I just finished reading Absolute Martian Manhunter #1-#6, covering the first story arc of the comic.

To those who aren’t aware of the “Absolute” series - DC Comics decided they’re doing another reboot to their classic heroes, this time with the throughline of “one core aspect of their origin story is fundamentally changed, yet the hero still remains who they are.” Batman is no longer rich, but he still goes in the night fighting crime, this time much more practically. Superman still lands in a farm after his home planet explodes, but this time he arrives as an adult. Wonder Woman is raised in Hell rather than Themyscira.

Absolute Martian Manhunter is the most unusual of the reboots, straying farthest from the original hero - this time the titular “martian” isn’t from mars, and is closer to a living concept than a proper creature. Still, I heard many reviews say this is one of the best comic runs of the decade so I decided to pick it up on a whim.

And… It’s alright.

I won’t be spoiling the comic here, but I will be showing a few panels and plot beats. If you wanna go in there blind, leave now.

We good? We good.

So the highlight of this comic has got to be the visuals.

Because the story deals with abstract ideas and emotions more than it does with concrete events, the artist is given reign to give us some really nice pages. Even the pages that deal in concrete events still get some really fancy visuals to express the emotions therein.

In one part of the book we see the villain, “the white martian,” start violence in the heart of the city. The martians are ideas, and they affect people’s minds and beliefs rather than physically urging them, so it’s represented like this:

If you’re into comics for the art, I totally get why you’d champion this storyline.

There’s also a neat gimmick that shows up where you hold up the comic page to a light source to see a character’s “hidden” side. Yeah, you pick up the book and hold it up to the sun or a lamp. It really is gimmicky, but it is cute, and it is using the physical comic medium in a way that’s not able to be replicated digitally which is cute.

But the actual story is… fine. Really nothing to write home about. The core of the story is about an FBI agent who’s married to his job and it makes him miss special moments with his wife and kids. You’ve seen this story a thousand times before and other than the (admittedly) gorgeous art, they don’t do anything new with this plot.

And for such a short book, having a story that’s this lackluster really kicked me in the teeth.

To this day I’ve only read two comics that I could rate higher than an 7/10, (Maus and Hellboy,) and I’ve read my fair share of comics. Unfortunately, Absolute Martian Manhunter is being added to the pile of “comics I’ve heard amazing things of and couldn’t really get all the hype around them.”