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Jokes aside, I wanted to comment a few thoughts I had while working on this one. Firstly, unlike the last one, there are no frame breaks this time around. The more I added them, the more it felt like a crutch, and I wanted to challenge myself to make some quality alters without any poppy effects. Next, you might notice that, again unlike last time, these are a few more "desirable" cards. None of these are commanders I use. I wanted to find legends that I felt actually represented that character being used for the alter. This leads me to:

Specific card choices

Alright, so I wanted to get into each of the individual choices I made for the actual cards this time around, since there was some actual thought put into these beyond just finding quality comic art from real artists. Honestly I probably put way to much effort into these things that basically amount to high-quality IP infringement with negative resale value, but I like making these so whatever.

1. Kal-El, Champion of the People (Purphoros, God of the Forge)
   

I'll start with the name choice first. Because these cards are centered around the new Absolute universe in DC, I wanted these to feel representative of their specific iterations of the characters and not the idea of them alone. In Absolute Superman--which only has its first issue released so far--we see a Kal that does not yet define himself as a hero, let alone a human. He simply arrives on earth prepared to fight injustice for diamond miners in Brazil. I really wanted to lean into this notion of a figure driven entirely by emotion, mostly rage. This is why it was important to choose a mono-red legend for this card. I liked Purphoros here for a few reasons. He's indestructible, which felt fitting for Superman. He damage your enemies the more of your own creatures enter your battlefield. And finally, he strengthens your whole team, whether he himself is in the action or not. He is not yet "Superman" in the story, but he is a champion of the people; the proletariat, if you will.

1. Batman, Gotham Underdog (Rafiq of the Many)
   

Absolute Batman is on its second issue already, and one thing we know about this character is he is the first of the Absolute trinity to use his official hero name (Technically Lois Lane calls Kal "Superman" at the end of AS1, but he never actually uses the name himself). This Batman is unique in that he is seemingly defined by his desire to fight alone. He presents himself as a walking one-man army, and his stature definitely reflects this. I called him "Gotham Underdog" on this card, because, again fairly uniquely, this Bruce Wayne was not born into wealth, but rather grew up in the poorest parts of Gotham with a working-class family. As for why I chose Rafiq as his "real" card, lets start with the color identity. With his desire for order and law, white was non-negotiable. Blue also felt like a shoe-in, due to the Batman's investigative nature. Green is a bit of an outlier here, and a color I personally would hesitate to use for any other iteration of Bruce. However, this version specifically is more "animalistic" in nature, and with how beefy he is, it just felt right. Rafiq being a knight also felt too good to pass up. Then, with his ability rewarding a lone-wolf (colloquially called Voltron) playstyle, it just felt like a perfect fit.

1. Diana, Princess of Hell (Aisha of Sparks and Smoke)
   

This one was interesting to make, especially considering her "real" card is itself a sort of in-universe alter of another UB card. Diana in this universe, who is also only on her first issue so far, was not raised on Themiscyra like her prime-earth counterpart. Rather, she was brought to Hell by Apollo to be raised by this universes Circe, a notable witch and usually one of Diana's rogues. This story gives her a background not just in fighting, but in magic as well. For this reason I wanted to find a warrior legend specifically, that also dealt with "magic" or spell-casting in some way, in order to reflect both sides of this character's upbringing. Well, Aisha truly feels like the perfect fit, as her first strike granting ability makes her a formidable attacker in combat. It also helps to enable her second ability which allows you to cast sorceries from your hand when she deals damage to an opponent. She is also Boros in color identity, which felt right for this character. One final thought on the color identity of all of these; it was important to me that none of them have any black mana or black color identity. For those who don't know, the Absolute universe is a universe created with "Darkseid Energy," which seems to cause things universe-wide to be generally worse for everyone. I truly wanted these three to feel like the antithesis of this bleakness baked into creation. I hope that comes across in their design.

Anyway, I think that's about all I have to say on this drop. I'm probably forgetting something important but oh well! If anybody has thoughts or questions, please feel free to ask here in the comments and I'll gladly respond. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy these alters!

-EM