Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Absolute Wonder Woman #2 Review!

Diana’s defense of Gateway City continues Absolute Wonder Woman #2 with a new ally, Steve Trevor! The cover by interior artist, Hayden Sherman, has the swarms of demonic Harbiners fly into the chaos of the Gateway City, but Wonder Woman is ready to face them with her mega-cleaver, the Athena Blade! I’m All In! Last issue, we find that Circe, who was Wonder Woman’s enemy, now cares for the infant who is the last of the Amazons in hell. Now Diana has emerged to fight the kaiju-sized demon, Harbinger Prime. Part 2 of The Last Amazon is by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman. 

Diana faces on the Gateway City beach as there is narration by reporter, Alan Fox, for The Gate news station, love the news name! She lashes it, slicing the side of its beak with her lasso, then closeups of the battle, a harbinger tries to breathe fire on her, and the Harbinger Prime tries to blast her with its eyes! Wonder Woman’s lasso again cuts into the beak with a sizzle! Diana threatens Harbinger-Prime to retreat. Instead, it commands the harbingers to attack. Wonder Woman crosses her arms chanting a spell that forms a blazing star shield that stops the shrieking demons! Harbinger Prime says it cannot retreat at Wonder Womnan’s final warning as she whirls the blazing lasso. 


Large panel as Wonder Woman ties her weapon, Nemesis, around the demon. She says it was made by her mother from the last basilisk, filled with the blood of Prometheus, and blessed by Demeter. A mythological hell weapon! Diana tells it that Nemesis will burn it with its own sins! Nemesis burns Harbinger Prime and it pleads with Wonder Woman to free it! Diana tells Harbinger Prime that it should accept the pain it has given others. A judgment weapon more powerful than Ghost Riders’ Hellfire Chain and almost in line with Dagger’s Lightforce daggers that purge victims, both from Marvel Comics. Wonder Woman says she will spare Harbinger Prime if it will never return and tell its master that the world is protected by Diana of the Wild Isle!


The demon agrees and Diana allows the lumbering Harbinger Prime and the swarms of harbingers to return to the pyramid structure. Alan Fox babbles about the end of the battle until reminded that his on the air by his camera man, funny! Closeup of Diana’s face with demon eyes when out of the smoke, there is the military uniform of Steve Trevor who calls Diana’s name. We see her eye back to blue in surprise as she turns to see him on the beach, interesting long panels of the battle’s aftermath. For some reason, the artwork reminds me of Trina Robbins. Also interesting is the jumble of struts of the ferris wheel in the background like a geodesic dome. 


This goes into the two page title page, very cinematic. We flash back to the hellish skies of the Wild Isle. Sequences of panels as Diana walks up the beach to the fallen Steve Trevor. Then a closeup of Diana’s face. Steve manages to say he wants to apologize to “them.” She heals him with a spell igniting her with green fire, no purple ray. She tries to talk to him again, but a red tentacle snaking in the water takes hold of Steve’s hand and pulls him in. It drags him to the black sea water. Diana flies into the sea, a few bubbles seen from the surface, and then she flies Steve from it! Fascinating panel design circular shape with a pyramid shape showing the bubbles. A nice twist to original encounter with Steve Trevor. 


Diana bursts into her home and wants her mother to bring the Cerberus fur! The guardian dog of the underworld. She sets Steve onto a bed and tells Circe that she saved him from the hydra. Diana tells her mother that she is responsible to him. Later, Diana talks with the now recovered Steve as he holds a drink. He says he thought she spoke Greek and then Diana tells him that they are there with Circe in hell. Steve shouts out realizing he’s dead! Mother and daughter both say he is not exactly dead, funny. Exiled. Steve is by himself while Circe and Diana talk at the dinner table. Diana wonders if he is there as a gift. Steve apologizes to Circe and thanks her for the hospitality. Circe says it is the “safest place” in hell. Then, he asks Diana if she can show him to the area where he was found.  



Steve skips a stone across the black waters and Diana warns him about the hydra. He says he can’t see it, Diana says she has advanced eye sight, Steve notes that he has good eyes as a pilot. He brings up her eyes and we see them stare at each other, nice! Steve notes that Diana is tall and they are about the same height. Then, he thinks he wouldn’t end up in hell. Diana tells him that not everyone in hell belongs there, they just ended up there. Interesting. Steve thanks her for saving him for the second time. I think of the depiction of Dante’s Inferno in What Dreams May Come (1998), hell is a place for people who cannot forgive themselves. At Gateway City, Diana and Steve hug, she tells him that she is there to save the day. Pegasus trots up behind them. 

He says he was asked to bring her to Commander Cole. Closeups of Cole’s screaming face to Wonder Woman’s impassive look. In the next panel we see the other soldiers trying to mind their own business, Steve stands straight and looks down, Diana towering above the petty man, calmly says she understands his position, but she is more concerned with the monsters. I don’t think I ever seen Wonder Woman use such diplomacy in such a situation, brilliant writing Kelly Thompson! She also adds that she will not be part of the military! Wonder Woman turns away for him concerned about the evacuation. The more competant aide, Jacoby, realizes that the demon harbingers are messengers. She suspects another attack in an hour. Cole rants, “The hour?!” She continues coordinating the operation and says that evacuation has only forty minutes.  


Cole rants to Steve threatening to court martial him and then Wonder Woman explain in a panel design in a “W”, the artwork layout is fantastic! She tells him that Cole needs her to stop the attack, but she doesn’t need him and tells him to calm down. Diana says she will go to feed her horse(!) and a soldier asks what a dead horse eats, and Wonder Woman replies magic. She has a conversation with Pegasus that stopping Harbinger Prime has not ended the upcoming threat. Steve can’t believe she is talking with him and Diana tells him that she can converse with all animals. He asks to pet Pegasus! She tells him that his name is Pegasus and he is literal Pegasus that was killed by Zeus! He pets the skeletal horse and in two similar panels, Diana explains that she saved Pegasus with magic. She also tells Steve that there will be other heroes! Pegasus suddenly rears and then Diana covers her ears in pain. She tells Steve to do the same. Then, a closeup of her stunned face. A two page spread reveals the Cthulu-like horror that Diana calls the Tetracide! Four deaths? 

Absolute Wonder Woman #2 continues to weave the original comic mythos, Greek mythology, and shambling horror out of H.P. Lovecraft! 


Five Athena Blades out of Five! 


#AbsoluteWonderWoman, #TheLastAmazon, #KellyThompson, #HaydenSherman, #Diana, #SteveTrevor, #Circe, #CommanderCole, #HarbingerPrime  

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