Absolution

Absolution

by Peter Milligan

Nina Ryan is a hired killer who's given a second chance at life—as long as she can earn ABSOLUTION. How to do that? Earn enough followers for her audacious online exploits to keep the bombs in her head from going off!

Nina Ryan was a hired killer who brought nothing but pain and suffering to the world.

Now, she has a month to prove that she can change. A month to make up for her crimes and find absolution, or the bombs that have been implanted in her head will explode, killing her instantly.

As her journey of atonement is live-streamed to a fickle public, Nina is about to discover that the road to redemption might be splattered with blood.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

128 pages, Paperback

Published February 7, 2023

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.

He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.

His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.

Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).

Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe closer to a 2-star. This was unintentionally a bit too silly. Nina Ryan is a hitman who gets captured by the government and in order to achieve absolution (freedom) she gets bombs put in her brain, cameras put in her eyes, and she live-streams going around killing gangsters. Once she gets 100% Absolution based on feedback from her followers, she gets her freedom.

So she just runs around murdering supposed criminals in graphic fashion. Meanwhile we gets shots of a sports-room broadcast booth with pundits debating her abilities.

We also get snippets of the chatroom which resembles the worst of Twitch chat. "Kiss that blck girl!" they write as Nina is in a gunfight with a black woman. The chat is always talking directly to Nina which doesn't make much sense since she's jumping around shooting people.

Mike Deodato's art is nice but relies on too many photostat backgrounds and photo reference for faces.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an absolutely hardcore comic that could’ve been one of the most brutal Black Mirror episodes ever. The one thing I didn’t like about this story was the random usage of famous people for the illustrations. I think I’ve seen that before in other AWA comics and it’s always off putting.

[Jefferson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get that Milligan is commenting on our current toxically voyeuristic culture, but the setup for this book makes no sense. In the future, science proves that most criminal activity is caused by brain irregularities. Our hero, a ruthless assassin, is caught and given brain surgery, which cures her. But as punishment for her crimes, she is forced to go out and kill and torture people for the amusement of appallingly juvenile online commentators. It's ridiculous.

[Sarospice · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Deodato kicks butt on the art here, and the basic concept could be an ongoing series: killers seeking absolution by killing bigger killers for an online audience. Get to 100% in the allotted time and you're free... Fall to 0 or time out and it's over... Great characterization, until the very end.... Absolution fail.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

slay
but one note did she really sleep naked wrapped in a wet towel? like right out the shower right to bed still in the towel? girl??

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these characters look like real-life actors. Is the artist cheating a little? Either way, the art is a good match for the sheer brutality in this story. Shadows often hide the viscera, but you know it's there.

Nina Ryan is a cyborg assassin who is streaming her kills online for a program called Absolution. There is both a voting audience for it and TV commentators watching her every move and rating her performance. Her current target is Lloyd Nixon. She gets to him unscathed, but before delivering the killing blow, he offers to remove her cybernetic implants in exchange for her joining his organization. She refuses, remembering the explosives implanted in several parts of her body. She must keep her Absolution score above a certain number to stay in the game. Only after reaching an upper threshold does she win her freedom.

Nina is dismantling the criminal organization led by Marc Boisseau. Her live stream has all sorts of comments, from encouraging, to blood-thirsty, to sexist. There is one user named Stevie who complains about being sexually assaulted by her boss. Nina considers helping her, especially since her score is getting dangerously low. After killing him, Nina's score improves.

Her next target is a child killer named Andrew Roth. She soon finds he is sneakier than she thought - he is the one who messages her stream and now put her in a vulnerable position. She manipulates him and turns the tables. The audience demands violence, so she tortures him before killing him. Her psyche takes a hit after it's over, but her score is almost maxed out.

The drunk driver Anton Murphy killed a family of four in an accident. Surprisingly, he embraces being killed for what he has done. This convinces Nina to just walk away. She doesn't care about Absolution any more and doesn't want to kill for views. With a 99% score and only seconds until her deadline is reached, the story fades to black.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hired killer is given a chance to earn absolution for her crimes, with the world as her judge, jury and executioner.

Seemingly inspired by The Running Man movie, Nina Ryan wishes to be pardoned for her sins but has to earn her atonement by pleasing a fickle audience. In essence, she has to kill bigger killers to be forgiven for her past killing. In the near future, she has bombs that were implanted in her brain, so if she disobeys they will go off, killing her. A camera is attached to her so an online audience can follow her every move, weighing in on whether her score should increase or decrease. So Nina is trapped by her audience, where every move she makes is judged. The narrative is supposed to be a moral story about society today and how the online world sucks us into living vicariously through someone else, as people make immoral choices online that they would not in the public eye. There is a news panel of talking heads, similar to Fox News, that push and pull the gullible audience into greater debauchery. The redemption of Nina comes at a cost, in a predictable ending.

