DC's New Wonder Woman Comic Borrows From A Brutal Manga Classic

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DC Comics is rebooting its superheroes into new "Absolute" incarnations. In the vein of Marvel's "Ultimate" comics, "Absolute DC" takes the company's biggest superheroes, twists them without compromising them, and puts them all in a new setting.

The initiative kicked off with "Absolute Batman" by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta. Two weeks later came "Absolute Wonder Woman" by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman, then two weeks after that was "Absolute Superman" by Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval. Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter all have "Absolute" books on the docket, but for now, it's just the DC Trinity.

DC publishing the "Absolute" line as Marvel publishes the "Ultimate" universe makes this an exciting time for superhero comics. There's a rare feeling of possibility at the big two superhero publishers. Instead of simply starting over at the basics from day one, DC's "Absolute" presents its heroes as if they'd been first created in 2024 so their stories are more resonant.

Absolute Batman isn't a billionaire, because it's clear right now that oligarchs are the villains of the world, not the heroes. Instead, Bruce Wayne is a working-class engineer who lost his father (but not his mother) in a mass shooting.

In "Absolute Superman" Kal-El came to Earth as an adult. This makes the tragedy of Krypton's destruction even worse since he remembers his home and his family. This Superman also has none of Clark Kent's experiences.

Then there's Absolute Wonder Woman, who rides a skeletal Pegasus and wields a man-sized sword while slaying the hordes of Hell. These "Absolute" changes to Diana's appearance and backstory evoke Guts, the demon-slaying anti-hero of the dark fantasy manga "Berserk."

Absolute Wonder Woman is Wonder Woman plus Berserk

"Berserk" was created by the late Kentaro Miura, with the manga emerging out of a character he designed: a grim-looking one-eyed warrior with black armor and a huge sword. That character became Guts. Inspired by the classic post-apocalyptic manga "Fist of the North Star," the early chapters of "Berserk" (now called "The Black Swordsman" arc) are simple: Guts wanders from village to village in the realm of Midland, slaying demons disguised as humans called Apostles.

On Guts' neck is a brand that draws these Apostles to him. He can in turn sense when they're near due to the pain the brand causes him. That feature wound up being key to Guts' delayed backstory, told over an extended flashback arc called "The Golden Age."

Guts is an orphan (literally birthed from his mother's hanged corpse) raised by a roaming group of mercenaries. Since he could first hold a sword, he's been killing men with one too. Eventually, he joins the "Band of the Hawk" led by the charismatic Griffith. Guts and Griffith become close friends — each other's first true friend — but they have a falling out that also leaves Griffith unable to achieve his dream of becoming a king. So, Griffith sacrifices all the other Hawks to the demonic God Hand, Guts included. (Guts and Griffith's relationship in "The Golden Age" feels like the tragedy the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy tried to tell.)

After escaping the God Hand's Hellish astral domain, Guts' brand still marks him as a sacrifice for their dark forces. Armed with an enormous new sword called the Dragon Slayer, Guts sets out to get revenge on Griffith and the God Hand, bringing the story back to where it started.

"Berserk" has incredible character writing, and it's clear Miura matured as a storyteller the longer he made the manga. Still, one of its most famous features is its blood and, well, guts. Miura's monster designs feel like him rendering his nightmares with ink and paper. Insectoid, reptilian, and skeletal (sometimes all three at once), the Apostles have twisted bodies and mouths in places they should never be.

Meanwhile, "Absolute Wonder Woman" #1 opens with a flock of flying, red-skinned demons pouring into the coastal Gateway City. The army is caught flat-footed until a sword-wielding warrior in a Satanic helmet flies in and begins slicing up the demons. Halfway through the issue, though, a much larger demon appears and gives Diana an even rougher time.

So far, Sherman's monster designs are not as otherworldly and detailed as Miura's, but the big one's toothy maw (resembling the Demogorgon from "Stranger Things") could rival many Apostles'.

Thompson has also promised that further demonic, Cthulhu-esque enemies are in store for Absolute Wonder Woman. To take on that job, Diana needed a sword as huge as Guts' Dragon Slayer.

How Absolute Wonder Woman reimagines its heroine

To understand Wonder Woman's character, you must understand her creator: Professor William Moulton Marston. A radical feminist, Marston sculpted Wonder Woman from his belief that it was women who should lead and save the world. Pulling from the Greek myths of the Amazons, Marston conceived of the character who became Diana: a woman raised on an (all-female) Paradise Island, who was sent out into the world of men to spread a message of peace and change our hearts.

Absolute Diana is still a hero, embodying traits of the classic Wonder Woman: "Beauty. Grace. Compassion. Kindness. Wisdom." She has these traits not because she was raised in Paradise, though, but because she was raised in Hell. In this retelling, Zeus imprisoned all the Amazons for some unspecified crime and barred their name from ever being said again. Diana, the only child among them, was given to the witch Circe (traditionally a Wonder Woman enemy) and then raised in Circe's Hellish prison.

To depict Diana growing up, Sherman uses a series of three successive double-page spreads, with four rectangular panels stretching across two pages, each one showing Diana getting a bit older. See one below:

These pages convey how even though she was in literal Hell, Absolute Wonder Woman still had a better childhood than Guts — because she had a loving parent. Thompson had admitted she struggled with how to properly redefine Wonder Woman until she came upon the "raised in Hell" idea. In a conversation with Snyder, she also mentioned that she didn't want this to simply be a "God of War" Wonder Woman. So, she realized (via CBR), she could change everything around Diana — her history, her weapons, her supporting characters, etc. Absolute Diana's design may be more "metal" in Thompson's words, but because of Circe's love, this Wonder Woman is still pure of heart."Absolute Wonder Woman" #1 ends with its heroine reasserting herself as Diana of the Amazons, the hero we love and know.

Thompson has cited many other Wonder Woman comics as her research, including Daniel Warren Johnson's 2020 "Wonder Woman: Dead Earth." That mini-series is a non-canon story about Diana waking up in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by nuclear war, her mission now an abject, possibly irreversible failure. "Dead Earth" Wonder Woman, like "Absolute" Wonder Woman, also carries a huge sword.

Thompson and Sherman have not to my knowledge explicitly called "Berserk" an influence on "Absolute Wonder Woman." (Though other critics have made the comparison too.) Johnson, however, is famously a "Berserk" fan — could the manga have helped inspire his Wonder Woman, which in turn helped inspire Thompson and Sherman's?

In an October interview, Thompson said she had expected some backlash to equipping Absolute Wonder Woman with a sword. You see, Wonder Woman wielding a sword is a more recent character trait, seen in projects like the live-action "Wonder Woman" films and the 2011 DC Comics reboot "New 52." There was a transparent feeling that, to make Wonder Woman "cooler," she had to be more of a warrior (essentially DC's Thor), but that totally betrays Marston's original purpose in creating her.

A psychologist by trade, Marston wasn't just the creator of Wonder Woman, but also the polygraph. So, Wonder Woman's primary weapon has always been a lasso that forces people caught in it to tell the truth. Even when Diana fights, it's with a nonlethal tool designed to change her foes' hearts, not skewer them. Giving her a sword, the most classical weapon in history, representative of men's rage (down to its phallic shape)? It's antithetical to Wonder Woman.

It feels less wrong in "Absolute Wonder Woman," though, because this Diana is on a mission to guard mankind from monsters. Even then, the first issue ends with Diana conjuring the lasso as she prepares to face down a demon, so the sword may not be her go-to weapon forever.

"Absolute Wonder Woman" #1 is available to purchase in print and digital. "Absolute Wonder Woman" #2 is scheduled for publication on November 27, 2024.