Written by: Mark Waid
Art by: Dan Mora
Colors by: Alejandro Sánchez
Letters by: Ariana Maher
Cover art by: Dan Mora (cover A)
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: August 7, 2024
Absolute Power #2, by DC Comics on 8/7/24, assembles the remaining heroes to mount a counter-attack to Waller's worldwide takeover, but the Fortress of Solitude isn't as safe as they thought.
Is Absolute Power #2 Good?
You've got to hand it to Mark Waid. Amanda Waller may have been the worst choice to instigate a hostile takeover of Earth's heroes and villains, but the sheer impact of drama and intensity is undeniable. The central premise is nearly impossible to swallow, but you'll still have fun trying.
When last we left Earth's mightiest heroes in Absolute Power #1, Amanda Waller's global attack with a squad of Amazo robots robbed nearly all powered individuals of their abilities. Combined with a fake news attack of global proportions, Waller either captured anyone who posed a threat or sent the remaining heroes fleeing. Those who avoided capture slowly went to the Fortress of Solitude for sanctuary.
In Absolute Power #2, Amanda Waller takes stock of Task Force VII's progress in capturing every powered individual they can find. With an 80% success rate, the team is pleased, but Waller isn't satisfied because the last 20% contains the heaviest hitters, so she orders her team to prepare for a tactical strike.
Mark Waid sets the tone with an introduction from the villain's point of view. Superheroes are in bad shape, and Waller plans to make bad so much worse. More importantly, you start to see little cracks in the loyalty of characters like Failsafe when they notice Waller is incapable of realizing she's the bad guy in this story.
The comic shifts to the Fortress of Solitude. The heroes realize sitting around isn't helping anyone, but they bicker over who should lead them to retaliate. When the smartest and most capable let their egos get in the way, Nightwing steps up as a leader and begins barking orders. Batman may not have the top spot this time, but he expresses pride in his "son" for doing the needful.
Admittedly, Nightwing would not be my first choice, but this selection is on par with DC's desperation to push Nightwing as the best of everyone. Why? Who knows, especially with Tom Taylor squandering his chance to elevate the character in the main Nightwing title and the Titans book. Even Waid gets a mild dig in when he has Wonder Woman lament the foolishness of disbanding the Justice League for just such an emergency.
Well, if you're going to go with Nightwing, he does as good a job as anyone by getting the heroes moving in strategically useful directions. In short order, Nightwing orders the theft of Waller's Mother Box, a call to help from any ally in the multiverse, a mission to retrieve Green Arrow to keep his intel away from Waller, a mission to free the prisoners on Gamorra Island, and help to suit everyone up with gear stashed in the Fortress.
Yep, Nightwing has every base covered. To Waid's credit, he did more to elevate Nightwing as a capable leader than the entirety of the Titans and Nightwing runs combined. Ahh, but the best-laid plans rarely work out.
Suddenly, the entrance to the Fortress explodes inward. Brainiac Queen has arrived with a Borg-ified Jon Kent leading the charge. Despite everyone's best efforts, the remaining heroes are no match for Waller's forces. They try every trick available, including kryptonite to weaken Jon, releasing the miniaturized citizens of Kandor, and firing all available weapons
.
The issue concludes with a big boom, casualties on both sides and a Queen's gambit.
Overall, Mark Waid is crafting the only comic that matters in this Summer event with an issue that gives you heaps of plot movement, action, drama, intensity, and thrills.
How's the Art?
At some point, you just get sick of repeating how good Dan Mora's art looks on the page. DC is making the smart choice by keeping Mora on their roster with upcoming titles because you can practically guarantee that every issue will have classic, detailed character designs, energetic action, and tons of cool visual interest.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
Final Thoughts
Absolute Power #2 hits like a freight train when Amanda Waller's plan for world domination slaps the remaining heroes with even more devastation. Waid's script packs in all the scale, drama, and energy you want from a big Summer event, and Dan Mora's art is fantastic. Nothing can convince readers Waller was able to pull off this attack, but it sure is fun watching it play out.
