Opening on a fever pitch of paranoia in John Jones’ home of Middleton, Camp and Rodriguez set the tone for Absolute Martian Manhunter #8 and the arrival of the arc’s antagonists, The Agency. The fallout continues with John’s marriage on the rocks, another secret agency seemingly closing in on the whereabouts of the Martian, the White Martian’s looming presence in the Jones’ household, all of which is enmeshed with the ever-creeping overexposure of the ‘Anti-Life Spiral.’
Arguably the most visually adventurous of the Absolute books, each page sweeps the reader into the moment, whether that be a room full of people’s inner thoughts, John’s own misgivings about his marriage and family life or even the Martian battling the very idea of the Anti-Life Spiral. The colors are bright, conveying the emotions of the page before one even begins to read a word on the page.
DC
John’s own resentment for no longer living in a world of illusions is filled with striking, darker colors, surrounded by the shadows of his inactions and shames in his life being less than what he had convinced himself. The continued visual language with smoke as memory and steam as anger is salient, weaving hints and clues to where the story leads. The selective truths continue, as John tells his wife he’s “trying to quit smoking” while on every other page the familiar ‘fwosh’ of his lighter signals that couldn’t be further from the truth.
It’s little moments like that that culminate in the climax of the story, John teetering in his own self-doubts and misgivings about if he’s lying to himself or if living in a dream was the only way to ever really go home again.
Perhaps the most ingenious artwork from Rodriguez and writing from Camp of Absolute Martian Manhunter #8 comes near the end, with the agents chasing down the Martian and their attacks colored in red, white, and blue as they explain themselves in defense of attacking the ‘Other.’ Rodriguez’s art parodies the United States’ own national personification in Uncle Sam, pulling inspiration from propaganda pieces from the years, the ever-present, suffocating feeling of the flag pulling down both the Martian and the reader.
The words go against the art, the bubbling letters of “THIS IS NOT A GUN” falsely encourage as the mystery man shoots bullet after bullet at the Martian. Even his words, saying one thing while doing another shows the trained facade, all while missing the Martian as he doesn’t move in any human way against the string of gunfire.
DC
Absolute Martian Manhunter has encouraged the reader to engage with the comic before, by lifting it to the light to see pages together, but the end of this comic instead implicates the reader in the actions done against the Martian. Even if one doesn’t do what the comic suggests, by virtue of the medium, the trap is already set, and the plot carries on. A cheeky callback to a time where sections were reserved in comics for fun games or crosswords, instead used to show the lengths of othering the new antagonists will go to to maintain the status quo of a supposedly alien-free universe.
Absolute Martian Manhunter #8 is not just in conversation with the concept of Martian Manhunter or the reality of what the Absolute universe is, but the broader illusion of what separates humanity. Symbols and borders and prejudices are illusions, carefully and purposefully crafted, but illusions nonetheless.
If #7 was a reset, #8 is a full-tilt reminder of the cost of willful ignorance and complacency. With more questions raised and few answers given, Absolute Martian Manhunter continues to be the most compelling and complex book of the Absolute line.
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