Over the course of nearly a century, DC’s comics have added to the massive tapestry of pop culture in some fascinating ways. From characters to concepts to even mythologies and gods and entirely new worlds, DC has given readers a lot to explore, including rules for those worlds and realities, including words and how they’re used be it for magic or other purposes – and in the franchise’s new Absolute Universe, one of those words just got a significant and surprising limitation put upon it.
Spoilers for Absolute Wonder Woman #1 from Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Jordie Bellaire, and Becca Carey below! Only look if you want to know!
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A good portion of Absolute Wonder Woman #1 is devoted to the unconventional new origin story of the Absolute Universe’s Diana Prince, who was raised in Hell instead of among the Amazons of Themyscira. More specifically, Apollo drops off a young infant Diana with Circe, confirming that she needs to deal with the baby however she sees fit. As Apollo explains it, Diana has been banished to Hell to punish the Amazons for their crimes, and in order to ensure that she isn’t reunited with her kind, Circe is now banned from saying the word “Amazon.” When Circe tries to, it is redacted out loud.
From there, Circe reluctantly raises Diana as her own daughter, helping mold her into the warrior who travels from Hell to Man’s World in the issue’s present day. In a poignant flashback moment juxtaposed with Diana’s present-day fight, Diana asks Circe to help her come to terms with who she really is. Although Circe can not say the word “Amazon,” Diana can, and she tearfully begins to embrace that this is part of her identity.
This twist with the word “Amazon” is interesting on multiple levels — for starters, it takes the Amazons’ usual seclusion from society to a whole other level, as Diana grows up into young adulthood unaware of her true heritage. Those circumstances also shape the version of Diana who we see in the present day, as she charges into battle in both recognizable and unrecognizable ways.
“I was worried people would think she was just going to be so dramatically overpowered, but I would say there are limitations to the magic,” Thompson told ComicBook in a recent interview. “She pays prices for that sometimes. It’s nothing unlimited. She’s also not a master magician. Like, she’s a witch, and she can do a lot of this stuff. She was raised in it, but she’s not, that’s not her primary skill set. Her primary skill set is still more Wonder Woman-based. I would also say that there are a few things that we will reveal where Diana has some very distinct disadvantages that maybe the magic helps compensate for or whatever. So I think, don’t worry about her being too overpowered. Just be excited about how creative we’re going to be able to get with some of these solutions.”
Absolute Wonder Woman #1 is now available wherever comics are sold.
