Absolute Wonder Woman #8 // Review
The great monster known as the Tetracide had played a sound that tore into the minds of everyone in Gateway City. There were those looking to take advantage of the sound...and those who did. Now a small army of robot insects is playing a variation on that sound. The city had just recovered from a trauma and now it’s forced to face more unseen horrors. Diana will have to investigate in Absolute Wonder Woman #8. Writer Kelly Thompson continues a captivating re-imagining of Wonder Woman with artist Hayden Sherman. Color comes to the page courtesy of Jordie Bellaire.
It was operatives in Area 41. Director Veronica Cale has a sample of the sound. She’s got access to one of the most brilliant minds there is. That mind happens to be trapped in a green gaseous form. They call her Dr. Poison. A nonlethal sound formulated to incapacitate a whole city might not be exactly what she’s good at, but she’s intrigued enough to do what it is that she needs to do for the people with the money and so she goes to work creating something that might just be a threat even for someone powerful enough to take down the Tetracide.
Thompson allows Diana to settle-into life outside of Gateway City. She’s got an island to herself. She’s enlisting birds to try to find any evidence of any other Amazons that might be out there. Thompson is wise to allow Diana a chance to settle-in before the next major conflict. And while there IS a protracted period of time establishing the villain, Thompson finds a new way to frame Dr. Poison that feels like an intriguing evolution of the original premise of the character and her identity. Above all, Absolute Wonder Woman continues to be an appealing and gorgeously distorted vision of one of DC’s most enduring characters.
Sherman has a talent for vividly delivering emotion, intention and intelligence through the eyes of the characters being rendered. It’s interesting to see the artist render mystery and uncertainty in the face of a villain who doesn’t have any discernible facial features. Dr. Poison comes across as being all the more monstrous as a result. Once again the color that Bellaire conjures to the page feels cooly moody. Bellaire’s colors make sunny southern California look profoundly overcast in the Absolute DC Universe, which actually kind of makes a lot of sense.
Thompson and company advance-in on a decided earthbound threat for Diana as her second major storyline. The mutation of the familiar in an alternate universe has a tendency to be a bit tedious at times. Thompson and company make it fun to discover an alternate perspective on the familiar. Absolute Wonder Woman continues to find a fascinating corner of a new universe in which to explore nightmare visions of the DC that readres have come to know and love over the years. It’s also nice to see Thompson taking her time with it. When introducing elseworld, there’s also the tendency to want to throw everything at the page right away. It’s nice to see Thompson take her time to introduce the first major villain in the eighth issue.
