Review: Absolute Superman #3

Absolute Superman #3 came out last week, a flashback issue looking at young Kal's life on Krypton as it approached destruction. It is a pretty heavy-handed issue as we see Jor-El and Lara dealing with a completely corrupt Kryptonian hierarchy by rebelling with violence.

Now look, this is the Absolute Universe, the one tainted by Darkseid energy, and so the whole thing is going to be murky. A Kryptonian Science Council allowing genocide to happen as long as they escape? Sounds like a Darkseid place. Lara donning attack armor and wielding a lava gun as she mows down innocent police officers? Sounds like a Darkseid place. 

We have seen this Kal on Earth, fighting the system by helping people. He seems to be an upstanding hero, only retaliating when attacked by the cronies of Earth's own corruption. Writer Jason Aaron is walking a fine line here. Superman as a populist hero fighting an inherently evil world? Sounds okay. But where does it end? When does fighting the system become fighting innocent people also stuck in the system? When does this become too ham-fisted?

This issue comes close to that. It veers to the preachy. But I do think it is important for us to see the experiences of young (not baby) Kal on Krypton to inform who he is on Earth.

Now there are some things that seem convenient for the story. And some things that seem nonsensical given the story. So of the three issues of this series so far, I feel this one is the weakest from a writing view.

Interesingly enough, I think this might be the strongest issue from an art view. Rafa Sandoval is just crushing it on this book. Here we see Krypton with its death pangs. We see Lara in action. We see high tech and lush alien landscapes. Sandoval is inching towards Dan Mora as my favorite DC artist.

On to the book. 

As I said, part of these flashbacks are to inform us about who Kal is given he has grown up on Krypton.

We start out hearing that Clark is neither smart enough (or tests well enough) to elevate out of the Labor Guild to the Science Guild. He isn't athletic enough to make it into the military guild either. 

He is nerdy enough to not want to use Krypton's AI to write his papers. He wants to do it on his own. (We saw this earlier in the series too.)

What we do see is that his parents love him for who he is. They like that he gets in trouble because it shows he has some independence of thought, like them I suppose. He is finding his own path.

It is a nice moment. It shows why, I hope, this Kal will become a reporter on Earth. It seems to be in his blood.

That interaction happens on a family camping trip. 

But it is more of a work trip for the Els. Jor and Lara are gathering sunstones and investigating the deadly green energy they know is killing the planet.

Meanwhile, to hammer home the problem, Kal sees throngs of wildlife dead and rotting. That green energy ...

I am used to 'tremors' being the big warning sign for Krypton's death in the prime universe. So seeing this slower, deadlier, more profound environmental death is a new wrinkle. 

Kudos to Sandoval here showing us jewel mountains, wild Kryptonian beasts, and a Kal and Krypto running around.

Then a leap forward.

Kal's school is heading to Kandor, a way to show the labor guild the higher side of life to perhaps prompt them to reach for something higher.

It is hard for me to 100% follow this but it seems like en route the kids' train passes a train wreck, including seeing dead bodies and ... green energy. There is Kal 'reporting' it all. 

But it seems a little of a strong coincidence that Kal's train passes this one. 

The field trip is to the Halls of Wisdom. 

It just so happens that Kal is there as Jor-El is also there trying to convince the Science Council of Krypton's demise. And Kal also happens to be there to see his father being hauled out of the Halls while being arrested and beaten with truncheons. \

Seems like Jor-El might be bit more intelligent than to argue at the Halls on the day his kid is there. 

Seems like the police might not drag a beaten criminal through the main hallways in front of a school field trip. 

But this tells a more potent if less believable story. 

Then, the shot of the issue. 

Kal runs home and tells Lara that Jor was arrested.

She decides to spring him. She gears up with the suit we have seen Kal where on Earth. We hear her name-drop Sol, the AI in the suit. And we see her hoist a Liefeld-ian gun. 

So Lara is going to fight the cops to break her husband out of jail. 

Hero? Populist hero? Criminal? Gray in a Darkseid universe?

Of course, Jor shouldn't be arrested. But is this the only way to fight the power? I guess with the planet about to explode, there isn't time to fight the court system.

But that is one gorgeous Lara. THE panel of the book.

I don't know why she would think that bringing Kal to the prison to be part of this massacre makes sense. Why is Kal there and not safe at home? Unless she wants to show him that sometimes you have to fight the establishment??

Anyways, she uses the suit, the red dust cape, and the giant lava rifle to mop up the cops. 

Two little things I liked a lot. 

One, how cool that Krypto is there and is wearing one of those red dust capes that seems to give him some degree of enhanced abilities. 

Second, Lara uses the suit to put on a sort of bat-like mask/face helmet. It looks a bit like Nightwing! I wonder if that was on purpose.

Remember, this is the 'Central Law Guild Office'. Sort of a police station/prison I assume.

As Lara is basically taking out the Kandorian police department and staging a prison break, Kal has snuck off.

Somehow, despite earlier saying school was a challenge for him, he somehow not only hacks into the police computer system, but also in the science council files. He sees they are making spaceships to get off the planet, but only with room for themselves.

Later, we learn that Kal is able to broadcast this story across the world's news agencies.

So let's sit back and digest this.

The Science Council being aware of the planet's doom and not wanting to save everyone fits with this Absolute world. That is dark. It also feeds into the class warfare story that Aaron is creating here. Another new wrinkle for a new universe? Do they make it off the planet? Are there LOTS of Kryptonians out there?

But I couldn't chew on that for long because my mind was pulled away by these plot elements which make no sense to me.

Lara brings Kal to a firefight? One stray bullet and he's dead.

In the mayhem of Lara's battle, Kal is able to see all this? He's that good a hacker?

The Science Council leave the most secret folders accessible from the police computer system?

Kal is smart enough to broadcast a story to the whole planet??

Jor is freed. The Els run to their hideaway.

And there Lara shows Kal the massive spaceship she is building. This isn't a prototype for only Kal to escape in. This is big enough for them to carry others.

So this is another interesting new wrinkle to the tried and true Superman origin. 

But ...

These are poor laborers, fixing tractors and investigating mines.

How did they build this? Where do they get the funds? The tech?

This wasn't enough to completely pull me out. I have to be able to roll with some comic book stuff. But if this is supposed to be built on a set of rules, that the Els as laborers are basically slaves in the system and scraping a life together, how do they have the stuff to make this?

How cool is that ship though? Another Sandoval stunner.

So there were enough plot contrivances here to fill up that El starship. 

But then the issue ends with Martha Kent in a hospital, talking delirious. 

Is this a depowered Lara who 'became' Martha Kent? A new mystery.

How do I grade this?

I think this issue shows us the direction that Aaron is taking this book, one about justice through civil unrest against the system. You have to tell a superb story for this take to work (think like V For Vendetta superb). But a lot of the plot seems to happen not because it makes sense but in order for Aaron to tell his story. Kal brought to the jail break?

There are enough new parts to the make me want to see what happens. Do Jor, Lara, and Krypto make it off the planet? Do they land on Earth? Do the Science Council on their ships? Who is Martha?

And the Sandoval art makes me want to cry its so good.

Overall grade: B-