Absolute Martian Manhunter is already a phenomena after a mindbending first issue. The first issue sold out immediately, and Absolute Martian Manhunter was extended to twelve issues off the monumental success. Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez introduced readers to John Jones, an FBI agent whose life changes forever after surviving an explosion. Suddenly he can see minds, the city becoming a tangle of the colored smoke of people’s thoughts. He soon learned the reason for this — his body is home to the Martian Mindhunter. Absolute Martian Manhunter #1 was a perfect synthesis of words and images, and it raised the bar high on what a comic book could be. Absolute Martian Manhunter #2 has some big boots to fill, and luckily it’s up to the challenge.
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Absolute Martian Manhunter #1 was a singular comic reading experience, and it honestly feels like we’re in a new world of what comics can do to tell stories. Absolute Martian Manhunter #2 doesn’t do anything like that; it’s not going to change the nature of comic book storytelling for a second issue in a row. However, that doesn’t mean that this isn’t an excellent comic, because it is. Honestly, if Camp and Rodriguez would have just went back to the well with this one, giving us the exact same kind of ideas and imagery, it would have been a little disappointing. This issue has more structure to it, with less pages devolving into masses of color contorting themselves into images, and more panel grid storytelling. It’s a subtle nod to the fact that this issue is more of an ordered story. John is more in control of his faculties than he was before, and is seeing the world in a new way, making sense of it. Camp and Rodriguez understand how to use the structure of the page to tell a story in a way that barely registers on a conscious level, but is nonetheless there.
This is more of an info dump issue than the last one, all while the Mindhunter pushes John to go after the “trigger” — a heavily armed man on a killing spree to reveal that aliens have taken over everyone. John and the readers both learn more about the relationship between John and the Mindhunter, establishing a new kind of Martian Manhunter story. Suddenly, we’re in a buddy comedy of sorts, as straight-laced FBI agent John Jones is forced to share a body with an alien who lives in the chaos of thoughts. Where the last issue was more freeform chaos, as readers and Jones alike were bombarded by this new relationship, this issue goes a long way in establishing the order of the book. We get to see the way John and the Mindhunter work together, and watch the Mindhunter at work, using thoughts, memories, and the nature of brains themselves as weapons. This issue gives us the prototype of what these stories are going to be like from this point on, giving us a story to go with the chaos. The final page teases the big bad as well, bringing some of the mythology of Martians in the DC Universe over to the Absolute Universe.
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Rodriguez’s art is, much like in the last issue, the most important part of the puzzle for the comic. Rodriguez could have just copied the ways he used imagery in the last issue to tell the story and we would have been satisfied, but he finds new ways to use the artistic ideas that he established in issue #1. There aren’t as many pages of the minds of everyone overtaking the entire image; instead, because of the more ordered relationship between John and Mindhunter, he uses the panels to contain the thoughtscapes, much like our minds do. Telepathy has always been one of the visually boring superpowers, but Rodriguez keeps coming up with new ways to make it into the most exciting visual power in comics. Even something as simple as the Mindhunter calming John down with his memories is a sensational little piece of art, fragments of thought overtaking the reality around him. Rodriguez finds a way to use the comic page to show how the insides of all of our minds work, and it’s a feast for the senses.
There are a lot of sensational pages and panels in this book. From the introduction of Trigger Taylor on the first page to Mindhunter explaining why humans go bad by visually representing the vices of the mind with neon signs to portraying the scenery of Trigger Taylor’s rampage in ways that no one else has before, Rodriguez keeps finding ways to go above and beyond with comic art. We’ve seen scenes like this a million times before, but we’ve never seen them like this. Last, but definitely not least, is Hassan Otsame-Elhaou’s letters. The lettering of this book is constantly outstanding, with the evocative script of the Mindhunter’s dialogue allowing readers to actually hear his voice. This is grade-A lettering. This bravura storytelling at its finest, and it’s why Absolute Martian Manhunter is the most exciting book on the stands.
Absolute Martian Manhunter #2 is able to follow up a masterpiece of a comic with a continuation that brings order to the beautiful chaos of what came before. This comic is visual storytelling at its finest, using page composition and art to bring a world to life. Absolute Martian Manhunter #2 brings together the disparate elements of comic storytelling, weaving them together into a mass of words and images that is completely unlike anything on the market. It’s hard to imagine a comic can be this good, but here it is. Books like Absolute Martian Manhunter show just what comics can be.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Published by DC Comics
Released on April 23, 2025
Written by Deniz Camp
Art by Javier Rodriguez
Letters by Hassan Otsame-Elhaou
Absolute Martian Manhunter #2 is on sale.
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