Solid Art But A Cliché, Uninspired Script: Reviewing ‘Absolute Superman’ #25

The past two years have seemingly been building to this: the showdown between Superman and Brainiac in Absolute Superman #25, with most of it taking place in Superman’s mind, imprisoned by Brainiac. The end result: Absolute Kal-El is reminded that he is no longer alone in the world. And it took an extra-sized anniversary issue, apparently, to do this.

Absolute Superman has been something of a rollercoaster of a ride for me, from the debut issue onwards. At its height, it has been a phenomenal series, but when it drops in quality, it really drops.  And after so many solid issues, this one falls on the latter side in regard to the quality of the writing from Jason Aaron. As a finale, this one was just too familiar, too cliché, too tired. I mean, how many times have we seen this kind of psychological showdown? The hero, in this case, Absolute Superman, is trapped in a prison of the mind, taking on a laborious and repetitive challenge — and seemingly for a good length of time, if his gnarly beard and long hair are any indication — only to escape and be victorious. And realising it all happened in a short amount of time after all. Hardly the shock that Aaron may have thought it would be. In fact, nothing is shocking about this issue in any way whatsoever. No matter how hard Aaron tries. All of this supposed action is intermittently broken up with cutaway scenes involving Lois Lane tracking down Lex Luthor to quiz him on his murdered family. Murdered by Brainiac. Oh, and takes from Krypton following his mum and dad as they initially meet, have him and send him off to school. 

And while the art is strong, with past Absolute Superman artists Rafa Sandoval, Juan Ferreyra and Carmine Di Giandomenico, all sharing art duties on this milestone issue, the set-up, the rising tension (of which there is none) and the climax and denouement are all rather lame. As far as milestone issues go, this one doesn’t feel like anything special, as such issues often try to be. But it’s as good a place as any for this reviewer to slowly back away from this title and give it up for someone else to review. Someone who may see something in this series that I can’t.

I had such high hopes for this book when I scrambled to pick it up for review, but, in my humble opinion, while it has had more good issues and storylines than bad, it still remains the weakest of the three main Absolute Universe series, ceding to Absolute Batman and Absolute Wonder Woman by quite a large margin. And life’s too short to continue to review a comic I don’t particularly care for any longer. Sadly, Absolute Superman, as much as I want to take him to heart, just isn’t my Superman. Maybe he is yours, though. 

Absolute Superman #25 is out now from DC Comics.