It’s Not About The Fire — Reviewing ‘Absolute Martian Manhunter’ #3

Sometimes there are comic books that just seem to stand apart. They leave the audience’s jaw on the floor each month, really pushing past any preconceived idea of boundaries within a medium that doesn’t contain actual boundaries.

Absolute Martian Manhunter is absolutely positively one of those series. What Deniz Camp, Javier Rodríguez, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are pulling off with this series is almost beyond words. As a writer, though, I’ll give it the old college try.

Despite having a large green ‘Martian’ within, this is not a superhero book, which is perfect because the Absolute DC line is giving creators a chance to step beyond what we normally see with these characters. It gives us something that the regular DC line could do but would have a harder time with all the baked in ongoing canon.

Everyone involved is giving their A+ and then some games.

I love how introspective this series has been. Camp has taken the idea of a mind Martian and given it a lot of realistic weight, without losing any of the absurdist notion that surrounds such a thing. From how John and the Martian communicate, to Jones admittance of likely needing help, to all the unfortunate issues the man faces with his own life.

So much about humanity is broken and sad and painful. The White Martian is using that for its own gain, and we see the pain here. People are being turned into tools, but we see that they run the gamut, from victims with tons of trauma to those who likely relished the moment of pain they brought. They feel little remorse for potentially some small thought within them being released.

All these human concepts are rendered gorgeously alongside the colorful fantastical. Rodríguez is an artist that not only can tackle the absurd, but he can also elevate it to new heights. Every page has a sense of weight and depth to it, no matter if the panels are completely full or stylistically sparse. Moments are allowed to feel larger than life while still kept within a scope that our minds can comprehend.

While it’s all drawn in the same overall style, there are distinct differences between reality and mind aspects. This runs the gamut between shifting sizes and shapes and the outlandish splashy colorful sequences that speak to things found in John and the Martian’s mindspace.

Everything has such a distinct colorful feel. Rodríguez shifts between two aspects of the combined palette. Those which are the aforementioned overly colorful moments and those which are a more toned-down almost washed-out quality. This allows the grimier real world to stand opposed yet connected to the world as the Martian is presenting it in being with John.

Similarly, that is much how Otsmane-Elhaou approaches lettering regularly. He finds the ways to really bring out the most with colors, shape changes, and more, allowing the voices and moments to be as big or small as possible in order to evoke the most response. Volume and tone become clear with each shift in the lettering as we the audience build these voices in our own heads.

Thought bubbles are a thing of the past, mostly. Comics moved on to caption boxes (for the better in my mind), but every so often the cloudy bubbles make a return. In many cases they don’t work, bogging things down and feeling archaic by today’s standards. There are some titles and creators who very much make them work.

This is a case where they work, for two reasons. First is that Otsmane-Elhaou and Camp are amazing creators who know how to do more with less. Secondly, the overall aspect of the series helps. This is a story about a mind reading alien presence, so naturally we too can hear the thoughts of others around John. They’re bounced off the caption boxes which are John’s default, blending the new and the old so smoothly.

Absolute Martian Manhunter #3 is now available from DC Comics.