Written by: Jason Aaron
Art by: Juan Ferreyra
Colors by: Juan Ferreyra
Letters by: Becca Carey
Cover art by: Rafa Sandoval, Ulises Arreola
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: March 4, 2026
First Impressions
This issue hits hard because it refuses to let Superman take the easy path out. The Parasite crisis isn't just a punch-your-way-out brawl; it's a moral battlefield where Hawkman's brutal pragmatism clashes with Superman's refusal to sacrifice lives for convenience. Aaron understands that Superman's power isn't just physical strength but the ability to inspire hope in impossible circumstances, and he leans into that theme with surgical precision. The moment Superman announces he'll comfort nearly three million terrified people simultaneously inside the Parasite's nightmare network reads less like superhero bombast and more like a statement of purpose. Ferreyra's art amplifies this tension beautifully, rendering the Parasite as genuinely unsettling body horror while keeping Superman's expressions grounded in empathy rather than stoic determination.
What elevates this beyond standard superhero fare is the parallel thread with Talia rescuing a broken Ra's al Ghul from a Pakistani prison, deliberately timed to distract Superman from stopping her. The issue juggles three narrative threads without losing momentum: the Parasite battle, the philosophical conflict with Hawkman, and Brainiac's horrifying manipulation of Lex Luthor in Missouri. That final page reveal of Lex surrounded by the severed heads of his family is genuinely chilling, a reminder that this Absolute Universe isn't pulling punches when it comes to stakes.
Recap
Last issue introduced veteran hero Hawkman, who interrupted Superman's patrol and lectured him about being too flashy and idealistic. Their philosophical argument escalated into a brutal aerial fight, even as a massive Parasite monster erupted from a Lazarus crate below and began consuming Metropolis citizens. Meanwhile in Missouri, a humble family man Lex Luthor rejected Brainiac's offer to join an anti-Superman project, content with his gas station life and family. Brainiac vowed to motivate this "hollow shell" of a Luthor into becoming something greater.
Plot Analysis (SPOILERS)
The issue opens with chaos already consuming Metropolis as the Parasite monster spreads at four square miles per minute, absorbing every living thing into its purple biomass. Jimmy Olsen's terrified voice begs Lois to kill him over the phone before he's consumed, but she can't pull the trigger. Superman struggles to focus amid thousands of screams while Hawkman barks orders to kill the creature immediately. The monster itself speaks in plural collective language, "Us no hunger, us no need, us all together now," revealing a hive mind consciousness that hungers for connection as much as energy. Superman recognizes the infected aren't dead but trapped in nightmares, their terror fueling the Parasite's growth, and he physically stops Hawkman from delivering a killing blow that would murder millions.
The narrative cuts to Orangi Town, Pakistan, where Talia al Ghul blasts into a prison cell to retrieve her father Ra's al Ghul. She admits this Parasite crisis was her deliberate distraction to keep Superman occupied while she extracted Ra's. The once-proud Demon's Head is broken and defeated, begging to be left to die rather than return to the Lazarus Pit. Talia refuses his surrender and drags him toward resurrection. Back in Metropolis, Superman rescues Lois from the Parasite's grip, and she explains the creature didn't tear her free through brute force but released her when she stopped feeling afraid. Hearing Superman's voice and knowing he was fighting for her eliminated her terror, making her useless as an energy source.
Superman formulates an impossible plan: use the Parasite's nervous system as a telepathic network to simultaneously comfort all 2,779,388 people and animals absorbed into its biomass, eliminating their fear so the creature releases them. Hawkman declares the plan suicidal stupidity, predicting Superman will simply become the ultimate energy source once absorbed. Lois curses Hawkman as "King shit of shit mountain" and tells him to stay away from her boyfriend. Superman dives into the Parasite, which immediately triples in size from absorbing Kryptonian power. Inside the collective nightmare, Superman finds every victim including Hawkman, who's hallucinating ghosts demanding he justify his murders as "for the greater good."
