Absolute Power: Task Force VII #2 – John Layman, Writer; Max Raynor, Artist; Luis Guerrero, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: DC is taking an interesting tack with this miniseries. While it’s a continuing narrative of these new Amazos taking on the heroes, each issue is by a different creative team with only a few continuing threads. This issue, bringing John Layman back to the DCU, focuses on the Amazo known as Depth Charge, taking the fight to Atlantis. When we open, the Doom Patrol has been targeted, giving the Amazo powers like size-changing and psychic control over animals – all needed to turn Aquaman’s kingdom against him. Complicating things even further, Aquaman has lost his powers – and as he’s not fully Atlantean, that means his ability to breathe underwater is gone. That leads to the hilarious visual of the king of Atlantis stuck in a glass cage so he can represent his kingdom – all the while Depth Charge looms overhead, using Elasti-Girl’s powers to turn into a robotic kaiju.
The visuals here are fantastic – Max Raynor is one of those DC artists who fills in when needed, but really needs more attention as a standout. It’s been a surprisingly long time since Aquaman had a solo series, and this issue does a really good job of reminding us just how epic his world can be when handled well. As side stories, this miniseries usually results in the heroes escaping to head off to the main book, but the level of destruction in this issue sets the scales nicely high. Then there’s the Steve Trevor story, which seems to be the one connecting thread between each of these creative teams. This installment wastes little time getting him and Sarge Steel off to a bad start, as the ruthless commander has different plans for Trevor than partnering with him. Event tie-ins aren’t always easy to make stand on their own, but so far Absolute Power is off to a strong start.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
