Welcome back to Talking Absolute, where we at ComicsXF analyze the Absolute DC storylines, controversies and themes that have captured our imaginations each month. Today, we’ll be covering the titles released in June, featuring emo Flash, a Musky Ra’s al Ghul and something stinky in Absolute Wonder Woman.
Absolute Flash #4
Written by Jeff Lemire, drawn by A.L. Kaplan, colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Tom Napolitano.
Listen, I’m about as emo as they come. I’ve spent lonely winter nights listening to American Football in the dark, I’ve been head in hands crying at a Bright Eyes show; you name it. So when I say that the first page of Absolute Flash #4 is one of the most emo things I’ve ever encountered, I know what I’m talking about. Here’s how it happens.
Jeff Lemire immediately suckers you in with a message of hope: To combat his anxiety, young Wally West evokes the memory of his late mother, whom he loved very dearly. A.L. Kaplan’s first panel depicts Wally with his eyes shut, protecting himself from the cruelty of the world outside, but the invocation of his mother’s name forces them wide open, as the narrative caption boxes describe the process of naming five things you can see, touch and hear as a way of “pull[ing] you out of your thoughts and ground[ing] you in the moment.” The idea of love, compassion and empathy being the perfect antidote to anxiety and loneliness has been central to Wally’s journey so far, and when Lemire sets up the conceit, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re about to receive a poignant message of hope. And then … BAM!
Adriano Lucas’ colors sap the scenes of warmth — skies turn a bluish-gray, figures are awash in shadow, their bodies slumped in grief. One panel just features shoes and a big old hole in the ground. “So here goes … five things I can see.” Those five things are:
- Rain hitting his mother’s gravestone — pathetic fallacy is pretty emo.
- His father trying not to cry because he thinks he needs to be strong for his son. Male role models repressing their emotions, also pretty emo.
- A priest eulogizing but his words fade into the background because dusty-ass religion doesn’t speak to your current emotional turmoil and no one understands you. Hell yeah.
- A big hole in the ground where the person you loved most, as well as your hopes, dreams and prospects of happiness, are buried forever. Hell. Yeah.
- A list you can’t even finish because the pain of the first four items is just too unbearable. HELL! YEAH!
I jest, but it’s a really effective opening (if a little over the top). It’s symbolic of a grittier storyline generally, and is an effective use of Kaplan’s looser, sketchier style. Whereas Nick Robles’ art on the first three issues is clean and glossy, large parts of this issue are more downbeat, so Kaplan’s grittier style matches the realism of these scenes. Wally facing the risk of homelessness in the town of Iron Heights, and the natural fear that comes with accessing food banks and accepting help from strangers for the first time all translates really well. Characterizing Linda Park as a precocious and confident teenager masking her trauma worked well for me because it gives her and Wally an immediate shared connection but withholds a potential source of future conflict to retain some dramatic tension.
While the Iron Heights scenes worked well for me, in large part because of Kaplan’s art, the more classically superhero elements were less impactful. Again, this is largely because Kaplan’s art is less naturally suited to the bombast of a scene featuring the Rogues, but also because they felt very functional. There were three key takeaways Lemire needed to make sure came across: that Fort Fox is connected to Lazarus Corp, that prisoners such as Firestorm, Heat Wave and Wizard have escaped the fort and are on the run, and that Grodd is leading Wally straight to them. All exciting future plot points, granted, just delivered a little transactionally in this issue.
— Jake Murray
Absolute Wonder Woman #9
Written by Kelly Thompson, drawn by Hayden Sherman, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Becca Carey.
Presumed to be the next villain, Dr. Poison lends a helping hand right off that bat, perhaps out of her wish to escape her captors or to prevent her poison from killing countless innocents below, we have yet to find out. Agreeing to let her go unharmed, Diana strikes a deal with Dr. Poison to learn more about a lost Amazon. She learns the coordinates from the scientist and sends the disarmed ant robots to hell.
After talking things over with the team back at the ranch, Diana opens a door to the secret military base where the missing Amazon should be, against Steve Trevor’s wishes. One wonders why Steve even bothers to suggest Diana hold back anymore.
After a brief flashback in which Diana has a prophetic dream of Artemis coming to pay her a visit, she’s made her way into the maze. You know, in all my years reading Wonder Woman, I have to admit I never contemplated the idea that if one had heightened senses, that would include smell. Yuck! We also get a brief team up with a minotaur named Ferdinand against some fish-men.
