Absolute Martian Manhunter #10: Color or Consensus

Absolute Martian Manhunter #10 pushes visual chaos to the extreme. It plays with perception in a more explicit way than any issue to this point. Certainly there are the intense explosions of color in the war zone John finds himself in. But there is also an opening anecdote from a friend at a bar who tells a story about the consequence of a sudden change in perceived reality. And most critically in the story, John encounters Rainbow, the sniper who took down the Green Martian two issues ago.

Rainbow argues that martian vision is a danger–something that allows him to look beyond the comforting bounds of consensus that keeps everything and everyone moving smoothly. Through Rainbow, Absolute Martian Manhunter #10 comes as close as the series has so far to explicitly conveying a larger idea. That larger idea also brings the Agency’s interest in the Green Martian into focus. What earlier might have seemed like a strange diversion now has a narrative and thematic point to it.

Camp pushes this resistance to conformity as far as Absolute Martian Manhunter #10’s story will allow, sending John beyond human consciousness to the place where the Green Martian is being held. It’s fitting that that location is called Nihilo Bay, nihilo being the Latin word for “nothing.” The Green Martian, the source of the added perception Rainbow is so opposed to, is held in this nothing place that is virtually monochromatic where colors have only emanated from the Green Martian himself. It looks like the conformist world that Rainbow speaks of.

The soldiers that John has to fight in the war zone to get to his confrontation with Rainbow further highlight what is likely the real threat in this run of the series. The hints haven’t been hard to decipher in previous issues, and Absolute Martian Manhunter #10 all but points a glowing finger at it.

That same warzone sequence uses color in seemingly the most haphazard way the series has to date. The warzone John fights through is chaotic. Backgrounds aren’t the same color. Explosions aren’t the same color. Rainbow’s chain gun has psychedelic smoke with people’s faces in it. It’s a visually extreme experience. Rodríguez pulls a reverse here, though. When John figures out how he can save the Green Martian, he escapes the frenzied colors and returns to an ordinary looking street next to his ordinary looking car. The chaos comes into focus.

Easy to lose in the color explosion that is this issue are the dynamic action sequences Rodríguez delivers throughout. John is running, gunning, punching, jumping–if there’s an action that can be made in combat, John probably does it. This level of energy is unusual for John, and his sudden fast paced actions make for a quick reading issue–an easy page turner.

Sound effects seem to be everywhere in the warzone sequence. Otsmane-Elhaou does a good job making them part of the chaos–as if Rodriguez’s coloring wasn’t enough of a cacophony. The sound effect colors contrast heavily with the colors they’re set against, keeping everything even louder throughout the sequence.