In the episode's narrative, Clark Kent (Welling), Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack), Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Justin Hartley) and John Jones (Phil Morris) meet a team of superheroes, called the Justice Society of America, who operated during the 1970s.

The introduction of the Justice Society was developed to be relevant to the series, primarily being used to teach the new generation of superheroes—Clark, Oliver, and the rest of the team—a lesson about family and leadership.

As Chloe Sullivan tries to get in touch with Clark Kent, she finds herself cornered in an alleyway by a man named Sylvester Pemberton, who is wielding a staff that has the ability to control light.

Chloe and Clark go to the hospital to investigate the truth behind Sylvester, which ultimately leads them to the Daily Planet archive room.

There, Clark and Chloe discover documents and an old 16 mm film that identifies Sylvester as part of a team of "criminals", which includes: Carter Hall, Kent Nelson, Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, Ted Grant, Abigail Hunkel, Wesley Dodds, and Al Pratt.

After investigating Dodds and Pemberton's deaths, Clark and Chloe believe they have located the killer at the psychiatric ward of Metropolis General Hospital.

Meanwhile, the real assassin is revealed to be Joar's son, who is killing the Justice Society members for putting his father in that vegetative state decades earlier.

Oliver and John Jones show up at the museum to rescue Clark, unaware that Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and Stargirl are actually heroes.

Afterward, Carter tells Clark that he and Courtney have located the surviving members of the Justice Society, their children, and their protégés in order to build a new team of superheroes for today's generation.

Back at the Daily Planet after having been visited by Agent Waller, Lois publishes her article on the Justice Society, revealing them to be a team of superheroes who were lambasted by the government, and falsely imprisoned.

[8] Michael Shanks, Brent Stait and Brittney Irvin were cast as the Justice Society members Carter Hall/Hawkman, Kent Nelson/Doctor Fate, and Courtney Whitmore/Stargirl, respectively.

Peterson felt that the Justice Society should teach the new generation of heroes—Clark, Oliver, and the rest of the team—a lesson about family and leadership.

[3] Peterson also stated that the mid-season episode "Disciple" was written so that it could set the table for "Absolute Justice", and reveal that the show's heroes are not coalescing the way they need to be.

[12] Geoff Johns described his version of the Justice Society to be similar to the heroes of the film Watchmen, who "come out of retirement to give 'the screwed-up guys of the next generation a needed smack down'".

While he was developing the initial concept for the story, and meeting with executive producers Peterson and Souders, there were no restrictions on the characters he could use.

The idea of using Wildcat or Jay Garrick was floated around, but Johns believed he had a unique approach to the Doctor Fate character.

In addition, Johns researched where the Smallville writers had taken the show since the last time he wrote an episode, although he acknowledged that he did not have the plan to incorporate the primary storyline of season nine.

Shanks, who is accustomed to the chaos of a weekly television series, was surprised to find so much attention paid to a guest starring role.

Two hours of comic book bliss, well, let's just say contracts might be written up that very night to secure the next phase of the Man of Steel's odyssey.

He voiced his opinion against the antagonist, Icicle, and called the actor who portrayed the character "poor", and stated he "got goose bumps", regarding his fate at the hands of Clark Kent.

Tucker wrote: "For viewers who only know the Superman/boy mythos according to Smallville, it must have seemed strange to have most of the series' ongoing subplots put in storage for this week's two-hour edition.

[23] Reviewer Blair Marnell said: "For longtime comic fans, catching all of the comic references was part of the fun, including Radu's Cafe from "Green Lantern", the "Trouble Alert" from the classic Super Friends animated series, and Pemberton's "Star-Rocket Racer", which also served as the home for the fallen hero".

He said the episode approached an "epic scale not seen in the series for a long time" and criticized the "raspy voice" of "Hawkman".

In concluding the review, he wrote that he enjoyed slight nods to the comics and thought the episode could have been told in one hour.

He applauded writer Geoff Johns, saying he "outdoes himself with a story that pays homage to the early days of some of DC's finest".

[27] Brad Trechak from TVSquad had a negative review: "Admittedly, the episode was kind of light on story and ended up having major plot-holes, the least of which being how exactly "Hawkman"'s helmet stayed on".

He compared the episode to the Watchmen film and asked why the Justice Society were scared of Icicle, and thought that the show creators could have used Vandal Savage or another menacing villain.