Tear Down That Wall(er)! — Reviewing ‘Absolute Power’ #4

Justice. Order. Power. Control. Everything Amanda Waller supposedly craved is right there in the palm of her iron-fisted hand. All the heroes of the Earth are de-powered and seemingly on their last gasp as a revolutionary force.

There was just one mistake Waller made: never slip into supervillain mode. A surefire path right to Loserville, population you and the rest of the villains that heroes regularly wipe the floor with.

It all comes down to this as Mark Waid, Dan Mora, Alejandro Sánchez, and Ariana Maher bring a close to DC Comics’ latest game changing event with Absolute Power #4.

Naturally, a ton of spoilers are potentially lurking ahead. So turn back now if you’re not ready.

We’ve all seen the hype and marketing lines before. They claim that various summer events at Marvel and DC will “Change everything” or that “Nothing will ever be the same again”, and a variety of other well-intentioned but often untrue statements. At one time, they ran more true for events, before said storylines began to pile up with more regularity than a fiber-rich diet.

Absolute Power though, kind of lives up to the hype.

Partially because of what is on the pages itself — the outcomes of the battle and re-powered heroes — but also partially off the page. By that, of course, I mean the simultaneously released DC All In Special #1 — which not only kicks off the DC All In initiative (a line wide shifting of creative teams and titles) but also the alternate Absolute DC Universe line. These events where the landscape (more often than not Multiverse related) changes are part-and-parcel for DC Comics at this point, but there is no denying this was one of the better ones for sure.

What else would you expect with that caliber of creative team attached? Exactly.

No matter the genre, publisher, or story type, Mora was born to create gorgeous stories. Give that man anything, and he makes it epic and beyond compare. Just truly gorgeous with so much slick, smooth, steady power. Everything is about to leap off the page and strike us as if we are one of Waller’s soldiers or Amazos that need to be defeated.

I mean, hell, just the Amazo defeat/power return page alone is worthy of deeper study and gushing. Economical, smart, organized paneling choices that highlight moments and allow so much to happen at once. None of it lost in the shuffle, allowing us to really sit in all that goes down as our beloved heroes regain that which was lost (mostly).

All of it is just so dynamic and vibrant, and only gets more so once you add the colors from Sánchez and the letters from Maher into the mix. Everything just gelling so easily and dragging us deeper into this world.

Heroic books are generally far more colorful, bringing in a variety of flashier tones from the visual spectrum. Throughout this story that hasn’t changed, but the amount of shadowy darkness everywhere is notable. It is a story where Waller stripped powers and was undertaking a worldwide coup, after all. As things move along and the heroes begin to tip the balance of power, the vibrant, poppier colors take up more real estate. Until the end, when the darkness is mostly wiped out, save for natural uses for them in the artwork.

Using colors this way always gets me giddy, giving a visual cue to the fact that hope is restored yet the darkness will always linger.

As with the previous three issues, there is a giant amount of characters here. Just lots of people shouting, monologuing, calling out things, and speaking in general. Per usual, Maher is never phased by this and makes it all not only flow and fit on the page, but brim to the edges with the right personality and energy.

Throwing in little flairs here or there to give it that extra punch, Maher never loses the focus or the identity that the words need. On top of that are the ever present, smack dab in the middle, SFX that are loud and boisterous everywhere they appear. Giving us the full experience of these moments, letting it all sound in our brains as we devour our fix of superhero comic deliciousness.

There are a lot of great writers out there when it comes to comics. So many could have tackled a story like this, with their own unique flavors added, and done it justice. Yet, this feels like a story that only Waid could pull off.

It’s chock full of DC Comics lore, love, and minutia that is right up Waid’s alley. He is one of the few writers that can keep a foot in both the past and the present (as well as the future) without stumbling or feeling like he’s serving up reheated leftovers to the audience. Dabbling in past things can so easily just fall hard into nostalgia, especially nostalgia pandering, if one isn’t careful. Waid is extremely careful.

I noted in the Titans: Beast World event that Waller felt a little too cackling supervillain. Here though, I not only buy it, but it’s done so very well. There is something kind of poetic about a person who used people like disposable pawns coming to her downfall because she became too much like those ‘criminals’ in the end.

There is one thing that does fall into the realm of a quibble with the event. I’ve spoken before about being a fan of the quick turnaround of this event. That being said, having whole story beats — such as the prison break (a potentially triumphant moment) — happen in another whole book (an issue of Wonder Woman) isn’t the best. I get the reason why, it keeps the main series streamlined and moving, but it robs us of one of those big bold heroic moments.

But it doesn’t take away from the story, either. We still get the majorly triumphant moments with the return of powers, the Green Arrow heel turn, the return of Dreamer, and the major defeat of Waller.

DC sure likes to keep shifting what is up with the Multiverse, don’t they? Not a dig or a praise, but it is wild how much they keep changing whether the Multiverse exists, is gone, or can’t be accessed. It makes some sense that it’s cut off now because all Multiversal focus is in some minis, but chiefly on the aforementioned “Dark Mirror” Absolute DC Universe for the time being.

From start to finish, the event states what it’s about, gets to that, and wraps things up in just four issues. In that brief span, there were moments both of the massive hero level and those of a more interpersonal character development level. A reminder of why Waid has done so much and so well in this business for so long.

Waller might be silenced (love the way that Dreamer stole all of her information/blackmail material from her), but the journey is just beginning. Because now it’s time for DC All-In and changes to come.

Absolute Power #4is now available from DC Comics.