Absolute Wonder Woman is a superhero comic book series published by DC Comics, based on the character Wonder Woman. The series is written by Kelly Thompson and illustrated by Hayden Sherman, and began publication on October 23, 2024, as part of DC's Absolute Universe (AU) imprint. The series focuses on a version of Wonder Woman who was raised in Hell rather than Themyscira as in most depictions of the character.[1]
The comic has received critical acclaim due to its characterization of Diana, reinvention of the Wonder Woman mythos, and the artwork by artist Hayden Sherman.[2][3][4]
Publication history
By July 2024, a Wonder Woman-focused comic book series titled Absolute Wonder Woman, written by Kelly Thompson and illustrated by Hayden Sherman, was in the works as part of DC ComicsAbsolute Universe (AU) imprint.[5]Absolute Wonder Woman began publication on October 23 of the same year.[6]
On the Wild Isle of Hell, the god Apollo delivers the infant Diana into the care of the witch Circe, banning her from uttering the word Amazon so as to not let her learn about her heritage. While Circe intends to let the baby die at the hands of a serpent, she grabs it and hurls it away. Circe decides to raise Diana herself, and she grows to be strong and compassionate. Now an adult, Diana learns about the Amazons and their banishment by the gods, and heads out into the real world to fight evil.
In the present, a massive upside-down pyramid appears over the shores of Gateway City, unleashing winged demons called Harbingers onto the city. Diana arrives on a reanimated Pegasus, using the enchanted Athena Blade to cut through the Harbingers and the red Nemesis Lasso to subdue Harbinger Prime. Diana meets Steve Trevor, a U.S. Army Major that she saved while in Hell, and become reacquainted. The two try to coordinate with the military to evacuate the city as the Tetracide appears on the shores of the city.
Diana warns the military that the Tetracide kills in multiple devastating ways, including emitting a loud "Death of Fear" sound that compels all who hear it to sacrifice themselves to the monster. Diana tries to buy time by fighting the monster directly, to no effect. A flashback reveals that Diana sacrificed her right arm to send Trevor back home, and she's forced to dematerialize her arm, a magic prostetic, to free herself and retreat to the military base. Diana, realizing that she can't stop the Tetracide from emitting the noise or evacuate the city, decides to use magic to temporarily deafen the entire city, and she broadcasts a message detailing the plan and urging the citizens to help each other. She obtains her superhero alias Wonder Woman after rescuing Barbara Minerva, a museum researcher who specializes in the Amazons.
Diana and Steve head to a store specializing in witchcraft run by Etta and Dia Candy. Diana restocks on materials and carries out a ritual to replace her arm. With it restored, she notices the Tetracide making its way into the city after its "Death of Fear" noise failed. She uses magic to replicate the sound of screaming humans to draw the Tetracide back into the water, before slicing it in half with an enlarged Athena Blade. In another flashback, Diana was gifted the Lasso of Sacrifice by Circe, which, enchanted by the latter's blood, grants transmorfigation powers. Diana is hesitant to use it, but she is reassured by Hecate and Circe that she will need it when the moment calls. As a last resort, Diana uses the Sacrifice lasso to transform into Medusa, petrifying the Tetracide. Diana remains in her Medusa form, and Steve heads into the streets to remind Diana of who she is, restoring her human form. She drives her fist into the petrified Tetracide, shattering it to rubble. As Diana and her friends convene on the shores of the city, she is grabbed by a spectral hand and pulled into the Underworld.
The Lady or the Tiger (#6–7)
Guest Artist: Mattia de Iulis
Li'l Diana backup artist: Dustin Nguyen
In the Underworld, Diana appears before Hades and is asked to disarm herself. When asked about the Nemesis Lasso, she recalls being sent on a mission by Circe to Mount Prometheous to create it. After temporarily freeing the titan from his chains, Prometheous offers her his blood to create lasso, trusting that it will be put to good use, and brings back Pegasus as a steed. Diana also recalls killing the last Basilisk, sent by Zeus to kill her for good, and harvesting its materials to create the lasso. Hades uses this information to summon Circe as a hostage and forces Diana to fight in his arena.
