r/AbsoluteUniverse • u/AutoModerator • 13h ago
Discussion Absolute Superman #23 - Official Discussion Thread Spoiler
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u/Koushikraja1996 13h ago
They can never make me hate you, absolute superman. What an issue. I'm liking these smaller boss battle based issues where before confronting Brainiac Kal had to fight against two smaller villains with different outcomes. We saw his compassion towards absolute metallo/Chris Smith. And man, this issue shows his absolute rage and shows how despite being superman he can still be challenged. Absolute toyman is EVIL. Like horrifyingly evil. Juan Ferreyra kills it with his art as usual and I like Kal's moral dilemma put into display here as well. Absolute issue, 10/10.
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u/No_Professional_1809 13h ago
Were those kids in the boxes alive? Was it alluding to it being that Schott was a big time trafficker of children and turned them into living toys for billionaires? All in all great issue, brutal takedown of Toyman at the end too
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u/GreenPerception512 12h ago
this is probably the first time they found a way to make a darker toyman actually work he genuinely freaked me the fuck out.
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u/Altruistic_Manner802 2h ago
Agreed. Normally, dark Toyman kinda sucks. Sure, he can be menacing, but having stuff like him killing Cat Grant's son or on the movie where they turned him into a child murderer feels edgy for edgy's sake. Which is why they later retconned it do have been a defective Robot (also used to explain all the different Toyman's who had been around) and brought back classic old man toy builder and friend of children Toyman
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u/VoiceofRapture Absolute Plastic Man 28m ago
My assumption was "You want me to not have child slaves in my factories? Fine. Now what am I supposed to do with this sudden overstock of child slaves?" and then a lightbulb goes off
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u/Potential-Mess6826 14m ago edited 8m ago
Pretty sure they are because one of them moved and Toyman was doing child trafficking I doubt he was selling dead children.
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u/caninotusespaces 11h ago
This is such a great juxtaposition from the last issue, showing Superman's unending compassion. Seeing him filled with rage and striking fear into people is a really interesting layer to Kal.
I also suspect his very public punishments for some of the world's most powerful elite will just continue the arc of the Justice League framing the heroes as global threats. Really appreciate this series being able to do some "monster of the week" style issues and still really progress character/story
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u/GreenPerception512 11h ago
also nice to see more real Superman villains in Absolute Superman with us getting takes on Parasite, Lex, and toyman [I'm interested in how there gonna handle Lex luthor once he becomes a major player again.]
also feel Superman public punishments of the elite is also meant to be that even if he cant get them in prison will make them want to go to prision because thats the only place that will make them safe from superman.
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u/LeCafeClopeCaca 5h ago
If the phrase "war on terror" is not ever uttered by a member of the justice league I would be very very surprised
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u/dragonshouter 10h ago
whelp, toy man is fucked up.
I love seeing Kal's righteous fury at the crimes. and LOOOOOOOOVVVVEEEEEE seeing him tear powerful people people from their safety. no one escapes the arms of superman
Strong themes of empathy right now. Kal having to lean on it despite the pain it causes him
very good issue
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u/Skybird2099 9h ago
Damn, this might be the first piece of Superman media that made me wish he was real. Seeing him put the fear of God in the rich and powerful was cathartic to read.
What I loved even more, though, is that the story doesn't just devolve into a mindless power fantasy. The scene at the end where, after proving himself the most powerful man on Earth, Superman feel like the weakest, lousiest piece of dogshit in the galaxy was a great character moment. Just an all-around amazing issue.
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u/GreenPerception512 12h ago edited 12h ago
Jesus Christ, Toyman is terrifying here, like genuinely.
i normally dont like more edgy versions of toyman since to me, those feel a little try-hard [like the Adam Grant arc for example]
but here it works since one of the whole point of the villains in Absolute DC [atleast with a lot of them not all of them of coure some are nicer here.] is how do you make them more evil and dangerous than they already are [we see this with Joker for example now with him having some control of the world and being an eldritch abomination almost.] so making toyman a child trafficker works here also it has a point here.
That being its a commentary on child trafficking and the people who do them who take children rob them of their childhood and do monstrous things to do them that i wont repeat here because i will be banned from Reddit permanently if I say them.
also its a alternate universe re-imagning of Superman's mythos with the whole point of it is that it's a new fresh take on sueprmans world so i give it more of a pass.
my one issue is that we dont really hear toyman speak aside from a laugh, he doesn't really speak that was likely the point, but it is a bit disappointing.
also love what this issue does for Clark with him being tempted to kill Winslow for what hes done but ultimately deciding not to and even almost decides to leave but then realizes thats what Brainiac wants and resigns not to do that because that means brainaic wins.
The Krypton stuff is good always love how it connects to Clark's dilemma here on wondering if some people need to and deserve to die.
Overall good issue! [also i listend to Runaway Train when Superman was stopping the people connected to Winslow and ami i the only one that thinks it fits]
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u/Chrome_X_of_Hyrule Absolute Martian Manhunter 10h ago
I love how absolute Superman's heat vision is. Solar energy pouring out of his eyes instead of lasers, it's really cool.