Superman explains his mind is linked to everyone simultaneously through the Parasite's nervous system, assuring them they're not alone. He tells Hawkman that unlike his cynical worldview of transactional heroism, Superman represents something incorruptible. The gambit works. Superman's presence eliminates the terror fueling the Parasite, and it releases all 2.7 million victims simultaneously. Superman announces he'll take the creature to his Kryptonian Fortress in his barn, nurse it on controlled doses of his own energy, and eventually return it to its homeworld since Brainiac stole and tortured it as a weapon. He confronts Hawkman directly, declaring he knows who Hawkman works for and delivering a message to Lazarus: Superman doesn't sleep, nothing they have can hurt him, his senses stretch for miles, and he's coming for them. The issue ends in Missouri with Brainiac's torture session complete as Lex Luthor sits bound on his porch surrounded by the severed heads of his wife Lena and son Alex, Brainiac coldly instructing him to "make yourself interesting."
Writing
Aaron's script operates on two distinct registers that mesh surprisingly well: the large-scale impossible rescue and the intimate character interrogation. The dialogue crackles with personality, particularly in Hawkman's gruff pragmatism clashing against Superman's idealism. Lines like "In a world full of shits, you're King shit of shit mountain" from Lois feel earned rather than edgy for edge's sake because they emerge from genuine emotional stakes. Aaron resists the temptation to over-explain Superman's telepathic rescue; instead, he trusts the reader to follow the logic while focusing on the emotional resonance of Superman's presence eliminating fear. The pacing stumbles slightly in the middle section where Superman's plan is explained, debated, executed, and resolved within about six pages, which compresses what could have been a longer emotional arc.
The thematic weight of this issue lands because Aaron positions Superman as a direct philosophical counter to Hawkman's cynicism. The repeated motif of "you could move mountains" versus "the way of this world was written in stone" crystallizes the core conflict: is heroism transactional and pragmatic, or is it an unwavering moral stance regardless of odds? Aaron answers definitively when Superman tells Hawkman, "Tell them Superman's not for sale," reframing the entire Parasite crisis as a test of whether Superman can maintain his principles under impossible pressure. The Lex Luthor subplot provides necessary tonal counterbalance, reminding readers that while Superman represents hope, Brainiac is methodically constructing horrors to test that hope.
Art
Ferreyra's visual storytelling elevates Aaron's script from solid to exceptional through his control of color temperature and body language. The Parasite design is genuinely disturbing: a purple biomass covered in half-absorbed human faces frozen in silent screams, with gaping maws and tentacles that feel organic rather than cartoonish. Ferreyra uses color to communicate emotional states, bathing the Parasite sequences in sickly purples and greens that make Metropolis feel suffocating, then contrasting Superman's presence with warm golden light that cuts through the oppressive palette. The panel where Superman dives into the Parasite and it triples in size is particularly effective, using scale and color saturation to communicate the immediate danger without requiring dialogue.
Character acting sells the emotional beats that dialogue can't carry alone. Lois's expression when Jimmy begs her to kill him conveys helpless horror through minimal line work and strategic shadowing. Hawkman's body language throughout the issue telegraphs controlled violence; even when standing still, his posture suggests coiled readiness to strike. Superman's expressions avoid the stoic hero cliché, instead showing visible strain, determination, and empathy in rapid succession. The final page reveal of Lex surrounded by severed heads is framed with restraint, letting the horror speak for itself rather than indulging in gratuitous detail. Ferreyra's panel composition guides the eye efficiently through complex action sequences, using diagonal motion lines and strategic negative space to maintain clarity even when multiple events occur simultaneously.
Character Development
Superman's characterization reaches a defining moment when he rejects Hawkman's worldview entirely. The issue positions him not as naïve but as willfully optimistic, someone who understands the pragmatic arguments for killing the Parasite but refuses to accept that calculus. His decision to nurse the creature back to health and return it to its homeworld despite it nearly destroying Metropolis demonstrates a moral consistency that feels earned rather than preachy. The reveal that Superman's power over the Parasite came from emotional connection rather than brute force reframes his entire heroic identity: he doesn't save people through superior firepower but through the inspiration his presence provides.
