Absolute Superman: The Superhero Forged Out of Hardship and What It Means
Absolute Superman’s story is a vast variation from the beloved hero’s standard origin story. Honestly, as much as we loved it, it was a bit of a fairy tale. A perfect baby from a doomed planet lands in the most idyllic corner of America, raised by the two most wholesome people on Earth – and grows up to be a symbol of “truth, justice, and the American way.” It’s a classic for a reason, but what if that story were told today? What if the immigrant’s tale wasn’t so… well, perfect?
Absolute Superman: How A Hero Emerged
That’s the explosive question writer Jason Aaron and artist Rafa Sandoval are tackling in DC’s new series, Absolute Superman. Forget the scenic landscapes of Kansas and the semi-high-paying job at a bustling newspaper. This is a Superman for modern times, and his tale is grim, raw, and a lot more complicated.
Who is Absolute Superman?
Jason Aaron, a titan in the comics industry with over two decades of experience, admits that writing Superman was absolutely different. In the Creator Cranny Podcast, Aaron said:
“Part of me has always felt like you’re not really a comic book writer until you write Superman.”
But with Absolute Superman, he’s not just writing the hero; he’s rebuilding him from the ground up. Aaron has taken away some fundamental parts of the traditional origin story we have long been told.
This Kal-El isn’t the wide-eyed farm boy we know. When we meet him in the first issue, he’s a refugee, a man on the run, hiding out in a Brazilian diamond mine run by the ruthless Lazarus Corporation. He’s rough around the edges, struggling to understand Earth’s culture and its brutal divides. He has no family, no friends, no home, and there’s certainly no Smallville. He’s seen the worst that humanity has to offer, yet he still chooses to fight for what’s right. That, exactly, is the heart of Superman, amplified.
A Krypton of Class Struggle
The changes start before Kal-El even reaches Earth. In this universe, Krypton is a world choked by a rigid caste system. At the top, the opulent Science League lives in luxury. At the bottom, the Labor Guild toils hard all day. And who belongs to that working-class guild? None other than Jor-El and Lara.
Jor-El, a mine safety inspector, and Lara, a mechanic, sacrificed their own bright futures to speak out against Krypton’s decay. So, when Jor-El discovers the planet is about to implode, his warnings are dismissed by the elite. He’s just a humble laborer, after all. Even the iconic ‘S’ shield isn’t the family crest of the House of El; it’s the brand of the Labor Guild. This Superman embodies the legacy of the oppressed, a hero born from the underclass.
What’s Different in This New Origin?
If you think a blue-collar Krypton is a big swing, hold onto your capes. The biggest twist in Absolute Superman is that Kal-El doesn’t land on Earth as a baby. He arrives as a young boy, having spent his early years with his birth parents on Krypton. He has Krypto, his faithful dog, by his side. He has memories of his mother and father, who taught him to fight for the little guy.
Absolute Superman in Smallville
This completely sidesteps the classic Kent family upbringing. Ma and Pa Kent’s farm is an abandoned property owned by the Lazarus Corporation. This Kal-El was shaped not by the gentle fields of Kansas, but by the love of parents fighting against a corrupt system on a dying world.
It raises so many questions: How did they get him to Earth? What was his journey like? And what happened to Krypton?
And if that wasn’t enough to chew on, Lois Lane is an agent for the villainous Lazarus Corporation, and Brainiac seems to be pulling the strings. It’s a radical reinvention that strips away the familiar comforts to test the very core of what makes Superman… well, Superman.
Jason Aaron went on to say:
“I think everything I’m trying to do with this book and the choices we’ve made and the changes we’ve made, to me only makes this character more relevant to today. And more inspiring. It makes his life and his journey much more fraught and filled with hardships than [any] Superman has been in the past.”
As Aaron puts it, this version doesn’t have a fake, bumbling “Clark Kent” persona. He is Kal-El, he is Superman, and he is a man of the people – all at once, without pretense. It’s a bold, messy, and often a gritty human take on the world’s greatest superhero.
