Written by: Jason Aaron
Art by: Juan Ferreyra
Colors by: Juan Ferreyra
Letters by: Becca Carey
Cover art by: Rafa Sandoval, Ulises Arreola (cover A)
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: January 7, 2026
First Impressions
The opening pages drop straight into Kansas countryside quiet, with Superman listening to cicadas and church choirs while screams from everywhere else bleed through his super hearing like an alarm that never turns off. The core concept of watching a world full of crises while trying to maintain sanity feels fresh and deeply uncomfortable, but the issue shows more interest in Superman's internal suffering than in actually exploring solutions. The emotional hook lands hard, but it pivots quickly into scenes that suggest Aaron knows the problem better than he has figured out how to solve it.
Recap
In issue #14, Superman and the people of Smallville faced Ra's al Ghul in a final pitched battle where the immortal villain tried to remake Superman in his own image. Ra's used Kryptonite blades, mind games, and terror tactics to break Kal down, while Brainiac deleted Sol, Superman's Kryptonian AI ally, leaving the hero isolated and unmoored from his past. The townsfolk, led by figures like the sharpshooter Gladys, refused to abandon their alien protector and turned the siege into a community stand instead of a one-man operation. Superman won through stubbornness and conviction rather than raw power, took Ra's alive to stand trial in Orangi Town, Pakistan, and returned to find Martha Kent had passed away during the occupation, leaving him a quilt that named him Clark Kent, grounding his identity in family rather than birthplace or bloodline.
Plot Analysis
The issue opens weeks after the siege with Superman trying to rebuild the Kent farm on his own terms, refusing to use his powers and instead working the land by hand the way his parents would have done. While he attempts this ordinary task, he receives a visitor from Smallville who thanks him for what he did, then makes a joke about his broken tractor that Superman does not want to answer. The comic quickly cuts to Winslow Schott, a billionaire toy manufacturer, working in his office while news broadcasts detail flooding, wildfires, and deaths across the planet, and Superman appears to Schott as both witness and judge, telling him that his days of untouchable wealth are over and demanding he correct the imbalance between worker deaths and corporate profit. Superman does not threaten to kill Schott; instead, he leaves, watching him, making himself present as a permanent check on power.
Superman then travels to the Nevada desert to search for Brainiac, finding only an abandoned lab full of bottles containing stolen alien cities that Brainiac had experimented on and miniaturized. He finds no trace of Krypton, no survivors from his birth planet, and in a moment of genuine vulnerability, tells the empty air that he misses Sol and does not know if he can do any of this without his lost ally. The issue cuts to Superman's prison visit to Ra's al Ghul in Pakistan, where the immortal villain is being denied access to Lazarus Pit treatments and is literally rotting away in his cell. Superman brings him a collection of writings and prayers from children in the slums surrounding the jail, orphans whose parents were killed by Ra's operations in copper mines and by his Peacemaker soldiers.
Ra's initially mocks Superman and the book of prayers, treating it as ridiculous, but after several weeks of daily readings, the laughter stops. Superman leaves him with the suggestion that Ra's might find a reason to remember what he originally set out to save centuries ago. Meanwhile, Superman juggles global catastrophes; he swallows an Amazon wildfire and relocates it to controlled burn zones in Kansas. He struggles with Lois Lane's attempts to get an interview and repeatedly awkwardly deflects her offer of a beer, ending with him asking for Lois's directions to Peoria and then flying away. He also encounters old friend Lana Lang, who is concerned about his lack of sleep and tells him that the Kents would be proud of what he is doing.
In the final act, Superman processes his grief by attempting to work the Kent land without powers, listening to his internal monologue about whether the noise of the world, the screaming and suffering, means life or curse. He returns to a blue Superman suit that Lana encouraged him to wear, trading his grief-black clothing for something his adoptive mother would have wanted. The issue ends with Superman still catching falling satellites knocked from orbit by his screams of anguish and still trying to hold together a world that is falling apart. A phone call cuts off the ending where Brainiac's algorithm somehow survives, Talia al Ghul walks away from her father's company entirely, and Lex Luthor's algorithm faces its own problems.
Writing
Aaron's script uses multiple timelines and locations to show Superman's daily struggle with omniscience and responsibility, jumping from Kansas to Nevada to Pakistan to Metropolis to Thailand without clear chapter breaks, which creates a feeling of being overwhelmed alongside Superman but also becomes confusing about what happens when. The dialogue is minimal and deliberate; Superman's conversations with Lois feel awkward and true to character, a person who can hear a heartbeat from miles away but cannot navigate a simple conversation about getting a beer. The internal monologue works best when it is poetic and short, like "The noise means life," but less well when it stretches into full philosophizing about whether survival is a gift or a curse, because at that point it risks feeling self-important. The pacing is uneven; the opening farm scene is quiet and grounded, then the Schott scene feels rushed and preachy, the Pakistan section is almost episodic, and the ending trails off without clear resolution, which works for some readers and feels incomplete for others.
