Absolute Superman #6 art & writing analysis PART 2 OF 2
Heh Heh Heh. My favorite issue of Volume 1 once more.
Jonathan and Martha really feel like a logic vs emotion" deal here. Jonathan bringing up very good points like, what DO they do if he dies?? Just bury him in the yard??? For all he knows this alien is dangerously strong (which he is) and could seriously harm the love of his life (which he wouldn't, not intentionally, but Jonathan doesn't know that). Martha on the other hand sees a child who is suffering and scared. She saw his face, terrified, begging for help. Jonathan saw a powerful, terrifying, firey creature lunging toward them.
And then we have Kal's perspective, his body adjusting to the yellow sun, drifting in and out of nightmares, of pain... do ya'll think he's reaching for Martha's hand here ;-; His expression... oh poor baby
The way Jonathan shields Martha here. He's scared for her. He doesn't see beyond that. But this is foreshadowing to how people will react to Kal on Earth. Compassion vs. fear.
I like how Kal's previous bed was an older one and now we've got a more modern minimalist bed that they probably drove 40 minutes away to a local Walmart to get lol
Anyways. "Closed my eyes, and I was still on Krypton, covered in lava. When my eyes were open, all I wanted to do was to cry... but something kept burning away the tears." Poor baby Kal. I wonder how long this was all going on. Weeks- does that mean two weeks? Three, four, five? The longer it is the more I admire the Kents' dedication. (Even Jonathan's; he could have gone against Martha's wishes but he loves her too much to do that)
I wish I could put every panel in here but the damn 30 pic limit is taunting me. I LOVE the one where he's got his eyes all glowy and red and ugouaosugaogh
I just noticed Martha's hand is bandaged here. God, he burned her and she's still taking care of him. It doesn't matter. "He's just confused, suffering. Don't know what he's doing, the poor thing. He's been through something awful to get here, you can tell." Oh Martha. She's right on the mark here. This is such a sweet panel too, she's so tender with him, petting him, oh my god. He hurt her... but she understands. He wasn't trying to :(
The burn marks all over the bed and the walls, too. I'm surprised he didn't burn the whole place down. I wonder if he semi-unconsciously used his frost breath to put it out... new headcanon unlocked :)
Not the full page here but oh my god how strange and horrifying and beautiful this must be for him. I really like how much of the comic starts off on Krypton so you as the reader kind of get used to it, so Earth DOES feel more alien in this framing. I LOVE the gorgeous sky here. The way it feels so oddly familiar, yet different... oh my god
Also: WHEAT FIELD AND NOT CORN FIELD! This is a geat post that goes over the symbolism of that, but basically the tl;dr is
Wheat is Kansas's most famous crop
It's golden in the sun and fits beautifully with Kal's sun imagery
Wheat isn't native to Kansas; it was brought there by refugee Mennonites. Kal's also a refugee (duh) and there's a whole quote by a guy named Suderman about extending one's hand and embracing one's enemies instead of killing them
Wheat is the fruit of kindness in Jewish folklore ;_; And Kal (speaking generally) has a huuuge connection to Judaism
Nothing important to say here just LOOK AT HOW FUCKIN COOL HE IS AND THEY GAVE HIM SOME CLOTHES TO WEAR..... i bet they're martha's clothes lol they have kind of a women's cut
MARTHA WORKING ON THE TRACTOR IN THE SAME POSE LARA WAS WORKING ON THE TRACTOR HRRHHGHGHG (thank you Carmine for drawing her with her hair up lmao). "You helped him remember who he is" GOD. God. "remembering who you are" is such a theeeeme in this comic. He would have made a hell of a father
His fucking hair is so beautiful god he IS an angel
The fact that they were doomed from the start. The fact that they still found love anyways, and it mattered so much it became a huge part of Kal's identity
I know I've talked about this before but ohhh I love it when he talks to himself in second person. It's so soft here. I love the juxtaposition between the two parts of Kal here- the part that is ridden with guilt and flashing back to Krypton, and the part that is trying to ground him in the present. Again and again we see this duality with Kal.
ASDFJKHAJKHAJKGOWAUOAUOUGOHAGHGHGH sorry guys I just love this panel so much his HUGE WHITE EYES ARE SO CUTE. fuck. and his little cowboy boots. Can he dress like this forever it's adorable. ANYWAYS
I also love the sassy "YOU DON'T SAY?" in the panel beforehand to Sol when he talks about how this planet may supercharge his cells lolll
"Shut up for a minute while I clear my mind." "Sunset on the Raos. Dad's boots caked in sunstone. Krypto barking." waouwaaahhgh
Jonathan looks at her with such like... fond annoyance here. They really are an old married couple.
