Like her Gotham City counterpart Batman, Wonder Woman leapt into DC Comics’ blockbuster Absolute line — a starting-from-scratch setting where the odds stacked against DC’s classic superheroes are higher than ever — with a striking new look. Astride a red-eyed skeletal pegasus, Diana sports tattooed arms, a buster sword, a black-and-red color scheme, and (perhaps most controversially) pants.
Over the subsequent issues of Absolute Wonder Woman, writer Kelly Thompson and artist Hayden Sherman slowly unpacked their vision of the character, as fits DC’s darker, more dire Absolute Universe. By divine decree, this version of Diana of Themyscira was abandoned in hell as an infant, where she was lovingly (though reluctantly, at first) raised by the witch Circe, traditionally one of her greatest enemies. Absolute Diana swings swords and flings lassos, but also communes with Hecate and casts spells.
And the weird thing about putting a witchy filter over Wonder Woman, according to Thompson, is that it’s just allowed her standard superhero characteristics to shine brighter.
“She still has all these very superhero-y, classic powers,” Thompson told Polygon over video chat, “but they feel different now because they have this base of her being a witch. That’s how she was raised, and this is what she knows — even though she’s never going to be a sorceress the way Circe is, and she’s throwing around this huge magic. And then she’s saying to people, ‘Well, I’m not much of a witch,’ and you’re like, Really? What you’re doing is pretty huge.”
[Ed. note: This piece contains some spoilers for Absolute Wonder Woman #1-4 and major ones for #5.]
Among the huge things Wonder Woman has done in Absolute Wonder Woman’s first four issues? Casting a spell to deafen an entire city — but first broadcasting a comforting, hopeful explanation about how it will keep them alive. Cutting off her own right arm to fuel an arcane ritual — freely given so Steve Trevor, playing his traditional role of catalyst to her hero’s journey — could escape hell. And in the latest issue, Absolute Wonder Woman #5, Diana musters a very different weapon than her traditional Lasso of Truth: Circe’s own Lasso of Transformation.
At the climax of Absolute Wonder Woman’s first full arc, Diana turns to the lasso as a last resort to defeat a mind-warping ancient kaiju threatening Gateway City, and uses it to transform herself, body and mind, into the nearly-as-titanic form of Medusa.
The story of Diana’s close victory (and how it nearly costs her everything) is twinned with flashbacks to the Lasso’s origin, forged by Circe in the bowels of hell as a gift of aid and protection to her adopted daughter. And Diana certainly feels a certain way about it!
Image: Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman/DC Comics
Thompson said that the reason she wanted to show the full origin of the Lasso of Transformation here is precisely because of how big of a departure it is from the usual Wonder Woman canon.
“This lasso is not very Diana,” Thompson said. “It’s not who she is, in a lot of ways. […] You can be raised by someone and really believe in their ideals and believe in them — whatever Circe thinks about herself, Diana sees her mother as a heroic figure, for sure. But that doesn’t mean they agree. Even though Diana was raised in [hell], there’s just more darkness in Circe than there ever has been in Diana. That’s a wedge between them, a little bit, but it’s also a way for them both to learn. […] Diana recognizes that she’s an incredibly powerful character with an incredible amount of knowledge, but she’s also very aware of how little she knows, of how much she has to learn. That is a template for a great character, as opposed to a closed-off one that cannot move forward.”
The care Thompson holds for Diana and Circe’s relationship is evident in every issue of the comic so far — Circe’s witchy influence has touched Diana, but Diana’s innate compassion and heroism have had their own effect on the ancient witch as well.
Image: Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman/DC Comics
But Thompson was also quick to say that the Lasso of Transformation would not be replacing the Lasso of Truth in the Absolute setting. “There is a reason we have stayed really far away from the Lasso of Truth, and I don’t think it’s a big spoiler to say it’s because we will one day see the Lasso of Truth — and it needs to have power and meaning for Diana.”
In Absolute Wonder Woman, Diana has never met another of her Themysciran sisters, and Circe was forbidden by the gods to even say the word “Amazon.” Thompson says that when the Lasso of Truth appears, it will represent a connection to Diana’s heritage, “and it’s a connection to, in a way, an even truer self than any lasso that she and Circe can build for her, because there’s something in her heritage to it that ties her to something powerfully, about who she is.”
The first wave of DC’s Absolute books are hitting issue 5, either wrapping or close to wrapping their opening arcs. And a second wave is on the way in March, with Absolute Martian Manhunter, Absolute Green Lantern, and Absolute Flash joining the line. So it felt like a natural time to ask about the future of the line. For narrative or commercial reasons, or even just following the sales success of these first three Absolute books, it’s not hard to see the shadow of an Absolute Justice League on the horizon, or at least a Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman crossover or team-up.
The Absolute books were always built “with an eye toward, Yeah, these guys are going to meet,” Thompson said. But exactly how it’ll happen is still being carefully discussed among all the individual Absolute creative teams.
“Hopefully we will nail that and it will really resonate for people. We recently had a summit/retreat thing, and one of the things I said is that you never get a second shot at these first meetings [between characters]. […] I can’t say what’s going to happen, but I can say that it’s being actively figured out now how [connections between the books should be built], and how fast. Does characters meeting mean they get completely drawn into each other’s orbits? Or is it more of a cameo situation, where they come across each other and then we have to circle back?”
Absolute Wonder Woman artist Hayden Sherman, also on the video call, chimed in, “I think all of us who are drawing these books are all very selfishly like, ‘No, I want your character to visit my book!’”
“Literally!” Thompson laughed. As an example, she mentioned that she’d love to see Batman visit Gateway City, so Sherman would get to draw Nick Dragotta’s absolutely swole Absolute Batman design. “I do feel like it’s going to become a little bit of a hostage-negotiation situation. Everyone wants the same thing, but how you get there could look a lot of different ways.”
“Thankfully, we’re surrounded by such innately collaborative people,” Sherman said. “Everybody’s interested in what’s going to be great for the other person’s book. It’s so fun talking with everybody about what they’re planning.”
Absolute Wonder Woman #5 is on stands now, with #6 hitting shelves on March 26, and a collected edition of Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1 due in August. In the meantime, Absolute Wonder Woman #1 is also available on the DC Universe Infinite subscription app.
Content shared from www.polygon.com.