Welcome to the world of tomorrow! It’s 2026 and we’re all struggling along. My town was hit with three snowstorms back-to-back-to-back in one week, so I’m having a doozy of a time. Thankfully I can work from home. And since there weren’t any major comic releases I was interested in this week, I’ve gone back to review all the major comics that came out the week of Christmas! That should be fun.

Comic Book of the Last Week goes to Absolute Wonder Woman #15 because the team-up between Wonder Woman and Batman was as good as we all hoped it would be.

Meanwhile, I very much enjoyed the Stranger Things series finale. It got pretty wild and pretty big, but came together nicely in the end. Beyond that, I’m finally finishing off Squid Games. On the video game side of things, I’ve started Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora after getting it on sale. Should hopefully sustain me for a couple of months, because I enjoy a big Ubisoft open world.

Comic Reviews: Absolute Superman #14, Absolute Martian Manhunter #7, Absolute Wonder Woman #15, Power Rangers Prime #13 and Void Rivals #25.

Absolute Superman #14
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
Colorist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: Becca Carey

The first big storyline comes to an end with a big battle, as they so often do.

Superman battles Ra’s al Ghul in the fields of Kansas. Sol sacrifices himself to keep everyone safe. It all gets very cinematic. The Peacemakers come to their senses when they’re ordered to kill farmers in Kansas. And Superman wins! Then the epilogue of the battle is bittersweet.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Big strong ending for a big strong story. The fight between Superman and Ra’s is excellent, full of big blows and strong moments of heroism and villainy. And then we’ve got a lot happening on the side, as the supporting cast get small and big moments. I liked the Peacemakers realizing that what they were doing was wrong. I love when bad guys can be rational. And I liked Superman winning. That’s always fun. Part of me feels like this will be reader better in the trade, so there’s no interruption to the flow of battle, but I read these issue-by-issue and it’s still fine. And then we get a nice, bittersweet epilogue that ties everything together. This issue is easily everything one could want from this titanic story finale.

TL;DR: A major storyline comes to an end with big, heroic moments and bittersweet emotional beats; everything one could want in a damn good comic.

Absolute Martian Manhunter #7
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Javier Rodriguez
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

I think Martian Manhunter was only supposed to be six issues, so we’re in uncharted territory here folks!

Some time has passed since the big fight at the end of the last volume, and John Jones is living alone and has also returned to work. He’s still got the Martian in his head. They sort of ride around, checking in on co-workers, his wife, his son and the world in general, everybody sort of cleaning up and moving on from the White Martian stuff, though that thing isn’t fully defeated. John asks the Martian to explain what it is and we get a crash course, literally. And then more trouble is brewing on the horizon.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

More catch up and set up than anything else, but nonetheless another stellar issue of this fascinating series. The artwork still carries everything, especially the coloring. This comic should be studied for decades to come with how it uses coloring to establish mood and tell its story. So interesting. And since coloring and artwork are both by Rodriguez, the artwork easily keeps up. Such a weird, trippy ride, which is something I don’t normally like, but am fully on board with Absolute Martian Manhunter.

The story in this issue hums along nicely. We get caught up where we need to get caught up, and we get teased where we need to get teased. The explanation for the Martian is a great bit of visual storytelling, even if we don’t learn much by way of facts. But who needs facts or hard evidence for this comic? It’s all about vibes and colors and weirdness and strong visual storytelling. And all those things are back for this second storyline!

TL;DR: Absolute Martian Manhunter is back with another banger of an issue, though this one is more about catching up, setting up and getting back into the vibe.

Absolute Wonder Woman #15
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Hayden Sherman
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Becca Carey

The moment we’ve all been waiting for and it delivers in spades!

Wonder Woman visits and introduces herself to Batman to get his help investigating four recent murders with ties to Hecate. They track the murders to a cult trying to build some kind of golem…but it turns out to be some kind of elaborate voodoo doll to control Diana. They turn her against Batman, and he’s only able to win using a special talisman she gave him earlier. The murders are solved, the bad guys are defeated and Diana and Bruce part as friends.

Comic Rating: 10/10 – Fantastic.