HE GOT ALL IN HIS KRYPTONIAN SPACE SUIT THAT HE FEELS MORE COMFORTABLE IN WAOGUUHHH. And you KNOW he was practicing how to say that with Sol! The way he pauses on fixed, like he's very carefully trying to conjugate it correctly, because words are important to him, but he's slow, so he'll take it slow, fuck. god.
"Kennt?" He's so cute. I like that he kind of gets the sense that their "Kent" is similar to his "El". Jonathan is adorable here too. Wearing his silly overalls. I wonder if the overalls Kal wears in issue 15+ are Jon or Martha's overalls.
Also, it's really neat that Sol has been using his own powers to help people on Earth technically for longer than Kal has! After a while, he starts encouraging Kal to "return to the shadows" and not interfere in a doomed world. But then come Issue #13 and he's come full circle- destroying Lazarus tech in Smallville to help people ;-; Sol literally started and ended his life on Earth doing this.
"Hello... Kents" [LIGHTNING CRACK] <- Not putting this panel in bc limited space, but I love how oddly menacing he looks here while still being his silly awkward self. Bro only knows like 8 words in English and two of them are "Hello" and "Kent". He is trying soooo hard and I love him for it
THEY'RE DANCING IN THE RAIN LOOK AT JON'S LITTLE SMILE WAOUAOGUOAGHOGHGHOH.... ;-; Kal just standing there awkwardly bc he's awkward. I love him
And here's where we find out that Lazarus LITERALLY runs the US government. I mean, it's kind of implied before. They're essentially the entire US military. But they also control Homeland Security... and probably everything else ngl, at least the more militarized stuff like immigration enforcement, police, etc.
This whole scene feels like racial profiling to me. If Kal looked like he'd been related to the Kents, it would've been assumed he was some distant relative come to visit. Instead, they pegged him as a foreigner just by a distant look, and from Issue #13:
This is the EXACT anti-immigrant propaganda that is rife in the US today- specifically propaganda against brown immigrants from the Global South, who Kal is much more culturally influenced by than the US from a purely time standpoint. Ugh. It's so good.
I really love how much they lean into Kal's identity as an immigrant. It's an important piece of Clark, too, but his story is one of being assimilated and finding one's culture later in life. He passes as white and grew up in rural Midwest US culture. Kal comes to the US not knowing a word of the language... looking different enough from the Kents that he's assumed to be an "enemy" the "community" needs to be "protected from" (dogwhistle much?). He doesn't have the luxury of blending in. (lol I kind of love that the 2024 rumors that he was Latino-coded weren't necessarily wrong)
SOMEWHAT RELATED but everything he knows and loves about his homeland is seen as "foreign", it's too dangerous to share, he can't let himself be close to anyone. And this carries through throughout the rest of his life- "because I showed the world something I cared about. Never do that again. Never again." (Issue #13) -> btw I really love the parallels between Issue #6 and the Battle of Smallville. The fact that both times Kal comes here, the one thing he views as home is ripped from him by Lazarus. ("Do you have a safe place somewhere, Kal? I do. It's right here on my back. His name is Sol." - Issue #12) God. God. He breaks me
This panel breaks my HEART. The agony and fury and disbelief on Martha's face. That they would do this, do this to a child, to her child, her lost son. Jonathan coming out all guns-blazing because what else do you do? The sheer amount of force they're putting on Kal. He's just a little GUY
AGAIN WITH THE IMMIGRANT STUFF: I think people not from countries with crazily funded, highly militarized immigration enforcement would find this excessive or unrealistic. All those guys for one kid? They don't even know the extent of his powers or even that he has them at all ("Little fella's stronger than he looks", "Holy hell! He's FLYING! I repeat, subject is airborne!"). But like... this is what they DO. They really do send insane amounts of heavily armored armed guys after people. The Absolute Universe is just a scaled-up version of our universe with more sci-fi technology; of course their immigration raids would look like this.
THIS PANEL TOO I'M GONNA CRYYYY. HE'S JUST A LITTLE BABY GUYS LOOK HOW TINY AND SMALL HE IS FUCKKKK
"No ID and no work permit" -> they really just assumed Kal was a laborer and not their precious child they wanted to take in to their family. He's just arrived on Earth and no one sees him for who he really is
THIS PANEL. THE CONFUSION, ANGER, GRIEF ON HIS FACE. WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS? WHY ARE THEY TAKING HIM FROM HIS NEW FAMILY. DIDN'T HE SUFFER ENOUGH? DIDN'T THIS HAPPEN ALREADY? Oh my god KAL. Is it any wonder he changed so much after losing Sol. Is it any wonder.
