DC Round Up: Is ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER the best Absolute book?

THIS WEEK: Absolute Martian Manhunter #6, Batman and Robin: Jason Todd #3, Superman #29, and Immortal Legend Batman #1!

Note: the review below contains spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.

Absolute Martian Manhunter #6

Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Javier Rodriguez
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Of DC’s Absolute line, Absolute Martian Manhunter has easily been my favorite. Writer Deniz Camp’s work is elevated by Javier Rodriguez’s incredible art, making everything better. I went into this issue wondering how they could top the full-page Darkseid spread from issue #5, where John’s world literally explodes into a kaleidoscope of color and meaning as his relationship with his wife begins to fracture, but this issue more than delivered.

At its core, Absolute Martian Manhunter #6 is a battle of ideas. Every enemy John faces is a manifestation of fear, paranoia, or some extreme. The comic explores the nature of ideas as uncontrollable forces, much like the Martians themselves. John is forced to open up and embrace his identity. The Martian represents his inner self, his truest thoughts and emotions. It knows him intimately, and by the time you finish this issue, you will too. You’ll witness John finally begin to grasp the extent of his potential.

At this point in the story, John is at war with the town of Middleton, which has succumbed to darkness. As he fights its mind-controlled citizens, it becomes clear that he’s also battling the city itself, the same city that has driven a wedge between him and his wife. The conflict plays out on multiple levels: literal and symbolic. He’s wrestling with the anxiety, fear, and exhaustion that have haunted him throughout his time as a detective. Two colossal Martians clash above the town, wielding metaphors as weapons, matching John’s internal struggle.

There’s so much to unpack here that I could talk about this issue for hours. John desperately needs help, but he’s taken on everything alone for too long. Camp makes that idea tangible in this issue. John cannot overcome the enemy until he recognizes the importance of his family. With the support of his wife, who literally steps in, shotgun in hand, he begins to understand himself more fully and realizes what his loved ones truly mean to him.

Three simple words allow him to finally come to grips with the truth that had been in front of him the entire time. He simply looks at his wife and tells her “you were right”. He admits he has been hiding, and by finally facing reality, by truly confronting the reality of his own mental struggle, he has an instant breakthrough and the power of the Martian surges forth. By allowing himself to understand what was happening in his own mind, he was able to understand everyone else’s, to allow others to see the world through each others eyes, literally getting high off of each other, and the Martian made use of that immediately. Stepping in to end the conflict and stop Middleton from tearing itself apart. Readers, it doesn’t stop there as Camp blesses us again with another Martian vision page, and a whole new reveal.

Camp truly sells the absurdity of this entire confrontation, at this point if you follow what Camp releases you know he can write extraordinarily well. It’s a feat of comics storytelling that a battle that can’t be seen by the naked eye is so clear to readers. In part due to the way this comic can keep you glued to the pages, but also Rodriguez art work manages to explain the unexplainable., allowing readers to enter the eye of the Martian.

Rodriguez’s artwork doesn’t just illustrate Camp’s vision, it expands it. The fluidity of the linework and the way color is wielded to reflect shifting emotional and psychic states creates a reading experience that is as intuitive as it is surreal. You feel every ripple of John’s turmoil, every crack in the mask he wears, and when that mask finally falls, Rodriguez doesn’t hold back. The page explodes, not with chaos, but with clarity. Light floods in. It is not simply beautiful, it is revelatory.

There is something almost spiritual about the way Camp and Rodriguez allow the story to breathe in these moments. This isn’t spectacle for spectacle’s sake. This is spectacle as expression. Every panel is a conversation between writer and artist, between character and self, between reader and the text. When John opens himself up, when he stops resisting and starts listening, as if the comic itself exhales for the first time. That’s what makes this series feel alive. That’s what makes it feel necessary.

In this issue the final scene is less a resolution and more a transformation, and I have to imagine that’s on purpose. As you watch John transform, the comic transforms you mentally, you cannot be the same person you were coming into this comic then when you are leaving it. Now as the first arc of the series comes to an end, the comic transforms alongside you.

It might be easier to frame this final sequence as a win, but Camp and Rodriguez don’t do that for you, they don’t give you an easy win. John doesn’t end the day by winning, he just understands things better. The Martian, is as it always was, a force of empathy and awareness, he becomes not a weapon but a bridge connecting john to, well, everything.  John finally sees Middleton not as a battleground, but a home.

