Back in the day, comic book events used to stretch 12 issues, and take over the entire line of books. Now, things are different, usually focused on shorter-run events with multiple spinoffs and limited tie-in issues. While I miss those line-wide events of yesteryear, the breakneck pace, intense emotion and focus of DC Comics‘ Absolute Power event is making me a convert to the shorter run style. And that clarity of focus continues in this week’s Absolute Power #2.
Written by Mark Waid with art by Dan Mora, the heroes and villains of the DC Universe — or at least, 80% of them — have had their powers drained by Amanda Waller and her squad of Amazo robots. It’s all a little more complicated than that, but as we pick up in the second issue, what is left of the heroes have gathered in the Fortress of Solitude to figure out a plan of attack.
What follows are a series of blockbuster moments expertly drawn by Mora and scripted by Waid that begin to pay off on nearly two years of storytelling on the part of DC. Yes, it’s helpful if you’ve been reading religiously, or at least enough of the books to get the sense of the main characters’ status quos… The main trinity of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman; the Titans, and the folks on Waller’s side (Brainiac Queen, Dreamer, Arrow, and Failsafe) all get big moments in this issue that dive deep into the crux of what’s happened to them in the ongoing stories since the end of Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths.
But that’s not a detriment to the book, it’s a bonus. If you don’t know any of that it boils down to the heroes losing, the villains winning, and things only getting worse from there.
What the compressed pace does here, though, is it pushes those big sacrifices and gut-wrenching emotional moments into the second issue of the series, instead of six issues in. The book has the classic event structure of inciting event, heroes gather and head off on side missions, then reconvene to fight back and save the day. But rather than a bunch of side business and trips to various locales to find macguffins, Waid is using the opportunity to blast through your expectations of events with precision and force.
If the first issue of Absolute Power was a paranoid thriller, this issue is Empire Strikes Back times 1000. You know the good guys will win out in the end (not least of which because DC has announced their titles for October, post-Absolute Power). But right now things are as grim as they’ve ever been. That’s just good superhero comics. And it might redefine events — or at least how I personally feel about them — in the process.
Absolute Power #2 is on sale now from DC Comics.
This review is downright ungrammatical (“You know the good guys will win out in the end (not least of which because DC has announced their titles for October, post-Absolute Power)”—“not least of which”? What is the subject of the relative pronoun?). Please take a writing class or something.
Thanks Christian, this comment was a really great use of everyone’s time and energy!