Review: Absolute Wonder Woman Vol 1-2

 I was so impressed with Absolute Superman that I decided to check out Absolute Wonder Woman. The first two books in this ongoing series are The Last Amazon and As My Mothers Made Me.I've been told that the Absolute books are all set in the same universe, but that doesn't matter to either the Superman or Wonder Woman books so far. There's no interaction between the characters, and to be honest, the Wonder Woman's version of this book is a lot less grim. It's almost like the California in the Wonder Woman books don't belong to the same country as the Kansas in the Superman books.

This version of Wonder Woman is both visually and from a background point of view very different from the traditional Wonder Woman. In addition to her magic bracelets and lasso, she carries a giant sword like you may have seen in some Japanese video game RPGs. Her background is also very different. Rather than coming from Paradise Island, she's literally from Hell, having been given to Circe when she was a baby. Instead of the Invisible Jet, she rides her undead horse, Pegasus.

The two books out so far mostly deal with mythical threats as well as providing the background as to who Diana is. Yes, there's still a Steve Trevor, and yes, he's still a good guy. This version of Wonder Woman still has a supporting cast, and nothing bad seems to happen to them, so it's definitely not as Grim Dark as Absolute Superman. You get a very strong dose of Greek mythology, though some of these monsters never existed as part of the Greek myths, so you have to be careful when reading.

The art is not to my taste. That doesn't mean it's bad, it's just that sometimes it doesn't look to me like it's drawn by a professional comics artis who put serious elbow grease into the work. It's almost as though there's a team of artists on the book and not all of them are getting paid enough to bother.

The DC superheroes in the past have never been as interesting as the most popular Marvel characters (e.g. Spider-man). This is still true. Superman is still a boy scout. Wonder Woman is still a symbol for feminist women. But these new twists on those characters are a nice change!