Absolute Wonder Woman

Absolute Wonder Woman is a superhero comic book series published by DC Comics, based on the character Wonder Woman. The series is written by Kelly Thompson and illustrated by Hayden Sherman, and began publication on October 23, 2024, as part of DC's Absolute Universe (AU) imprint. The series focuses on a version of Wonder Woman who was raised in Hell rather than Themyscira as in most depictions of the character.^[1]

Absolute Wonder Woman
Textless cover of Absolute Wonder Woman #1 by Hayden Sherman.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics (Absolute Universe)
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	October 23, 2024 – present
No. of issues	13
Main character	Wonder Woman
Creative team
Written by	Kelly Thompson
Artist(s)	Hayden Sherman Mattia de Iulis (6−7) Dustin Nguyen (6−7) Matías Bergara (13−14)
Letterer	Becca Carey
Colorist	Jordie Bellaire
Editor	Chris Conroy

The comic has received critical acclaim due to its characterization of Diana, reinvention of the Wonder Woman mythos, and the artwork by artist Hayden Sherman.^[2][3][4]

Publication history

By July 2024, a Wonder Woman-focused comic book series titled Absolute Wonder Woman, written by Kelly Thompson and illustrated by Hayden Sherman, was in the works as part of DC Comics Absolute Universe (AU) imprint.^[5] Absolute Wonder Woman began publication on October 23 of the same year.^[6]

Plot

The Last Amazon (#1-5)

On the Wild Isle of Hell, the god Apollo delivers the infant Diana into the care of the witch Circe, banning her from uttering the word Amazon so as to not let her learn about her heritage. While Circe intends to let the baby die at the hands of a serpent, she grabs it and hurls it away. Circe decides to raise Diana herself, and she grows to be strong and compassionate. Now an adult, Diana learns about the Amazons and their banishment by the gods, and heads out into the real world to fight evil.

In the present, a massive upside-down pyramid appears over the shores of Gateway City, unleashing winged demons called Harbingers onto the city. Diana arrives on a reanimated Pegasus, using the enchanted Athena Blade to cut through the Harbingers and the red Nemesis Lasso to subdue Harbinger Prime. Diana meets Steve Trevor, a U.S. Army Major that she saved while in Hell, and become reacquainted. The two try to coordinate with the military to evacuate the city as the Tetracide appears on the shores of the city.

Diana warns the military that the Tetracide kills in multiple devastating ways, including emitting a loud "Death of Fear" sound that compels all who hear it to sacrifice themselves to the monster. Diana tries to buy time by fighting the monster directly, to no effect. A flashback reveals that Diana sacrificed her right arm to send Trevor back home, and she's forced to dematerialize her arm, a magic prostethic, to free herself and retreat to the military base. Diana, realizing that she can't stop the Tetracide from emitting the noise or evacuate the city, decides to use magic to temporarily deafen the entire city, and she broadcasts a message detailing the plan and urging the citizens to help each other. She obtains the name Wonder Woman after rescuing Barbara Minerva, a researcher who specializes in the Amazons.

Diana and Steve head to a store specializing in witchcraft run by Etta and Dia Candy. Diana restocks on materials and prays to Hecate to replace her arm. With it restored, she notices the Tetracide making its way into the city after its "Death of Fear" noise failed. She uses magic to replicate the sound of screaming humans to draw the Tetracide back into the water, before slicing it in half with an enlarged Athena Blade. In another flashback, Diana was gifted the Lasso of Sacrifice by Circe, which, enchanted by the latter's blood, grants transmorfigation powers as a last resort. Diana is hesitatnt to use it, but she is reassured by Hecate and Circe that she will need it. As a last resort, Diana uses Sacrifice to transform into Medusa, petrifying the Tetracide. Diana remains in her Medusa form, and Steve heads into the streets to remind Diana of who she is, restoring her human form. She drives her fist into the petrified Tetracide, shattering it to rubble. As Diana and her friends convene on the shores of the city, she is grabbed by a spectral hand and pulled into the underworld.

