Every one of the Absolute line of titles has been making a very strong case for why you should read them. Absolute Wonder Woman is one of the best fantasy-superhero stories of the century so far, Absolute Batman is pure high-octane gas with every panel, and Absolute Martian Manhunter is pure modern art. All of these books deserve to be read, but if you had to only pick one, you might just have to pick Absolute Superman. It is an instant classic in the making, and every issue only gets stronger and more intense, somehow always topping the peak that came before it. The action is only ever climbing, and after the bombshell of a last issue, there is no better time to jump on the bandwagon than right now. Here are five reasons why you need to read Absolute Superman.
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1) It Celebrates All of Superman
Superman has changed a lot over the years. He started as a man who fought against social injustices and physically pushed for reforms, often threatening those in power to do the right thing. The Silver Age saw him evolve into a larger than life figure that could do practically anything, going to a distant galaxy for a quick swim and popping back before lunch. In the modern day, he is a symbol of unrelenting hope and kindness above all else. Absolute Superman is all of these things at once. He directly fights against the corruption of big corporations that care more about profit than people, freeing the oppressed and punishing the wrongdoers. His story also doesn’t shy away from the fantastical elements of his character, such as Lazarus having futuristic technology that can do practically anything, all engineered by a nightmare version of Brainaic, and with expressing how absurdly powerful Superman is. And even though this world is at its worst, Superman never stops fighting for a better way, even when nobody, not even he, can see it. He is the ultimate symbol of hope against oppression, and fights the system that is populated by supervillains. It perfectly mixes every aspect of his story.
2) Modernized and Topical
Superman has always been someone who stood up against evil in all forms, but is often called old-fashioned by those who don’t understand him. Absolute Superman waves that issue by perfectly modernizing him with a story that feels essential to tell in today’s political and economic climate. We live in an era where doom, gloom, and cynicism rule our conversations and media, and instead of shying away from that, Absolute Superman embraces that to elevate its story. The Absolute Universe is built upon being dystopian, and Superman faces a dystopia that feels very real to us; a corporation rules most of the world with money, callously engorging its bottom line while the people it exploits and the very planet beneath the shareholders’ feet dies in squalor. Superman himself constantly wrestles with this reality and reacts with anger and pain as we all do, but through it all remains entirely Superman. He never gives up hope, and shows the audience why you shouldn’t through the lens of a cynical world that could exist in any popular sci-fi or Netflix drama. This comic asks what Superman would be like if he were created today, and boldly declares that he’d still be Superman, but with a world we can all resonate with.
3) Gorgeous Art
I’ve already talked at length about the magnificent script and world that Jason Aaron has crafted, but credit must be given to the artists who brought it to life; Rafa Sandoval and Carmine Di Giandomenico. These two artists are putting out next level work. I mean just look at this image of Superman descending from the sky, his cape billowing into angelic wings and storms. Superman’s redesign is one of the best in the Absolute Universe so far, which is saying a lot considering his competition is goth Wonder Woman and Flash’s new look, even if I miss the trunks. His cape being made of the red dust of Krypton gives it an ethereal nature, twisting and molding around him to be whatever it needs. The solar glow in his forearms and boots accentuates how this Superman is bursting with power that the world demands he use. Don’t even get me started on how amazing and terrifying Braniac looks! And having Jor-El look like the mainline Superman is an excellent artistic choice. Overall, the art is downright awesome.
4) Comfortingly Familiar Yet Creatively New
Like with every book in the Absolute Universe, core aspects of Superman were changed in order to fit the new dark world. Kal-El grew up on Krypton, Lois is a member of Lazarus Corp and hates journalists, Jimmy Olsen is in the Omega Men, and so on. Everything is a brand new take on all of these classic characters that feels so unlike anything we’ve seen before, but it still feels distinctly like Superman’s beloved cast. Kal is the man who will fight on no matter what to save innocent people. Lois is fighting against every authority to find the truth with nothing more than a sharp wit and insane levels of audacity. Jimmy Olsen is a guy trying to do the right thing only to end up way over his head and best friends with an alien, always being the measuring stick for what’s normal. Even the Kents, although they didn’t raise Superman, are the ones that made him feel at home on Earth and restored his hope that there are good people out there worth fighting for. These are the characters that we know and love, but we’re getting to see new versions of them that still stay faithful to who they are as people, which is always wonderful to see. And even the complete overhauls like the one done to Brainiac are absolutely marvelous in every conceivable way. Trust me when I say you will love to fear him just as much as everyone else when you read the issue dedicated to him.
5) Truth, Justice, and a Today Worth Fighting For
This new world is much less forgiving than the DC Universe we are used to. Atrocities occur on scales we cannot even fathom, and Superman is a little torch trying to fight back against the cold darkness of a winter’s night. It almost feels impossible, but Absolute Superman reminds us that it isn’t, even while showing us how horrible things are. This isn’t a story that is centered around how terrible everything is and having Superman brood all the time, but one that says that this world sucks, and asks how we can go about fixing that. Superman is constantly pushed to his emotional and spiritual limit in trying to stay a good person in this reality, but he continuously does because he knows that it’s the right thing to do. Lois Lane finds out that the world is far more complicated than she thought, and now she will stop at nothing to ferret out the secrets that have been kept from the ignorant people and show them how there is a better way. Jimmy Olsen wants to leave the world a better place than he found it, and even if he doesn’t think there’s a better way than the atrocities that the Omega Men have been doing, he refuses to go against what he believes in too. Superman refuses to kill even when he thinks he might have to, choosing instead to try and save the lives of the people he hates most because this is a story about being a hero in the face of the worst adversity you can imagine. This is a story about being lifted up by a man who fell out of the sky, and how together we can change the world for the better, the right way.
There are dozens more reasons why you should read Absolute Superman, but instead I’ll leave you with the simple guarantee that if you love Superman stories and if you can accept the harshness of this reality, then you are going to love this story to pieces. It really does feel like a legendary tale in the making, and is clearly building towards a massive event that will rock the Absolute Universe to its core. Much like the regular Superman is the beating heart of DC, Absolute Superman is the scarred, battered heart of his universe that refuses to stop beating. It knows that things are bad, but it refuses to stop loving, no matter the pain.
Which part of Absolute Superman has been your favorite so far? What do you hope to see develop in the future? Personally, I’d love to see this version of Superman build his own Clark Kent identity and truly join the people of Earth, fighting injustice by exposing truths those in power don’t want you to know, with Jimmy and Lois at his sides as a sort of underground journalism team. That’s what I’d love to see, but you make sure to let us know what you want in the comments below!
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Image courtesy of Netflix
