Absolute Power #4 – Mark Waid, Writer; Dan Mora, Artist; Alejandro Sanchez, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Absolute Power has been a pretty tight event, playing out over only four months with one tie-in miniseries, a few one-shots, and several tie-in books. That’s kept the focus strong even amid the massive scale as Amanda Waller strips the powers from just about every hero on Earth and hunts them down while distributing a massive AI propaganda campaign. But the heroes have been striking back – with Wonder Woman and Damian Wayne staging the world’s biggest jailbreak, Batman and Catwoman risking everything to get a Mother Box, and Hal Jordan and Wally West recruiting the most unlikely of saviors. It’s all built to this, with the heroes waging a massive assault on Waller’s sanctuary in Gammora, breaching the walls, and setting up a final showdown where characters like Jon Kent will finally be able to repay her for the crimes she’s visited on them.
This series has a lot of the tropes I’ve been pretty vocal about being tired of – the public turning on heroes, etc. – but this one lacks the cynicism of so many others. I could still quibble about Waller’s characterization, as there isn’t quite any explanation for just how she’s gone so far, but this last issue is too packed and thrilling to care. We get a return that I think we all knew was coming, but is executed marvelously. We get the Green Arrow face-turn we knew was coming – but with a clever twist I had no idea about. And we get a karmic fate for Waller that lets the heroes stay heroic while leaving her in a situation that’s the worst thing imaginable for someone like her. We also get a couple of huge twists – not everyone gets their powers back, and not everyone gets the same powers. There are just enough huge status quo changes here that it feels like the perfect lead-in to All In – but I think even bigger is coming.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
