Bold Moves and Bruised Egos in Absolute Power: Task Force VII #2

If you’re smart, you’ll pay attention when J. Michael Straczynski warns you that trying to keep the masses cowed under one’s iron fist is going to bite you back eventually. But then again, every garden-variety tyrant seems to possess a twisted X-gene which convinces them they are invincible. Meet Amanda Waller, the latest to join this rogues’ gallery of delusion.

In the engaging and action-packed Absolute Power: Task Force VII #2, penned dynamically by John Layman and beautifully illustrated by Max Raynor, we’ve got all the juicy deets on how Waller’s calculated play to use an Amazo robot to intimidate Atlantis – a ploy as harebrained as it sounds – backfires spectacularly.

A Calculated Attempt to Subjugate Atlantis

The Amazo robot, under Waller’s command and her Bureau of Sovereignty’s ‘guidance’, does its job with unexpected finesse. Stripping Aquaman and the Doom Patrol of their powers, Waller’s undersea chess move put Atlantis on notice with a chillingly clear ultimatum – "Surrender. Or Else."

Waller’s tactic of trying to intimidate Atlantis into capitulation without a smackdown is a testimony to her cunning strategy. After all, Atlantis is not just any Jack-and-Jill, but a political heavyweight in the DC Universe. Besides boasting of King Aquaman’s Justice League connections, they’ve got all the works — tech so advanced it makes Silicon Valley look like it’s still in the stone age, an army that wouldn’t wince at overtimes and magical lore to stack against any New Age bookstore.

The Atlanteans Throw a Wrench in Waller’s Plan

What Waller saw as a potential threat, she underestimated as a potentially tenacious adversary. And the Atlantean citizens answered her ultimatum with a gesture that can only be appropriately represented by the middle finger. The sight of their king – less his mojo and publicly shamed to boot – only threw gasoline on the fires of their resolve. Even equipped with the powers of Aquaman and the Doom Patrol, Waller’s Amazo robot got more than just its nuts and bolts rattled.

In the end, even though the robot pulled off a clutch win, it was a far cry from the peaceful surrender that Waller had optimistically envisioned. The slap-in-the-face reality that people will not indefinitely endure the boot against their throat left Waller nursing her strategic, and possibly literal, bruises. It was a grim reminder about the fragility of despotism in the face of a populace pushed to the brink.

Allow yourself to dive into the drama of Absolute Power: Task Force VII #2, if you haven’t done so already. It’s available at your friendly neighborhood comic shop. Don’t miss it or Waller might send an Amazo robot your way!