Absolute Power #3 – Mark Waid, Writer; Dan Mora, Artist; Alejandro Sanchez, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Every major event comic has one key moment that sets the tone, and the battle for Themyscira is going to be that event for Absolute Power. The surviving heroes have fled to Paradise Island where conflict awaits – the Amazons are not happy to have male heroes there, and Nightwing and Big Barda have an intense disagreement of how to deal with the possessed Jon Kent. Nightwing claims to have a plan to save him from himself – while Barda is for more permanent solutions. There are also some new arrivals at the island, including a now fully-blind Dr. Mid-Nite and an out-of-his-depth Air Wave. Fortunately, several of the key players have returned from their solo missions to provide help – including Hal Jordan, bringing a bunch of the weapons he stole from Waller’s base. There are so many dangling plot threads converging here – and it won’t be long before the war comes home once again.
This issue does a great job of showing how far the reach of the villains goes, with Failsafe and Brainiac Queen essentially staging a silent coup of the US government and then proceeding to convey the message to China that they’re going to be in the same boat. When the villains hit Themyscira, the tension is through the roof, with Nightwing’s daring gambit to rescue Jon from Brainiac Queens’ possession being laid out carefully over several issues. Every plot thread hanging in this title comes back into play in some way. With only one issue left, there’s some heavy lifting left to do for Waid and Mora – especially with one villain being removed from captivity at the end of the last issue. This is a surprisingly short event, with only a few books a month over four months, but an experienced writer like Waid has managed to balance everything well and even give the spotlight to some unexpected faces.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