In the past, Circe tells a young Diana the story of the Lady or the Tiger, in which a Princess must decide the fate of her suitor: marriage with a woman that she is jealous of, or death by a tiger. The ending is left up to interpretation, and the story lingers in Diana's mind throughout her life. In the present, after killing a chimera in the arena, Diana is forced to choose her fate between two doors, paralleling the story: If she decides to free herself, she will be permanently separated from Circe. Diana chooses freedom, having eaten one of the pomegranate seeds Hades gave to Persephone to bind her to the Underworld, so that she must stay in the Wild Isle for at least one month every year. Diana flies Circe home and bids her goodbye.
As My Mothers Made Me (#8–12)
Veronica Cale, director of Area 41, meets with Doctor Poison, a non-corporeal scientist trapped in a bulky suit, and presents her with a sound clip of the Tetracide, hoping she can make use of it. Meanwhile, Diana creates the Hieron on the outskirts of Gateway City, a stone hallway where she and her new friends can work on protecting people. Diana hears the Tetracide's cry in the city, and fights a horde of robotic spiders playing the Tetracide's sound. She confronts Doctor Poison, who disarms the spiders and tells her that there is a hidden maze under Area 41 that has one of the lost Amazons trapped inside. Despite Steve's concerns that it is a trap, Diana enters the maze herself.
In the past, Diana confronts and fights the goddess Artemis, part of her training to become a strong warrior. Hecate tells Circe that she is destined to fight injustice in the real world, and that although compassion is her strongest weapon, her combat skills have to be honed by the goddesses in place of the Amazons. As part of her training, Diana fights a Hydra to retrieve a pearl, bargaining with it as she isn't willing to fight it.
In the maze, Diana befriends Ferdinand, a minotaur who has been in the maze for his whole life, and Petra, a young siren that she brings back to the Hieron. They are both being pursued by Queen Clea, who rules the maze with her army of men-fish. She wounds Ferdinand and throws an Area 41 scientist into a pit, prompting Diana to dive in. There, she finds Io, the trapped Amazon, in the lower levels of the maze. She, alongside other trapped denizens, have been burrowing in the maze for decades looking for an escape that does not put them in Clea's path. Diana, upon learning that the maze is underwater, tells Io to evacuate the maze while she carries out a plan to flood the maze.
Diana bargains with a water spirit trapped in the pit for help, jumps out of the pit and heals Ferdinand, telling him to head to the Hieron, and fights Clea again. She tries to impale Diana with a trident, but Diana is able to throw it into the pit to free the water spirit, which is the Trident of Poseidon. Through it, she learns that Clea was an Atlantean driven insane by isolation and a lack of water, and as the maze floods, Diana tells her and the men-fish that they can leave the maze and seek out a new life in the outside world. Ferdinand and the rest of the denizens of the maze leave the maze and into the Hieron. When Io steps out, she is struck by a lightning bolt and transported to Themyscira, where she informs Queen Hippotlya that Diana, presumed dead in the isolated Themyscira, is still alive. In Area 41, Veronica, infuriated at the loss of the maze, plans to send out Zatanna, another witch and one of the facilities experiments, to fight Diana.
The Price (#13–14)
Guest Artist: Matías Bergara
Diana discusses Themyscira with Barbara before an alarm sounds in the Hieron. Diana flies to Reno, Nevada, where she is attacked by strange lightning creature. Diana realizes that she is not acting like herself, having pulled out her weapon before trying to find a peaceful solution. She tries to reason with the creature but it attacks her again and after a further battle, the creature escapes and Diana loses it. Back at the Hieron, Diana's friends tell her that there were multiple reports of people acting negative in the area where the creature attacked. She then alerted to another sighting of the creature. Diana and the creature repeatedly fight in different locations across the globe, with the creature always beating her and escaping, as Diana tries to resist the violent feeling the creature causes in her. Barbara and the Candy sister inform Diana that the creature is attacking all the places they had been discussing in researching the Amazons. They receive another alert that the creature is attacking Delphi in Greece. Diana flies there and while fighting it, realizes the cause of the creature: herself. As all magic has a price, the creature is the world's price for Diana's presence, confirmed by the creature transforming into a distorted duplicate of herself.
