Absolute Wonder Woman #1-7
by
Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman (Artist), Mattia de Iulis (Artist), Dustin Nguyen (Artist), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist) and Becca Carey (Letterer)
My rating: 5 of 5 Ω‘s
Wonder Woman. The Amazonian icon of hope and love. One of the brightest and most overly positive heroes in comics history. It was hard to imagine what they had in mind for her when I read about her getting her own dark “Absolute” re-imagining and then I was even more curious when I saw that the premise was that she was raised in hell.
Now, comic characters getting rebooted/retold as drastically different versions of themselves is nothing new and and Diana has had her share of that, or at least of darker stories starring her in them like the current version of the Justice League Dark. But this is something else – like her DC Trinity counterparts, this version of Diana exists in a painfully dark timeline, one where heroes are put up against odds that should prevent them from existing and the very reality they live in tries to prevent hope from rearing its shiny head!
So this first issue starts off HARD as Gateway City (a fictional city that has hosted many DC stories in the past) finds itself at the centre of an invasion as a creepy bio-mass looking upside-down pyramid appears over the coast and creatures pour out of it and shit is hitting fans – until a portal opens and an armoured warrior on a black skeleton Pegasus flies out and starts beating back the creatures. Flashback then to a long time past and “the wild isle of hell” which is the prison of the Sorceress Circe, one of Wonder Womans traditional recurring foes; she is approached by the God Apollo who hands her a baby girl and he casts a godly decree that the word “Amazon” is banned (i.e, no one can say it, literally) and tells Circe that this child is the last of the Amazons who has been taken from them as part of their punishment by Zeus – because the Greek deities were kind of arbitrary and ass sometimes for their own reasons. In hell, we see how Circe starts from not caring to seeing that the child is interesting and how over time they both grow together with the girls having a powerful spirit and will to caring and kindness that is beyond remarkable.
The action is great fun and creative and different from most any Wonder Woman comic I know at times + in a HUGE twist, Diana has not one lasso of truth, but THREE lassos and is also a highly skilled witch, trained by Circe and not afraid to use it. What are the lassos and what all can Diana do? I would love to say but that would take away from the fun!
This first 5 issues covers a matter of a few hours at most, as first some Harbingers come and are beaten back and then one of the most terrible horrors I’ve seen as a concept is introduced in the form of the Tertracide – a ginormous nightmare creature that destroys you in not one but three ways: mind, body and soul. Literally. Diana is in a mad scramble to find a way to defeat the undefeatable and protect an entire city and she does it not with excessive cool, but with a well presented warriors calm, her inner monologue really does her and the situation justice here in context and with her whole backstory in mind. We get to meet this worlds’ versions of Steve Trevor and Etta Candy and while it is a limited look, I quite liked some of the new direction for them so far in this story.
The 6th and 7th issues are a short two-parter follow up which covers the experience of Diana in Hades as she confronts Hades himself before his throne. She is banned from leaving the underworld and yet she just did – and her jailer is not pleased. He wants to know how and to punish her for it in suitably dramatic fashion by threatening her mother – she must fight to survive and maybe even save Circe, but there are wheels within wheels as Diana plays her own very dangerous game. More focus on the mother-daughter relationship and their life on the Wild Isle intertwined with the events happening in the present continues a nice narrative thread to showcase the ties between past and present and the role of their relationship on what happens at both times in ways both planned and otherwise.
I want to say two main things about this series:
1. The art style is fantastic! It is by far and away my favourite of the Supes/Bats/WW titles in this line. And WW herself is drawn very differently than almost every single incarnation and it is really striking and somehow feels right. The creatures, the colours, the layouts – the visual story-telling is sharp, clear and distinct and really enhances the narrative. Even the drastically different art of the second short arc here is utterly gorgeous at every level and be it the conversations with Hades or a fight in the arena, or flashbacks, it all is done extremely well. Consistently great art from two different teams back to back.
2. As far as comparisons go, even the throughline itself of the the-universe-against-the-heroes at a fundamental level, is arguably the best here of the main three titles. Kelly Thompson does a strikingly standout job with the backstory and how the journey of Diana is handled and the relationship being built with Circe is excellent. Kudos!
Hands down another solid entry into the Absolute-verse and probably my favourite so far. I would highly recommend it.
One Happy Monk 
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