Let The Darkness Out — Reviewing ‘Absolute Martian Manhunter’ #5

Beware of the things that go bump in the night. Especially when those things are people driven to evil lengths by alien telepathic presences.

Evil of various levels is unleashed as Absolute Martian Manhunter #5 tests the series protagonist on numerous fronts. Another striking issue comes from Deniz Camp, Javier Rodríguez, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

Every single month this series takes any boundaries comics could have and smashes them into pieces. This is wild since comics, as a medium, don’t even really have boundaries beyond physical form. Yet, here we stand with this issue as another case in point.

Last issue was one bathed in extreme light. This one comes with pure darkness, both in the world itself and the people who inhabit it. Rodríguez makes that darkness feel thick, inescapable, and oppressive. Our protagonists are fighting back but the darkness is winning, and it feels like that the whole way.

Bold, expressive, colorful, detailed, dynamic, smart, mold breaking. There are always so many words that describe what he does as an artist. None of them fully can give full due to what is on those pages. Everything Rodríguez creates needs to be seen and experienced, not just read about.

Dark colors dominate as the colorful bursts swirl and dance with those shadowy tones, creating something weighty and impactful at all times.

Dialogue and captions and more stroll dominantly through these pages, never wavering at creating unique loud and purposeful voices of figures and the world itself. Otsmane-Elhaou constantly crafts compelling lettering that goes beyond what one might think lettering should be or do. This creates its very own atmosphere, carving a place right in the middle of everything.

Tapping into humanity, flaws and all, has been one of the aims of this series. Tackling these sorts of things is never easy because it comes with the fact of looking deep into the mirror that is humanity, a visual that often is too hard to even want to look at. Yet, Camp has done it consistently here, showcasing a world that has a deeper inherent darkness in the undercurrent but still has some hope that lingers just out of sight at times.

Our protagonist is flawed, his marriage crumbling as he ignores all things personal, but the heart is there. Even amongst the shadowy evil unleashed upon the city of Middleton, there are those who remain themselves. Their shadows are contained. They live lives that are complicated but mostly good or hopeful or at least neutral.

A bit nod to the second to last page reveal of a figure behind so much of this world’s bad. Those in the know of this lines first seeds always knew this was the case, but to see it built in such terrifying but dynamic scope by Rodríguez is very much welcome.

Absolute Martian Manhunter #5 is now available from DC Comics.