Review by Ian Keogh

The brief for DC’s Absolute line is to recreate the company’s major superheroes. It’s a more complex assignment than may be assumed, as the intention is these aren’t one-off alternates, but continuing projects. That being the case they’ve got to be close enough to the original items not to alienate fans, yet differ enough that they’re not mere copies. Kelly Thompson straddles that fine line between familiarity and novelty superbly.

Her solution is to remove Princess Diana from her Amazon heritage shortly after birth, and have her grow up elsewhere, Hell to be precise, under the care of banished witch Circe. Yet she’s still armed with the weapons of the gods. These differ from the classic version, one example being her having two lassos, neither the traditional version forcing the truth from the otherwise unwilling. One burns them in proportion to sins committed, delivering the pain they’ve delivered unto others. As with the original article, Thompson has everything change for Diana with Steve Trevor washing up on her shore, but he’s a means to an end rather than an immediate love interest.

What Thompson has Wonder Woman fight is new. Giant creatures, some on a barely comprehensible scale, are attacking, and these are monstrously designed by Hayden Sherman, recognisable in some respect, but distorted from their supposed source. When not conceiving monstrosities Sherman delivers decorative pages delving into a wide source of influences as diverse as ancient Greek friezes on pottery to magical effects. After a couple of chapters it’s also apparent that there’s greater than realised design work carried out on Wonder Woman herself, and Sherman’s versions of what’s necessary are inventive.

In broad terms this is the known Wonder Woman in a different costume. She’s a tall, stunning woman who’s seemingly fearless, references mythology and calls on the gods. The major difference is that she also practices magic. This isn’t of the convenient point and cast a spell variety, but a magic requiring preparation and ingredients, and sometimes involving sacrifice. And then there’s the second lasso…

The opening five chapters are a stunning recreation of Wonder Woman, near yet far, and more so than the usual superhero story, Thompson emphasises cost.

A second story occupying two chapters is drawn by Mattea De Iulius. His art aims for a form of three-dimensional realism and is like looking at a procession of classically posed paintings, but lacks the life and energy Sherman provides. Greek myths are the background building blocks and Thompson conceives clever ways of circumventing the will of the gods in both stories to have past collide with present as Thompson explains some of what Wonder Woman has and can call upon.

Wonder Woman has been revived, remodelled and rebooted so many times over the decades, yet The Last Amazon stands with the best of them. My Mothers Made Me is next.