Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Hayden Sherman
DC Comics, January 2025
This high voltage adventure, penned by Kelly Thompson and with art by Hayden Sherman, continues as the title character fights the unstoppable Greek hentai monster (not a phrase we expected to write today), called the Tetricide.
As ever, this review contains spoilers. We have previously reviewed issue 1 – Absolute Wonder Woman #1 of 5 (review) – World Comic Book Review
Our enthusiasm for this title is not an aberration. Absolute Wonder Woman is going down like nectar and ambrosia with readers: issue 4 was the third highest selling title in January 2025, trailing only just behind Absolute Batman and Ultimate Wolverine:
(Five of the top ten titles are outside of the big publishers’ mainstream continuity. Old dogs can learn new tricks, it seems.)
The Tetracide’s touch means death. Wonder Woman, defending hundreds of thousands of people from a Lovecraftian doom, suddenly has her arm clutched by a blood-red tentacle:
At that point we discover why Wonder Woman’s arm is tattooed. The arm is not an arm, but is instead a spell. The very significant price Wonder Woman paid to be able to send her paramour Steve Trevor out of hell was the loss of her sword arm. The tattooed arm is a magical construct, and so when the Tetricide entangles it, Wonder Woman is unharmed, but the spell is shattered.
Chopping off one’s arm is gory blood magic, and it is clever writing by Ms Thompson: Wonder Woman’s other spells involve the smearing of red blood, and we might have picked up on the significance of the red ink when considering the character’s tattoos.
It is the sort of stuff we would traditionally expect from Wonder Woman’s evil enemies, not from the Amazonian princess herself. Wonder Woman is not a lasso wielding avatar of truth in this series but, rather, is a sorceress trained in hell by an adherent of the malevolent goddess Hecate.
We should emphasise that this is not some sort of 1990s “grim ‘n’ gritty” transformation of the character. We see instead is a what would happen if the Amazon had been raised in the inferno below. Survival and prosperity in a cave is a stark contrast to the ivory towers of Paradise Island which we have seen in the mainstream title. Wonder Woman notwithstanding her dangerous childhood environment and her education in black magic is destined to be a good person.
The other interesting aspect of Wonder Woman’s use of magic is that it is not of the same effortless capability of other DC Comics’ characters like Dr Fate or Zatanna. It takes time, preparation, and ingredients. Wonder Woman’s magical powers are more Harry Potter, less Sauron. If there is a spectrum of magic users then Wonder Woman sits amidst the witches and not amongst the sorcerers.
Mr Sherman’s art work is solid as the Pillars of Herakles. One of the things we like most about it is that Wonder Woman is not a reproduction of film actress Hedy Lamarr. The Amazons were historically Anatolian, located on the southern shores of the Black Sea. Wonder Woman could easily be Pontic Greek.
The ending to this chapter of Absolute Wonder Woman is however disappointing. Wonder Woman defeats the Tetricide by thinking big: her manga-themed sword can only take chunks out of the Tetricide’s hide. With a little magic, she causes the sword to become the size of an office building. Down falls the Tetricide like a mountain of old calamari. It is a bit too abrupt: what happened to not doing magic on the fly?
We anticipate that the next confrontation in the story will be Wonder Woman against Circe, whereby Circe’s devotion to Hecate is revealed and is pitted against Circe’s love of her adopted daughter. Ms Thompson has by way of dialogue made two mentions of Circe being more powerful than Wonder Woman. The boss level threat in issues to come is likely to be Apollo, the aloof god who dumped Wonder Woman in hell with Circe all those centuries ago, whereby the circle is closed.
Given the title’s success, like Marvel Comics with its best-selling Old Man Logan, DC Comics we expect will eventually succumb to the idea that this version of Wonder Woman meets the standard version. But speûde bradéōs – make haste slowly. It would be a shame to rush the story of this character and pulp it into DC’s mainstream continuity.