It’s a brand new imagining of Superman - get this: an alien boy sent via spaceship from his doomed home planet Krypton to Earth where he’s raised by the kind Kents and discovers he has superpowers. Superman grows up to be a paragon of truth and justice, using his superpowers for good against evil. Wait - “new”? Absolutely not.
Yeah, Absolute Superman, Volume 1: Last Dust of Krypton is the classic Superman origin story retold for the umpteenth time with some very minor changes and nothing more. Which was disappointing for me because I rate Jason Aaron as among the best comics writers of all time and, in his second Superman outing, he’s still not bringing it to the iconic character.
I liked the new cape, Sol, which is this talking robot thing that can take the form of a red cape but also expand and become other things (which is only cool up to a point - Sol can do pretty much anything to the point of absurdity. It can become a spaceship and then become a part of Superman - what?! Sol is basically magical and can be whatever the plot needs it to be). The Kents are written beautifully. Rafa Sandoval’s art is really good and Brainiac as part-all-powerful AI was an ok contemporary touch.
That’s really it though for the positive things about this comic. The story is so slow and lacking. It’s Kal-El’s journey from doomed Krypton to Earth told over six issues when anyone who’s read Superman before knows the story inside out and Aaron does little to vary it. Then, in the present, Superman is fighting injustice whenever, wherever (we’re meant to be together), which just gets repetitive as he takes on Lazarus Corps and their Peacemaker (because he’s got a popular TV show now) private army, over and over again to no real effect. It’s so boring to read.
The changes Aaron makes just aren’t enough of a replacement for a driving plot. Krypton has a caste system and the Els are the working class, salt of the earth folk of that world - just like the people Superman stands up for and got adopted by on Earth. Lois Lane’s a part of Lazarus Corps but starts to see the evil of the organisation once she meets Kal. Both she and Kal discover that writing is important - an expression of self and an act of thinking for yourself. And Jimmy Olsen is part of the Omega Men, whatever that means. Comedy value?
I suppose with a first volume in a new speshul line of comics the origin story is unavoidable but I wish it had been dealt with much more quickly so we could get to an actually new story - an entire book retelling the same, tired old story is simply tedious to read, especially given that Aaron’s writing just isn’t that inspired or energetic to buoy it up. The pacing is leaden as we watch the creative team tick off the usual items off the list - Krypton, Kents, Krypto, gets superpowers, meets Lois, etc. I feel like that final page was meant to leave us hungry for more but it just felt silly to me.
Maybe with all of the table-setting out of the way, the second volume will be better in focusing on a more original story, but there’s also nothing presented in this first volume that makes me want to keep reading the series. Absolute Superman, Volume 1: Last Dust of Krypton isn’t just one of the weakest Superman origin retellings but also an underwhelming and forgettable beginning to this new Superman title - go in with rock bottom expectations if you’re gonna pick this one up.
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