Absolute Wonder Woman #6 is written Kelly Thompson and published by DC. Artwork is by Mattia De Iulis and letters by Becca Carey. Main cover art (left) is by Hayden Sherman and Jordie Bellaire.
Absolute Wonder Woman #6 is available from today, in print and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold. Grab your digital copy from Amazon Comixology UK right here.
Synopsis
Diana defied the will of the gods in leaving Hell, and Hades, lord of the underworld, takes that personally…but when he interrogates her, her tales surprise him. Will it change her fate? Kicking off a two-part guest arc from the breakout artist of The Cull, Mattia De Iulis—and featuring a surprising and delightful backup tale ofLi’l Diana by series writer Kelly Thompson and superstar artist Dustin Nguyen!
Review
Today the first of DC’s Absolute books enters its second arc as Absolute Wonder Woman kicks off a guest stint from artist Mattia De Iulis. Picking up where issue #5 left off, Diana has disappeared in to the depths of hell and it’s time to face the consequences of her previous escape. As the DC All In initiative looks to cement itself, stepping beyond its bold roots in to a second phase of storytelling for its first wave of books, can Wonder Woman lead the charge?
Landing in the Throne Room of Hades in the Underworld, Absolute Wonder Woman #6 quickly stakes its claim as an entirely different beast. The first arc was defined by its larger-than-life creatures and the sheer scale Hayden Sherman brought to Gateway City. Here, as seen below, Iulis is pulling the camera in for much more tightly framed panels. At least to begin with. The throne room itself, is never the focus on the page. It’s almost always Diana with support from Hades, who is always mostly seen through excruciatingly tight, beautiful framing.
It’s easy to get lost in the change in visual style between Sherman and Iulis. I’m not pitting the two against each other. They’re vastly different in approach and neither deserves any merit over the other. I’ve praised Iulis’ work immensely in my review of The Cull so I was excited to see what he could bring to the party here. The richness and depth in his artwork is unparalleled. It’s like reading a book of realist renaissance art. Every panel belongs on the wall of The Louvre.
As for storytelling, this two-part story neatly pushes Diana’s arc forwards whilst filling in another blank from her past. Kelly Thompson has neatly constructed Absolute Wonder Woman’s de-facto origin around a mix of present and past storytelling. Glimpses of her life with Circe have helped shape our understanding of who she is as she defended Gateway City. But one key piece was always missing, how did she escape from the Underworld in the first place? Now we’re filling that in with a scale of storytelling which wouldn’t look out of place in Brian Azzarello‘s era of Wonder Woman storytelling.
It works two-fold, in one way we’re learning about Diana’s journey out of hell. But we’re also learning more about the mythology which underpins her magic and the Earth on which all our Absolute heroes are based. We’re only seeing glimpses of this world second hand. But knowing it’s born in much more arduous circumstances than our own picking up on these nuggets of information could be key to the direction of travel for the Absolute Universe.
As this is only a two-part story there’s plenty of ground to cover. Thompson neatly balances character and action with a great bit of monster madness int he second half. Again, you don’t need me to tell you how capable Iulis is of handling the kind of creatures which Thompson has written in to the script. The Cull is essentially the perfect audition piece for this very story and it couldn’t look any better than it does. But all of this needs to serve and point and Thompson makes that abundantly clear as we reach another satisfyingly tantalising cliffhanger.
There are consequences to Diana having broke out of hell and it may just be time to face them…
Verdict
Absolute Wonder Woman #6 opens up the series’ second story arc with impressive visual flare from guest-artist Mattia De Iulis. The sheer beauty of the realism-inspired artwork is breathtaking to behold. All whilst Diana is being setup to face an incredibly personal battle ahead.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
