Absolute Power - Task Force VII #1 // Review
“The age of the superhero is over and it’s time to hunt down what remains.” That’s kind of brutal. That’s kind of dramatic. That IS what Amanda Waller says at the beginning of the first issue of the series, though. She’s looking directly ahead in a tight close-up as she speaks those words. So the readers know what they’re in for with Absolute Power - Task Force VII #1. Writer Leah Williams opens a key part of the Absolute Power summer crossover event. Artist Caitlyn Yarsky provides the striking, clean-line visuals that are rendered into striking depth by colorist Alex Guimarães.
She’s given Parasite a device that suppresses his hunger for power absorption. Naturally, he’s not doing all that well. Once she takes it off, he’s going to be ordered to return to the Suicide Squad and hunt-down a couple of heroes who are infused with power from the gods. So it’s not going to be easy. Parasite is aided in the hunt by a being known as the Last Son who is quite powerful on his own. Meanwhile, Billy Watson and Mary Bromfield have found themselves in the Rock of Eternity dealing with a particularly bureaucratic Tyrannosaurus rex.
In addition to Parasite and Last Son, there’s some action between Black Adam and the interloping forces of Waller as they encroach on the Rock of Eternity. In addition to that, there’s a bit of drama with Steve Trevor. Williams crams a lot of story into just a few pages, but much of it is exposition that doesn’t seem all that well-integrated with the rest of an already sprawling summer crossover event. The interesting mix of things going on at the Rock of Eternity IS actually kind of a lot of fun, but bits crammed-in around the edges of it feel a bit haphazard.
Yarsky’s art is solid. She captures the drama with a straight ahead style that never amplifies anything too far beyond the basic action that’s going on. This is a very, very good thing as the actual action that’s going on is really, really overwhelming. Guimarães casts the action in a rich depth that suits Yarsky’s framing of the action quite well without upstaging it. There’s an appealingly fluid motion to the action that Yarsky manages throughout the issue, but it isn’t enough to calm the action mixing between the disparate scenes in the issue.
It is so very, very difficult to keep everything running smoothly in a huge and sprawling crossover event. Thus far Absolute Power has managed to feel reasonably well-integrated. The crossover reaches into mid-summer with a bit of an awkward posture that doesn’t set-up the second half of the summer all that well. The series should improve as the crossover continues. The narrative just needs time to catch-up with everything that’s happened so far and provide some sense of perspective on it all. As it is FAR too much has gone on and so very, very little of it seems to have been framed properly in page and panel.
