I have been a bit too busy to keep up with the comic reading as of late with Christmas and New Year's taking place, as well as an upcoming trip which has had my focus elsewhere. But I have been ensuring I have been keeping up with the few newer releases that I had been reading, primarily with the Absolute releases from DC, which are now going into their third volumes. I usually mention the others that I'm reading here, but that's really only just Absolute Batman which is the better option out of all of them, and with Absolute Superman being something I just read out of curiosity, though my hopes haven't been all that high for it. Outside of my attention is Absolute Wonderwoman, which I just can't seem to care for due to the character as well as the really weak art style it has. Each of these comics within the Absolute stories has its own art style, some being better than others. I do like this aspect of it, even if some of them aren't for me. That brings us into the third volume of Absolute Superman, which has been slugging along a bit slowly in comparison with more world building that character development and introduction. I wouldn't say it has been something that has really managed to capture my interest and attention, but it has shown a bit of potential in a more unique story.
The last volume gave us a very quick and different take on the Superman character, in which we see that his suit is pretty much an artificial intelligence which can automatically make decisions for him and take care of his general well-being. The character himself is still capable of a lot on his own, his powers aren't purely a result of the costume; but it did show that this was more of a technology placed upon him to guide him after, as usual, his parents had to send him off on his own. It wasn't a great volume, it felt a bit thin much like the previous one, focusing more on the establishing of the world and its very mega-corporation and greed oriented narrative that sees the planet being mined to its death at the expense of the environment and health of the low-paid citizens. It's a bit more of a dystopian world and narrative, and where it goes from there hasn't really been hinted much. I do enjoy these aspects of world building, giving the story a bit more to see and discover beyond just the usual superhero idea of Superman, or the boring idea of him being the Clark Kent journalist type. But one thing I have found a bit tiresome so far is that each of these comics have been following the same structure of back story: yep, time to revisit their childhoods!
It sets up our new Superman as being the 'odd one out' as a kid. One that never excelled much in the school side of things and found more interest in roaming the land and discovering. I can't say I cared much for this side of the volume, it felt a bit too forced in attempt to make us care for the character by going into his childhood and showing us his most vulnerable moments in life. Perhaps it's also coming from reading Absolute Batman beforehand, but it's pretty much the same idea and it feels a bit lazy. More world building follows though with the mentioning of how Krypton was always a planet that suffered from harsh environmental shifts. The weather that rained diamonds, or strong tornados that would destroy the land. But a new turn of events that seemed far more threatening was starting to unfold, with young Kal-El starting to notice his parents having a generally more worried nature to them, focusing more on their research and seeking answers to things. It speaks of how the natural world was dying: animals dying off in strange ways, crops dying off, a greenish tone found throughout the land. This is where the dystopian aspect of the narrative returns: official news reports state nothing is out of the ordinary.
I liked the dystopian aspects in which it becomes clear that massive levels of censorship were taking place on Krypton. The corporations and Government knowing what is taking place there, but refusing to acknowledge it and ensuring any mentions of the planet dying are kept quiet. It led to the building of secret space ships made primarily for the elites knowing that the planet's decline was growing rapidly. It was this side of things that definitely gave the story a bit more of a unique touch to it outside of what's typically expected. It doesn't feel like Superman, and that's something I genuinely do enjoy about the story so far in that sense. It has everything we already know from the character and tale, just with plenty of things mixed up to keep it fresh, outside of that aforementioned similarity to the Absolute Batman narrative. But momentum is where this volume shines: it picks up with the action, the tensions rising as an escape plan is needed immediately.
Despite its weaknesses I would say that this is probably the comic's best volume yet. It had a great amount of pacing to it that really kept me engaged and didn't stick too much to one side of the story over the rest, something the previous ones had been doing a little too much. It actually managed to make me curious about the next volume to feel some excitement for it, curious as to where things headed from there and how the mega-corporation side of things might continue. Though it seems we're heading to Earth next, back to Smallville. Perhaps that momentum can stick around a few volumes more, at least.