Absolute Green Arrow #4

BORN ON A MONDAY… RISES ABSOLUTE SOLOMON GRUNDY! Dinah's search for the Green Arrow Killer has led them both to discover the truth behind the Island — a place far more horrifying than either of them could ever dream. But most disturbing of all is who they discover there — as Absolute Green Arrow debuts the first appearance of a new Absolute take on a classic DC character.

Writer: Pornsak Pichetshote

Artist: Rafael Albuquerque

THE MAN IN THE SKY: Part 5

Lex, Riddler, and Bane marveled at Circe’s creation, who had named himself “Solomon Grundy”, seemingly arbitrarily. As the undead beast moved its massive body, it observed its massive hands and large frame, slowly coming to terms with what it was. “Who is your master, monster?” asked Lex Luthor, expecting the beast to bow to him. Riddler and Bane just looked at him with complete and utter confusion, questioning how much cocaine business executives must do to be this fucking insane. Grundy lumbered towards Luthor, looking down at him as if he were a midget. As Grundy slowly regrew parts of his long-rotted brain, his sentience grew slowly but surely. Lex could see this, but still held firm that his superior intellect made him the dominant one in this relationship. Grundy gritted his teeth, maggots crawling within his mouth, making his breath smell like a cremation furnace. Riddler leaned over to Luthor and whispered in his ear if the time had come to rebury this dead man, only for Luthor to brush him off with a condescending wave of his hand. Grundy loomed over Luthor, his gritted teeth making his disdain for the little man obvious. He then bent down to look him in the eye and said, “Grundy not anyone’s monster. Grundy tell tiny bald man to stay away before Grundy pop his head like blueberry.” Upon hearing this, Luthor slowly realized that he was in over his head. He grabbed Circe’s shoulder and asked her if she could start over, only for her to reply that perhaps they had chosen the wrong body, treating the entire thing like it was a mere experiment with lab rats. Grundy could sense Luthor’s fear, and like a dog, that fear was a sign to attack. He raised a fist and rammed it towards Luthor, only for Luthor to react quickly and duck out of the way. Bane activated the venom to attack Grundy, only for his charging fist and arm to crumble like a bag of pretzels thrown at a concrete wall. Circe tried to turn Grundy into a manageable animal, like a pig, only for him to punch her out of the forest with the force of a full-speed Maglev Train before she could begin the spell. 

Upon seeing the two powerhouses be defeated so easily, Batman, Robin, Batwoman, and Bodyguard leaped out of the bushes to protect Luthor and Riddler. Considering that Grundy was an undead monster, Batman had no qualms about killing it, which he demonstrated by tossing a flurry of explosive batarangs into Grundy’s face, which detonated with enough force to destroy an armored car. Much to his and his partners’ horror, Grundy’s head reformed from charred mush into a regrown head. Grundy charged forward and attempted to punch Batman, only for Bodyguard to leap onto Grundy’s back with her bowstaff around his neck, attempting to choke him out. Unfortunately, Grundy was more clever than he let on, as he grabbed her bowstaff and surged forward with enough force to throw her off his back, sending her flying several feet into the branches of a nearby tree. Batman raced over to help her out, catching sight of Luthor and Riddler riding away on Bane’s back, who was headed back to Lexcorp to recuperate. Batwoman and Robin tag-teamed Grundy, attempting to shock him with electrified bat-gauntlets, only for electricity to mildly hinder him. Unfortunately, all this did was make him mad, as he charged forward and tried to kick Robin, only for Batwoman to push him out of the way and take the hit for him, sending her flying sideways into a large tree, with a horrible cracking sound, taking her out of the fight. This distracted Bruce momentarily, which allowed Grundy to slap him aside with the force of a car sideswiping him. Robin rushed to his aid, while Bodyguard emptied all of her pistol’s mags into Grundy’s face, only for it to feel like flies to him. Realizing it wasn’t doing anything, she tossed her weapon at him, which he caught and crushed with his teeth. Unfortunately, it detonated a mini-tear gas pellet she’d slipped onto her gun before she threw it, which filled his mouth and caused him to choke, disabling him enough for her to activate her backup staff and stab him in the eye with it. Unlike his skin, his eye popped like a squashed grape, causing Grundy to feel true agony for the first time in his afterlife. Bodyguard then activated the taser function with the staff still stuck in his eye, frying the inside of his head, his maggot-infested brain along with it. But unlike what this would do to a regular person, it activated something within Grundy: Memories of his past. 

