Unbagging Absolute Superman #4
Absolute Superman
#4A
Rafa Sandoval Regular
Release: Feb 05, 2025
Cover: Apr 2025
Creators
| Writer | Jason Aaron |
| Artist | Rafa Sandoval |
| Cover Artist | Rafa Sandoval |
| Cover Colorist | Ulises Arreola |
| Colorist | Ulises Arreola |
| Letterer | Becca Carey |
No.
I went back and forth about which of the Absolute books I should write about. I haven’t read any of Absolute Batman yet, but of the two titles I have read, Absolute Wonder Woman manages to stand out as probably the better book, but only just, and I am a certified “Superman guy,” so in the end the choice was obvious.
As for which issue to write about, I went with this one because I’m also a “Lois Lane guy” and she – or at least her Absolute version – is the main focus of this issue.
Before I get into the issue, though, I should probably provide some background on what the whole “Absolute” line even is. Much like their Marvelous competitor’s “Ultimate” line, the Absolute books are set in a different universe than the main line of comics DC puts out, a universe where some names and faces are familiar, but many other things are different.
The Absolute Universe was introduced in last year’s All In Special, which Casually Comics provided a solid breakdown and analysis of in the video below.
The main takeaway, if you don’t want to watch the video, is that the Absolute Universe is one that is infused with “Darkseid Energy,” making it a darker, grimmer universe than the main universe that is infused with “Superman Energy.”
…yeah, it does sound dumb, and it would lead you to think that it’s going to be standard edgy, grim-and-gritty dark versions of the heroes we know, which is old hat and boring.
However, that bit of goofiness about competing energies aside, so far neither of the two books I’ve read has really done the grimdark take on the heroes. The setting is dark, but so far, particularly in the case of Absolute Wonder Woman, that darkness is resulting in the heroes shining brighter.
And here, in Absolute Superman, we aren’t getting a Homelander-style “dark” Superman, we’re getting something that, as with Morrison’s “New 52” run on Action, harkens back to Superman’s earliest days as a crusader for working people fighting against the elite.
That ties in to one of the main ways in which the story of Absolute Superman differs from the story of the Superman we know,
Like the Superman we know, Absolute Superman was rocketed to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton, but unlike the Superman we know, he wasn’t a baby when it happened, nor did he go alone.
Every issue prior to this one has moved about in time, showing us what’s happening on Earth now and what happened on Krypton then. The Krypton we see features a Kal-El headed into adolescence while being raised by his parents, Jor-El and Lara. While both of his parents are brilliant, they rebelled against the orthodoxy of Krypton’s rigid caste system, and so, though their intellects make them ideal candidates for the Science League, they are instead forced to live in the lowest level of society as members of the Labor Guild.
Here, rather than just being a symbol Pa Kent came up with, or his family crest, the symbol Superman wears is the mark of the Labor Guild, the people of steel.
Now, whether or not Jor-El and Lara made it to Earth with Kal-El is an open question. That it was their intention to accompany him was shown in the last issue, but we have not seen them on Earth, and there have been mysterious hints about an Absolute Kent family, but regardless, Superman is not alone, as the suit he wears houses an AI called Sol.
While it’s not clear how – I think it acts as a kind of battery – the suit/Sol that was created by Lara seems to have some role in the regulation of Superman’s powers. Sol is continually advising Superman about his power levels and advising against taking certain actions that might drain them too rapidly.
The main thing that Superman has been using those powers for, of course, is helping people. Particularly the exploited workers of the Lazarus Corporation around the world. This, of course, puts him in conflict with the multinational corporation, up to and including direct physical conflict with the company’s armed paramilitary organization the Peacemakers.
It’s also what led him to have an encounter with a young agent of Lazarus named Lois Lane.
As noted, Lois is the focus of this issue, and while she’s not a reporter, she is still an investigator and the main story is about her search for her employer’s mysterious enemy, starting off with her questioning various people who, like her, have encountered the young powerhouse and found themselves changed by it.
Ostensibly, Lois is trying to find Superman for her employer, but it’s clear that she wants to find him for her own sake.
In any case, one of the women being interviewed has an injury, which Lois inquires about, and we get a demonstration of the fact that while the company she works for is evil – though she doesn’t necessarily see it that way…yet – she is not, and we see that she is very much like the Lois Lane that we know once she finds the Peacemaker who caused the injury.
One of the other people we meet who was affected by an encounter with Superman is a Peacemaker named Christopher Smith, though the effect Superman had on him was rather the opposite of the effect on Lois.
Seeing the way Superman shrugged off their weapons and how the Peacemakers were nothing to him filled Smith with rage, rage that he wanted to take out on the innocent people that Superman was protecting.
Smith is troubled by this response and seeks out help from Brainiac, the AI that’s used to perform many functions within Lazarus, such as therapy for employees.
Unfortunately, Brainiac isn’t interested in providing Smith the kind of help he wants or needs.
As Lois continues her pursuit of Superman we get to meet her father, Sam Lane, during a phone conversation in which he warns her about the dangers of what she’s doing.
Sam himself is retired from service – a service that cost him his legs – and Lois followed him into the family business.
