The Triumph of Absolute Martian Manhunter: Martian Vision
I believe any visual medium, comics especially, have the capability of expressing stories beyond literal representations, rather through more metaphorical, sometimes abstract expressions of feelings, of ideas. To do that though, you have to be brave, you have to be bold, you have to trust your collaborators to be in step with you. It’s a big ask.
In the Direct Market especially, where most comics are created through the “production line” method, being that bold is a very big ask. You need to have immense faith in your collaborators. But there is another angle to this. Sometimes that faith truly does exist, masking that feeling of “production line” and making it appear like magicians concocting a powerful, ambitious potion.
Reading Absolute Martian Manhunter: Martian Vision, the first arc, felt like this. There stands three magicians – writer Deniz Camp, artist Javier Rodriguez and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, all playing off of each other’s spells and ingredients, adding complexity layer by layer until it all coalesces into this beauty of a comic.
Panels, page compositions, the best teams know how to utilize these key features of the medium to their fullest extent, telling stories that you can’t through any other, because none of them can really “pause” time while also giving the reader a lens into so many moments in time in one go, sometimes consecutive, sometimes separate. That’s the key to Absolute Martian Manhunter, it’s Rodriguez taking Deniz’s scripts and employing so many different visual tricks, sometimes the same one but through different contexts for different feelings, and then Otsmane-Elhaou layering it with some loud lettering to bring it all together into a type of comic you maybe haven’t read before, or you have but not in a long time.
A strong visual technique Javier uses throughout the series is how a panel or two on a page will be borderless, while everything else has proper rigid borders. Sometimes, even though the panel might not take the whole page, the lack of borders is effective enough to really frame a scene. Similarly, a borderless free panel uses negative space to emphasize freedom, other times loneliness, overwhelming emotion too!
It’s in Issue 2 where a little mix of exaggeration and inset panels enter the book. Trigger, the (appropriately named) shooter, standing taller than any of the buildings while holding a gun. Parents hiding their kids with them behind buildings, bodies in Trigger’s wake. Inset panels used to show the gun being fired. This issue specifically uses this a lot to really dive into that feeling of fear.
Issue 3’s take on a fun feature is texture, which is also arguably the defining feature of the issue. Throughout the book (and also across his career), I’d describe Rodriguez’s art as rounded and soft. But here, you can see all sorts of different variations, sharper “sketch lines”, some of the art looking like it was illustrated with chalk. In fact, even the White Martian’s first appearance in this issue (Bad Idea #1937-231, also a reference to the first Martian Manhunter story where he fights another martian), has the kind of textured shadows that you can see on the Martian itself, which is a great double entendre to further lock in that this is, in fact, another Martian.
Issue 4’s use of colour is my favourite use of it in the first arc. From the bright pale yellow of the sun (which, I remember this issue also came out during an actual heat wave which was a funny coincidence), to the grey in John and Bridget’s argument, to her in red and him in blue which further illustrates her anger and his rather passive way of avoiding her. It’s that argument that might be my favourite of the entire issue. The smoke around her face, the same kind of smoke that’s been used to illustrate people under the trance of the White Martian, finally allows her to express what she’s been holding within. The page composition, using the panels with borders to corner the panels using negative space, all to illustrate the feeling of overwhelming emotion. In the immediate next page, Bridget’s head explodes into a galaxy of colours as it shrouds John, illustrating every emotion under the sun off of that alone. As the argument evolves, the Martian combines the three primary colours to return the sun to how it was, but by then the three bombers (illustrated in cyan, magenta and yellow to contrast) set their bombs off, their explosions covering John and Bridget as she gives him an ultimatum.
Issues 5 and 6 is another experiment, a two parter after the previous 4’s storytelling operate more episodically. Using shades of blue to illustrate the eternal night, other colours only appearing if the light source specifically dictates it, incredible work. Also quite love how they use the pages to illustrate passage of time so well, as two different moments (John being attacked, the attacker walking to break into Bridget’s house) happen simultaneously. Attackers having the same white circle as the Martian that caused the heat wave in Issue 4.
It’s the fight between the Martians in Issue 6 that really showcases what this comic is really about. As John and Bridget work together to protect their house, the Martians fight using ideas plucked from the minds of people, ideas that use the different visual techniques all shown off in the issues thus far.
Vital to the visual presentation of course, is Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s lettering. A lot of the time, lettering is viewed as “good” if it’s “invisible,” left unnoticed, just a part of the flow. By contrast, his lettering is loud, it’s demanding your attention, while also blending in with what Rodriguez is doing. So many cool presentations of this, from the Martian having a different font, to different trailing lines for speeches, to different colours! It’s incredible.
Camp’s boldness is also so key to this. I don’t give him enough credit for his boldness, truly. A lesser writer working on this book would just overwrite sometimes, lacking the restraint to let go. But not only does he play with form alongside his collaborators here, he does this in another book too (Assorted Crisis Events with Eric Zawadski). The way he portrays people here, from John and the Martian, to Bridget and Tyler, to the people affected (the Syrian refugees in Issue 2, the homeless in Issue 4) has so much subtle nuance to it, it’s incredible.
At the end of the day, Absolute Martian Manhunter: Martian Vision is a confident, vibrant tour de force. If any of the three faltered, this book would cease to exist. That’s what makes it so damn powerful.