With the experiences now filling his muscles, Grundy grabbed the staff and snapped it in half with his other hand with the skill of someone who knew how to fight. He then charged towards Sasha and hurled a punch at her, this time with focus and precision, like a 1920s strongman boxer. Fortunately, Sasha managed to evade his attack thanks to her smaller size, ducking under his arm and trying to slide under his legs. Unfortunately, he picked up on this and grabbed her by the leg, yanking her off the ground upside down. He then looked at her and sneered a gross, toothy smile before saying, “Grundy ain’t fallin’ to no dame in fancy golashes,” with a subtle twang of a 1920s gangster straight out of an old James Cackney movie. Undeterred, Sasha pulled down her mouth scarf and hocked a mean loogie right in his good eye, blinding him. She then pulled a taser out of her utility belt and shoved it right in the eye hole she just made, which made Grundy roar in agony. Unfortunately, this caused him to whip her around blindly like a rag doll before letting go and sending her flying out of sight. Tim knew better than to take on Grundy himself, and he was already too busy trying to help both Batman and Batwoman. As Grundy wiped his good eye clear, he charged forward and bulldozed his way through every tree in his path, with Tim quickly tossing a tracking device onto his back before he left his sight. As Grundy reached a clearing, he could see the light of Gotham City in the distance. Upon seeing it for the first time in a century, only one word left his sewer of a mouth: Home. He then ran towards his old home as fast as he could, like a giddy child running towards the neighborhood candy store. It wasn’t long until he made his way to the Gotham Bridge, where he stopped to take in the bright lights adorning the buildings stacked towards the sky like a tower of lighthouses. It had changed indefinitely since the days of the Roaring Twenties, with large rectangular animated billboards hanging from almost every building, all the cars looking like electric shavers, and every person in the area holding bizarre glowing notebooks at him. One of the people stupidly took a pic of him with their flash mode on, which made Grundy react with anger and slap them off the bridge and into the river, the impact shattering every bone in their body, making drowning seem like a mercy. Upon seeing that, almost everyone ran away as fast as they could from the hulking zombie gangster. Seeing that he still inspired fear everywhere he went, Grundy smiled before rampaging across the bridge and into the city itself, ready to raise hell like the old days. 

