Absolute Martian Manhunter #10 Review
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist & Colorist: Javier Rodríguez
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Cover Artists: Javier Rodríguez, Declan Shalvey, Werther Dell’Edera & James Harren
Editors: Sabrina Futch & Katie Kubert
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $4.99/$5.99 Card Stock
Release Date: March 25, 2026
You can't have beauty without ugliness. Peace doesn't exist without war. Love always combats hate, while good and evil are eternal. But how much longer John Jones can survive without the Green Martian seems very much in question. While John is on the run from the people in white coats, Agent Lowe conducts a vivisection on John's former partner. Can the troubled FBI agent win back Bridget and Tyler? Or will John give in to his new partner's Despero-Vision? Let's leap into Absolute Martian Manhunter #10 and see!
Story
When Agent Rainbow and his troops descend on the Starlight Motel, John Jones takes refuge in the motel bar. After Bridget conspired with the "counselors" to lock him away, another branch of the government besieged the motel. John vows to quit drinking if he survives the assault. Yet while the bartender muses on how something new can overturn your understanding of the world, John makes Molotov cocktails.
As John fights for freedom in Absolute Martian Manhunter #10, his former companion struggles to continue living. Agents Lowe and High strive to contain the Green Martian's influence. Tyler, or the spirit within him, captures Bridget in a euphoria as he exerts his influence beyond their home. Yet Agent Rainbow, who leads the assault at the Starlight Motel, claims his experience has made him impervious to influence.
In Deniz Camp's story, John and the Green Martian prevented the White Martian from tearing Middleton apart. Yet the town's civil war drew the government's attention. While John argues that success can only come by working together, Agents Rainbow, Lowe, and High believe the FBI Agent is conspiring against the federal government.
In a larger sense, John Jones is conspiring against his world. As Marco in the Starlight Bar argues, sometimes people don't know what's good for them. Still, John’s new dark Martian companion intends to keep John's feet firmly on the ground in Absolute Martian Manhunter #10.
Art
As John works on the bottles set beside his handguns on the bar, Marco studies the firefly trapped within an overturned glass. A flaming bottle flies past the motel sign, initiating gunfire and explosions. Tracer fire chases John as his Martian shadow races along a nearby wall. Skulls form amid an explosion as John fires his pistols while running. Soldiers wearing steel helmets and wielding swords and rifles fight and die. Bullets rain down from a helicopter skirting the top of the swaying palm trees.
Javier Rodríguez's fluorescent colors recall when Americans' attempts to cast off the shackles of the past clashed with their leaders' intention to police the world. Agent Rainbow's long hair flows on unseen air currents like the words carried by the smoke surrounding Bridget and Tyler in Absolute Martian Manhunter #10. As the battle-hardened soldier operates his strip-fed machine gun, he kneels upon the heads of his victims. While Agent Rainbow speaks of when he began his career, Agent Lowe and High's clothing and the interior design of their control room evoke an earlier era.
Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou places uppercase black letters in cream dialogue balloons and boxes. Lowercase letters suggest lowered voices, while enlarged uppercase words deform balloons. White letters fill dark backgrounds and dripping splotches, as the barrage of sound effects recalls the smell of napalm in the morning. Thanks to DC Comics for sharing this story with us.
Final Thoughts
John Jones fights for his life at the Starlight Motel. Yet the FBI Agent also fights for everyone's right to think their own thoughts, rather than accept whatever the gatekeepers tell them in Absolute Martian Manhunter #10.
Rating 9.8/10
To look inside see my preview of Absolute Martian Manhunter #10.
For what happened last time, see my preview of Absolute Martian Manhunter #9.
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