Warning! Spoilers ahead for Free Comic Book Day 2024: Absolute Power Special Edition #1!Arkham Asylum has a new owner who has slowly become one of the most powerful people in the DC Universe. With Absolute Power on the horizon, one notable character is cementing their stranglehold on the world by owning every metahuman prison possible.

But who is this mysterious person that’s now running DC’s most infamous location in Gotham? What do they have to gain by running Arkham and similar facilities? Most importantly, what’s going to happen to the inmates of these places as the DC Universe inches closer to the game-changing epic event DC Comics has lined up this summer?

Amanda Waller is Running Arkham Tower and Other Metahuman Jails

In Free Comic Book Day 2024: Absolute Power Special Edition #1’s story “Prelude to Absolute Power” by Mark Waid, Mikel Janín, Trish Mulvihill, and Ariana Maher, Failsafe is processing villains in the Hall of Order (formerly the Hall of Justice). The Suicide Squad’s Clock King has brought the Teen Titans villain Haywire and talks with him as Failsafe escorts the two through the Hall. Haywire is suspicious of the two’s intentions but has no choice other than to go along with them.

Haywire is confused at everything he sees, including Failsafe. But Clock King brings Haywire up to speed on Failsafe and his association with Batman. Clock King tries to assuage Haywire, reminding him that this isn’t a punishment and that he’s not in prison. When Haywire inquires how he got released, Clock King decides to give Haywire a history lesson on Amanda Waller, from her early days running the Suicide Squad to her recent promotion as the head of the Bureau of Sovereignty.

The mention of the Suicide Squad and their brain bombs sends a chill through Haywire, but Clock King assures him Waller hasn’t implanted anything in Haywire. The young villain is still confused as to how he got out of prison and Clock King lets Haywire in on a huge secret. Amanda Waller doesn’t need to make deals with metahuman prisons anymore because Waller is secretly running every metahuman prison on Earth including Stryker’s Island, Iron Heights, and even Arkham Tower.

How Amanda Waller Got More Power Than Ever

Amanda Waller has always been someone who worked best in the shadows and could easily acquire any assets she needed. However, in the wake of Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, Waller has ambitions to eliminate the Earth of metahumans (spurred on by Brainiac’s secret cabal known as the Council of Light). Believing that getting rid of powers altogether would finally bring peace to the world, Waller, along with assets like Peacemaker, began working on plans that would see Waller’s mission through.

Waller’s work required patience, but large-scale events like Lazarus Planet and Knight Terrors helped provide opportunities that aligned with her goals. Waller recovered powerful relics like the Helmet of Hate and the Nightmare Stone which allowed her to empower a new asset. Waller made a deal with Raven’s demonic side and gave her these items, transforming Raven’s evil half into Doctor Hate. Now Waller had the perfect assistant to help her discredit the Titans in front of the entire world.

When a powerful alien known as the Necrostar attacked the DC Universe, Waller interrupted the Titans’ response and sent Doctor Hate to mind-wipe Beast Boy. Garfield was left as a mindless monster that attacked the Earth. As the heroes responded to the crisis, Waller managed to convince the United States government to put her in charge of the Bureau of Sovereignty, giving Waller unquestionable authority. After “Beast World” came to a close, Waller used her newfound power to take over the Hall of Justice and begin the final phases of her plans to subjugate DC’s metahumans.

What Amanda Waller’s New Prisons Offer Her

If there’s anyone who doesn’t need to be in charge of the world’s most notorious metahuman prisons, it’s Amanda Waller. As Haywire says, this connection to places like Arkham and Iron Heights gives her an endless supply of bodies to use for her Suicide Squad endeavors. That said, the whole reason Waller is doing this in the first place is to get rid of superpowered humans altogether. While this kind of access to metahuman facilities would have been a dream for her in the past, Waller has greater needs than filling out the Suicide Squad’s roster.

So then why use her powers in the Bureau of Sovereignty to make herself the owner of all these iconic detention centers? As seen in Free Comic Book Day 2024: Absolute Power Special Edition #1, this role gives Waller limitless test subjects to experiment on while she and Failsafe figure out the best way to remove superhuman abilities from metahumans. When Waller is crossing off Haywire’s name, several other failed experiments can be seen, revealing that Waller has already killed villains like Fire King and Zebra Man.

There’s very little that Waller can’t do or get away with at this point. While she’s never feared consequences before, Waller is pretty much untouchable and she’s using that power to conduct inhumane and lethal experiments. As she said, she doesn’t even need to make deals to get whoever she wants freed. All she has to do is order a villain’s release and they become Waller’s property with no say in the matter. Waller has effectively created a system to get everything she needs to bring DC’s heroes and villains under her iron rule.

Waller’s Ownership of Arkham is Bad News for Everyone

As Waller reaches the endgame of her plans, she’s willing to do whatever she can to see her goals through. The villains housed in one of the prisons Waller now owns are going to have no option but to go along with whatever twisted experiment she has lined up. And when Waller succeeds and finally cracks the secrets of stealing powers from metahumans, there’s not going to be a thing the heroes can do about it. Now that Waller has control of Arkham and every other iconic DC Universe facility, both heroes and villains are in serious danger.

Free Comic Book Day 2024: Absolute Power Special Edition #1 is available now from DC Comics.