JediKermit's Full Review: Jeph Loeb - Superman-batman: Absolute Power
One of the longest-standing conventions in comic books is the "alternate universe." Writers will tweak one event in the history of a character, and new stories will spill out of familiar characters and settings. For the 2005 story arc Superman/Batman: Absolute Power, writer Jeph Loeb and artists Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino take DC Comics' two greatest superheroes and change them almost beyond recognition.
The five issues collected in this volume are Superman/Batman #14 - 18. They form a complete story, and it's a compelling and at times disturbing one. The changes are introduced by a time-traveling trio of villains from the 31st Century. They come back to the 20th Century and kill Jonathan and Martha Kent just as they come upon Kal-El's Kryptonian rocket; they also take Bruce Wayne just after his parents are killed. So the villains raise Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne as their own, and the two soon dominate the planet with their Absolute Power. They instill a totalitarian regime, and most of the would-be Justice League were eliminated by their parents.
Some resistance pops up, in the form of Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Uncle Sam, and other heroes that somehow eluded the super-genocide from the future. This gives Loeb a chance to showcase characters that often slip through the cracks of history, like the Blackhawks, Sgt. Rock and his company, and the Freedom Fighters. Ultimately, we see that the death of either Batman or Superman "resets" the time stream, and we end up seeing ten different timelines, each with disastrous consequences. Batman and Superman need to find a way out. When they do, they sacrifice even more than they imagined possible.
The artwork from Pacheco and Merino is competent but straightforward. It doesn't take any risks, and everything from the costume designs to the facial expressions are pretty dull.
This is an interesting, compelling "what if," although it has elements that are darker and more violent than I usually like. The most disturbing scene has Superman killing Wonder Woman...a memory that he evidently carries with him into his "real" live. It's misogynistic and wrong, and even though Loeb writes it to give the relationship between the two heroes more depth, it just left a bad taste in my mouth. The book gives some insight into what makes Batman and Superman the heroes they are. It's not their powers as much as it is their values, and by systematically removing them, author Jeph Loeb makes them more evident than ever. If you're a fan of Superman, Batman, the Justice League or DC Comics, you'll enjoy Superman/Batman: Absolute Power.
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