Suffering Not A Single Fool: Reviewing ‘Absolute Wonder Woman’ #2

Monsters of myth and legend have come for the modern world of humanity. Only one woman stands in their way.

Luckily for all of humanity, that woman is Diana, the last of the Amazons and the princess of Hell. They call her Wonder Woman. Chapter two of the opening act of Absolute Wonder Woman #2, a dark universe reboot/reinvention, has arrived thanks to the tremendous work of Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Jordie Bellaire, and Becca Carey.

Holy freaking crap.

I knew that I would love this book, especially once the first issue came to us, but it just kind of rocks even more than I expected.

In many ways, the version of Diana that is presented here, along with some of the connections and moments of her life, are rooted in the mythos and version we know very well. Yet the changes, both major and minor, recontextualize and put these story points into a new light and fun new position. Thompson is having a grand time mixing and matching things, while allowing us to get a version of Diana that is “bigger” than ever.

This Diana, despite her Hellish upbringing, is still very much the woman seeking peace and compromise. Always offering mercy and a hand but backing it up with the promise of force to protect the innocent and helpless masses. At the same time, she is so damn badass here. Because the scale of threats she is allowed to face are enormous and fitting of her power levels.

I really love the way that her lasso is handled here. Instead of a Lasso of Truth, with its golden glow and honest power, the magical glowing red weapon known as Nemesis is here to play. Fashioned by Circe with ties to the Basilisk and Prometheus and Demeter, this lasso of sorts “binds and burns in proportion to your sins.” Basically, it makes you feel the bad things you visited upon the world or others, ten or a hundred-fold depending on the amount of sin carried upon the soul.

That is some badass stuff right there.

Placing this in the hands of Sherman and Bellaire was truly inspired.

A story of this magnitude, with these massive mythic creatures and a powerful warrior, needs the most dynamic style of work. This always describes Sherman to a real T.

There is a true sense of scale represented on the page. Where both the Harbinger and the being it’s there to herald feel truly massive. All of the buildings and the warrior they are facing are so much smaller, rather than just feeling slightly different in size. It stands hand in hand with the smart usage of panels, knowing when to up or lower the scale to naturally fit the moment. Allowing everything to hit peak impact and power.

Rough textures and smoother ones meet into a happy medium, allowing the world to feel soft but also hard. This is true of both the art and the colors.

A foundation of very natural and toned-down palette choices gives the world its overall look under Bellaire’s care. Elements from beyond the Earth we know are allowed to soak up more of the various colors, some of them far more vibrant than others. By building that initial base level, things like the monsters and even Diana’s weapon Nemesis feel as naturally out of place as they should.

Yet, the combination of colors and their distribution also makes those things feel of the world as presented on the page. It’s quite an intriguing effect that is so important to comic books. Taking the familiar and mixing with the unfamiliar till they’re hard to separate again.

Colorful is also the name of the game with the lettering, where Carey really pulls all the right strings. She places words so smoothly and deftly across all the pages that they hit at the right time and frame the rest of the artwork perfectly. This keeps the level of personality and energy solid, no matter where the words come from, dipping into the realms of color to boost the natural energies of the words but also give them a visual kick.

Absolute Wonder Woman #2 is now available from DC Comics.