Welp, here we are. It’s August. We all continue to trudge along in our lives. The only thing we can look forward to is new comics, like Absolute Superman!

Comic Book of the Week goes to Captain America #2 for a proper introduction of my new most anticipated character: Captain America!

Meanwhile, I continue to stretch Death Stranding 2 out as long as I can. I’m sure I could just rush to the finish, but then I don’t know how interested I am in cleaning up in the post-game. We’ll find out. I’ve been watching the second and final season of The Sandman and I dare say it continues to be a solid adaptation. I’m pleased to see that they’re actually ending the TV show like they did the comic. Should be fun.

Comic Reviews: Absolute Superman #10, Captain America #2 and Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #1.

Absolute Superman #10
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Colorist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: Tom Napolitano

This book remains a nice combination of crazy and awesome.

Superman and the Omega Men assault a Lazarus base Greenland in order to free a captured Jimmy Olsen, but R’as al Ghul is waiting for them, eager to make Superman into his ultimate son. Superman arrives like a red storm and it’s pretty awesome. And we get some flashbacks to his father on Krypton, and some life lessons about cruelty and taking lives. And Superman ultimately chooses to not kill Peacemaker. Buuuut…Primus, the leader of the Omega Men, is revealed to be Talia al Ghul, and they spring a trap on Superman and capture him.

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

Man oh man! Superman arriving at the base as a storm is phenomenal storytelling, both in writing and in artwork. It’s breathtaking at times. It’s a wonderful escalation of everything we’ve seen about him so far, his power, his powers specifically, and just the absolute might of this character. It’s an awesome moment. And then around that moment, we’ve got a ton of strong storytelling. Our villain is ever present and a force of nature as well, though a different sort. And then we’ve got Jimmy and Lois doing what they can to survive it all. And then we’ve got a big twist that I definitely didn’t see coming.

Is this the first time the Omega Men have been tied to the Omega symbol of Darkseid? I simply don’t know. Maybe they’ve always been about Darkseid. Doesn’t matter. It’s a great twist to end this exciting issue. My only disappointment is that I’m not usually a fan of stories where the hero is trapped by the villain for an extended period of time, just getting tortured or whatever. But that’s a future issue to worry about. Right now, with this issue, it’s a big, awesome, powerful showcase of Absolute Superman!

TL;DR: Absolute Superman gets to really cut loose with its hero and his new, darker, powerful interpretation. Truly an awesome sight to behold.

Captain America #2
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

I am so jazzed for this storyline and this new character! I might be a little biased based on how excited I am.

Captain America, Major Colton and the new Howling Commandoes head out on their first mission into Latveria to free some diplomats. They meet up with the rebels and decide to split up: Colton and his crew will continue the mission, while Steve will help the rebels take down Doom. There is, of course, some butting of heads involved.

In flashback, we follow Colton on some missions in Afghanistan as he learns the harsh lessons of war and regime change.

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

Our first full look at Major Colton lives up to my imagined hype already, so I very much enjoyed this issue. We see him as both a fresh-faced newbie in his first month of action in Afghanistan, and now as a world-weary, jaded company man on this mission in Latveria. Watching him go from one to the other — of which we get a taste in this issue — should be fun. Colton gets some time to interact with Steve in this issue, and the two seem like very different men. Zdarsky is doing a great job of establishing Steve Rogers as the man we all know him to be, and it works very well in this storyline.

Throwing Doctor Doom and Latveria into the mix is a neat idea. I’m still not a fan of the sliding timescale. So the idea that Doom has only been in charge of Latveria in a post-9/11 world is still very weird. But the cliffhanger ending of this issue promises some good, quality Doom action going forward. I’m one of those fans that enjoys a diplomatic Doctor Doom, so this should be fun, even if it’s so weird wrapping my head around this being Cap’s first month or so unfrozen.

All-in-all, a well-rounded issue that’s full of good character presentations, easily juggling this big new character and it’s odd place in the timeline. Though I’m not a fan of Cap’s stealth costume. It’s too busy, too over-designed.

TL;DR: The story shifts into high gear with this second issue, now that introductions are out of the way. It’s a fun, fulfilling issue that easily balances two storylines and an interesting new character.

Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #1
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Nicola Scott
Colorist: Annette Kwok
Letterer: Troy Peteri

I love me some Greg Rucka and I love me some nifty, niche comic book ideas.

Cheetah approaches Cheshire with a plan to steal the Power Bank from the orbital Justice League Watchtower. And this involves a fair amount of very nice character work and dialogue and stuff.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I really hope Greg Rucka just had a fun idea one day of a Watchtower Heist, pitched the idea to DC and they were fully on board. And then either Rucka or DC got Nicola Scott to do the artwork. Did Rucka and Scott work together before? Doens’t matter. This first issue is a hoot, even if it’s all set-up. The characters are delightful. Rucka spends the appropriate amount of time setting up our two leads and then bringing them together, with fun scenes and dialogue. I love when villains can be reasonable people, and we get a lot of that in this issue. Cheshire and Cheetah making small talk is delightful.

Made all the better by the artwork.

Scott is an all-time great, and she does a wonderful job with the two main characters in this. They look like real people and come off as real people, and I do so enjoy that level of detail. So I’m pleased as punch with this whole issue, even if not a whole lot really happens. Presumably, there’s much more fun to come.

TL;DR: Not a whole lot happens in this issue in terms of story, but the character building and artwork are astoundingly fun.

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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