Hawkman functions as a perfect foil, representing the cynical transactional heroism that Superman explicitly rejects. His nightmare inside the Parasite reveals guilt over past killings justified as "for the greater good," suggesting a more complex history than simple villainy. The issue positions him as someone who compromised his ideals so often that he now believes idealism itself is childish naivety. Lois gets strong moments defending Superman's approach, though her role remains primarily reactive rather than driving plot developments. The brief glimpse of Ra's al Ghul broken and begging for death adds unexpected pathos to the villain, complicating the binary hero-villain dynamic.
Originality & Concept Execution
The concept of Superman using telepathic empathy as a weapon against a fear-eating monster isn't entirely novel, but Aaron's execution focuses on the philosophical implications rather than just the mechanics. What distinguishes this take is the emphasis on Superman's presence eliminating fear not through speeches or demonstrations of power but simply by being there, fighting for people even in their darkest moments. The issue challenges the modern superhero trend toward grim pragmatism by arguing that unwavering moral principles can achieve what compromise cannot. The Parasite itself subverts typical monster-of-the-week treatment by giving it sympathetic framing: it's a tortured alien weapon that ultimately becomes Superman's responsibility to heal.
The Brainiac-Lex subplot adds disturbing originality by positioning this universe's Luthor as a genuinely good man who Brainiac must torture into villainy. The implication that Brainiac has observed countless multiversal Luthors and knows this one is a "hollow shell" without ambition creates unsettling metatextual commentary on character destiny versus choice. The issue earns points for refusing clean resolutions; the Parasite crisis is solved but creates new complications, Hawkman isn't defeated but ideologically rejected, and Lex's transformation into a villain is framed as tragedy rather than inevitability.
Pros and Cons
What We Loved
- Superman's telepathic rescue demonstrates heroism through presence rather than power, a thematically rich subversion of typical fight resolution.
- Ferreyra's color work contrasts sickly Parasite purples with Superman's warm golds, using palette to communicate hope cutting through horror.
- The final page reveal of Lex surrounded by his family's severed heads is brutally effective restraint, horror through implication rather than excess.
Room for Improvement
- The middle section compresses Superman's impossible rescue into six pages, sacrificing emotional buildup for narrative efficiency and rushing the payoff.
- Lois remains reactive throughout, defending Superman's choices but lacking agency to drive plot developments or make independent story impact.
- The Talia-Ra's subplot feels disconnected from main action, serving plot mechanics rather than thematic cohesion with Superman's heroic journey.
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): 3.5/4
Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): 3.5/4
Value (Originality & Entertainment): 1/2
Value (Originality & Entertainment): 1/2
Final Verdict
Absolute Superman #17 succeeds because it understands that Superman's greatest power isn't heat vision or super strength but the ability to inspire hope in impossible circumstances. Aaron's script positions this Superman as someone who rejects cynical pragmatism not from naivety but from genuine conviction that heroism requires moral consistency regardless of cost. Ferreyra's art transforms what could have been standard superhero action into genuinely affecting visual storytelling, using color and composition to communicate emotional stakes that dialogue alone couldn't carry. The issue stumbles slightly in pacing the rescue sequence and keeping Lois's role reactive rather than active, but these are minor critiques in an otherwise compelling examination of what separates genuine heroism from transactional violence.
8/10
We hope you found this article interesting. Come back for more reviews, previews, and opinions on comics, and don’t forget to follow us on social media:
Connect With Us Here: Weird Science DC Comics / Weird Science Marvel Comics
If you're interested in this creator’s works, remember to let your Local Comic Shop know to find more of their work for you. They would appreciate the call, and so would we.
Click here to find your Local Comic Shop: www.ComicShopLocator.com
As an Amazon Associate, we earn revenue from qualifying purchases to help fund this site. Links to Blu-Rays, DVDs, Books, Movies, and more contained in this article are affiliate links. Please consider purchasing if you find something interesting, and thank you for your support.
No comments:
Post a Comment