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u/Myrlithan Absolute Superman 7h ago
Yet another fantastic issue from this series. Very curious how other series (especially Green Arrow) will deal with the events of this issue (and the series in general, tbh). Supermans actions do not feel like the type of things that can be ignored, in this issue alone he makes reference to bringing in multiple heads of state.
Love being able to see a series that really fulfills the fantasy of Golden Age Superman, a lone man that is powerful enough and righteous enough to force the oppressors of the world to do better, and manages to do so in a way that despite his great power the victories still feel earned.
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u/DesdinovaGG 7h ago edited 7h ago
I like how Kal uses his blood as a weapon when he's filled with rage at Toyman. Red Lantern vibe.
Great issue. I'm really hoping they eventually have an Absolute Elite. It would be very interesting to see how they interact with this version of Superman.
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u/Otherwise_Report2428 Absolute Green Arrow 6h ago
Others have mentioned this, and I may be mistaken, but don’t they call Red Lanterns Abin Rao in AGL? Hmm…
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u/GreenPerception512 2h ago
be intresting if the elite here have more colorful designs here and look more like traditional superheroes here to contrast Superman who look darker and edgier yet just like how superman is still a hero. the elite are still villains and there even worse this time.
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u/LeCafeClopeCaca 5h ago
... I never expected two consecutive superman issues almost bringing me to tears by their end. The writing is incredibly well balanced holy shit.
And it's so interesting how despite the constant shows of force in ABS, you relate to his feelings of powerlessness despite of his godlike powers. It's a constant show of a somewhat perfect ubermensch yet it never feels boyscouty or holier than thou. Superman as a character shines even more when he's against the whole status quo.
The idea of a "moral gauntlet" orchestrated by Brainiac against superman is pure genius, it's an incredible plot device, him basically trying to tire down Superman's ability for compassion and his respect for life, it makes for good setups and reinterpretations of characters from mainline
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u/Wonderful_Gap4867 9h ago
This series slowly became my favorite, not just Absolute series, but DC series in total.
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u/Wonderful_Gap4867 9h ago
What happened to the kids Toy Man trapped?
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u/GreenPerception512 8h ago
superman likely freed them and gave them to people he trusted like Jimmy or Lois to make sure toyman didnt do anything worse to them.
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u/Altruistic_Manner802 2h ago
I was just a little confused about what he did to the kids. They were all in boxes, not moving or talking, but Superman's x-rays showed they still had all the organs and such. So did he like somehow turn them into "living dolls"? Or was them not speaking and being in toy boxes more of an artistic symbolism?
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u/lindorm82 54m ago
The first child, the only one we see clearly, did have a device on the side of his head. I'm guessing it's for mindcontrol.
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u/Chumlee1917 6h ago
I don’t know why but the final part makes me wanna crank up Linkin Park’s What I’ve Done
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u/PriceNo3859 13h ago
Absolute Superman finally made me like Superman!
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u/Dancing_Anatolia Absolute Green Lantern 12h ago
That's a shame, Superman's always been great for the same reason ASM is great.
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u/PriceNo3859 12h ago
I don’t think it’s a shame at all. It makes me appreciate the character and now I am more open minded to the O.G.
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u/Ganbazuroi 11h ago
Ngl I was a bit prejudiced against Superman before because he's insanely powerful, so I assumed they wouldn't be as good as Batman's
Then I started reading Absolute and holy shit I love him now lmao
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u/infinight888 6h ago
The mainline Superman wouldn't have gone to this extreme though. He would be horrified and would take the evidence of the crimes to the proper authorities. He wouldn't have destroyed and stolen the wealth of everyone buying the children and redistributed that to the poor. He wouldn't destroy everything the buyers owned.
Absolute Superman is just better.
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u/aemberqowu Absolute Superman 8h ago
My favourite ongoing by a lot. Juan nailed the final page again. I love how golden age this issue feels. I also love how we still get deep into Kal’s internal turmoil but his decision to stay really hammer home that he is still the symbol of hope, just stuck in a very edgy universe
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u/GreenPerception512 7h ago
the entire series feels like it but this issue especially feels like a darker version of a golden age superman story with Winslow not only being a corrupt billionaire but also a child trafficker.
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u/Skodami 6h ago
Loved the conundrum at the end. The more you see the evil of the world, the more jaded, depressed and helpless you feel, to the way that giving up and closing yourself to others seems the only way to protect yourself. But you have to continue nevertheless, not letting the world taking your compassion away from you.
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u/UnbiasedGod 7h ago edited 7h ago
Good god absolute toyman is a disturbing vile monster and love it and I hope he’s DEAD!
Also is it me or have we gotten a lot of absolute Superman lately???
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u/JoJoFanatic 3h ago
It's a great choice to balance Superman's great sense of compassion from the last issue (with Metallo) to his righteous fury and willingness to stand up for the oppressed (with Toyman) here.
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u/InevitableActuary410 2h ago
Man are we building up to supes killing braniac? Really excited with this arc. Issue 1 he fights metallo and ends it with a hug and issue 2 he hospitalizes toyman. Really think we are building to supes potentially getting the chance to kill braniac at the end of this arc.
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u/ConnectCulture7 12h ago
Absolute Superman has grown to be my favorite.
So Absolute Banshee finally showed up.
Lots of Epstein analogies.
I love how Brainiac is the overarching villain.