Absolute Wonder Woman
| Absolute Wonder Woman | |
|---|---|
 Textless cover of Absolute Wonder Woman #1 by Hayden Sherman. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics (Absolute Universe) |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | October 23, 2024 – present |
| No. of issues | 13 |
| Main character | Wonder Woman |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Kelly Thompson |
| Artist(s) | Hayden Sherman Mattia de Iulis (6−7) Dustin Nguyen (6−7) Matías Bergara (13−14) |
| Letterer | Becca Carey |
| Colorist | Jordie Bellaire |
| Editor | Chris Conroy |
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
[edit]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 Comics Absolute Universe (AU) imprint.[5] Absolute Wonder Woman began publication on October 23 of the same year.[6]
Plot
[edit] | This section's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (September 2025) |
The Last Amazon (#1-5)
[edit]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)
[edit]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)
[edit]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)
[edit]Guest Artist: Matías Bergara
Collected editions
[edit]| # | Title | Material collected | Format | Pages | Released | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Last Amazon | Absolute Wonder Woman #1–7 | HC | 176 | Aug 12, 2025 | 978-1799505297 |
| TPB | 978-1799505303 | |||||
| 2 | As My Mothers Made Me | Absolute Wonder Woman #8–14 | HC | 208 | Feb 17, 2026 | 978-1799507536 |
| TPB | 978-1799507543 |
Reception
[edit]![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg?lang=en){kind=small} | This section needs expansion with: reviews. You can help by adding to it. (May 2025) |
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]
Absolute Wonder Woman won "Best New Series" and Jordie Bellaire won "Best Coloring" at the 2025 Eisner Awards.[8] Additionally, multiple members of the creative team were nominated for their work on Absolute Wonder Woman and other series: Kelly Thompson for "Best Writer", Hayden Sherman for "Best Cover Artist", and Becca Carey for "Best Lettering".[9]
References
[edit]- ^ Johnston, Rich (September 30, 2024). "3 Spoilers for Kelly Thompson & Hayden Sherman's Absolute Wonder Woman". Bleeding Cool. Archived from the original on October 15, 2024. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ Whitaker, Piper (October 23, 2024). "'Absolute Wonder Woman' #1 shows readers how to rebel against Gods". AIPT. Archived from the original on June 22, 2025. Retrieved March 10, 2025.
- ^ Gibson, Avi (November 17, 2024). "I Wasn't Excited for DC's New Wonder Woman, But One Moment Totally Won Me Over". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on January 18, 2025. Retrieved March 10, 2025.
- ^ Cronin, Brian (October 27, 2024). "Absolute Wonder Woman #1 Review: A Bold New Take on Wonder Woman Has a Tremendous Opening Issue". CBR. Archived from the original on January 18, 2025. Retrieved March 10, 2025.
- ^ Cronin, Brian (July 18, 2024). "DC Reveals First Three Absolute Universe Titles". CBR. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ Terror, Jude (October 20, 2024). "Absolute Wonder Woman #1 Preview: Amazon Unplugged". Bleeding Cool. Archived from the original on December 19, 2024. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ "Absolute Wonder Woman review". Comic Book Roundup. Archived from the original on September 20, 2025. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
- ^ Puc, Samantha (July 26, 2024). "SDCC '25: Announcing the 2025 Eisner Award winners". The Beat. Retrieved July 26, 2025.
- ^ MacDonald, Heidi (May 15, 2025). "2024 Eisner nominations announced, led by Fantagraphics and Tom King". The Beat. Archived from the original on May 15, 2025. Retrieved May 15, 2025.
