Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Hayden Sherman
DC Comics, December 2024
If the editorial mandate set down for the writers of the Absolute titles was to improve upon the each of the featured characters’ origins, then they have succeeded, and none more so than writer Kelly Thompson. Ms Thompson has been assigned Absolute Wonder Woman, a storyline presenting an alternative vision of one of American comic book publisher DC Comics’ iconic characters. There is not much wrong with this first issue, at all.
There have been any number of online reviews talking about this refreshing take on a character which is now in her 80th decade. For us, as longstanding fans of the character, Wonder Woman’s message of peace is fruitless and even tone-deaf given what is currently happening in Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Haiti and other troubled places. This storyline is however different. Wonder Woman is in this version a defender against magical incursion, not a pointless ambassador on a perpetually failed mission.
There are two very clever aspects of Absolute Wonder Woman which we would like to explore. First, in traditional Wonder Woman stories, most of the Greek gods are benign allies or at least neutral associates of Wonder Woman and the Amazons of Themiscyra. But here, the sun god Apollo is as we would see him in Greek myth. Initially we wondered if some of Apollo’s attitude can be attributed to Circe’s pedigree: Circe is the daughter of Helios, a rival god of the sun from the pantheon of the Titans. But, thinking about it, Apollo’s ruthlessness is well-depicted in the Iliad:
“So spake he in prayer, and Phœbus Apollo heard him, and came down from the peaks of Olympus wroth at heart, bearing on his shoulders his bow and covered quiver. And the arrows clanged upon his shoulders in his wroth, as the god moved; and he descended like to night. Then, he sate him aloof from the ships, and let an arrow fly; and there was heard a dread clanging of the silver bow. First did he assail the mules and fleet dogs, but afterward, aiming at the men his piercing dart, he smote; and the pyres of the dead burnt continually in multitude. Now for nine days ranged the god’s shafts through the host.…
Near the Iliad’s conclusion, Achilles calls Apollo “the most destructive of all the gods”. Indeed, Apollo was instigator of the Trojan War:
SING, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so was the will of Zeus fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another. And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was Apollo, the son of Zeus and Leto; for he was angry with the king and sent a pestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of Atreus had dishonored Chryses, his priest…
When Ares becomes enraged over the death of one of his sons he threatens to become involved in the Trojan War, and he has to be restrained by Athena and warned that would break Zeus’ prohibition and incur the sky god’s divine anger. But Apollo intervenes with extreme aggression with some sort of implied license from Zeus. Perhaps this is because more often than not Apollo is depicted as a menacing zealot completely devoted to Zeus. From the Homeric Hymn to Apollo 130ff:
“Phoebus Apollo spoke out among the deathless goddesses: “The lyre and the curved bow shall ever be dear to me, and I will declare to men the unfailing will of Zeus.”
And so, in Absolute Wonder Woman, Apollo visits the witch Circe on an island in hell, where she has been exiled. Apollo is aloof, condescending, and again a foot soldier to Zeus’ cruel causes, delivering up a baby to Circe. Apollo cares not whether the baby lives or dies, although that Circe will never be able to tell the baby her pedigree.
Such is Ms Thompson’s skills, beautifully interpreted by artist Hayden Sherman, that the character growth of Circe, from exiled and callous to adoptive mother of Diana, is spelled out in two pages. DC Comics’ continuity has Circe as Wonder Woman’s occasional adversary. But here, Circe is again more true to legend. In Homer’s Odyssey, Circe emasculates some of Odysseus’ crew by reducing them to pigs (Tom Taylor hilariously uses this in last year’s Wonder Woman: Outlaw storyline). Ms Thompson has perhaps read Madeline Miller’s novel (see https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/books/madeline-miller-circe-novel.html ) and Ms Miller’s assessment that “Circe as a character is the embodiment of male anxiety about female power”. Odysseus spends a year in a relationship (with a quirky beginning – the crew are transformed back into humans in exchange for sex) with Circe, before she gives the Greek hero and his crew advice and sends them off back into the Aegean Sea. The transaction seems to be on her terms. Little wonder the male-dominated and misogynistic pantheon of the Olympians have sentenced Circe to hell.
Part of the charm of the story is how Diana is transformed from a bland curiosity to a beloved daughter, and Circe is transformed from subsistence survivor to adoptive mother. The home in the bleak cave reflects this transformation. Circe lives in desolation, and her cavern is a reflection of her mindset. But then, as Diana settles in, as years pass, toy, rugs, small lights, dried herbs, then furniture, books, and then a wooden floor, as Circe finds purpose and happiness. Character evolution has never been done so quickly, so well.
In the obligatory fight scenes, Circe does not join in the fray, and we do not know if she is alive or dead or confined to hell, but regardless, has “armed her [protege] to the teeth”. This includes having the skeletal remains of Pegasus the flying horse as a vehicle and watchdog (is the skinless Pegasus a parody of an invisible jet?), a giant sword, and plain old witchcraft (regrettably, with spells in an incomprehensible scribble alphabet instead of Greek).
All of the Absolute titles have alternative convers as an enticement to collectors, and this one in particular is very striking:
Veteran colourist Jordie Bellaire slaps down red, everywhere. Pegasus’ eyes shine red, Circe’s hair is red, and the blood which Diana used to smear over her eyes before casting a spell is sticky red. Wonder Woman’s tattoos are red, and her usually golden lasso shines in bright crimson. Wonder Woman is not a character immediately associated with a particular colour other than the red/gold/blue combination, more than strongly hinting at America’s flag. This is a pedigree of being created during World War 2. Red however is a colour of passion, of evil, and of hunger. It is also a colour of lust. While we see none of that in this G-rated comic (Wonder Woman does battle a giant winged red penis, who reminds us of the oft-forgotten Greek god Priapus), the expansive use of the colour reminds us of the home stretch of Alan Moore and JH Williams III’s classic comic book Promethea.
In Promethea, the title character is eventually transformed by a surprisingly benign process of apocalypse to a scarlet woman. If Promethea was a post-modern Wonder Woman, is Absolute Wonder Woman a post-post-modern Promethea? The premise of the Absolute titles is that over-worked cosmic villain Darkseid’s baleful influence has reshaped DC’s classic heroes: a crimson backdrop to the entire story underscores his pervasive influence.
We loved this title. We hope it extends beyond a mere five issues.