Absolute Superman#2 2024

*Absolute Superman – The Man of Steel*

With new powers, new challenges, new traits to his character, and a brand-new original story that reshapes his mythology.

This is *Absolute Superman*, Issue number 2.

Six years ago, in the House of El within the lands of the Red Lands on Krypton, Kal-El was leaning against his desk, making sounds that showed his exhaustion. His class teacher was grading assignments on a nearby display screen, but he stopped when he reached Kal’s submission.

The teacher said, “Kal, I’m puzzled about what you’ve submitted here. Your paper is described with accuracy, but it doesn’t seem to use any generative texts at all. You relied on the Luminaire Priest, didn’t you?”

Kal quickly looked at the camera in front of him and said quietly, “I wrote it.”

The teacher stared at his image for a moment before briefly shaking his head and saying, “You wrote this yourself… very well, Kal. I’d like to speak with you and your parents after class.”

Then, everyone logged out.

Now, on Earth, in Brazil, Kal was staring in shock at the woman who had just chained herself to his arm. The woman raised an energy gun toward him, the sparks dangerously close to his face, and shouted, “Get on your knees!”

Kal raised an eyebrow at her before lifting his arm and glancing at the shackle, which caused Lois to fall to the ground. As he tried to pull the restraint off, he said, “Alright, just let me—” Then he spoke to Sol, ignoring the fire, the smoke, and the armed woman before him: “I can’t break this.”

Sol replied, reminding him, “Kal, you’re weak. You’re vulnerable here.”

But Kal shrugged his shoulders as he kept working at it. “I’m annoyed with her. What do you want me to do, Sol? Cut her arm off?”

Lois lost her patience, raised her weapon, and fired a beam straight at Kal’s face. He let out a groan of pain and staggered back. Then Sol said, “I’ll handle the cuffs.”

Kal shook his head and said, “Just don’t hurt her.”

But other agents of the Lazarus Group had already started gathering around him, raising their weapons and ignoring Lois’s orders to fall back.

Suddenly, the sound of weapons echoed through the courtyard. Kal immediately moved forward to shield himself from the gunfire, protecting Lois from danger. Then, without warning, the armor began to shift, surrounding them in a cloud of red dust that flowed like a cloak.

Lois shouted, raising her gun again, *“Let me go! Get this thing off me!”*

Kal, speaking to Sol, said, *“Did you forget? She’s the one who chained me.”*

But the adaptive armor kept working. Sol commented, *“This metal reshapes itself quickly. Every time I try to cut it, it just reforms. It’s going to take time. And don’t forget—he’s bound.”*

Lois fired again, and though Kal was less surprised this time, he was visibly angry. *“Stop doing that! You’re making saving your life extremely difficult.”*

She snarled back at him, *“Oh, so now you’re talking to me?”*

Kal glanced around, noticing the Lazarus forces closing in more and more, as a massive tank rolled into the scene. Finally, he sighed and said, *“Sol, use the dust to hold her—just don’t let it tear her in half.”*

Lois’s eyes widened in shock as the red cloud tightened around her. Then, in an instant, Kal leapt into the sky, carrying her away from the battlefield at incredible speed. But one of the Hell-Tanks began to chase them.

One of the Peacekeeper soldiers shouted, *“My God, he’s flying!”*

The tank opened fire, its shells exploding at the edge of the red cloud. Kal crashed down from the sky, slamming into the ground inside a nearby village with tremendous force.

And when the smoke cleared, he was standing, holding Lois in his arms. Lois raised her gun and fired again. Kal staggered and fell to his knees. When he looked up, Lois was standing with her weapon in the middle of recharging.

She shouted into her communicator, *“This is Agent Lane. The suspect has fled east!”*

But Kal shook his head and said to Sol, *“Jam the signal.”*

The armor responded, *“Already done.”*

Kal sighed and looked at Lois. *“I’ve saved your life several times, and now you want to arrest me for it?”*

Lois shook her head. *“No. You deliberately endangered lives by attempting to escape legal custody. What you won’t do is—”* She stopped mid-sentence, staring at him as Kal rose to his full height, wondering if the armor was the source of his strength.

Lois said firmly, *“People have a right to know.”*

But Kal did not agree. He replied angrily, *“Since when has Lazarus ever cared about anyone’s rights? That company treats people like slaves and cattle—right to their faces.”*

Their argument was cut short by another explosion. Both looked up to see the Hell-Tank closing in on them. Kal stretched out his hand, lifted a nearby car, and hurled it with immense force toward the tank. The car struck the machine and knocked it out of the sky.

