Latest news with #AbsoluteUniverse
Geek Dad
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
Review – Absolute Superman #8: Showdown in Smallville
Absolute Superman #8 cover, via DC Comics Ray: For the last few issues, we've been teased about what happened in Smallville. One emotional issue showed us the few weeks Kal-El spent in the small town, being found by Jonathan and Martha Kent when he was a teenager. You could see that they would have shown him the same love they did if they found him as a baby – but then Lazarus Corp came, hunting him, and Kal was forced to flee. And all these years later, that's still the only place he ever felt safe. But this isn't the Smallville he left. The town has been fully taken over by the shadowy corporation, turning the farmers into modern serfs. Jonathan Kent is long gone, and Martha Kent languishes in a memory care center. Kal tries to visit, but she doesn't recognize him. And so he prowls the streets of Smallville – along with Lois Lane, and Omega Man Jimmy Olsen. Put to the test. Via DC Comics. The three main players have been in opposition from the start, with Lois not sure she can fully turn her back on her father's army yet and Jimmy not trusting anyone associated with them. And Superman, of course, stuck in the middle. But now, the Peacemakers are about to enter the fray, led by the mad and cybernetically-enhanced Agent Smith, turned into a raging monster. The action in this issue is intense, but as usual with the Absolute Universe, there's a great emotional underpinning to every issue. And then there's the main villain, Ra's Al Ghul. Whether he's the true big bad of this series or Brainiac is, it's hard to tell. But after last issue's spotlight for Brainiac, what we see of Ra's here is no less terrifying. Here more a mad warlord than the utopian we often see him as, he's further gone – and plays a key role in introducing Kryptonite to the world of Superman, raising the stakes even higher. To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week. GeekDad received this comic for review purposes. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
Geek Dad
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
Review – Absolute Batman #8: Deep Freeze
Absolute Batman #8 cover, via DC Comics. Ray: If there's one thing that sets apart the Absolute Universe from the main one, it's that the villains here are absolutely terrifying. They're bigger, more vicious, and far more distanced from reality. That's never clearer than with Mr. Freeze, who in the main continuity is a gimmick crook driven by love and obsession. In the Absolute Line, he's a sickly child transformed into a monster by an obsessed father, and now he's built his own lab filled with volunteers for cryogenic research – who are now trapped in a never-ending chamber of horrors, frozen but conscious in agonizing pain. And now Batman is about to join them, as Bruce Wayne's ruse to discover how his friend Matches Malone died has led him directly into this trap. And even if he manages to escape, a horde of deranged, pain-drunk attackers are waiting to rip him apart in the name of the man who did this to them. Deep freeze. Via DC Comics. There are two main stars in this comic, with the first obviously being Marcos Martin. His art is very different from Nick Dragotta's, and while his Bruce remains on-model, the tone of the issue is perfectly suited for the chilling lab atmosphere. But the second is Scott Snyder's writing. This issue deals a lot with questions of mortality and death wishes, with all of Freeze's victims volunteering for this out of a fear of death. But at the same time, Bruce might have a death wish – something Waylon tries to get out of him in a flashback as they fight. There's some fascinating backstory about Matches Malone and why he fell so far that it eventually led to his death, and the ripples of Thomas Wayne's death continue to create fascinating new storyarcs for his son and the people around him. This is one of the most radical reinventions of Batman I've seen, but it's also incredibly true to all the characters and delivering a stunning story. To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week. GeekDad received this comic for review purposes. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
Geek Dad
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
Review – Absolute Green Lantern #2: Black and Green
Absolute Green Lantern #2 cover, via DC Comics. Ray: It's no surprise that a big sci-fi guy like Al Ewing would absolutely knock it out of the park on this title, but I feel like coming in, this was the Absolute book we knew the least about. The first issue didn't give away all its secrets either, with a non-linear plot that showed us the story from the perspective of Jo Mullein and Hal Jordan as a mysterious alien being named Abin Sur came to town. But this Abin Sur wasn't a kindly space policeman – he was a mysterious alien spectre who dropped a massive lantern-shaped ship on the city and proceeded to unleash unpredictable powers. In the aftermath, Jo became Earth's first Green Lantern – and Hal was infected by the dark forces of the Black Hand. As Jo tries to reason with her friend, whose new powers killed a large number of policemen when they confronted him, it's clear Hal inherited a lot more than some spooky shadow powers from the alien entity. Rude awakening. Via DC Comics. The timeline becomes a little clearer this month, as we see the immediate aftermath of Abin Sur's arrival. With a sector of the city essentially fenced off due to the mysterious dome, it falls to Sheriff Guy Gardner – Jo's estranged friend – to try to keep the peace. He's the first to make contact with the alien, and his better instincts shine through and lead him to try to open a line of communication. Not that it helps him, as the alien begins dealing out inscrutable 'judgements', seeking evidence of the emotional spectrum in people and quickly dispensing with them if he can't. This is a terrifying issue, because similar to the great Absolute Martian Manhunter, it's an amazing depiction of a truly alien intelligence and how it would interact with an 'inferior' species. Between this visit from beyond and Hal's increasingly unstable behavior, the tension in this title is through the roof. Another phenomenal entry from the Absolute Universe so far. To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week. GeekDad received this comic for review purposes. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
