Event comics, by their very nature, don’t take breaks to let their characters deal with the trauma of what they’re going through. At best we get that in the aftermath of the main story, as the heroes process… And then move on. Then there’s Absolute Power: Super Son #1 from DC Comics. It’s a stand-out one-shot that narrows in on Jon Kent, and shows that just because the “problem” has been solved, the pain may never go away.
Written by Sina Grace and Nicole Maines, with art by John Timms and Travis Mercer, this issue picks up after the events of Absolute Power #3. In that issue, Jon has been freed from the control of the Brainiac Queen. He’s alsoseemingly broken from the bidding of the main series’s villain, Amanda Waller. While Jon insists he’s fine and just wants to get back into the fight, the women of Themyscria insist they have to be sure he’s purged BQ’s influence. So they send him into his own memories to suss that out.
In the process — and spoilers past this point — Jon discovers that he may never be completely free of his corruption… The pain of what he was forced to do is represented by the source code still present in his body. The metaphor Grace and Maines are playing with is clear… Jon has been through a devastating traumatic experience where his body and will were taken away from him. He’ll never again be fully sure that he is himself. He won’t know if the things he’s doing are of his own volition. Rather than slapping black eyeliner on him and making him go Dark Superman, a la what a lesser comic might do… He’s still Jon by the end. He’s still Superman. But that doubt lingers, just as it would with any real trauma, in the real world.
That’s far from the only ball the team is juggling here. Though she “died” in Absolute Power #2, Dreamer returns as a guide for Jon. We’re told that this is just a memory version of the character. But there are indications it might be something more. A moment when this Dreamer, left alone, seems to have a mind and thoughts of her own. Another is when a conversation between Dreamer and Jon turns suddenly, surprisingly romantically charged. It’s only a matter of time before the character returns, not just because of the cyclical nature of superhero comics, but because there are now multiple outs for bringing her back. Given her essential double-billing in this issue and her relationship with Jon, it should be intriguing to see what happens next when she does.
And then there’s Jon’s relationship with his boyfriend. Complicated, emotionally harrowing, and very real, Grace and Maines again appropriately mine how couples can stick together even when their own, separate wounds thrust them in different directions.
Over in the main title, writer Mark Waid has been doing a bang-up job tugging on the heartstrings by playing with Superman’s relationship with his son. Here, we get to see Jon, solo, dealing with his own damage, and it adds layers and nuance to the main story, as the best spin-offs do… And this is certainly among the best. Kudos to DC for taking the time to allow Grace, Maines, and the whole team to dig into this. It’s a hard read at times, a thrilling and laugh-out-loud funny one at others. But it’s a necessary one that gives Jon time to heal. Even if the real healing is a life-long journey.
Absolute Power: Super Son #1 Rating:
Absolute Power: Super Son #1 Official Synopsis:
Following the events of Absolute Power #1 and #2: Jon Kent will have suffered the most at the hands of the Trinity of Evil, but he will soon summon the will to fight back. Co-written by Nicole Maines (Suicide Squad: Dream Team) and Sina Grace (Superman: The Harvests of Youth) with art by John Timms and Travis Mercer, Absolute Power: Super Son is an oversized one-shot that takes Jon Kent to the depths of despair, reckoning with his own past to save his future while paving the way for a critical new chapter in his heroic journey.