Absolute Wonder Woman #10 // Review
Clea wants Petra. Petra is a magical siren, so it’s understandable. Diana is trying her best to defend her. She’s not alone. She’s being aided by a minotaur named Ferdinand. Theoretically Petra should be able to help defend herself, but there seems to be some kind of a problem with that. Diana is going to have some difficulty in Absolute Wonder Woman #10. Writer Kelly Thompson continues a thoroughly appealing re-imagining of Wonder Woman with artist Hayden Sherman. Color comes to the page courtesy of Jordie Bellaire. Thompson amplifies a bit of the backstory on Diana of the Wild Isle in another enjoyable issue.
In the present, Diana is being attacked by luminescent fish-men who serve Clea. Somewhere in the past, she faced a much more formidable enemy. She was just a little girl when the great black panther arrived on the Wild Isle. Its face was covered with blood. It was trying to provoke her to attack it. She refused...even when the thing lunged at her and nearly devoured her. It didn’t. It WAS, after all, merely trying to provoke the little girl. It didn’t learn until it attacked an innocent, little turtle. Little Diana learned something from defending that turtle...
Thompson pairs the flashback with a tale of Diana going into the labyrinth to save at least one life. The selfless heroism of Diana feels all the more vivid as Thompson allows herself to explore it a bit more. The experience and wisdom of current Diana is contrasted against the innocent selflessness of the younger Diana in a deeply emotionally engaging pairing. The altruistic heroism of the title character would feel a bit heavy-handed were it not for the fact that Thompson continues to make her so appallingly relentless. Diana knows that she’s in danger, but there’s no fear. It’s inspiring stuff.
Sherman’s art continues to look like dreamy, Charles Vess-like stuff that feels right at home in the fantasy that Thompson is crafting. Theres’ a dazzlingly stern determination in Diana’s face as she confronts the fantastic, which is given an appealingly otherworldly glow by Bellaire’s colors. The action flows across the page in cleverly laid-out action sequences the are given a powerfully mythic stature as they fine their way into beautifully curved and textured panels in wonderful symmetry. Sherman’s layouts are as beautiful as the stark action and drama that rest within them.
Thompson, Sherman and Bellaire are coming alarmingly close to a more or less flawless first year on the series. It’s all passed by so swiftly. The dreamlike power of the title continues unabated. Thompson and company have developed a great deal of momentum that should serve the series well as it approaches the end of its first year. As steady as the series has been in revealing bits of Diana of the Wild Isle and her past...there’s still so much about her that remains a gorgeous mystery. It’s going to be great fun to see that mystery continue.
