In Review: Absolute Superman (2024-) #6 – Darkness Comes to Smallville

Synopsis: Something strange happened in the American heartland several years ago. Something that brought fear and darkness to a small Kansas town…and forever changed the lives of one kindly couple. Welcome to Smallville.

The Story

As strongly hinted in the last issue, the action moves to Smallville. But before all that, we get a flashback to Kal-El’s journey to Earth—a trip that lasted 17 months, during which his only companion was the A.I. known as Sol. As with the original origin story, his ship crash-lands in the small Kansas town of Smallville, where he’s rescued by Jonathan and Martha Kent—a pair of struggling farmers being targeted by Lazarus. The corporation is trying to force them off their land using a network of drones to manipulate the weather and starve them out.

The Kents take Kal-El in and nurse him back to health as his body slowly adjusts to our sun. Unfortunately for Kal-El, his A.I. companion Sol has to shut down and recharge, having used up its energy during the long journey from a dying Krypton.

By the end of the issue, we learn how Kal-El discovers Lazarus and its wickedness through his new friends. The final page drops a big reveal: Lazarus Corp is being run by Ra’s al Ghul—who has Brainiac working under him.

Artwork

Carmine Di Giandomenico continues to deliver some great artwork in this book. The panels showing Kal-El’s journey and eventual crash-landing on Earth do a fantastic job of capturing the scale of the event and its impact on the small farming town of Smallville. The reveal of Ra’s al Ghul at the end is also handled well, with a nice build-up across a few panels showing a conversation between al Ghul and Brainiac about Lois Lane’s investigation—it really adds weight to the moment.

Overall

A solid issue that builds brilliantly on everything set up in previous chapters. The new take on Kal’s first meeting with the Kents was nicely handled and added some real depth to the story around Lazarus Corp. I’m looking forward to seeing how Kal-El deals with Ra’s al Ghul and Brainiac when the time comes.