The Lady or the Tiger (#6-7)

Guest Artist: Mattia de Iulis

Li'l Diana backup artist: Dustin Nguyen

In the Underworld, Diana appears before Hades and is asked to disarm herself. When asked about the Nemesis Lasso, she recalls being sent on a mission by Circe to Mount Prometheous to create it. After temporarily freeing the titan from his chains, Prometheous offers her his blood to create lasso, trusting that it will be put to good use, and brings back Pegasus as a steed. Diana also recalls killing the last Basilisk, sent by Zeus to kill her for good, and harvesting its materials to create the lasso. Hades uses this information to summon Circe as a hostage and forces Diana to fight in his arena.

In the past, Circe tells a young Diana the story of the Lady or the Tiger, in which a Princess must decide the fate of her suitor: marriage with a woman that she is jealous of, or death by a tiger. The story lingers in Diana's mind for some time, and she comes to the conclusion that she "is not the princess". In the present, after killing a chimera in the arena, Diana is forced to choose her fate between two doors, paralleling the story: If she decides to free herself, she will be permanetly seperated from Circe. Diana chooses freedom, having eaten one of the pomegranate seeds given to Persephone, so that she must stay in the Wild Isle for at least one month every year. Diana flies Circe home and bids her goodbye.

As My Mothers Made Me (#8-12)

Veronica Cale, director of Area 41, meets with Doctor Poison, a non-coporeal scientist trapped in a bulky suit, and presents her with a sound clip of the Tetracide, hoping she can make use of it. Meanwhile, Diana creates the Hieron on the outskirts of Gateway City, a stone hallway where she and her new friends can work on protecting people. Diana hears the Tetracide's cry in the city, and fights a horde of robotic spiders playing the Tetracide's sound. She confronts Doctor Poison, who disarms the spiders and tells her that there is a hidden maze under Area 41 that has one of the lost Amazons trapped inside. Despite Steve's concerns that it is a trap, Diana enters the maze herself.

In the past, Diana confronts the goddess Artemis, an event that Circe is unprepared for, and Diana refuses to fight until Artemis threatens to harm a turtle. Diana is hurt, and Circe laments the cruelty of putting Diana through the training, to which Hecate reassures her that it's to train her to fight injustice in the real world, and that her compassion has to be backed up with skill, which has to be honed with help from the Goddesses in place of the Amazons. As part of her training, Diana bargains with a Hydra to keep her axe until she returns to it a valuable pearl

In the pit, Diana befriends Ferdinad, a minotaur who has been in the maze for his whole life, and Petra, a young siren that she brings back to the Hieron. They are both being pursued by Queen Clea, who rules the maze with her army of men-fish, and wounds Ferdinand. Clea throws an Area 41 scientist down the pit, knowing Diana will fall in to rescue him, and finds Io, the trapped Amazon, in the lower levels of the maze. Io, alongside other trapped denizens, have been burrowing in the maze looking for an escape. Diana offers Io and the denizens of the maze a chance to escape while she leaves the pit and fights Clea. Through freeing the Trident of Poseidon, Diana learns that Clea was an Atlantean driven insane by the lack of water, and floods the maze, letting her and the men-fish go and find their old home. When Io leaves the maze, she is struck by a lightning bolt and is transported to Themyscira, where she informs to Queen Hippotlya that Diana is still alive. In Area 41, Veronica, infuriated at the loss of the maze, informs Zatanna, one of the facility's experiments, that she's going to be let out to kill Diana.

The Price (#13-14)

Guest Artist: Matías Bergara

Collected editions

#	Title	Material collected	Format	Pages	Released	ISBN
1	The Last Amazon	Absolute Wonder Woman #1–7	HC	176	Aug 12, 2025	978-1799505297
			TPB			978-1799505303
2	As My Mothers Made Me	Absolute Wonder Woman #8–14	HC	208	Feb 17, 2026	978-1799507536
			TPB			978-1799507543

Reception

All 12 currently released issues of the comic book series have gotten a collective positive review form the review aggregator website Comic Book Roundup, holding a strong average critic rating of 9.1 out of 10 for 146 reviews, and a slightly lower average user rating of 8.9 out of 10 for 474 reviews.^[7]

Absolute Wonder Woman won "Best New Series" and Jordie Bellaire won "Best Coloring" at the 2025 Eisner Awards.^[8] Additionally, multiple members of the creative team were nominated for their work on Absolute Wonder Woman and other series: Kelly Thompson for "Best Writer", Hayden Sherman for "Best Cover Artist", and Becca Carey for "Best Lettering".^[9]