8/10
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Part one. So here is some Positives and Negatives for me:
ReplyDeletePositives- the fight scenes, character moments other than the one or two which I will mention in Negatives and the logic of this issue for the most part was good. A better written event than Knight Terrors, Gotham War or even Beast World and House of Brainiac for sure (for now at least, though the tie ins have been bad mostly).
Negatives-The theme for this event is going to be interesting enough to invest in and continue with some quality writing but somehow just off enough in some places to really bother readers who might take a closer look. For example last issue I said the atmosphere of oppression and desperation the heroes felt as everything fell away beneath their feet was shown well but how we got there and the logistics of it is too out there for it to be ignored as a problem (aka Waller, the worldbuilding, the way some powers are nullified and which). This issue one of the things that really bothered me is the scene with the heroes deciding who gets to lead. We have had the exact same premise with the exact result of Nightwing being chosen to lead based on his merits beforehand however the execution here doesn't land. First off for someone to be a leader you don't have to be the best strategist in the group, you just have to be able to listen and incorporate the advices of one, that is why a lot of leaders have, you know... advisors and startegists. A leader is more than that and a lot of times whether they can rally people behind them is a very important factor. So the heroes saying Superman can't lead cause he isn't a good strategist is not only inaccurate but downplays Superman's intelligence when he has been shown time and time again to be a very good if not the best leader for the JL. He could lead and unite better than most and has both powers and intelligence enough to coordinate and use his teammates to their best abilities, he has done it before this for years. It's a very weird moment to me especially cause it is not needed for the purpose of him being set aside as the final choice, a good reason for him being ignored is sitting just right there and has been already shown in this very issue: he is injured, without powers and emotionally compromised because of Jon missing in action!! So it would of course make sense for him to sit this one out and for Titans as mostly having their power sets to take the charge in battle. I don't get why they didn't go with that. It's a short moment but for me it adds to just not right quality of the event that will probably prevent me overall at the end for recommending or going back to except for some select moments or panels and that's it. Cause if the logic of the event isn't going to hold, at least the characterisation should hold up. This moment right here was unnecessarily disrespectful to Superman, inaccurate and it was to prop up another character that didn't need for others to be tore down or shown way below their competence and character to be elevated (Mr Terrific and Batman didn't go unscathed either sadly). And let's just say after months and months of Dawn of DC trying to make the Titans side of these stories work and fail, Nightwing being the leader doesn't hold the same interest that it used to prior and when he has not been shown as a better leader or even a good one during this era. Titans have been constantly battling inside threats so them being better put together than JL now is funny. (I will give credit to Beast World for showing some competence for their team but the aftermath of that was handled very poorly too) probably many would not feel the same and see this as a nitpick, it's kind of more important to me than that but to each their own i guess.
Part two. Secondly, I don't think even as a hail mary the heroes would consider just smashing Kandor without at least some heavy encouragement form Kandorians themselves. Wouldn't this put them and their whole city in irreparable loss and damage now? At least with knowledge they had while making this decision. I think they would have just grabbed the city and Superman would have then went straight to the self destruct plan.
DeleteAnd lastly and a minor point, I wish they would have either chose another character for having gone through what they have here other than Jon or have had written that character better these past years cause this would have hit wayyyy much more if it was a likable character or someone people were invested in but here readers mostly care cause it's just a very horrible thing to happen to someone and also cause they care about Clark and how this is impacting him and I feel like the writers would want the readers to feel more than this in these moments with how they have written it. A minor point mostly but I doubt this having happened to Jon would somehow save his character or make him well written in the aftermath, cause they will just go back to writing him horribly and out of sync with the Superfamily and his parents.This is just a very interesting and tense setup that might have been incredible with some other characters in DC than Jon.
Side note: also Amanda saying she doesn't want to hurt normal people or civilians is supposed to be ironic or hypocritical or is that meant genuinely by the writer??? I couldn't quite say which cause I think we are meant to think her not seeing what she is doing to metas as inhuman is ironic while caring for non metas not that she has also been hurting bornal people but is in denial about it. But in any case Beast World is such a massive casualty for normal people turned into some kind of meta by Waller herself and being hurt that makes that sentence here very hilarious.
Typo: *she has also been hurting normal people but is in denial about it.
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