As I mentioned in my Year End review list, the Absolute Comics have been my absolute favorite all year long. They’re all strong, at least the core three, and now they get to be stronger together! The team-up between Absolute Batman and Absolute Wonder Woman was heavily hyped, and this issue lives up to that hype. It helps that it’s just a nice, quaint, authentic comic in which the two characters remain true to themselves and help each other out, like super friends. They’re companionship is nice and sweet and awesome and heartwarming, especially the ending.

This is obviously a great sign of things to come. All the Absolute creatives are working hand-in-hand, in constant communications, and they’ve clearly planned this out nicely. And I’m sure the team-up coming up in Absolute Batman will also be super fun. This is what careful planning and expert creatives can bring to comics. All this character work pays off spectacularly with this crossover. The story also fits in with everything we’ve seen from Absolute Wonder Woman so far, while expanding her mythos just a bit.

And this does a great job of building excitement for a future Absolute Super Friends!

TL;DR: The team-up is everything we could have hoped it would be, a great showcase for both characters and the Absolute Universe as a whole.

Power Rangers Prime #13
Writer: Melissa Flores
Artist: Federico Sorressa
Colorist: Joana Lafuente
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire

Apparently Power Rangers Prime is going to come to an end in a few short issues. That’s a damn shame. I very much support the idea of BOOM! creating their own, original Power Rangers plot after the success of their Mighty Morphin comics. But the fact that multiple issues were unavailable to read digitally for several months was a huge problem, and then when I did get caught up, they weren’t very exciting.

The Prime Rangers are laying low, as per their new status quo, with Valentina being forced to report on her teammates to Jun’s mom. Everybody’s in an awkward or bad place, with Lauren sneaking out at night to fight guards to get info on her missing family. Rita eventually calls her out on putting them all in danger, leading to a Red vs. Green fight. But cooler heads prevail and Lauren reveals that she’s found info on a secret prison — but Rita points out that none of them are ready to siege a secret prison.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

The spark has definitely gone out of this series, even though the characters remain interesting and the story remains strong. I really do think the second volume/storyline just didn’t establish or do anything that it needed to do. We’re still in the weeds on what the Prime Rangers are even for. This issue does a nice job of establishing where almost everyone is at following the events of the previous issue, and I mostly like where everyone is at. Valentina is probably my favorite Prime Ranger, and she’s in a fascinating place. And as Rita points out, everybody is in a rather low place, and that’s a great starting point for a story.

So the comic is still entertaining, with a strong focus on the characters. And they’ve now got a plot to fulfill, so I’m definitely going to keep reading all the way to the end. Everything is still well handled in this issue. There’s just a real lack of energy with the upcoming cancellation. I also like the new artist. It’s nice to get somebody else drawing the Prime costumes and characters. I hope they can bring this series to a satisfying, if disappointing, conclusion.

TL;DR: The road to cancellation begins with more of a whimper, even though this remains a strong series that simply never captured its true potential.

Void Rivals #25
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Andrei Bressan
Colorist: Patricio Delpeche
Letterer: Rus Wooton

Merrily we roll along with more Void Rivals!

After the big battle, Zertonia is in ruins and Premiere Zalilak seeks to rebuild — but he’s attacked by an angry Proximus. They do battle, until the Quintesson ship arrives to begin their invasion of the Sacred Ring. On Agorria, Darak has a heart-to-heart with Handroid, which is beginning to feel alive since it hasn’t been mind wiped in a while. Darak is cool with that. The pilots are then scrambled to check out the Quintesson ship invading Agorria. We also meet Darak’s uncle, a great war general.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Some fun action run alongside some good character moments and we’ve got the start of a new Void Rivals storyline. Sometimes I feel a bit at arm’s length with this series. That’s not to say it’s bad to any degree. But I didn’t really feel anything in the fight between Zalilak and Proximus. The characters just don’t really mean anything to me. But it was a big fun action scene nonetheless. The real heart of the issue is the chat between Darak and Handroid. That was a hoot. Handroid has always been a good player in this series and I’m glad to see his development continue. Then we jump right into the big alien invasion, and that should be fun too. Also, new artist is solid.

TL;DR: New storyline kicks off with some good character moments and some epic scale invasion stuff, though parts of this comic remain a bit distant.

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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