Backs To The Wall: Reviewing ‘Absolute Power’ #1

One of the major flaws of most supervillains and their plans is their need to monologue and, more importantly, gloat. Showering the hero(es) and others with crucial information, as well as time, before their plan is even close to fruition.

Amanda Waller is no classic supervillain.

With Absolute Power #1 there is no monologue. No gloating. Just an all-out assault on all of the supers of the world that was in motion before they even realized. Carrying this plan to fruition are Mark Waid, Dan Mora, Alejandro Sanchez, and Ariana Maher.

Superhero comic book events are a big-time fixture for the medium at this point. More and more of them pop up every year, from the minor to the major. Each with their own flavor and quirks. Often, they took up a ton of issues, really spreading across the months even if the story didn’t really need it.

One of the things I like about some of the more recent events, this one included, is that they employ brevity. Just like Waller, Waid gets right to the point here. Things start off with a bang, literally since Superman is shot withing the first pages, and doesn’t slow down from there. This main series, not counting the various tie-in issues, is only four issues long.

Short, sweet, and to the point. That’s the way I like ’em. Sometimes.

It’s very easy to tell why DC turned to Waid for this event. What you see in the description is just what you get between the covers. Amanda Waller, Batman’s warped Failsafe robot, and Queen Brainiac descending upon every hero to take their powers. Bombarding the airwaves with misinformation AI garbage, to turn the world against heroes, before swooping in with a ‘permanent solution’ to superheroes.

Of course Waller would use bullshit AI to achieve her goals. She’s truly that despicable.

If there is anyone that should be drawing a truly jam-packed blockbuster superhero story, it’s Mora.

I mean really there aren’t any books that I would not read with that stupendously gorgeous, detailed artwork. The tagline of the Superman movie was “You’ll believe a man can fly.” Well, with Mora the tagline would be something about “You’ll believe in superheroes” or something (my marketing sense isn’t the strongest) because these characters are about to leap, run, and fly right off the page.

Pure love is evident on every page that Mora ever draws, no matter the genre or publisher or types of characters populating the page. With how detailed and big everything truly is and feels, it’s amazing how quickly he works to be doing so many books at the same time.

This being a superhero book with heavily darker elements, Sanchez finds a way to blend the vibrant and the ominous beyond solidly. All the costumes and powers feel outlandish and supernatural, but not so much that they feel so out of place to the world. Even with the more natural toned-down palette for the surrounding world, you can believe that this world just like our own is normal even with flashy spandex wearing individuals everywhere.

Keeping the superstar ball rolling is Maher, who is for sure one of the best letterers around. There is just something about the way she goes all in with the work, hitting all the simple marks as well as the more unique or complex. Finding all the ways to incorporate colors, different fonts or bubbles, and other elements that really juice up the text. Making sure that we hear and feel all the emotions or tonal changes, as well as knowing that particular voices are different than others just through those simple changes. Even Failsafe and Brainiac Queen both being robotic, sound quite different just because the font and chosen bubble colors are different.

Absolute Power #1 is now available from DC Comics.