Shades Of Not So Gray — Reviewing ‘Absolute Power: Task Force VII’ #4

Amanda Waller’s forces continue to steamroll over every villain and hero, powered or not, with a stop in Batman’s playground. Failsafe, the robot programmed with all of Batman’s thoughts & skills, has returned to bring down Nightwing, Robin, and their small resistance force.

The sons of Batman face his other son of sorts in Absolute Power: Task Force VII #4 the latest in the quick running event anthology series. This time the storytelling falls to Pornsak Pichetshote, Claire Roe, Lee Loughridge, and Dave Sharpe.

Batman embodies a lot of darkness and gritty grimness on the surface, with a lot of heart and emotional depth beneath. Failsafe has none of that, and the story very much plays into the overpowering darker machine ‘logic’ that the being exudes.

Roe’s artwork and Loughridge’s colors really fit this.

Things have a slightly rougher quality to them, while still being very vibrant and light. It’s a type of rougher art that still has some whimsical energy coursing through its veins, giving the story a bit of a classic and fun feeling to it. Even with the darker tone and the grim things that go down within its pages. Roe gives plenty of depth and detail to all the characters and spaces where it matters most, while pulling back at other times.

Paneling choices allow us to feel at the same level as the characters, almost as trapped as they are with Failsafe.

Color wise, Loughridge brings a rougher texture there as well to match the rest of the artwork. Choosing to go with a color palette which leans more towards the heavier and darker colors most of the time. Allowing even the more colorful spaces, like the inside of the Court of Owls maze, to still feel very foreboding and unwelcome for the characters.

I’ve heard a lot of things about Pichetshote’s work, but never actually read anything yet. Things have the right feeling to be a Batman story, and honestly, I would read some more Batman from him easily. We spend a lot of time in Failsafe’s mind, and the way that the character and Nightwing are written especially really digs into who both of them are perfectly.

These stories are snippets of what is happening during Waller’s power grab. Meant to show how dire things are and what the characters are doing, fighting back and trying to take her down. This one really works because it feels just like what a Gotham story should feel like, while being firmly in the middle of the event.

Sharpe is one of those people that has been around the Gotham crew quite a bit over the years, chiefly in the Detective Comics sphere. All the same solid lettering power is brought over here. Giving every character voice and emotional depth with every word on the page, be it dialogue or caption. Letting words slip around in size and boldness to really show volume and tone so clearly. Even shifting up bubble and box shapes for Miss Martian and Failsafe to show their ‘non-human’ voices.

Absolute Power: Task Force VII #4 is now available from DC Comics.