Absolute Wonder Woman #3 // Review
It’s called the Tetracide. It kills four ways: Death of fear. Death of mind. Death of Body. Death of Soul. The one person capable of facing it knows that she is going to die in doing so. Once again, writer Kelly Thompson does a brilliant job of channelling an amazingly cool and deeply inspiring hero to page and panel as she conjures an epic tale of a magical champion from some distant hell in Absolute Wonder. Woman #3. Artist Hayden Sherman renders dark detail into a tale that is leant quite a great deal of mood and raidance by colorist Jordie Bellaire.
The prognosis is something like this: the giant monster will emit a sound that will cover the entire densely-populated metropolis of Gateway City. The sound in question is magical. It will cause all who hear it to completely lose any sense of fear. It’s a haunting sound. People will be drawn to it for miles around like bees to honey. They will lose their minds...doing anything to be as close to the sound as possible...which means that they will crush each other to get as close as possible to the creature..and feed themselves to it to experience the “death of body.” The death of the soul follows.
Thompson does a brilliant job of delivering the intensity of the situation...fusing the feel of ancient mythological tales of heroism with a contemporary heroic action fantasy. The fusion is as beautfiul as it is terrifying on a whole bunch of different levels...all of which work quite well on their own and synthesize into something truly distinct that absolutely sings on the page. Once again it’s remarkably clear that Thompson is doing some of the best work for DC’s Absolute Universe.
Sherman’s meticulously-lined detail is framed with a sharp and craft sense of composition. The darkness that seems to resonate from everywhere is punctuated with some gorgeous light and color by Bellaire. Perhaps the greatest acccomplishment on the part of Shreman and Bellaire might be their ability to cast Diana’s cool confidence onto the page in a way that still manages to suggest a profound amount of emotional depth moving. around beneath the surface of someone who clearly CAN NOT afford to panic or lose sight of total and utter confidence.
The sacrifices that Diana has made in and around the edges of the main action become a bit clearer in the couirse of a nonlinear narrative that manages to find a remarkably clever and utterly horrifying giant monster. The Tetracide is a really impressive antagonistic force with which to explore some of the more sinister Lovecraftian darkenss that must surely populate every corner and crevice of a world that is as devastatingly dark as the Absolute Universe. With any luck, Thompson will be able to maintain the momentum she’s built-up over the course of the first three issues of the series.
