Absolute Batman and Absolute Wonder Woman, one issue in, have been huge critical and sales hits. And now we’ve got the hat trick with Absolute Superman #1 from DC Comics, written by Jason Aaron, with art by Rafa Sandoval. So how does this third book hold up to the high watermark of the previous two? Pretty darn well, though it’s more of a slow burner than the other issues.
In the issue, we start on a very different Krypton, where the world has been divided into two classes: scientists; and workers. The scientists are the high class; the workers are the low class, identified by what we know is the symbol of the House of El, but here is essentially a scarlet letter.
Without delving too hard into spoilers, that sets the stage for the very different circumstances we find Kal-El. When we do catch up with him, he’s on Earth, very much an alien, but in love with the planet and protecting the workers. It’s an interesting riff Aaron finds here, to work the ecological destruction of Krypton more heavily into Superman’s origin story… The costume he wears (designed by Rafael Albuquerque, then augmented and expanded by series artist Rafa Sandoval) has notes throughout of this ethos. We discover him helping essentially indentured miners in Brazil. He’s battling a massive corporation called Lazarus. He’s not the Man of Steel, he’s the Man of the People.
And that also, despite the wildly different powers and settings, finds Superman back to his origins in the real world, when Siegel and Shuster created him as not Superman, the ideal, the god; but as a man who is super, and fights for the little guy. Aaron, working with Sandoval (who can seemingly draw anything and make it look stunning), gets back to that and brings it into the modern era.
There are also mysteries aplenty that I won’t spoil here that point to some exciting riffs and massive changes to the expected Superman status quo in the future. But where this doesn’t quite meet Batman and Wonder Woman is there’s a lot of info in this issue. And unlike the hook in Snyder and Dragotta’s Batman of having Alfred Pennyworth investigate this new take on Bruce Wayne, leading to an emotional kick when it turns out Martha Wayne is still alive, and the jaw-dropping emotion of Circe and Diana’s adoptive mother/daughter relationship, by the very nature of this Superman, he’s mostly alone. This is far more plot and action-driven than the other two. That’s not a bad thing, by any means, but by comparison, it leads to that slow burn I was noting.
Or, should lead to that slow burn? Now that the first issue is out of the way, perhaps we’ve hit the ground running. We’ll find out in a month if this book is up, up, and away… Or if the Absolute Universe is Superman’s kryptonite.
Absolute Superman #1 Rating:
Absolute Superman #1 Official Synopsis:
SUPERSTARS JASON AARON AND RAFA SANDOVAL UNLEASH A SHOCKING NEW TAKE ON THE LAST SON OF KRYPTON! Without the fortress… without the family… without a home… what’s left is the Absolute Man of Steel!
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