Ra’s Al-Ghul’s Lazarus Corp is using its Peacemaker army to do bad things because it’s an evil corporation. Superman and the down home gosh darn salt of the earth folk of Smallville stand in its way. Superman’s also invincible and can do anything so whichever side he’s on is gonna be the winning one. Bored yet? You will be.
Jason Aaron’s Absolute Superman is an absolute drag to read. This second volume does little to build upon the tedious opening book but does so over even more pages, and somehow accomplishes less despite the additional space. All this second book does is introduce a classic Superman villain (Brainiac) and put Superman in the familiar outfit. 8 bloody issues for that!
The villains are the best part here and the Brainiac origin that opens this book was the only bright spot in an otherwise forgettable volume. Aaron writes messed-up lunatics really well and his Brainiac is nightmarish. Ra’s is drawn like Vandal Savage for some reason (alternate universe raisins I’m sure) and, like too many of these Absolute villains, is also drawn absurdly large - not as bonkers as Absolute Bane but his frame is ridiculously massive for no reason.
Ra’s is a weird choice given that he’s a Batman villain but I guess going for Lex as head of the evil corporation was too obvious for Aaron’s blood (subverting expectations - how “bold”!). The pitiful plot of this book is that Ra’s wants Superman to be his “son” and destroy the planet in his name…?! Ok… I guess he’s mad or something and that’s why his reasoning is insane. Not sure why he thought he could convince Superman to do something like that though, and, as we all know, Superman’s not going to do that, so - yeah. Zero narrative tension there.
Once we’re past Brainiac and Ra’s intros and their wonderfully compelling over-the-top evilness, Absolute Superman is reintroduced and the comic goes into a nosedive from which it never recovers. I don’t give a fig for Aaron’s Absolute Superman - this character is so beyond boring. He’s super-duper-social-justice-y and always does the right thing - it’s a predictably dull time whenever this personality vacuum is around.
And all that happens when Absolute Superman shows up is lots of dumb, pointless, uninteresting fighting. He fights Peacemaker, he fights giant robots, he fights Brainiac, he fights Ra’s - guess whether he beats them or not? Meanwhile Lois and Jimmy are putzing around doing bugger all, as are whoever else was in this book - I’ve already forgotten because this comic was duullllllllll.
Aaron recycles an idea he had on his vastly better Doctor Strange series at Marvel over a decade ago and has Superman’s cape be its own character: Sol - except Sol speaks. I don’t think a talking cape is a good idea, not least as it doesn’t have much of a personality either and yet gets pages of space to waffle on drearily, but especially when its powers seem to be anything the plot requires it to do. Superman in a jam? Not to worry, his magic cape will get him out of it. Honestly, if you make the mistake of picking this one up, flick through the pages - they are rammed with words, nearly all of them worthless. Let the comic have a few moments of peace - let the visuals take over the storytelling; y’know like how comics work!? - by not having the bloody cape fill up that space with inane drivel.
Speaking of Marvel, the dreaded “Marvel humour” makes an appearance in this DC book (Aaron was at Marvel for years so he’s irradiated with it now) with a supporting character’s close relative dying and then that character joking about their death immediately after, saying they died doing what they loved “yelling, shooting at bad guys, and telling me what to do.” How about no? Isn’t something like this meant to be dramatic and sad - why toss in a shit joke inappropriately? How about being tonally consistent - if you’re going for drama, hold off on the bad attempts at humour and let the moment breathe?
I don’t know why Brainiac is subjugated by Ra’s either - Brainiac seems powerful enough to be his own boss. Another plot convenience, I guess.
Absolute Superman, Volume 2: Son of the Demon is 8 issues long and feels longer because Aaron overwrites the hell out of a paper-thin, generic story and offers the reader little respite in its onslaught of repetitious tedium. The Brainiac origin is the only worthwhile part - that and the high quality art throughout - in an otherwise overlong, bloated bore of a book.
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