There’s a certain point where you’ve read enough of a particular writer that their quirks and common trends become obvious, and sometimes I feel like I’ve reached this point with Thompson. I think it happened with her run on Captain Marvel, when I reviewed issue #23. And perhaps I’m at that point again now. Impacted also perhaps by having read her novel, The Storykiller, naming the minotaur after Ferdinand could have been a cute thing, but I was honestly a tad annoyed. Poor Ferdinand, it’s not your fault. The same could be said for the line, “Have my axe, or this lasso will do.” Eventually all the geeky winks and nods to the audience feel tiresome.
[Correction: Ferdinand the Minotaur is an existing Wonder Woman supporting character created by Greg Rucka and Drew Johnson during the Rebirth run in 2017.]
I’ll be curious to see if Queen Clea can break this trend. To be fair, I really enjoyed it when Michael Conrad and Becky Cloonan did it, but I think that had to do with when they resurrected these well-worn narratives or historic Wonder Woman characters, something was being said about them. We talked about the regular onslaught of death and the variety of afterlifes folks imagined, or how they brought three-dimensional characters to the story to make it feel lived in. I suppose I’d like a reason to start caring about these folks again. WHY do they do the things they do? What is the motivation? Where are the stakes? At the very least, give us a little yearning or sexual tension between Steve and Diana. I’m starting to miss Siegfried, or at least another backstory on these lassos.
— Cat Purcell
Buy Absolute Wonder Woman #9 here.
Absolute Superman #8
Written by Jason Aaron, drawn by Rafa Sandoval, colored by Ulises Arreola and lettered by Becca Carey.
June’s iteration of Absolute Superman began a new story arc following the opening salvo of issues #1-6, in which Aaron and Sandoval retold Kal’s origin story and early forays into life on earth, and a great bottle episode featuring Brainiac’s rise to prominence. Issue #8 therefore represents a natural opportunity for the series so far and where it’s going.
After the early promise of the opening four issues, in which Aaron paralleled the hubris and climate equality that brought Krypton to its demise with Earth, the series took somewhat of a lull during issues #5 and #6. It meandered through a retelling of Clark’s time with the Kents, which was cut short by Lazarus Corp’s interference, and the establishment of the Omega Men. Both of these stories were tinted by a tragic sense that Superman had arrived on Earth too late to rescue the likes of Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and the Kents from the clutches of late capitalism and humanity’s destruction at its own hands.
Aaron is trying to meld both elements in this second story arc, bringing Lazarus Corp’s CEO Ra’s al Ghul to serve as a cartoonish, Elon Musk-esque figurehead of capitalist evil while tending to more intimate moments with important figures from Earth One Superman’s story. Refocusing Ra’s mysticism by making him a sort of supernatural Kendall Roy sounds funny in theory, but in practice it’s a little on the nose. The conceit of a villain retaining power by continually resurrecting himself works thematically, but it’s such a well-trodden metaphor for “old money,” even within DC (see Vandal Savage), that it fails to inspire. Dialogue choices like referring to himself in the third person and shoehorning corporate-gobbledygook terms like “The League of Shareholders” and “as it says on the letterhead … Lazarus means life” are potential opportunities for campy fun, but they’re played completely straight here and fall flat as a result. If the allegory of Krypton scenes in earlier issues was holding up a mirror, this representation of “evil billionaire” feels like jamming it in your face.
A related thematic question that Aaron is exploring is whether Kal has arrived too late, or rather whether humanity is too far gone for him to save it. Again, this is slightly more interesting in theory than in practice so far. Again, everything Aaron is doing is on theme: The self-righteous squabble between Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane epitomizes the fractured world Superman has come to, and the potentially unifying hope that he represents being squandered as the Omega Men push Lois out of the boom tube as they teleport away further cements this. The execution is a little lacking, though: The layouts of each page are busy with dialogue and overlapping panels, which slows the issue right down. Sandoval’s art is spectacular when it has room to breathe in splash pages and action sequences, but his panels feel static and posed during long dialogue scenes. As a consequence, I’ve found it difficult to emotionally invest. The jury is very much still out for me on this one.
— Jake Murray
Buy Absolute Superman #8 here.
Absolute Batman #9
Written by Scott Snyder, drawn by Nick Dragotta, colored by Frank Martin and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Matt Lazorwitz and Will Nevin covered Absolute Batman #9 in their BatChat column last week. You can read that here, but if we can tease with one takeaway, it’s this:
Matt Lazorwitz: Absolute Bane is the size of a GD elephant.
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Jake Murray spends far too much time wondering if the New Mutants are OK. When he's not doing that, he can be found talking and writing about comics with anyone who will listen. Follow him @stealthisplanet.bsky.social.
Cat Purcell is a career services librarian, cosplayer, artist and massive coffee consumer. Follow her @thatcatpurcell.bsky.social.
