Review: Absolute Superman #5

Absolute Superman #5 came out this last week and it felt like the closing of a first sort of arc. We end on a cliffhanger of a sort for sure. But it feels Krypton is finally behind us.

Writer Jason Aaron has been doing a ton of world building in this series so far. We have had issues focusing on Lois Lane and Krypton and Jor-El and Lara. In some ways it means that Superman has been in the background. We have seen young Kal and heard his thoughts. But grown-up Superman? We know him more from his deeds than his words. 

This issue is similar in approach. We see current day Superman reacting to the death of the villagers last issue, now trying to track down the Christopher Smith Peacemaker. And there is a lot of action for sure.

But the meat of the issue is the flashbacks to Krypton leading us up to its destruction ... finally! Aaron uses Krypton as a cautionary tale for Earth, for sure. There is literal battles between the haves and have-nots. There is the damage to the environment that leads to the planetary explosion. It nears ham-fisted in its telling but doesn't go over the line. And while Krypton is gone, Kryptonians are not. Hmmm ...

The art remains spectacular. Rafa Sandoval is hitting it out of the park here. This is a global destruction issue with earthquakes, spaceships, and civil unrest. It is filled with an angry Superman battering his way through troops. Sandoval makes the whole thing beautifully flow.

We are still world building for sure. On to the book.

Last issue Jor-El went to the Science Council to tell them about Krypton's imminent destruction. Word of the world's collapse somehow has spread. And now, we get civil war. We see labor guild members attacking the science guild. Buildings overrun.

Here, the Els flying an escape ship to their hidden transport shows Jor-El outmaneuvering fighters. We see cities on fire. Clark bemoans seeing what Kryptonians are doing to each other.

I'll talk more about Krypton below. 

Back at the ship, we see just how many people the Els are hoping to save. 

That's a lot of people. Friends. Family. Other laborers. 

A lot of people. Is he truly the last son of Krypton?

Meanwhile on Earth, Kal is waging a one-man war on the Lazarus Corporation as he strives to find Peacemaker Smith.

This is a brutal Superman, all 'angry red eyes of anger' for sure, battering and frying these men. 

This is the Absolute Universe, a darker place. It's a place where Batman has an axe on his chest and dips his enemies feet in acid. Will Superman be 'Superman AF' like Batman is in that book?

Sol is trying to hack into the Lazarus computers to find Smith. That leads to Brainiac trying to hack into Sol. 

This is the most we have heard about Brainiac. His tech is beyond what is on Earth these days. He is in an office filled with bottled cities of screaming people. And he wants to meet Kal.

The cities screaming does feel like Absolute Universe. In some eras, the bottled cities were allowed to live in peace within their bottles. In others, they were in suspended animation as curios. So here they seem more like they are being tortured.

I don't mean to ignore the art. Superman is cool and ferocious in these pages.

Back on Krypton the inner turmoil continues. The higher-ups had huge space arks built. But there is enough rebellion such that none of them made it off world.

Now I have already said that it is hard to believe that the Kents could build their mini-transport ship as laborers. They are supposed to be broke. How did they build their ship?

Even more unbelievable is the rich people having their ships in the open, ready to be swarmed by civilians and laborers to the point of not being able to launch. Surely there would be some secret location these people would ferret to, away from the masses. 

Of course, the Els ship is able to launch. All the occupants seem to log into the ship and get their magical red dust AI protection.

Inside we see Kal comfort this young blond girl.

Baby Kara???

Is this the first cameo appearance of Absolute Supergirl??

And then another sort of oddity.

As the ship tries to head to space, it is ripped asunder by some minor explosion on the planet. 

The red dust AI, the Sols, all morph around the occupants falling to the ground, forming individual lifepods and rocketing off into space. Kal is separated. Jor-El and Lara and everyone else seem to survive in their own tiny ships. We see dozens if tiny ships flying off.

How powerful is this red dust that it is basically able to mimic all the parts of a working rocket, from glass to engine to life support? Too powerful?? 

Are there other Kryptonians out there? Many? Are any others on Earth? 

I said that Aaron veers near heavy-handed text about how Krypton dying is a metaphor. Now we see how he says it took people a blip of geological time to kill it. A but too preachy.

But let's pause and pity poor Krypton.

In the 30's it got one panel, a shot of the rocket flying away. 

Later it became a scientific paradise, albeit one where people didn't listen to Jor-El. 

Then it became a soulless, sterile place where people didn't touch or love. 

Then a divided world of guilds and rigid hierarchies. 

Then it became a place where environmental ravages led to its demise.

And now? 

Well, as I keep saying, this is the Absolute Universe Krypton so it is the worst of the worst, the most traumatic. It is a divided place, filled with internal squabbles. A place where one caste are basically slaves and another self-centered enough to not save the lower. A place where the planet has been strip-mined and gutted. 

Pity poor Krypton. 

But it is gone. This part of the origin is behind us.

As for Kal. He comes as close as you can come to beating someone to death. And he isn't going to seek out Brainiac. He won't seek out Smith any more either. He's afraid what he might do. He is still sporting those red eyes of anger, looking at his hands like Lady MacBeth. He heads to Smallville.

This is the Absolute Superman. 
At least Aaron didn't have him cross the line.

This issue is the hardest for me to review because it looks great and reads like the others. But I can't help but feel it is the weakest as I see the things that stretch even the bounds of science fiction realism as well as character concerns.

The rich having their escape ships out in the open, taunting the lower class.

The Els not only making a ship, but red dust tech so powerful it can create completely working space ships.

Dozens of Kryptonians potentially alive. (A possible Kara is a positive, assuming she will be treated well.)

The further devolution of Krypton from paradise to classist hell.

An enraged Superman acting like Atrocitus for most of the issue. 

This is the Absolute Superman book after all. 

Overall grade: C