Absolute Wonder Woman #1 – Kelly Thompson, Writer; Hayden Sherman, Artist; Jordie Bellaire, Colorist
Ray – 10/10
Ray: One thing that occurred to me while reading this issue is that Wonder Woman really doesn’t have many iconic Elseworlds stories. The few she does have, like Daniel Warren Johnson’s Dead Earth, tend to be set at the future rather than at the beginning. That leaves the door wide open for Kelly Thompson to do something incredible with the second book in the Absolute Comics line – and she meets that bar and exceeds it with an electric first issue that is every bit as exciting as Scott Snyder’s debut. Paired with Hayden Sherman, the two create a vision fo Wonder Woman steeped in the darkest elements of Greek mythology – hideous monsters and cruel, capricious Gods.
Much like Absolute Batman, the story here is asking the question of if Wonder Woman can still be Wonder Woman if everything she had to support her is stripped away. In this reality, Apollo takes the infant Diana away from Themyscira and erases the Amazons from history as part of the Gods’ punishment – and then delivers her to Hell, where she is left in the custody of one of the Gods’ other prisoners, Circe. The witch at first assumes the baby will simply die as she has no interest in being a mother, but soon Diana displays the first evidence of her powers – and suddenly, the baby is interesting to this historic villain. And then slowly but surely, the witch becomes a mother against her will, and a child chases her destiny in the pits of hell.
The plot in this issue is a little thin at first glance – unlike Absolute Batman, it’s not interested in dropping a ton of lore right away. The present-day segment mostly focuses on a mysterious pyramid arriving and suddenly spewing demons onto Man’s world, at which point a Barbarian-like Wonder Woman shows up on a skeletal pegasus and delivers an epic fight to the main villain. This segment is so good because A) Sherman’s art is stunning and B) it’s interspliced with flashbacks to Diana’s upbringing in hell, and there are so many wonderful details there. The friend to all animals even loves hellspawn. This is a much faster read than Absolute Batman #1, but all that did was make me want the next issue that much more. The Absolute line is a spectacular two-for-two right now – bring on Superman.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
