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I've Read Absolute Wonder Woman #1 by Kelly Thompson & Hayden Sherman

I've just read Absolute Wonder Woman #1 by Kelly Thompson & Hayden Sherman - not so much a superhero but a witch on the warpath

I've read Wonder Woman #1 by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman, the second launch of the Absolute Universe for DC Comics, a world formed in the battle with Darkseid and infused with his energy, a harsher, crueller DC Universe, in which the stars have to shine a bit brighter. I first reported the existence of this line a year ago, though it only came to public fruition recently. So, what are my impressions? I am going to do my best to avoid any major spoilers, but this is a book that is based on a very different basis, and so some of that is going to spill out. DC has been a lot more reticent than they were with Absolute Batman, and very little artwork has been released (though DC media partner AIPT got a few pages) so, spoilers on.

The pages released show an assault on her new home Gateway City by demonic hordes, and Wonder Woman as the hero who arrives on the scene on her skeletal Pegasus to save the day. Simple as.

Except it is obviously not. Absolute Batman #1 may give you an origin point for the character before jumping to the presents, but Absolute Wonder Woman #1 is a very different beast. With very different beasts. It tells the story of her life from babe to grown woman. We have previously been told that this Wonder Woman did not grow up with the Amazons on the paradise island of Themyscira, that she is still a princess, but a Princess of Hell" that makes her more aggressive, less accommodating, and "100% a witch." using magic and magical weapons. Such as a skeletal Pegasus.

And that is what we get to see, in wide double-page splashes with panoramic panels stretching left to right, stacked tight, wider than widescreen, telling the story of one place and Diana's life on it with a familiar mentor, tasked as her unwilling keeper. But Diana from a baby who can look after herself and grows up, finding her own world and companions, even in a confined space, until she can take on her legacy. These are the most impressive pages, over and above the action preview scenes, that compress so much into so little space. It's common with Absolute Batman in that the preview pages released don't really convey the overall tone of the book… which does something new and different. And it is these that form the heart of this book and make it a very different one from the Wonder Woman comic books that have become. Wonder Woman was essentially an action ambassador to the world. This Wonder Woman is a refugee from the worst place on Earth, wanting to save everywhere else from becoming what she has escaped from. And that's where Gateway City comes in… a gateway to what?

And, yes, she rides on a skeletal Pegasus. Absolute Wonder Woman #1 is published by DC Comics on the 23rd of October, a witchy week before Halloween. And that's suddenly rather appropriate as it goes to FOC tomorrow.

ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #1 CVR A HAYDEN SHERMAN
(W) Kelly Thompson (A/CA) Hayden Sherman
EISNER WINNER KELLY THOMPSON AND BREAKOUT ARTIST HAYDEN SHERMAN REINVENT WONDER WOMAN FROM THE GROUND UP! Without the island paradise…without the sisterhood that shaped her…without a mission of peace…what's left is the Absolute Amazon! Retail: $4.99 In-Store Date: 10/23/2024

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