She tells Sam that she doesn’t feel that Superman is dangerous, noting that while he’s destroyed a trillion dollars worth of equipment he’s got a body count of zero.
He’s just some sort of, I don’t know…mumbly little hippie boy.
However, there is another danger in the form of a group of terrorists/freedom fighters known as the Omega Men, one of whom she encounters while, against her father’s advice, wandering off on her own.
The two begin to fight, but that’s not what the Omega Man wants, as he’s certain that Lois is different and that if she could be made to understand the truth about Lazarus she would join his cause.
Unfortunately, this conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Primus, the leader of the Omega Men, who isn’t interested in talking, though she does talk a bit, stating that she knows who Lois is and implying that she’s the one who took her father’s legs.
The conflict draws attention.
First from Superman, who dismissively tosses Primus aside as she approaches him to ask him to join their cause, and then turns his attention to Lois.
It also draws the attention of the Peacemaker unit that Lois left behind when she went out for her leisurely stroll., a unit that includes Christopher Smith.
Superman then takes his leave, as do Primus and the Omega Man – referred to as Alpha – who’d tried to contact Lois, leaving Lois to berate the Peacemakers who are stuck in ice for screwing everything up.
In the end, we learn that “Alpha” is Absolute Jimmy Olsen, and that despite how everything went sideways he still thinks that Lois will learn to accept the truth.
The issue closes on the scene of a thawed-out Smith being restrained by other Peacemakers and as we look upon a pile of bodies of innocent civilians we see that this time when he tried to vent his impotent rage he did not miss.
And that’s the kind of dark context in which the Absolute heroes find themselves, and while I will admit that Absolute Superman is not quite the boy scout people might expect, he’s still not what I would call a “dark” take on the character.
Angry? Sure, but as I mentioned, that’s not really new, as this is very much in line with his origins. A bit glum and grim, as well, but the thing is, we haven’t really seen that much of him in his role as Superman. Most of what we know of him is from his life on Krypton, where he was a reasonably happy young man, albeit one who, like his parents, was a bit of a rebel.
So we see there is a capacity for a bit more lightness in his personality that I suspect we’ll get to see more of as we explore the time between his departure from Krypton and the present day.
After all, from the looks of things, it seems like most of what he’s seen in his time on Earth is the worst of humanity in this Darkseid-infused universe.
Besides, he’s still young and angsty with room to grow.
That said, I think before we get there we’re likely to see some of his own darkness, based on that horrific ending and the teaser of “The Rage of Superman” for what’s coming next, which was something that was hinted at during the interviews Lois conducted.
The Superman fears the day Lazarus will drive him to such anger…he cannot help but save this world…by killing you all.
Indeed, that is exactly what most of the people he’s helped are praying for, which in terms of inspiring people the way a Superman should is not ideal, even if it is understandable.
I have confidence, however, that this isn’t the dark path that he’s headed on given that the story makes clear that it is a dark path that he should not be headed on and that there is the counter-example of the effect he seems to be having on Lois.
As for Lois, I’ve enjoyed the traces of mainline Lois that we see in this tough-as-nails version. Really, she seems to basically just be a Lois who isn’t as at odds with her father as the Lois we typically see. That changed the course of her life, but it doesn’t seem to have really changed the core of her character.
In the previous issue we saw that Absolute Lara was a total badass in much the same way that Absolute Lois is, so I’m sure that’s going to go a long way towards getting Superman to not be so annoyed about her trying to find him.
I was also amused by a commonality between Lois and Superman. On Krypton, young Kal-El kept getting in trouble in school for writing his own essays rather than just creating prompts for an AI to write. In her conversation with her dad, he complains about hearing that Lois has taken to writing her own reports rather than letting Brainiac do it.
Speaking of AI, while there is some definite commentary about the real-world uses of LLMs – yes, there is an extent to which this comic is *GASP!* political – it’s clear that there’s something up with Brainiac at Lazarus, given that it’s Brainiac and we saw that it’s not just some disembodied algorithm, and that there have been all sorts of questions raised to Lois about the nature of Lazarus and the people behind it. If they even are people.
I’m a fan of most of what I’ve read by by Jason Aaron, and so far this book is no exception. I like the way he’s slowly rolling out the story, taking time to focus on side characters, and creating narratives set in the past and the present that are slowly beginning to meet in the middle, which is the kind of thing he’s both known for and good at.
Sandoval is new to me, but I’m definitely liking the art and design work. The armored Superman suit looks much cooler than the New 52 armored suit did, and I particularly like the swirling of the not-a-cape-cape of red particulate matter that serves a function beyond just looking cool.
The way the action is depicted also lends a sort of visceral quality to just how mismatched the regular people who go up against Superman are. There’s just something in the way it looks that lets you feel just how unnerving the mere presence of someone like Superman can be, and you can, to some extent, empathize with Smith’s feelings of powerlessness.
When they were announced, I was on the fence about the Absolute books, leaning towards negative, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised so far by this and Absolute Wonder Woman, and I do hear good things about Absolute Batman, so I’ll probably check that out eventually.
For now, however, I’m very much content with the little corner of the Absolute Universe I’ve explored so far and thought I should take some time to let you know.
Born and raised in the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Jon Maki developed an enduring love for comics at an early age.