Every siren blared across the city as the supervillain alert was broadcast from every street speaker, warning all citizens to stay inside. In no time, the GCPD arrived and formed a squad car barricade, opening fire on Grundy as he tanked every bullet like it was sand blowing in the wind. He barreled through every cop car and SWAT van in his way, even picking up and throwing some of them, while slapping aside every cop and SWAT member who was brave enough to get close. Quickly, most other officers began falling back to avoid being pancaked by a hulking zombie, while Gordon and Montoya held their position and called for backup. Thinking quickly, Gordon pushed Montoya down to duck out of the way of another flying SWAT van. They both got up lightning quick and shot at Grundy, who was charging their way like a runaway train. Before he reached them, Katana jumped down from out of nowhere and sliced Grundy’s forearm clean off with an Iaijutsu Quick Draw. Grundy stumbled back and grabbed his stump in pain as it spurted putrid swamp water. Unfortunately, it grew back within seconds, which only made him smile with sadistic glee as he put his dukes up. “Grundy show you what real scrapping look like,” he said in his slurred, guttural, throaty voice. Katana said nothing and readied her sword, her eyes narrowed under her mask as it gleamed in the streetlights, her red sash and scarf blowing in the wind. Katana charged forward and jumped high, bringing her blade down right into Grundy’s head hard enough to split his skull. With lightning speed, she flipped down and sliced both his Achilles tendons, causing him to fall to his knees. Not wasting a second, she sliced both his legs off at the thighs before doing the same to his head. With him temporarily subdued, Katana yelled for Gordon and Montoya to run and set up a defense further down in case the fight took them farther. As Grundy’s limbs started regrowing, Katana’s sword started glowing, as if it sensed the nearly hundred souls trapped within the rampaging mass of patched together muscles. Within seconds, he got back to his feet and spat on the ground; his rotten saliva was putrid enough to make anyone sick, before asking if that was all she had. He charged towards her again, his large, meaty hands readied to tear off her limbs and beat her with them. Before he could reach her, several flash pellets and smoke bombs were launched and shot into his face, making him stumble back blindly. At that moment, the Cavalier dropped out of the sky and landed with his feet on Grundy’s chest, stabbing his rapier right into his eye hole. He said something clever in Spanish before leaping off, taking part of Grundy’s brain with him. Cavalier looked at the small squirming mass of rotten grey matter on his sword and almost puked before waving it off. He and Katana then tag-teamed Grundy, trying to keep him from making it any further while slicing pieces of him off. Unfortunately, it was never enough to incapacitate him, and he ended the fight when he double-slammed the ground with his fists so hard that it created a shockwave that erupted down the street and sent everyone flying. He then ran further down the road as fast as he could, not letting anything stop him as he tried to make it back to his old stomping grounds: The Narrows.

As Grundy reached The Narrows, he found something he’d never expected waiting for him: a tall, muscular black woman, a 9-foot-tall crocodile man with scaly green skin and massive fangs, and most surprising of all, a translucent well-dressed caped headless specter with a top hat who was riding on the back of a skeletal horse that spewed white fire from its nostrils. It took Grundy a second for his memory to kick in, as he knew the horseback ghost from somewhere. It soon clicked, as he remembered the urban legends of the Narrows’ old folk hero, Gentleman James Craddick. “It seem Grundy not the only one back from dead,” said Grundy, with perverse amusement. “Unfortunately so, Mister Grundy, or wouldst thou prefer I use thine chosen name: Cyrus Gold?” said Craddick, his disgust made clear in spite of his non-existent face. Grundy let out a disgusting, guttural laugh, his voice heavy with maggots rummaging about in his throat. “Grundy not heard that name in years. You be Gentleman Craddick? Heh, Dick,” said Grundy in a sickenly juvenile way, which only filled Craddick with more resolve to destroy him. “You think beefy Negress and Croco-n***** can hurt Grundy? Nothing hurt Grundy! Grundy am invisible!” shouted Grundy with disgusting confidence. “It’s Invincible, which thou art not. Thou art only too stupid to stay dead. Thou hast no business in The Narrows anymore! You shalt not stain these fair streets with thine presence ever again. Now yield damnable cur, and return to thine PUTRID SOIL FROM WHICH YE CAME!” shouted Craddick, as Buttercup let out a hellish neigh as he, Onyx, and Killer Croc charged towards Grundy. Craddick sent out a flurry of necrobullets from his twin pistols, which actually managed to hurt Grundy and pierce his rotting skin. Croc pulled a fast-ball special with Onyx, tossing her hard and fast enough that she struck Grundy in the face with a Scott-Adkins-style Jump Kick that sent Grundy flying onto his back. Croc and Craddick then pounced on Grundy, not letting up for a second. Unfortunately, Croc wasn’t strong enough to hold him down for long, and Grundy managed to uppercut him hard enough that several of his fangs flew out. Onyx tried to take on Grundy herself, only to be swatted aside and straight through a window. Craddick and Buttercup tag-teamed Grundy, coming at him from all sides. Craddick rained gunfire on Grundy while Buttercup came at him from all sides, kicking and pouncing on him. Unfortunately, Grundy picked up on her pattern and punched her in the exact right spot to make her explode like he punched a jigsaw puzzle. “MISLIVED SHREW FIEND! It will take her days to restore herself!” shouted Craddick in anger, as he charged at Grundy, only for Grundy to grab him by the cape and hoist him off the ground. He held him close and breathed in his face, the putrid smell enough to make even a ghost gag. “Tell Grundy. Do ghosts feel fear?” asked Grundy with sadistic glee. Something grew within Craddick, and Grundy could feel it, as a pair of eyes suddenly appeared in the void between Craddick’s neck and his hat. Eyes that were burning with rage and an energy that felt almost…alive. “No fear. Only…RESOLVE!” bellowed Craddick, as he exploded in white and purple fire that knocked Grundy backwards, making him let go of Craddick. His ghostly form went photonegative, his clothes, cape, and hat turning to an inverted white. He unsheathed his cane, revealing the purple, glowing blade concealed within. “NOW DIE FOREVERMORE!” shouted Craddick, his voice radiating throughout the Narrows as everyone in the area watched in both fear and excitement. 

