The Heroine from the Pits of Hell

I’ve already written my rave reviews of Absolute Superman and Absolute Batman. Both of those comics are great, and while they each approach the idea of “what if this superhero, but they don’t get everything we’re used to” quite differently, they each found a core for the heroes that works. The stories are interesting, the artwork is solid, and it’s hard to imagine any way these ideas could have been done much better. I can totally see why the Absolute Universe from DC ComicsOne of the two biggest comic publishing companies in the world (and, depending on what big events are going on, the number one company), DC Comics is the home of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and just about every big superhero introduced in the 1930s and 1940s. is selling like hotcakes. It’s well earned.

So take all that praise and double it because I am absolutely (no pun intended) in love with Absolute Wonder Woman. The book is brilliant, with a solid reinvention of the heroine. The changes feel somehow both less drastic and yet they completely change how the character becomes the person we expect her to be. And yet she does, and the way the story approaches it, bringing out the inherent qualities that make Wonder WomanLong considered the third pillar of the DC Comics "Trinity", Wonder Woman was one of the first female superheroes ever created. Running for as long as Batman or Superman (and without breaks despite a comic downturn in the 60s that killed superhero comics for about a decade), Wondie has the honor to be one of the longest serving, and most prolific, superheroes ever. who she is, is amazing. This book won me over with its story alone.

But it’s the composition, the quality of the artwork along with the story, that really unifies the piece. Each book in this franchise so far has its own set of talent, its own distinct feel. Absolute Superman feels grand in its ambitions, while Absolute Batman goes for a retro vibe evoking the likes of Darwyn Cooke and Jack Cole. But Absolute Wonder Woman does something else, eschewing the look of standard comics for a design more like classical Greek artwork. It’s a big swing that looks so different when you first open it, and yet it suits the story so well that any time the book diverges from it you miss the style. This book’s team, when they’re firing on all cylinders, absolutely rocks.

Absolute Wonder Woman reinvents its character by getting rid of everything that traditionally is part of her origin. The Amazons are dead, eliminated by Zeus over some petty slight. Diana is the last survivor, just a wee babe with none of the “sins” of her mothers. She’s taken to hell and given to the sorceress Circe for the woman to watch over. Circe is given no instruction, and isn't even told to make sure the baby survives. Yet… she can’t help herself and once the baby starts crying she takes care of it, bonding with the child until she is its mother in all but blood, and she watches as the little babe grows into an amazing woman.

Being raised in Hell somehow doesn’t change Diana at all. She’s still headstrong, honorable, kind, and true. When Steve Trevor accidentally ends up on their tiny island in the middle of Hell, Diana gives her right arm (literally) to send him back. She respects all life, even that which is sent to hell, and refuses to give up. So when the time comes, and monsters from the great beyond are sent to Earth to destroy it, only one hero can stand against them: Diana, Princess of Hell, who quickly gets dubbed by the news as “Wonder Woman”.

I won’t deny I’ve become something of a Wonder Woman fan over the years. I honestly didn’t expect it, but the New 52 reboot of the character, headed by the creative team of Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang, revitalized her in ways I didn’t expect. I gobbled up that series (even long past the point where those creators left), and Wonder Woman has been a character I’ve kept an eye out for ever since. Naturally I knew I’d pick up her books from the Absolute Universe line (and not just because I was grabbing just about all of the Absolute Universe books), but still, I was genuinely surprised by how good this comic was.

In some ways this is a stark reinvention for the character. Gone is her youth on Paradise island, and gone are the Amazons as well. Her connection to her past, the defining time that made her into the warrior goddess we all know her as, was blown away, replaced by a life in hell. She’s guarded over by a very different woman, and instead of being trained in combat and Amazonian honor, she’s taught the dark arts, magic, and the traits Cerci knows. She lives in Hell, not Paradise, and that should warp her in strange ways.

And yet, despite these origins, the book doesn’t really change her as substantially as the heroes shifted in Absolute Batman or Absolute Superman. She still ends up a proud, strong, warrior goddess. She gains battle armor and weapons from the gods (those willing to aid her on the sly despite Zeus’s orders), and her adoptive mother, Cerci, crafts her a variety of lassos to use. It’s like the book is saying that it doesn’t matter where she goes or how she is raised, Diana will always be Diana, even more so than Kal-El or Bruce. She cannot be bent, shifted, or broken. She will always rise as Wonder Woman.

That’s what makes her story strange. Each of these Absolute Universe books has posited how the heroes can have different origins and yet still, somehow, find a core element of themselves. The changes might shift them but they still come out true. But Diana’s version basically says, “she bucks and fights and cannot be shifted. Do whatever you want, she will remain.” It makes the changes to her origins stark, and yet not so different that she really feels changed at all. Outside of one major difference (she has a magical arm to replace one she willingly cut off), she is the same Diana you could basically see in any other book. Her powers might be slightly different, but not so substantially changed that she feels like an Elseworlds version of herself.

While it might seem like I’m complaining about this, though, I’m really not. I actually really like this about her character. I like how much her origins have been shifted, pushing her away from Paradise into Hell but still keeping her connections to Greek mythology. I appreciate the ways the creators, writer Kelly Thompson and lead artist Hayden Sherman, found to bring her essence to life despite all the changes. I found Diana to be an inspiring figure, one who holds true to everything you want her to be. This version of Diana is the beacon of hope she should be, despite being a castaway in Hell, and it’s impressive.

And this is all accented by the artwork, which I thought was amazing. It’s not standard comic art. It’s got a different vibe, a weird mix of classical Grecian art and modern comic aesthetics. Each panel feels purposefully built, as if etched into stone or laboriously painted onto a ceramic pot. Diana doesn’t just look like a superhero, she feels like a being of mythology. The main story in Absolute Wonder Woman feels like true myth making due to this fabulous art. And while the backup story doesn’t feature this same art, and feels much more comic book-y, it’s still wonderfully rendered. The book is beautiful to behold, in its own odd way, and I still can’t stop thinking about it days after reading through the comic.

I’m hooked. There’s no other way to put it. Absolute Wonder Woman was everything I didn’t even realize I needed from the Absolute Universe line. I thought I was already in it after I was won over by both Absolute Superman and Absolute Batman, but this cemented it for me. I dig the line already, but Absolute Wonder Woman is my peak (so far) for this whole alternate universe experiment. It’s, in a word, awesome.