Art
Juan Ferreyra's line work is clean and confident, with strong character acting in quiet scenes like Superman avoiding Lana's questions or the way Ra's face gradually changes over weeks of hearing the same prayers. His compositions use negative space effectively, with long panels of Superman alone in fields or standing outside a prison cell that emphasize isolation. The color palette is the real star here; soft golds and greens for Kansas, sickly institutional grays for the prison, and bright, almost clinical Metropolis whites for the Daily Planet offices create mood without needing to be told. Ferreyra also demonstrates skill with detail work, showing Superman's hands calloused from farm work or the specifics of Ra's decay in prison, which grounds the art in physical reality even when the situations are absurd.
Character Development
Superman is consistent in his refusal to kill or execute, even when confronted with people who deserve it, and his decision to visit Ra's with prayers rather than threats suggests a maturity and faith in rehabilitation that the script commits to fully. His awkwardness with Lois and his impulse to deflect personal connection to focus on immediate crises feels true to character but also shows a person struggling to understand his own needs. However, the issue does not develop him so much as observe him under pressure, and it is unclear whether Aaron is interested in showing Superman learning to handle this burden or just documenting his suffering. Ra's continues to be a villain defined by cruelty and ego, and his weeks-long journey from mockery to silence is interesting but underexplored; readers do not actually see what prayer or grief does to him beyond the fact that he eventually stops laughing. Lana and Lois function more as mirrors than full characters, Lana concerned and supportive, Lois pushing for access and intimacy that Superman cannot quite give, and both serve their roles but do not demand investment.
Originality & Concept Execution
The concept of "what does Superman do after he wins" is solid and worth exploring; most Superman stories end with the problem solved, but this one asks what happens when solving one problem just reveals ten more and there is nobody coming to help. The specific details, like Superman swallowing a wildfire and relocating it, or visiting Ra's with a book of prayers from orphans instead of gloating, suggest Aaron is looking for fresh angles on Superman's power and moral obligation. The execution is mixed because the script often tells readers what Superman is feeling rather than showing the impact of his choices; the Schott scene ends with Superman leaving a warning but no actual consequence, so readers never learn if Schott actually changes or if Superman will follow through. The visit to Ra's is interesting in theory but underbaked in execution, and the issue leaves readers to wonder whether the prayers actually matter or are just Superman's way of maintaining his own moral superiority.
Positives
The comic's best asset is Ferreyra's art, which conveys exhaustion, isolation, and quiet determination through composition and color without relying on narration, particularly in the scenes of Superman working the farm in early morning light or standing outside the Pakistani prison in institutional grays. The concept of Superman as a global judge and permanent check on power is fresh and unsettling, especially when he tells Schott that untouchable days are over while also making clear he is not going to execute him; that tension between accountability and mercy has real potential. The opening farm sequence works beautifully as a tonal reset after the violence of the previous arc, and Superman's awkwardness with Lois feels like the most honest his dialogue gets in the issue, suggesting Aaron has an ear for how actual people stumble over vulnerability even when they have super hearing. The ending image of Superman in blue instead of black, encouraged to move on from his grief-black clothing, carries genuine weight as a small sign of healing.
Negatives
The heavy-handed social messaging about billionaire accountability and environmental destruction weakens the issue because Aaron does not trust readers to interpret what Superman is doing; Superman literally says out loud that Schott's workers died in fires and deserves consequences, which turns a powerful moment of judgment into a PSA speech that does the work for readers instead of letting them feel the injustice through action. The pacing and structure choices create a sense of overwhelming bombardment that might be intentional but also make it hard to follow what happens and when, so readers should not be surprised if they need to reread pages to understand the timeline of Superman's travels. The ending cuts off abruptly with a cliffhanger phone call that feels obligatory rather than earned, suggesting Aaron has something planned but not that this issue has resolved anything or justified the narrative wandering of its middle sections. Most problematically for a comic that costs five dollars, the issue is more interested in documenting Superman's suffering than exploring whether any of his choices actually accomplish anything or whether he is spiraling into well-intentioned futility.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TwitterThe Scorecard
Writing Quality (Clarity & Pacing): [2/4]Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): [3/4]
Value (Originality & Entertainment): [0.5/2]
Final Verdict
Absolute Superman #15 is a comic that mistakes ambition for execution and exhaustion for depth. The idea of exploring what comes after victory is genuinely worthwhile, and Ferreyra's art deserves praise for selling isolation and exhaustion through color and composition, but Aaron's script lacks focus and stakes. The heavy-handed social commentary about billionaires and environmental collapse reads like a checklist of issues Superman should care about rather than a story that trusts readers to understand why these moments matter. Without clear narrative momentum or meaningful character growth, the issue feels like Superman is running in place, screaming at crises he cannot solve while readers watch and wait for something to actually happen.
5.5/10
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