Absolute Superman #1
Last Dust of Krypton Part 1: Down in the Dirt
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
(Spoiler Warning…this review discusses events from this issue. If you haven’t read the issue yet and don’t want to know anything about it, you might want to come back after you have read the issue.)
Full disclosure…I wasn’t looking forward to this book.
And that’s all on me and not on the current administration at DC Comics. I have enjoyed the Superman titles quite a bit over the last few years. As selfish as it sounds, they were finally getting back to the Superman I wanted to read about. So, when the whole All-In initiative/Absolute line was announced, and the first images came over the interwebs with the tag line “Without the fortress…without the family…without a home…what’s left is the Absolute Man of Steel!” I wasn’t filled with excitement.
“Oh man,” I thought. “This doesn’t bode well. Just as things were turning around in the comics and we were getting great versions of Superman on television and hopefully in the new movie it looks like once again DC is going to trot out the sad bastard version of the character.”
To be fair, I had good reason to think this. The Zack Snyder version of the character and living through The New 52 has left me gun shy about these things. In an effort to make the character more relatable both Snyder and DC Comics gave us versions of the character that either stripped away everything that made the character who he was or made him sullen and downbeat. It wasn’t a Superman that I recognized despite the fact that he was wearing outfits that were familiar. The Rebirth initiative did a lot to bring me back around, and as I wrote a few paragraphs ago I’ve gotten plenty of great Superman content over the past few years, but I still don’t completely trust DC.
And then I saw Mark Waid, a man that knows his Superman, saying good things about Absolute Superman.
And then I saw people whose opinions I trust saying good things about it.
And then I read the issue.
And I really liked it.
For one thing, it was a full first issue. I honestly wasn’t expecting anything to happen on Krypton because the marketing for the book made me think that once again DC was going to strip away everything from the character and it made a weird kind of sense in my head that if they’re going for the whole, “no Fortress, no family, no home” angle that “no Krypton” would follow.
Instead, we’re given an amazing version of Superman’s home world. Instead of being the cold, desolate version that Byrne gave us or the gleaming sci-fi version from the Silver and Bronze Age or the crystalline version from the Christopher Reeve films that some creators can’t seem to let go of we get a new version that has echoes of the past (especially in the form of the guilds) but in a new, fresh way. Conflict because of an uneven class structure is not a new idea, but applying it here and, on top of that, making both Jor-El and Lara part of the lower class, changes the legend without breaking it.
Aaron does a fantastic job of making me like Jor-El and Lara as people. Instead of being scientists they’re laborers, which makes them feel closer to Jonathan and Martha Kent. This shouldn’t work and yet it does. They’re also good people. Lara is shown helping a farmer fix his equipment and Jor-El is shown pushing back against his bosses. We learn through the narration that they were both destined to be in a higher caste but their stubborn streaks and willingness to voice truth to power cost them.
What better parents for a character that started out as the champion of the weak and the oppressed?
Then we cut to the present and we find a Superman that, despite not being at full power, stands up against a corporation that doesn’t care about putting their workers in harm’s way in the name of profit. It is a timeless idea that also feels very real in the here and now. And it’s at this point that it hits me why I am enjoying this new take on Superman so much.
It’s because it’s an actual new take.
It’s not taking the trappings we’re used to and changing them to suit the storytelling needs of the people working on Superman. It’s changing everything about the character while retaining the spirit of the original version.
In 1938 there was no Fortress. No Ma and Pa Kent serving as the ultimate inspiration for Clark to become Superman. No giant cast of supporting characters and villains. There was a Lois Lane, but she wasn’t the Lois we would eventually get to know. It was just a guy in a funky costume using his powers to help people and Jason Aaron has gone all the way back to the beginning and rebuilt the character from the ground up while using the original foundation.
It’s not “my” Superman. But it isn’t trying to be anything close to “my” Superman.
And that’s what I loved about it.
I can enjoy this new version with absolutely no baggage and, hey what do you know, there’s also a version I am liking flying around the pages of Action Comics and Superman. Unlike Man of Steel (the film) and The New 52 (which was nearly 15 years ago but apparently still stings) it’s not the only option. It’s an option.
And, so far, it’s a good one.
This was a great first issue full of action and character. The art by Rafa Sandoval was lush and amazing. I wasn’t sure I would like this new take on Superman and his world, but Sandoval’s art certainly added to getting me onboard. There are questions left to be answered, and I look forward to seeing the final days of this Krypton and meeting this new Lois Lane as well as finding out who the character behind the computer monitors is.
I’m glad I was proven wrong. And I’m glad I got over myself and read this.
I can’t wait for the next issue.