But Kal’s expression turned to horror as the tank plummeted toward a nearby church. He turned to Lois and said, *“The sunstone dust will protect you, I promise.”*

But Lois did not hesitate—she pointed toward the building. *“Forget about me. Just go!”*

Kal leapt forward, breaking through a wall of smoke and rising flames, into the church. He moved swiftly, the dust swirling around him, shielding Lois and a group of villagers from the destruction.

Within moments, they were carrying people to safety and setting them down on the street. Kal returned to the church, using his super-breath to extinguish the fires and save what remained of the town. But the effort weakened him, and he collapsed to his knees beside Lois.

Lois looked at the strange visitor, then at the gun in her hand. Finally, she sighed and holstered the weapon. This man was not what she had thought.

Kal smiled gently and said, *“Thank you.”*

Lois stared at him with a faint smile, stumbling over her words. *“I didn’t mean— you did all this— I’m sorry—”* she finally managed to say.

Kal tried to stand, struggling. They had only a few moments, and he wanted to express his feelings about this planet.

*“There are so many stars in the sky… most of them just spin around dead rocks and methane gas. Do you realize how precious this place is? I am the child of one of those lifeless rocks… a son of nothing… my planet—”*

He was cut off by the sudden sound of the restraints snapping open and falling to the ground. Kal looked down at his newfound freedom, astonished.

Lois reached out a hand toward him. *“Wait—no—just let me—”*

But Kal launched into the sky, streaking upward like lightning. Moments later, Lazarus forces arrived in full strength, only to find Lois standing alone, staring upward into the heavens.

Later, Lois sat in front of a computer at the office, submitting her full report to the Brainiac algorithm. She explained that she did not believe the strange visitor posed an actual threat to the planet, and that he needed more detailed study. She believed that, despite his power, he seemed just as surprised by his abilities as they were by them.

But Lois did not realize that someone was watching her through the computer, and that it was not just the algorithm responding to her.

*“Agent advises cancellation. Any killing and destruction has been logged,”* Brainiac said, which shocked Lois.

*“Your report is complete. The Brainiac algorithm thanks you,”* added the computer before shutting down.

Behind her, the door opened, and a Lazarus commander stepped in, congratulating her on a successful mission and ordering her to take some rest.

But Lois shook her head. *“No… no, I don’t think I’m finished with my report. I think… I think I need to write this report myself.”*

She thought back to the moments of flying with the visitor, of his help saving people from the burning building.

The commander shrugged his shoulders, wishing her good luck before leaving the room.

Lois sighed, turned back to the computer, and began to write.

At some time in the past, on Krypton, Lara and Jor-El worked tirelessly, preparing for what they knew was coming. Lara showed Jor her work, explaining that her design would function both as an exploratory space suit and as a rocket ship at the same time. But she admitted she didn’t know how she would convince the Science Guild to accept the discovery, and wondered what they would do if no one listened.

Jor looked at his wife for a moment before embracing her, saying, *“If they don’t listen, I’ll steal every sunstone I can carry, and you’ll build us a ship big enough to hold everyone we love.”*

As they spoke, their eyes drifted toward the field, where Kal was playing with Krypto.

*“Then we’ll hold on to each other with all the steel in our hearts and the fire in our veins. Can we aim for the stars?”* Lara whispered softly.

*On Earth, in the present:* Peacekeeper soldiers moved through the village after the battle with Kal, anger burning in their eyes at the contemptuous stares of the townspeople.

Two patrol soldiers noticed that one of their comrades, Smith, was glaring fiercely at the villagers. His helmet was cracked from the morning’s attack.

*“Smith, are you alright? Aren’t you supposed to be with the medics?”* they asked him.

But Smith shook his head, staring at the villagers with disdain. *“They don’t understand. They don’t appreciate everything we’ve done to drag them out of the mud,”* he snarled angrily.

The others shrugged indifferently. *“Yeah, that’s the job. What can you do?”* one of them remarked.

But suddenly, Smith smiled, raised his weapon, and shouted, *“I’ll show them! I’ll show them that peace has a heavy price!”* Then he pulled the trigger and opened fire.

And that concludes *Issue number 2 of Absolute Superman*—which, honestly, was my favorite issue so far out of everything that has been released in DC’s new universe.

If you want to know what happens next in the story—and in every tale of the DC event—don’t forget to leave a like and subscribe to the channel to encourage me to keep going with these stories. See you in the next episode, God willing.