEU offering out of 13 projects, a cinematic universe already not exactly known for its consistent quality. Here’s the list as it stands.
Peacemaker (TV) – 94%
Wonder Woman – 93%
The Suicide Squad – 90%
Shazam – 90%
Birds of Prey – 79%
Zack Snyder’s Justice League – 71%
Aquaman – 65%
Wonder Woman 1984 – 58%
Man of Steel – 56%
Black Adam – 55%
Joss Whedon’s Justice League – 40%
Batman V Superman – 29%
Suicide Squad (Ayer) – 26%
So here, Black Adam is only above the absolute worst of the DCEU, the original Justice League, Batman V. Superman and Suicide Squad. I will say I disagree with a lot of rankings on this list. Shazam, Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman 1984 should be lower, if you ask me. Man of Steel and Aquaman should be higher. So it remains to be seen if critics got Black Adam “wrong” or not.
Black Adam
WB
I have absolutely no doubt that audience scores will be higher for Black Adam, and those are what The Rock will end up touting on social media, given that a 55% critic score is nothing to brag about. It’s possible that audiences are genuinely more entertained than critics, but also The Rock has made himself a slew of powerful internet allies in the form of Zack Snyder fans for supporting the Snyder Cut and going to bat for Henry Cavill’s Superman. I think there’s little chance audience scores are not significantly higher than critic scores for this one.
But even still, this isn’t great. The Rock has hyped up Black Adam beyond belief, and the movie is scoring 35% below Shazam, the film he extracted himself from and the character he seems content to ignore in favor of moving on to bigger rivalries like Superman. And outside of the DCEU, these Black Adam scores put it below every single MCU movie ever made except for Eternals. These numbers may go up or down as more reviews come in, but it’s clearly not going to reach a much higher tier.
Of course, what really matters in the end is box office. If Black Adam does huge numbers then critic scores don’t matter and The Rock will get all the sway he’s hoping for in helping guide the future of DC, most likely. But if Black Adam underperforms or even bombs, this grand vision of making the character a key part of the universe going forward with sequels and face-offs against Superman does not seem likely to materialize.
