Absolute Superman #23
“Get Brainiac” Part 2
“The Toyman”
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist/Colorist: Juan Ferreyra
Cover Artist: Rafa Sandoval and Ulises Arreola
Publisher: DC Comics, Absolute Imprint
"I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard, always taking constant care not to break something, to break someone; never allowing myself to lose control, even for a moment, or someone could die."
Not Like Us
In Absolute Superman #23, Superman is hunting for Brainiac, who remains one step ahead of the Last Son of Krypton. This time, the obstacle that dropped in Kal-El’s path is Winslow Schott, the Toyman.
This Toyman doesn’t commit crimes using cute toy-based gadgets, though. Instead, he’s a billionaire who traffics “mint on card” items to “collectors”—only the items are children, and the collectors are traffickers. Dark stuff—and sadly too realistic.
Superman has been having a hard enough time controlling his rage—when faced with something this monstrous, will this be what finally breaks him?
Duality
This was dark.
Don't get me wrong, this is the Absolute Universe, so I'm not expecting sweetness and light. But this... this was dark in a "scary realistic" kind of way.
I know there have been versions of the Toyman over the years that have been less of a joke. Ones that are more serious villains. There was one that murdered Cat Grant's son. But there's never been one like this Absolute version of Winslow Schott. Sure, he has the gadgets. But at the core of it all, he's a trafficker. Of children. To the rich and powerful who think they're untouchable. In our world, they get away with it far too often. Thankfully, the Absolute world has Superman.
Superman's rage has been an ongoing issue throughout this series. Can he contain it, for how long, and at what cost? This is the issue where that struggle comes to a head. Hunting for Brainiac, always being one step behind, it pushes him to his limits. When he finds out that Toyman is trafficking children and receives a list from the Omega Men containing the names of everyone receiving one, he snaps. This is where it gets scary, and where the quote from Justice League Unlimited that I started this review with really comes to mind.
The context of that quote from JLU is the climactic final battle of the series, when Superman faces off against Darkseid one-on-one. He remarks that he constantly has to hold himself back, but against a foe like the lord of Apokolips, he can truly cut loose—which he does, and it's something to behold. But since that's JLU, with the ultimate classically heroic version of the character, it hits very differently than when the Absolute version cuts loose.
Here, we see Superman cut loose in a very different way. In an afternoon, he has made strikes against every single person on the Epstein—sorry, I meant Toyman—list. Their cars, their houses, their... escape rockets? Are they Bond villains? Anyway, he takes them all. Private armies, fleets of ships, airplanes. Their money. Satellites. The possessions, he relocates or destroys. The money, he redistributes to make some of the planet's poorest communities considerably less so. All in one afternoon.
The only thing he doesn't take, he tells himself, is their lives. Even though he could, and it would be so easy to do so. He imagines throwing them into the sun. Even takes a few of them as far as the stratosphere before he changes his mind. And at the end of it all, he feels like a coward. Because he stopped himself. It makes me feel supremely sorry for him, and also utterly terrified of him at the same time.
Then, finally, he confronts the Toyman himself. His rage is almost overwhelming now, and in this scene Superman is almost scarier than the villain. We have no idea what Schott says during this encounter, because Kal-El is purposely blocking out the man's—no, make that the monster's—voice. He's focusing on all the other things around the world that he can't attend to, because he's here dealing with this man. Not the best thing for a man who's already having anger issues.
I won't spoil how the encounter ends, but let's just say that the Toyman won't be anyone's problem again for a long time. No, he's not dead, but he might wish he was. In the end, Superman realizes that this was Brainiac's big play, his largest attempt yet to break the Man of Steel. And it failed.
It's ironic that this issue released the same week as Superman: the Stranger #1, as they cover a bit of similar subject matter—albeit in very different ways. Both of them have a take on Superman that is more in line with his original version, when he was a man battling against social injustice and the rich & powerful. But that is where the similarities between the two titles end. In the Stranger, he is the low-powered strongman of yesteryear, which makes him more relatable and less scary. Here, in Absolute, he is the godlike being that we are most used to, but the world he lives in is so much darker and more like our own. So he is able to respond to these greater horrors in a much more terrifying way.
I'd like to think that, given how he was able to hold back his rage when it mattered the most, and with the promise he made to the very Earth at the end of the issue, that Superman is in better control of himself now. That he'll feel more whole and fear being consumed by his anger less. But then, he hasn't caught up with Brainiac himself yet. And there's still Lex Luthor waiting in the wings, as we wonder what he will become in the aftermath of the horrors he has witnessed. Thankfully, this Superman has friends. Lois Lane. Jimmy Olsen. Lana Lang. He has the Kent farm. Things to ground him and give him a taste of the good side of humanity.
Hopefully that's enough.
Break Stuff
Jason Aaron really puts Kal-El through the wringer in this issue. They say what doesn't kill us makes us stronger—in the case of Superman, I think it's more apt to say what doesn't kill him makes him stronger. Each time he overcomes a massive obstacle the Absolute world throws in front of him, he becomes a little closer to his true self. And yet he's clearly never going to be the same Man of Steel that we all know. Aaron balances the two versions of the character masterfully here, showing what he is while reminding us of what he should be if not for Darkseid's interference.
Juan Ferreyra handles both art and colors this issue, so everything has a very consistent look. I can't imagine that this Superman's costume is terribly easy to draw—between the sunlight glows at his hands and feet, and especially the cape, there's a lot going on there. But Ferreyra makes it look easy, and it always looks good. The page of Superman criss-crossing the Toyman's skyscraper, with ever-expanding streaks of dust from the cape, is a great example of how his art and colors work together perfectly. And the pages of him dismantling the Toyman's clients one by one, culminating in Superman floating before the very sun, are incredibly effective visually.
Walk
Absolute Superman #23 is a dark issue where Kal-El faces a foe that is a little too realistic and close to home. The horrors he witnesses here threaten to finally break the Man of Steel as he struggles with his rage, and the glimpses of what that could mean are chilling. But in the end, he's still Superman, so he manages to overcome. But at what cost?