What happens next feels wide open not because of cliffhangers or shock value, but because Camp has taken the time to lay down this emotional groundwork with such care. This has given room for more. Room for change, for healing. Room for whatever form the Martian takes next. It’s a comic that will try with you, that will challenge you to ask what you’re hiding from and what you know you can face. Absolute Martian Manhunter isn’t telling a story, it’s holding up a mirror.

For those willing to accept their own Martian, let’s hope they never stop.

Final Verdict: BUY

The Round-Up

• “The boy scared me.” Hearing Alfred utter those words really hit me this issue. Jeff Lemire has always been one to dig deep with his writing, but circling around Jason’s early upbringing has felt like a timer, repeating trauma every couple of minutes. He made it clear in earlier issues that he was going to show us his vision of Jason’s first experiences, and they are brutal to say the least.

  So, I found it genuinely heartwarming to see Alfred and Bruce still go out of their way to help him, just like they would for anyone. Having the Wraith be something similar to what Todd becomes as the Red Hood is no accident. It’s meant to make readers wince, because it really is a look into what shaped him in the first place.

  Once again, artist Dustin Nguyen is able to pull so much out of this story without relying on dialogue. The standout moment for me? Jason sitting on top of a gargoyle, looking out over Gotham, the Bat Signal lighting up the sky. He pauses, takes it in, then jumps back into the fray. Not a single word is said, but Nguyen’s two-page spread says everything.

  Bruce asking Gordon to light the signal as a way to call Jason home? Absolutely brutal on my heartstrings. And of course, Jason makes the right call in the end. He comes back. He doesn’t choose the path the Wraith wanted him to take. Bruce telling him he lit the signal to call him home was already heavy, but that full-page panel of Batman hugging Jason, still in his street clothes, said more than a monologue ever could.

  That’s what makes this series so special to me. It doesn’t over-explain. It lets you feel it. Lemire sets up these emotional beats and then trusts the reader to sit with them. You’re left to come to your own conclusions about who Jason is, what he means to the Bat Family, and to Bruce as a father.

  I’ll admit, I wasn’t sold at first. I was frustrated by how violent this version of Jason seemed, but I’m glad I trusted my gut. This is a version of Jason who hasn’t healed yet. He’s still mourning his mother, still angry, still afraid of Bruce. But by the end, he finds where he belongs, right back in the home he never thought he had.

  Knowing where Jason ends up does not ruin this comic, it only makes it that much more impactful. I’m glad Lemire and Nguyen came back to work on Batman and Robin because this issue will live in Jason Todd/Robin fans heads for a very long time. 

• “C’mon get silver age with me.” I wont lie, I was struggling deciding what I wanted to be the header for this round-up. With Superboy Prime’s return last issue, I was genuinely giddy with excitement. Only two pages in and he already is punching through pages.  Not to mention Booster Gold love (Superboy Prime is right, Booster is one of the greatest superheroes of all time) only a couple pages in. While this comic has its lighthearted moments, writer Josh Williamson really knows how to subvert expectations. He keeps turning the story around because like our Supermen we have no clue where this story will take us. Giving us that wide open two page spread of destruction was absolutely the gritty this story needed.

  Williamson writing really does give this comic so much weight to it. It’s been a wild ride for the current run, but seeing what he’s been cooking up, and the way Superman’s words resonate with the others in the middle of this crisis is nothing short of fantastic. It’s great to see all these plot points finally begin to build up going through this comic, we are finally picking up speed and getting to the point that this all in-verse was leading up too. While I feel Williamson goes for the cheap shots in this issue to get shock value out of the fans, it’s working pretty well.

• Immortal Legend Batman had been on my watchlist for a minute. I mean, the idea of a tokusatsu inspired Batman, Robin, and Nightwing had me so excited. To top that off with a team consisting of Kyle Higgins, Mat Groom, Erica Dursley, Dan Mora, Igor Monty, and Tamara Bonvillain, DC actually just got the entire team of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and partially Radiant Black and let them do a Batman comic. I can’t really hate that, however as far as the comic being good, it’s interesting to say the least but it wont be for everyone. At the end of the day it is going to be an elseworlds comic but i would be lying if I said you shouldn’t take a look at it.  It really takes the things that make tokusatsu so fun and entertaining and faithfully reproduces it in a comic with your favorite Batman characters, it’s worth checking out especially if you are a fan of any tokusatsu series.
  

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