Each Friday, we'll be letting a different DC.com writer share what they'll be reading over the weekend and why you might want to check it out. Here's this week's suggestion for a perfect Weekend Escape!
 

What makes DC’s line of Absolute comics so attractive? It’s a simple trick that only takes 90 years to pull off. First, build generations of mythology and preconceptions around a character. Then, use that background cultural radiation amassed from everything we think we know about a character, disperse it into vapor and plunge back into their core to dig out something both new and always there. We’ve seen it happen six times now. But none of these are as strange and revelatory as Absolute Martian Manhunter, a comic which often feels like it came from another planet and is now observing our own with wonder, sorrow, fear and hope. Collecting its first six issues, Absolute Martian Manhunter: Martian Vision isn’t just a comic you read—it’s a comic that reads you.
 

THE PREMISE:

In the Absolute universe, FBI agent John Jones is a passenger in his own life. His family, his work and all he does in the world is a routine to which he has committed himself. Any passions he once had are long dead, with only duty remaining. Through a traumatic incident, it is an incorporeal alien being that entangles itself within his mind which reawakens him to the emotional truths of his own reality and the worlds that every single person on the planet carry within themselves. Together, John and the “Martian” must save the world from a malevolent force that coaxes humanity to follow their worst impulses on a horrifying scale. What results is a War of the Worlds on the psychic stage, where every mind is its own kingdom to conquer.
 

LET’S TALK TALENT:

Artist and colorist Javier Rodríguez should be no stranger to you, as the Eisner-winning artist behind last year’s Zatanna: Bring Down the House. Rodriguez’s work looks like nothing else on the stands, and the visual language he establishes here for the oculus of the mind is the kind of work that can only happen within the medium of comics. Famously, Rodriguez eschewed traditional designs for the Martian Manhunter entirely and used modeling clay to create the unique look of our story’s protagonist.

Writer Deniz Camp may be a relative newcomer to DC, but he’s no stranger to using the language and iconography of superhero comics to invite readers to reexamine their perceptions through his work in Marvel’s Ultimate universe and independent titles like Assorted Crisis Events. Camp’s fresh perspective is exactly what the Absolute line seeks to solicit, and one he approaches by making the star of the series neither John Jones nor J’onn J’onzz, but the ways in which we all connect to each other.

We would also be remiss not to acknowledge Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, who here may challenge your assumptions on just how much a letterer can contribute to a story. His fine, detailed lettering work, warping and bending with the story and psyche, shapes the mental dialogue of John Jones’ boiling, fevered world. The lettering here is responsible for a great deal of what makes this book feel so unique, even within such a unique line of comics.
 

A FEW REASONS TO READ:

• Astronomical Art: If you’re the kind of person who’s ever lamented the concept of a “house style,” wishing that comics would take more artistic, creative risks, this is the Absolute title for you. The layouts, the line art and the colors express themselves in ways completely unfamiliar within the history of DC Comics and beyond.
   
• Absolute You: Every Absolute comic’s thesis is essentially about an exploration of what the title character represents when you strip away the familiar. What Absolute Martian Manhunter does is different—it doesn’t invite us to explore the true nature of Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman, but what happens when that oppressive Darkseid energy affects ourselves. What is humanity, at its absolute? The answer doesn’t come easily, but it’s one of the most important questions we can ask.
   
• The Medium is the Message: I’m the first champion you’ll find for digital comics, as a matter of ease of accessibility for both procurement and enjoyment. But even if you’ve gone fully digital, this one is worth a trip to the store to pick up physically and hold in your hands as you read it. All the screen captures in the world won’t do it justice. In print, this comic does things you’ve never seen on a comic page before.
   

WHY IT’S WORTH YOUR TIME:

The most frequent question I hear asked about Absolute Martian Manhunter from new readers is this: “Where can I read more comics like Absolute Martian Manhunter?” And for the same reason I hear that question with such frequency, I’m always at a loss to answer. Because there is nothing in all of creation, the vast library of comic books and graphic novels ever produced, that is quite like this. And yet, to read it is to experience the satiety of a hunger we never knew we harbored our entire lives. It is our great fortune that this once envisioned six-issue series has been extended for a second tour in 2026. The perfect time to catch up is now. And even if you’ve read it by now, the best time to return is always.
 

Absolute Martian Manhunter Vol. 1: Martian Vision by Deniz Camp and Javier Rodríguez is available in bookstores, comic shops, libraries and online retailers as both a hardcover and softcover graphic novel. It can also be read in full on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.

Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.