Craddick and Grundy’s battle shook the Narrows; every strike filled with undead power as they punched and sliced each other with murderous intent. By the time Batman, Batwoman, Robin, and Bodyguard got back to the city, the battle was so utterly beyond the scope of their capabilities that they didn’t even know where they could possibly help beyond keeping everyone else away. It seemed that Craddick was going to win, but that’s when the most inconvenient thing happened: Dawn started to break, which meant Craddick started to lose his power. Due to Craddick’s nature as a ghost, he cannot function during daylight and is only allowed to roam the mortal realm once sunlight leaves the soil. As such, the approaching morning sun meant he began to weaken rapidly. As everyone watched this, they could feel their hope slipping away as Craddick was pulled back into his grave. But just as it seemed all hope was lost, everyone heard a massive sonic boom come from the sky. They all looked up and saw a red-and-blue blur emerge from the heavy clouds. Within a second, the blur flew down and punched Grundy so hard that he flew into the sky, with the punch’s sonic boom knocking everyone off their feet. Grundy was bounced back and forth in the sky by the blur, which hit him several times in a millisecond from all sides. After wearing him down to little more than a stump in a ragged suit, the blur grabbed Grundy and flew him down towards the street for all to see. The blur became a tall, muscular man in a flowing red cape, bathed in the morning sun. As the figure touched down in the street with what was left of Grundy, everyone looked at him in amazement. He stood in the street with a warm, welcoming might, dressed in a cobalt-blue body suit with a massive red-and-yellow S shield emblem on his chest, a yellow belt, and red trunks with matching boots. His jet black hair was neatly combed with a thick curl that snaked down his forehead. His face was neatly chiseled with gentle features and a smile that radiated kindness, a smile that seemed to understand and believe in you more than you believed in yourself. His entire being seemed to fill everyone with something hard to come by and yet so valuable in a place like Gotham, something everybody needed: Hope. Batman was just as awestruck as everyone else. He’d heard rumors of his existence, but didn’t fully believe them. Maybe he didn’t want to believe he existed, or he seemed too good to exist, but either way, he did and was standing right in front of everyone. Robin walked up to Batman and gripped his hand tightly, hoping his mentor was seeing what he was seeing. “Is this real? Is that really…him?” asked Robin. “Yes, it is. I never thought I’d see the day, but it’s finally happened. Superman is in Gotham.”

Story: Ascension by biologygeorge

Art: Spirit of Fire by Grundy

Rating: G

Warnings: No archive warnings apply

Characters: Fëanor

Word count: 6342

"Ah, Teekl. Teekl, my cat. One day they will bury us too. And my children will dig me up to work for them until I crumble. Why even bother being born? What's the point of it all, Teekl?"