Diana is nearly beating the creature but before falling unconscious, manages to ward it off with a sleep spell, causing it to flee. Diana awakens to see the spirit of a strange woman floating above her. The woman casts a binding ritual on her and disappears before Diana can counter it. Returning to the Hieron, Diana tells Barbara and the Candy sisters what happened and how she believes that the creature is a force of evil meant to balance the scales for all the good she's done and the only way to stop it is by her own death. The Candy sisters point out that the world is not balanced and has greatly titled towards evil long before she was there to bring it back towards good. Diana agrees and decides that she needs to contact Gaia and inform her of this imbalance. Diana fights the creature again in Samothrace where she's able to perform a ritual that grants her an audience with Gaia. Diana is nearly swallowed by the earth, but Gaia decides to hear her out. While initially unconvinced that the world is imbalanced, Diana ask her to look at the state of the world, at which she sees how much overwhelming evil there is, even with the actions of Diana and other heroes. With this in mind, Gaia sends Diana back to the surface to vanquish the darkness and destroys the lightning creature.
Returning to the Hieron once more, she meets Steve reviewing a flash drive with information on other heroes such as Batman and Superman, given to them by the scientist Diana rescued from the maze. Suddenly, they see on the news that a burning sigil, which Diana identifies as the Mark of Hecate, in Gotham City next to a murdered body.
The Mark of Hecate (#15)
At her home, Veronica speaks with The Joker over the phone about how Wonder Woman, Batman, and other heroes are starting to inspire people, evidenced by merchandise being made of them. Joker asks if their bait has been taken, to which Cale confirms it has. In Gotham City, Diana summons Batman using a giant Bat symbol made of magic energy and introduces herself to him. After talking for a moment, Diana tells Batman she's here about four murders where the Mark of Hecate was found, and asks for Batman's help in discovering the reason behind them. She also gifts Batman a magic talisman that can instantly summon her by Batman demanding an audience with her. Batman takes Diana to the first crime scene in Slaughter Swamp, where the remains of a ritual are. Together, they deduce that the ritual was staged, and, based on the missing organs of the victims, they are trying to create a magical golem. Batman tells her about a abandoned church in the swamp that may be significant. Once there, they find a group of hooded figures chanting around a clay figures. Batman and Wonder Woman are suddenly trapped by the magic circle. Diana realizes that they aren't trying to create a golem, but rather trying to control one.
Back at her home, Veronica tells the Joker that it was he who gave her the idea of the trap, after telling her the story about the last Amazon being made of clay. At that moment, Diana is taken over by the witches' spell and tells Batman to run. He tries to escape and fight off the out-of-control Amazon, but is quickly captured and overpowered by her. Before she can kill him, Batman uses the talisman she gave him, demanding an audience with her, breaking her out of the spell. While investigating the ritual, she accidently triggers a bomb and Batman pulls her away, escaping the explosion. Veronica, watching the events, is enraged that they got away, taking off her gloves and revealing her pitch black hand with blue veins. The Joker assures her they'll get more chances, as they both have plans for their respective enemy. As the snow falls down in the swamp, Diana gives Batman the flash drive she got from Steve with information on him, as well as Superman and other heroes. Batman realizes that Diana knows his true identity and gives her permission to say it. Before she flies away, she tells Bruce that they should make friends with Superman and the others if they want to save the world.
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All 12 currently released issues of the comic book series have gotten a collective positive review form the review aggregator website Comic Book Roundup, holding a strong average critic rating of 9.1 out of 10 for 146 reviews, and a slightly lower average user rating of 8.9 out of 10 for 474 reviews.[7]
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