It’s a fairly established career path for a talented comics writer. After several attempts, you create your breakout indie series, to small but justifiable critical acclaim. The big time beckons, and you work your way up through the second and their tiers of Marvel and DC’s output, until you’re ready to either take the helm of one of the big franchises or bring your newly-cemented big-name status to a creator-owned title. Christos Gage seems to have gone about things in a slightly different order, however, only venturing into independent publishing after making his debuts with strong work for DC and Marvel. Given the solid quality of those efforts, however, it comes as little surprise to discover that Absolution is an arresting read.

Forgive our slight lateness to this particular party- the four issue of the creator owned series is only a couple of days away, but this week’s reprints of the first two volumes make an ideal jumping-on point. This issue sees events pushing John further down his chosen path, as the near-omnipotent Technocrat blackmailing the vigilante into acting as his hitman. The same escalation, whoever, ends up offering the killer a way out of his downward spiral, but does he have the will to walk away?

In many ways, the book is more typical of Gage’s previous output than expected, with generic characters participating in a commendably gripping plot. The standard cops-with-superpowers setting of the book isn’t an immediately novel one, and the Dexter-style nature of the protagonist likewise isn’t going to win awards for originality. Despite these familiar comfort blankets, however, Gage still manages to make the book work, mainly through some superb plotting. The writer strikes the difficult balance between giving events a logical venire while still managing to throw in enough surprises to keep interest high. The cliff hanger revelation is a prime example of this skill, with a slightly contrived development being instantly accepted by the reader due to the dilemma which is creates for the central character. Gages faith in his storytelling is amply rewarded, and it’s hard not to must at least curiosity towards the next instalment.

Despite some rather unremarkable art from Roberto Viacava (the Avatar house style is becoming a little to pervasive these days), Absolution showcases the strengths of a notable writing talent.