Artist Mike Deodato Jr seems to be the go-to illustrator for AWA Upshot, and his work matches the tone of the story, with his gritty linework and love of grids. The coloring is appropriately dark-hued, with Nina drawn as a mohawked warrior, who is typically asexual but who can use sex appeal when needed.

AWA Upshot is a newer comic publisher that has promise, with its dark storylines but is in danger of becoming too one-note in its storytelling. While Absolution has some interesting commentary on our voyeuristic society, as a whole it doesn’t quite pull it off. (Actual review 3.5/5)

This review can also be found on my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2023/04/2...

[Markus Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nina é uma ex-assassina de aluguel que foi forçada a participar de um reality show macabro: ela precisa caçar e eliminar criminosos diante de uma audiência sedenta por violência. E essa audiência decide se ela deve ser eliminada ou absolvida pela sua performance. Essa é a premissa desse gibi que a Editora Poptopia trouxe pro Brasil. Não deixa de ser uma premissa clichê, mas ela é muito bem executada e atual. O Milligan explora bem como as redes sociais podem ser extremamente nocivas. Os desenhos do Deodato estão muito bons. Não são os melhores da carreira dele, mas ainda assim estão muito bem feitos. A história não tem um vilão propriamente dito. Ela é focada na Nina, e como ela mudou depois que foi capturada e submetida a uma cirurgia que transformou ela os bandidos que ela caça em busca de audiência são os mais variados, e talvez eu tenha sentido falta de um “chefão final”, já que o que parecia ser isso foi o primeiro que ela eliminou. O plot twist da penúltima edição foi até surpreendente, mas ainda queria mais. A edição final foi um pouco anticlimática, mas não estragou o gibi. Em relação a edição da Poptopia, está bem cuidada, com uma boa impressão e ainda tem uma entrevista exclusiva com o Deodato no final. Eu só vi um pequeno erro de digitação em toda a edição que passou na revisão. O catálogo da editora começou com escolhas interessantes. Vamos ver pra onde vai.

[Ian Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Get a book by industry veterans, enjoy a tightly written, deftly delivered visual and narrative joyride through a fictional future dystopia not dissimilar from RoboCop or a more cynical Max Headroom, where social media streamer audience validation quest prevails as the schizophrenic negative reinforcement metric chasing likes inevitably is.

There’s a smidge of uncanny valley in the art, as several characters are clearly based on celebrity likeness, similar to the Wanted book looking like Eminem or The Boys modelling on Simon Pegg.

A good read, if heavy handed and largely unsurprising. The more interesting side plots get largely left untended, flowers sniffed and left unclipped behind.

As a long time fan of Peter Milligan’s lengthy career, I would point to this instance as a fine example of his skill, though not a highlight compared to other manifestations like his contributions to Shade the Changing Man for Vertigo or Tank Girl’s take on The Odyssey, chef’s kiss, that one.

[Alex Sarll]

I'm sure I read something by Peter Milligan recently which made me think he might not have lost it after all, but I can't recall what it could have been and there are few causes for such optimism here. Absolution is pretty much Suicide Squad as a Netflix thriller, so busy shooting fish in a barrel with clodhopping commentary on social media (people in the comments on a livestream of an assassin aren't very nice!) that it never finds time to make the world remotely plausible (if sone of Nina's targets are the sort of powerful men who always escape consequences, how come that doesn't extend to protection from government-sanctioned televised killers?). On art, I often like Deodato, but here the cramped layouts and drab palette mean it all ends up feeling pretty lifeless. And I don't mind homage covers on single issues, but for a trade it feels a little desperate. Avoid.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

We have seen this story before. Person forced to kill on a futuristic game show for the lurid American audience. It's not a bad concept and the updates given to the concept by Peter Milligan are timely and fun. But they still aren't enough to really give this a distinctive edge. There really is nothing new here. The art is fantastic, the story moves at a fast clip, but don't expect any big surprises. Still it is worth a look. I don't regret buying my copy.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un relato cyberpunk muy bien escrito por el siempre efectivo Peter Milligan, respaldado por el trabajo gráfico de un Deodato que consigue la decadente atmósfera propuesta en esta actualización del género.

[Greg Trosclair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great and a solid story are why Absolution was a solid if not great read.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was actually good 3.5/5, buts it’s let down by its artwork, gender politics and paneling layout.

[Matthew Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fine.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

The artwork is absolutely amazing, but other than that I found it very hard to fall in love with the story. The story just felt flat for me.