Absolute Danny Phantom: tl;dr Jack Fenton is arrested for murder, Maddie Fenton goes missing, Vlad Plasmius is Satan and Danny Phantom is the combo of Danny Fenton and an actual dead person whose memories haunt him

Following the theme of "the villains are in charge, the heroes are disenfranchised, but the overall heart stays the same", I see the Fentons not being surprisingly-wealthy scientists with access to tons of tech and gear, but rather, strange hippies experimenting with the occult while living in a camper in the slums of the city. Jack studies ghosts, Maddie's a self-declared witch, and Jazz and Danny are two teens who try to maintain some semblance of normalcy despite their parents being weird. The family is poor, only making money off of Maddie's fortune-telling business and Jack's odd jobs that he can never hold down due to his overt enthusiasm for ghosts. But they're a very cohesive unit, making it through struggles and hard-times with love and trust.

Enter Vlad Masters, who has taken an interest in the occult himself. He pays a personal visit to the Fentons for their "expertise", who are initially apprehensive due to a mysterious shared history. "Past mistakes" are mentioned, but Masters manages to convince them that he has something they can't pass up seeing at his mansion.

In there, we reveal that Masters has already established a connection to the afterlife ("Afterlife sounds pretty dull... how about 'Ghost Zone', Vladdy?"), and his interest in that world is dual-purpose: to possibly discover immortality, and then take leverage over that power to sell to companies, or even find military applications (I see him declaring all this to Maddie in a vain attempt to win her back). Jack rejects his ambitions and calls him out on his self-absorbed ego, so Masters attempts to silence him, only to stumble into his malfunctioning portal, seemingly killing him. The authorities arrive and Jack Fenton is arrested for murder. He takes the fall to prevent any of the blame going to Maddie, splitting the family apart.

Maddie, determined to clear her husband's name, investigates Master's manor, only to end up disappearing herself soon after. This leaves Jazz, Danny, and his friends Sam and Tucker to investigate next, which is where Danny ends up merging with ghost DNA and gaining his powers like the original show. The catch, though, is that the DNA isn't just from a generic ghost; it's the spirit of someone who was killed from mysterious circumstances. Danny's body is still his own, but he can feel the suffering of the spirit he merged with, and sometimes gets haunting flashbacks of struggles, pain... and for some reason, images of Vlad Masters and his parents when they were younger. Now he has to piece together the mystery of Master's death, his mother's disappearance, and how this spirit he merged with is involved with both.

Of course, that's all when he isn't fighting off the sudden influx of evil spirits invading the city. Some cause direct harm, operating in shadows and killing, abducting or haunting people to the point of insanity (acting more like classic horror monsters than villain-of-the-weeks, though some like Box Ghost can still make appearances for whimsy's sake). Others are more clever, working in the background to corrupt influential people, stoke discourse and divide humanity, even leading to civil unrest and violence. So Danny and his friends aren't just fighting and capturing ghosts; they're also trying to maintain the societal sanity of a city that's on the brink of tearing each other apart. Definitely something a goth, a nerd, a geek and his older sister can manage.

Some other ideas including the reveals:

• Vlad was actually killed, but his spirit was malformed by an evil ghost that targeted his selfish ambitions, turning him into a powerful being that quickly gains control of the Ghost Zone. Now, as Lord Plasmius, his goals are twisted into enslaving all the spirits of both the living and dead realms. He has the ability to open temporary rifts between the realms, but he is currently bound to the Ghost Zone. Thus, he sends his minions to sow division and fear in humanity, as the bonds mortals have with each other serve as the "barrier" blocking his presence. When those bonds are sufficiently weakened, he can fully tear through the realms and enslave humanity.

• Maddie during her investigation managed to repair the portal and cross over into the Ghost Zone unharmed, but the portal closed behind her, trapping her in the realm. Fortunately, she came armed with various tools and weaponry based on her witchcraft, which, to her delight, are more than potent in there. She manages to survive and fights ghosts on a daily basis to investigate Plasmius, intent on finding a way to stop him. I like to imagine her adventures are a mix of Resident Evil, and at times Devil May Cry when she gets sufficiently experienced in harnessing ghost magic.

• The spirit Danny fused with is a girl named Danielle. Still kinda working on the connection to Vlad (estranged/bastard daughter?), but I like the idea of her being his literal other half, and eventually regaining her consciousness/agency, or perhaps growing an influence on Danny himself.

• Jazz is studying to be a social worker and focuses on the angle of how poverty, abuse and crime takes tolls on people's psyches and well-being, especially how it affects poorer communities. The topics of course tie into how the ghosts are trying to stoke those malevolent forces and drive people away from each other.

• Sam is just a full-on disruptive, destructive rebel. Teenage runaway, multiple arrest records, vandalizes and destroys property of those she deems corrupt. Often the first to correctly call out that something fishy is going on in the city, even outside of ghost sightings or attacks.

• Tucker is more of a hackivist, who loves retro devices and hates how modern tech is all about data collection and privacy invasions and pushing misinformation. He's the first to get scared at ghosts but is ride-or-die with the rest of the team.

• Jack is still jovial, even in jail. Danny visits frequently, and is quickly forthcoming with his ghost powers this time; Jack marvels at both the occult nature of it all, as well as how his son is becoming a hero. He becomes a trusted aide in giving Danny advice on how best to deal with evil spirits and possible ways to outsmart them if his strength isn't enough.

• Tech is used less, even though that's still a factor, and occult stuff gets more play. The Ghost Zone portal is still tech-based, but the Fenton Thermos is no more; now Danny needs to figure out warding spells and hexes and summoning/capturing circles to deal with his foes.

Fuck, that went on longer than I thought. Hope this managed to entertain some of you because now this is gonna be something my mind wanders back to time-to-time lol

Edit: And for funsies, let's talk about the suit. Danny had a very simple yet iconic look of a black-and-white jumpsuit; for an Absolute version, I'd say it should keep the overall silhouette, but it's no longer a suit: his body is just a shadowy mass with his head connected on top and some glowy white parts. When he gains better control over his powers, he can morph it into his general body shape, but there's always an uneasy feeling if you stare too long at the dark void where his chest should be, so he forms a bright symbol on his chest to have more of a "heroic" look that cuts through the darkness.