Down Where It’s Wetter — Reviewing ‘Absolute Power: Task Force VII’ #2

Amanda Waller has gained complete control over the DC Universe, striking at every superhuman and powerful place around the world. One might say, she has absolute power … sorry not sorry.

Anyway, it’s time for the Aquamen and Atlantis to feel the wrath of Waller’s Amazo’s in Absolute Power: Task Force VII #2. A deep-sea tale from John Layman, Max Raynor, Luis Guerrero, and Dave Sharpe.

One of the flaws with major comic events is how compacted or overlooked many elements feel at times. This comes from the fact that often events are either pushed into too few issues or too many, and things get lost in the process. Often, they are part of tie-ins that may not be picked up by readers as there are generally a lot of tie-ins to dig through.

I have to say, this particular tie-in’s structure is kind of perfect. Each issue allows a different creative team to really showcase how Waller’s simultaneous grab for power went down and affected various heroes, villains, and spaces. This allowed the first issue of the main mini to just go right in, no holds barred, giving the whole event a very streamlined pedal-to-the-metal feeling.

I am very much a huge fan of it.

Layman does a really solid job here of laying out the stakes, the players, and the overall focus without belaboring the point. That’s the beauty of this overall event, it’s a pretty simple premise. Ultimate schemer Waller tries to take down all the superhumans of the world and things don’t go so well for either side.

I’m just glad we got to see Atlantis and what is up there. After some really great minis and a short lived Aquamen series, things have been pretty quiet on the Atlantis front for almost two years. We get some great character moments, solid action, and begin to see more cracks forming in Waller’s orchestrations. Allowing Aquaman (Arthur) to escape and head off to work with the rest of the depowered but rebelling heroes in the main series.

Speaking of the awesome Aquamen series, Raynor tackled artwork for two of its issues. Good to see his really kinetic and vibrant artwork back in the Atlantean space. Plenty of depth and weight are found throughout, and the characters have a firm presence. It’s grounded but also whimsical at the same time, with a smoother type of style. I mean that full page spread with the Amazo Depth Charge lording over Atlantis while sending sharks after the Atlanteans is terrifying but awesome at the same time.

Being a story with a darker tone (that whole Waller power trip thing) and being mostly underwater, Guerrero pulls back on a lot of the colors here. Plenty of vibrant poppy tones still appear since this is still a super book taking place in an ancient underwater city. They contrast smoothly with the darker more neutral tones used to create the backdrop and the more ominous notes. Much like the artwork, there is an inherent smooth slickness to the colors. There is a sort of natural subdued nature that I appreciate, where even the colorful characters are a closer to a natural state of being.

Rather than being so overly vibrant they instantly ping as not ‘real’ or otherworldly, they are more often than not very unnatural looking beings, but even in their brightness they feel of the world they occupy.

Characters have a good chunk of things to communicate with each other and, in some cases, to the reader. All of it though feels natural, because Sharpe infuses emotional and personality energy through every word. Letting the letters rise or fall in size and shape as needed so that volume or tone are abundantly clear. Love it when a machine character’s bubbles are different, letting the brain instantly give them that sort of tinny echoey sound media instills in us for robots talking.

Absolute Power: Task Force VII #2 is now available from DC Comics.