Absolute Superman #4 – Jason Aaron, Writer; Rafa Sandoval, Artist; Ulises Arreola, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Of the three Absolute books, this is the only one that’s sort of keeping its lead character at a distance. We’ve seen him in flashbacks, and we’ve seen him in action, but he’s almost not the lead character of his own title. He’s taciturn, silently heroic, and ruthless in a way we’re not used to seeing from Big Blue. That means we largely learn about him through how others see him – and in this issue, Lois Lane tries to get answers about where she can find him directly from the source. She interviews dozens of people rescued by him around the world, all of whom view him with awe and see him as a harbinger of a different world coming. And as she becomes more and more fixated on this mysterious Superman, we see her starting to break from Lazarus Corp. She’s no longer using their AI system, she’s going out into the slums to investigate on her own, and she’s starting to ask questions they don’t want answered.
While Superman barely appears in this issue, we get a lot of new developments. Sam Lane makes his debut this issue, an embittered old man with robot legs following an “incident” that retired him. We also get our first glimpse of the main threat the Peacemakers are fighting, the Omega Men – a ruthless paramilitary group that has no problem killing agents of Lazarus. Their leader, Primus, isn’t unmasked but has some unexpected ties to the Lanes – but her second-in-command is unmasked and is another huge twist for this book. This issue only brings in Superman towards the end, and has Lois run into more trouble as she tries to connect with him. It feels like a bit of a slow burn, but with a ton of excitement along the way. It’s also nicely calling back to the original take on Superman as a defender of the oppressed – a take we could all use right now. This creative team is doing something unlike any Superman book on the stands, which is the assignment for this whole line.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
