In this review of Absolute Martian Manhunter #10, John contends with an insane ‘Nam vet (who looks for all the world like the world’s most aggro hippie), and takes a chance at reuniting with his Martian pal.
ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #10
Written by DENIZ CAMP
Art and Main Cover: JAVIER RODRIGUEZ
Variant Covers: WERTHER DELL’EDERA, DECLAN SHALVEY, JAMES HARREN
Page Counut: 32 pages
Release Date: 3/25/26
This review contains spoilers
Absolute Martian Manhunter #10 starts with John at the bar, while a guy named Marco talks to him. John is calmly prepping a few Molotov Cocktails during the chat, before he heads outside to deal with the all-out battle that’s come for him.
Leading the government forces is a guy with long hair (who we later learned goes by “Rainbow”). The whole seen looks very much like a reenactment of the Vietnam War.
The government is still trying to get all they can from the Martian, and it’s shown that Bridget is still very under White Martian’s influence.
Desparo gets into John’s head again, and points out that Rainbow’s an insane war vet, got into drugs…also calls war itself a drug. In the crossfire, Marco’s killed.
Rainbow’s telling John that he can empathize, and that he’d done enough drugs over time that he expanded his consciousness. But sooner or later, after the high, comes the crash and burn period. He gets the advantage over John.
We cut to a movie theater, where there’s a bit of meta discourse over if what everyone’s seeing is a metaphor, an origin story, or something of a different genre entirely.
John’s trying to get through to Rainbow with his side of things, even as he’s in front of a firing squad. But when they fire on him, he manages to get free. When asked how he accomplished such a feat, he brings up a quote about being “meaningless accumulations of nothing”.
He and Desparo drive off to retrieve the Martian (who is quite glad to see John when he shows up). Along the way, Desparo tries to discourage him. But John’s not listening. When they reach Nihilo Bay, the agents try to stop John…but he manages to fight his way close enough to touch the Martian.
They’re apparently back together (with a third wheel in Desparo). Bridget, meanwhile, asks what she can do to make Tyler happy. A vision comes up of her stabbing John in the back.
From issue one, this title’s visuals had always given me acid trip vibes. So this time around, seeing drugs get name-dropped by a guy that says he knows/understands what John is going through? I definitely smiled, saying: “Yep, that tracks.”
And speaking of the visuals, those just get more and more spectacular to look at with Absolute Martian Manhunter #10. The fight scenes in this one are beautifully dynamic in their posing, and with the color schemes brought into the mix this time around, it just adds to the drama of the whole thing, and I appreciate how the artists keep topping themselves.
The way Rainbow is drawn is rather fun to see. The color scheme that follows him lives up to both his name and morality, being a dark rainbow motif. At points, his artwork gets more distorted as the situation follows suit.
Then we have the sequences with Bridget, Tyler, and the suffocating influence of White Martian. It knows that Bridget wants to keep her family happy. At that moment, this family consists of her son. And White Martian is latching onto that desire to make sure her kid is happy and using that to harm her. As she’s saying that she’s happy, and lucky to have a son like Tyler, her face doesn’t quite seem to match the sentiment, all while the White Martian smoke arches its way through the page.
Story-wise, glad to see the dream team back together again. With two issues left, it’ll be interesting to see how John does with both the Martian and Desparo connected to him. And how they deal with the fact that White Martian’s apparently manipulating Bridget to murder her husband.
Final Thoughts
If you thought this title was a trip before, join in for this leg of the Absolute Martian Munhunter journey. Because it’s just getting crazier with Absolute Martian Manhunter #10. The visuals are stunning, the action scenes are gloriously chaotic, and the stage is set for quite the family drama.