Also lmfao at the the guy who's like "suspect resisting detainment"... I actually really like how much Peacemaker dialogue there is in this comic bc you see him how they see him. A suspect. Dangerous. Etc. The propaganda runs hard.
SORRY I KNOW I'M POSTING EVERY PANEL OF THIS COMIC BUT IT IS MY FAVORITE ISSUE, AFTER ALL.
Kal literally just pushing the tank away fuck he's so cool I love his stance
WAIT THERE'S OTHER GUYS WHO AREN'T PEACEMAKERS HERE? THEY LOOK LIKE REGULAR MILITARY ESQUE GUYS... THEY DON'T HAVE PEACEMAKER LOGOS. I THINK THAT'S ACTUALLY JUST ICE LMFAO. AGAIN I wonder what the difference between the Peacemakers and the US military are in this story, if there is a meaningful difference beyond just one being more heavily armored, etc etc etc. Two wings same bird, but it does interest me lore-wise
KAL TELLING SOL TO TALK TO THEM. Because he can't. He doesn't know the language well enough at this point. And the fact that he... he thinks they would just let him go if they knew what he'd been through. That there'd be a chance they'd have compassion on him. That they wouldn't realize he's a literal alien and not just a metahuman, take him in to be studied. This comic breaks my heart
And Sol knows. "I cannot do that. My mission is to protect you." I wonder how much information Sol has downloaded about Earth already. He doesn't have this more innocent view of it all. He knows talking won't help :'(
HIS FACE HERE. ALL OF THEIR FACES. HE'S SO BROKEN. JON'S FACE SWELLING UP FROM THE PUNCH. THE GUN POINTED AT THE KENTS. KAL'S RESIGNATION. God I love the art in this comic so much I'm gonna lose my fucking mindddd
Yeah yeah I know I'm basically just posting the whole page at this point but this page is so beautiful and heart-wrenching. If you need to know anything about Absolute Kal- THIS is it. To lose everything, everything you've ever known and loved and now you've finally found somewhere to stay and they won't let you stay. Just because of who you are. Because you don't belong. You never felt like you belonged on Krypton, and while this is something else entirely... it still hits that deep, despairing feeling. Oh KAL-EL
(ALSO GOD THE HOLE IN THE SKY IS SOOOO BEAUTIFUL. THE WAY THE LIGHT HITS THE CLOUDS, THE LIGHT, HIS ESCAPE. Btw, according to an interview he's just jumping really far at this point. He doesn't learn how to float or fly until Issue 14-15ish.)
And it's not just about him. It's not. Just a few weeks being conscious on Earth and he's already learned so much about it. He's already learned it's hopeless. It's exactly the same as Krypton. It's taking the same trajectory, and there's nothing he can do about it.
To me it's this kid who's weeping. Kal in Issue #5. Realizing he's already failed. He's already too late. I LOVE how this story takes Kal into the darkest depths of hopelessness... and he's still Superman. There are times where he has completely given up. Times he wants to die, times he believes this world will be impossible to save. That doesn't erase who he is, or the fact that eventually, he keeps going.
But right now, he is hopeless.
And we see this further in this "present day" page. Things have only gotten worse. All these businesses in Smallville are shuttered. I actually really appreciate that Jason Aaron brought attention to all of these issues that are so often ignored tbh. The brutality of immigration enforcement before it was even "popular" to hate them. Mental health among rural communities. Megacorporations, etc etc. And they did it in a way that doesn't feel preachy or ham-fisted.
Our first introduction to Brainiac and he's creepy as hell yayyyy
Also it's interesting how our first introduction to Ra's is this like... Christian-esque technofascist guy trying to make himself immortal. I know regular Brainiac is not as... intense as Absolute Brainac but I know next to nothing about regular Ra's other than that he's really into the environment and shit. God I hate when people make environmentalists villains but that's besides the point.
(I HATE HOW PROPHETIC THIS STUPID COMIC IS BTW LIKE I'M PRETTY SURE THE FIRST ARC WAS WRITTEN IN 2023 and it just. Predicted everything. The AI overtaking everything, the tech bros trying to be immortal, highly militarized police states, etcc. I know all this stuff was still a thing back then but boy has it gotten worse. Absolute Superman is so fucking cathartic to read on so many different levels. Not just the "current events" level but also the way it deals with trauma and grief and loneliness and rage and all the things Kal struggles with)
ANYWAYS. Kal makes me want to actually break down sobbing ya'll he's SO tragic. He's such a beautiful character. Great issue. Okay Corvin out
