Written by: Mark Waid
Art by: Dan Mora
Colors by: Alejandro Sánchez
Letters by: Ariana Maher
Cover art by: Dan Mora
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: September 4, 2024
Absolute Power #3, by DC Comics on 9/4/24, begins a frantic race to find weapons and allies, some known and others brand new, to stop Amanda Waller's plan to take over the world.
Is Absolute Power #3 Good?
Absolute Power #3 gives you everything you want, but maybe not the way you want it. Mark Waid pulls out all the stops to make sure the heroes and villains cover as much ground as possible to get readers from point A to point B, but you feel like you're being dragged on a runaway horse to get there.When last we left the remaining collective of Earth's heroes in Absolute Power #2, they gathered in the Fortress of Solitude and began making plans to mount a counter-attack to Amanda Waller's worldwide siege. Before plans could be put into action, a cybernetically-possessed Jon Kent and an Amazo robot attacked the Fortress, capturing most of the remaining heroes, sending the rest scurrying. In the climactic finish, Dreamer sacrifices herself to buy the fleeing heroes time to escape.
In Absolute Power #3, the surviving heroes find themselves on Themyscira, the only place left on Earth that's uncharted by world governments and protected from Kryptonian sight by magic. Queen Nubia isn't happy about the presence of outsiders, especially men, but she recognizes that Waller's victory spells trouble for everyone.
Following on from the frantic series of events in issue #2, Mark Waid cranks up the pace and the chaos a few more notches to keep the proceedings moving. Frankly, it's almost too much because there's almost a different scene or conversation in every other panel, and you can't reasonably absorb it all in one read-through.
Nightwing settles down the troops, particularly Barda, who believes Jon Kent needs to be put down. Hal Jordan divvies out the weapons he managed to steal in Green Lantern #14. Wally West and Hal Jordan are sent to the Hall of Order to steal intel. Aquaman, Yara Flor, Blue Beetle, and Red Tornado head to an aircraft carrier to retrieve John Starr, aka Time Commander. Donna Troy and Big Barda set up a defensive blockade on Themyscira in case Waller's forces find them. And on and on and on and on.
Yeah, it gets to be a bit much. Waid keeps all the threads moving in the same direction, but the sheer volume of developments and characters to track gets overwhelming quickly. It's pretty clear that Waid is trying to cram two or three issues worth of story into one, so the experience feels super-rushed.
Ultimately, each team completes its objective with a few losses in the exchange. More importantly, Waller and Failsafe notice some of their Amazo's aren't operating at peak efficiency due to the "infection" of goodness from the heroes they captured and stole powers from, prompting Failsafe to initiate a mass remote reboot.
Further, Brainiac Queen and Jon Kent find the heroes on Theymyscira by tracking Red Tornado's A.I. code. However, Jon is overcome with magic power as soon as he sets foot on the island, freeing him from Brainiac Queen's control. In turn, Jon forces his thoughts into Brainiac Queen to show her that Waller has lied to her the entire time. Before Waller can take control of Brainiac Queen and strike Jon down, Batman teleports Brainiac Queen to Pluto with the Mother Box he recovered in this week's Batman #152.
*huff* *huff* *huff* And then... And then... And then... And then...
The issue concludes with Barry Allen, the last Flash with powers, receiving a message from an unlikely source.
What's great about Absolute Power #3? If you want high-stakes adventure and fast-paced action with spectacular art, you get it all and more than your mortal mind can handle in a single sitting. Mark Waid throws as many plot developments as a single comic can possibly hold without busting the staples. So, readers who value story over spectacle wind up with both to get their money's worth.
What's not great about Absolute Power #3? Rush, rush, rush. To be fair, the comic is completely readable, and you never feel like harmful shortcuts are taken, but the comic reads like it was written at 2x speed. None of the scenes have time or space to fully play out or breathe. Either Waid didn't pace his plot properly, or the number of issues needed to tell this story was cut short. Either way, this issue is just plain frantic.
How's the Art? Dan Mora can do no wrong. Even in an issue where you're jumping from one scene to the next, sometimes on the same page, you can still follow the flow and track what's happening. Mora's work still looks fantastic under even the most extreme conditions.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Final Thoughts
Absolute Power #3 races readers from one scene to the next at Flash-levels of speed to cram in as much story as possible. For readers who favor non-stop, fast-paced action, this comic will feel like an absolute win. For the rest of us who would rather let the story breathe and unfold naturally to let the drama and emotional impact set in, this comic reads like a frantic panic attack.
7.2/10
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I completely agree with your issue with the pacing. It's mostly resolved too quickly and it's a problem cause we are supposed to see this as a worldwide super threat that has all of the world's countries powerless. Waller has the government of US subverted and all of the world's great powers subjucated but the heroes defeat her (or at least nullify most of her top people) too easily. She has at least two dimensions and galactic forces locked from heroes!! Shouldn't Failsafe have put up more of a fight against Nightwing's tactics since it knows basically everything Batfamily knows? My biggest problem with this series and event has been the logistics of Waller pulling off what she has over the world governments without effective retaliation from them and if I was to believe that to be the case, then the heroes can't possibly have subverted her in just one issue (even if it is happening quickly and we still have one issue of alternative JL members fighting them. Also this was supposed to be a everyone against the heroes kind of deal but after what has Waller done with other countries and US itself, what is exactly her plan to deal with heroes in long term??? There is no attempt here to create fundamental change the way this event promised the villain would try to pull off in regards of how the world views heroes. I think Beast World despite being a way worse event did more in that regard, people actually legitimately distrusted Titans for understandable reasons).
ReplyDeleteBasically you can't have both. Either she wasn't that much of a threat, or she was and the heroes should have struggled longer for it to be a believable crisis. This event was forshadowed basically since dark crisis and the start of Dawn of DC and to have it be only 4 issues makes the readers feel like that's it???? The earlier issues had a lot of tension and desperation in them only for this issue to make the reader feel like it wasn't that desperate of a fight anyway. To be clear a fight could have lasted only a week or so and still be tense and gravely important, it just depends on how it is resolved and the events happen and could also be written in more than 4 or 5 issue covering these week or so of a fight. Especially since you said so yourself, there are too many players in the fight that could have used panels detailing their missions (I won't count the tie ins. Let's just say it won't be in favor of this event's overall quality if they were to be reviewed alongside these issues.)
*subjugated
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