i am completely normal about absolute superman

1. borrowing misery from future

2. carrying grief of the past

Abandoned camp!

and more importantly: WOOL STAIRS AND SLABS

ALRIGHTTT I'm so excited for this one. It's my favorite issue of this volume <3 This is gonna be a long one, fellas. Might make it a two-parter

Right off the bat we have this cover. I really like how the covers usually foreshadow something that happens in the comic without giving it away completely. He looks like SUCH a baby here, he's literally so young and helpless and sad and they're all pointing guns at him ;-; Remember it was a resident of Smallville who reported him.

"When my family's rocket lifted off from Krypton, we had no idea where we were headed" -> I really enjoy this origin. The fact that they literally have no idea where they're going or if they'll even find a new home. The Els in more mainline verses generally know they're sending Clark to Earth. And this is infinitely worse for Kal now that he's completely alone :(

THIS WHOLE SEQUENCE IS SO HEARTBREAKING BUT THIS ONE ESPECIALLY GETS ME. The way he's holding himself, maybe petting himself, and rocking. The little tears in his eye, dripping down his face. Are there scratches/bruises on his face? They weren't there when he took off. Oh BABY :'(

(Going into headcanon territory here, but I'm writing a scene based off this panel for my longfic where he's hearing alter!Lara's voice here and she's stroking him/comforting him)

I love the art detail of his arm warmer thingies looking less "warm" here. It really adds to the cold loneliness. The cold lighting too, both bright and dark at the same time like you're sitting on a laptop in the dark ughhh god I love Carmine's art so much

Love how he's in different parts of the ship throughout this period. Really adds to the restlessness. The despair in his body language... god. God

HE'S CONSTANTLY CRYING AND IT BREAKS MY HEART. The screaming to break the silence. (Later in his life, he will be screaming to drown out the noise)

Oh Kal. The body language here, oh how much he's given up. I wonder how long he's been refusing food. If he's doing it intentionally, or if he just can't bring himself to. If it started as the latter and became the former. If Sol doesn't understand, why is he not eating- is he sick? Ohhh I would love a whole volume of this comic from Sol's perspective. Absolute Superman Annual #1 pleaseeee </3

Also, neat little detail: His arm and leg pieces grow steadily more glowy as they get closer to Earth.

Oh Kal. His hair is so greasy and stringy and he just. The way he yells after speaking so softly. He's just done, he doesn't care anymore

Yeah yeah surprise surprise the deathfic and suicide whump lover fell in love with this comic solely because he saw this panel posted on Tumblr and then decided to read the whole thing.

Anywayss. The fact that he's consoling Sol here, oh my HEART. You can keep going if you want. You did your best; don't worry about me. I'll be alright. Just drop me off here, right in that big, yellow sun. I love how Superman (all versions) is so consistently compassionate towards anything even remotely sentient (which we know Sol is, but they don't have much history at this point).

I wonder how long he's been thinking about this. What he imagines. How long he's been waiting, if he's been hoping they'll come across a star like this so he can burn like the rest of his planet, the rest of his family. If he'll even feel it. If he'll just... be nothing. Nothing and no one. The resignation on his face. The way he looks at the sun with such a desperate, weary hope. His way out. The end of all this. Right there. Fucckkk

"You know I cannot do that. I am sworn to protect the last vestige of the house of El" GOD HE'S SUCH A FUCKING. KNIGHT. PROTECTOR. GUARDIAN. UGH. I LOVE SOL. It's not even a question to him, he just. His purpose is to protect Kal. Even if that means protecting Kal from himself. Ohhhh I have to know how many times they've had conversations like this

WHAT A GORGEOUS PANEL. The sun rising over the Earth. It's a new day, a new life for Kal and Sol. I'm in love with how Carmine draws smoke, I just want to run my fingers through it.

WE'VE COME FULL CIRCLE

Remember this from Issue #1??? God I love the parallels; the fact that Kal goes from one doomed world, to another that is on the same path. The way Krypton's ruling class had weather-influencing capabilities... and now it's rumored (and later confirmed) that they have the same on Earth. Ohhhh I love this

I REALLY enjoy the Kents' dialogue, it feels so natural. This is probably going to sound weird but I feel like a lot of times when writers give people a "country" dialect and don't really know how to do it, and they just make them sound stupid- and it's kind of insulting. I like that that's not the case here, and the Kents feel like fully fleshed out people who are talking about complex shit. They feel like they've known each other for decades and are comfortable with each other. Idk I just love it

"I... I can't say I know. I reckon... reckon we'd need a--" <- LOVE HOW THEY HUG EACH OTHER HERE AND THE FACT THAT THEY'RE HOPELESS AND DOOMED JUST LIKE THE ELS BUT. BUT. YEAH. anyways

GORGEOUS PANEL. GORGEOUS COLORS. OH MY GOD. I want to lick this

The fact that Kal-El's first experience of Earth is that of overwhelming pain. The way you can read this both ways: from the Kents' perspective, where this terrifying alien creature has just dropped out of the sky on fire. From Kal-El's perspective, where he is terrified and in pain and has no idea what is happening to him. God, it's no wonder when Kal sees "monsters" later on, like Parasite in Issue #17, he assumes they must be hurting, scared, misunderstood. Bc that's how he's been all his life

The fallen angel imagery... we get wings before we ever get a cape. Oh Kal.

love his scary face here btw. and the pixelated Sol bits. Love the pixelated stuff

The translation here is "HELP ME" by the way. That's the first thing he says. Help me. Help me, I'm in pain, I'm scared, and I don't know you but you're here, please, help me.

I ASKED FOR RAIN! NOT NO DEAD BOY! is such a funny line

DON'T YOU KNOW AN ANGEL WHEN YOU SEE ONE? MY HEART. My heart. Oh, he looks so beautiful here. Beautiful and tragic and so vulnerable. <- I swear I get possessed by Martha Kent every time I see young Kal. I can't wait to write my longfic augh

lots of koreans online say they "eat" drinks which would assume they only have one word which covers the concept of consumption.

arabic immigrants in sweden (my mother included) have a hard time differentiating between "i think/i believe/my opinion is" which suggests that in arabic these different modalities of speaker agency is treated as one or at least interchangeable.

swedish speakers in english will use should/shall/have to/must with much higher nuance precision than native english speakers, to the point where they sound well awkward, because the distinction between these commands in swedish is much clearer than in english. i make mistakes between is/am/are and has/have constantly because swedish only has one pronoun covering all grammatical persons.

i've heard speakers of languages without gendered pronouns (finnish, the chinese dialects, and a tonne more) make he/she mistakes because it's hard(!!) to learn two or more gendered pronouns and when to use them correctly.