Oh boy, what a week. This year has really been kicking me down, and I’m not even just talking about the wide world of crumbling society. It’s just been…that kind of week. Anyway, new comics keep coming out, and they main fun enough, like the start of Absolute Green Lantern.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Absolute Superman #6 for the absolute best issue so far in this already stellar series! It just keeps getting better!

Meanwhile, I’m still very much enjoying Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, as I always knew I would. Just taking my time living in this game. I watched the first season of Paradise on Hulu and found it merely OK, other than a few standout moments or episodes. And I’m currently really enjoying the first season of The Residence on Netflix, which is a murder mystery set at the White House. Highly recommended.

Comic Reviews: Absolute Green Lantern #1, Absolute Superman #6 and X-Men #14.

Absolute Green Lantern #1
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Jahnoy Lindsay
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni

I think this is the last of the Absolute books to come out, so I’ve definitely read them all. For some reason, I don’t think the latter three were as good as the former three, at least to me, personally.

A giant Green Lantern symbol has crashed in the middle of the small town of Evergreen, Nevada, causing widespread destruction. Hal Jordan seems to have escaped there after an encounter with the alien Abin Sur. We don’t know what happened, but Hal has been given the Black Hand, which he can barely control, and which causes him to kill a police officer and lay waste to a diner where he stopped for a drink. His friend, Jo Mullein, was also in Evergreen (along with their friend John Stewart), only she glows green like the lantern, and has tracked Hal to the diner.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

This was a solid start with some interesting ideas at play, but I think they buried the lead, and it’s easy to see where and how. This issue was all about following the mystery of a panicky Hal Jordan and what might have happened to him. Why is he so crazy? How did he kill that police officer? And then we find out it’s the Black Hand, which is a classic GL villain. Was it supposed to be a surprise that Hal wasn’t the Green Lantern? Because that’s spoiled by the cover. But yeah, most of this issue is the cold open of a horror film or whatever type of film you want. Who is that mysterious figure causing so much mayhem? And while interesting, it didn’t fully grab me.

What has made the Absolute comics special to me so far is how they preserve the core of the main character while mixing up the supporting concepts and characters. And the core of Green Lantern is probably a little harder to figure out than the cores of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. And I don’t think this first issue really nails the core of Green Lantern. We mostly just get some wild reinventions of GL stuff. I loved the visual of a big, green GL symbol crashing down onto a town, full of alien mystery, wonderment and terror. That was a good touch. But it’s just a tease at this point.

I liked that multiple humans were introduced right away, and by that I mean, we got Hal, John and Jo in person, with a name from of Guy. Green Lantern being a whole group of people is definitely a core aspect of the character, so that was a good starting choice. But we didn’t get any of Hal as a risk-taking action junkie. We didn’t get much out of the personalities of John or Jo, the latter of whom will be the Absolute GL. Jo Mullein is such a new character that I don’t think she has a core that anyone would really recognize. So what’s going to differentiate Absolute Jo Mullein from regular Jo Mullein?

I guess we’ll find out. I’m willing to keep going.

TL;DR: While this is the solid start to a story, I don’t think it really nails into any core aspects of the Green Lantern mythos in this first issue, which is what I’ve come to expect from Absolute so far.

Absolute Superman #6
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Colorist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: Becca Carey

At long last, we arrive in Kansas and meet the Kents, and they were absolutely worth the wait!

This issue is all about Kal-El’s flight through space — which took more than a year, of just him isolated and alone, save for the computer, Sol. He crashed in Kansas on the Kent farm and they took him in, the same salt-of-the-Earth people as always. Took some time for him to recover, and then longer for Sol to reactive and teach him English. And no sooner did he finally connect with the Kents and help their struggling farm against the Lazarus Corporation then the Peacemakers showed up and he was forced to flee. But now Lois Lane has tracked down Martha Kent in the present at an assisted living facility. And the true leader of the Lazarus Corporation is revealed!

Comic Rating: 10/10 – Fantastic.

Absolute Superman is the perfect example of what I mean by preserving the core of the character while changing the world around them. The Kents and Smallville are, obviously, foundational elements to the Superman story for a number of reasons. And they have been teased since pretty much the very beginning. Jason Aaron comes at them full speed ahead, filling these characters with that Midwestern farmer charm in such a way that both characters are instantly wonderful. And seeing them react to and then interact with a teenage Kal-El is just as good. Martha Kent recognizing the farm boy in Kal-El is a truly wonderful moment that ties this whole origin story together.

Of course, things are different here in the Absolute Universe, and those differences are just as good. Kal-El is ripped away from the Kents just as he’s starting to feel at home. It’s a gut-wrenching scene, made even more tragic by realizing this version of Superman wasn’t raised by them. He just lived there for a bit, getting a good enough taste of this life before the cruelty of humanity destroyed it. This, again, ties everything we’ve learned about present day Kal-El together nicely. We understand him better. And it makes Lazarus even worse than we already knew.

I probably should have seen the reveal coming on the big bad guy behind Lazarus. But all that really means is that we haven’t even seen Jason Aaron’s take on Lex Luthor yet, and that is even more exciting!

TL;DR: The best issue of the series yet finally lands Superman in Kansas, and the emotional story we get, the highs and the lows, was worth the wait.

X-Men #14
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Ryan Stegman
Inkers: Stegman and JP Mayer
Colorist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

For some reason, the only Marvel books I’m hanging on to these days are a couple of X-Men books, and even though I’m mostly checked out because of the worthless crossovers that have been forced. Weird. But I do still enjoy X-Men by MacKay.

Piper Cobb, the little girl we met a few issues ago who maybe isn’t a mutant, has gone missing, and the X-Men are asked to help. They send out searchers — including Jennifer Starkey, who has got a costume now! — but Quentin is shot down in the Marauder by Wyre, an old school X-Men villain who is working for 3K (who have Cassandra Nova on their side, did we know that?). Anyway, the X-Men are under attack by Wyre just as Idie finds Piper…only it’s not really Piper. It’s possible that Piper absorbed her twin in the womb, and the twin was a mutant, and now has gained enough power/sentience to take control of Piper’s body? I think that’s what happens at the end of this issue.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

The crossover has passed, so we’re back to normal X-Men operations. And this issue is another good one, kicking off a new story. Parts of the issue get bogged down with a lot of the ongoing hubbub, but it’s easy to follow and builds off some good stuff. Building on the Piper Cobb story absolutely works, and I still very much enjoy how MacKay uses his whole cast. This is an eclectic group of X-Men, both in the field and staffing the base, and they all vibe nicely. There’s a touch of melodrama in this issue, but nothing I can’t handle. He’s built a solid enough story around this girl and it’s definitely something worthwhile for this group of X-Men to tackle.

I very much enjoy seeing Jennifer Starkey in the field. She remains my favorite of all the new mutants introduced in From the Ashes.

This issue was a bit cluttered, but I still enjoy MacKay taking time to focus on character development. We get a nice little scene where Magneto attempts to bond with Ben, the other new guy, in a certain Magneto type of way. I’m not entirely sure of the new guy’s powers, exactly, but that’s kind of par for the course with all these new mutants. And I’m always in favor of plucking some random character from the comic book past to oppose our heroes. MacKay used O-Force in previous issues, and I’m all for him using Wyre now, even though I have never heard of him before.

TL;DR: With the crossover finished, we can get back to normal X-Men operations and tell another entertaining story. This issue is a little cluttered, but only because the comic has so many balls in play when tell its entertaining stories.

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

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