Most superheroes have some kind of weakness that limits or negates their powers, like Superman and Kryptonite. The modern-day Wonder Woman is notable in that she doesn’t really have a similar weakness. Indeed, when trying to devise a plan to stop her, Batman had nothing better than “hope Superman can do it.” This makes it all the more notable that Absolute Wonder Woman #7 gives this variant of Diana a weakness that ties into the Greek mythology that inspired her character.
Written by Kelly Thompson with art by Mattia De Iulis, the comic finds Diana in a fight for her life. Forcibly returned to the Underworld by Hades, she is thrown into an arena and made to fight a chimera. However, this battle is only part of the challenge the God of Death has prepared for the last of the Amazons.
Hades taunts Absolute Wonder Woman with two doors. One will return her to the land of the living. The other leads to certain death. However, even if she chooses the Door of Life, she will be unable to return to the Underworld until she dies. This will leave Diana unable to visit her adopted mother, Circe.
Absolute Wonder Woman must annually return to the Underworld
Thankfully, Diana and Circe anticipated Hades’ plan to separate them thanks to the intervention of Hecate, Goddess of Magic, and Persephone, Goddess of Spring. Circe’s patron gave her a warning in the form of a copy of the legend The Lady and the Tiger. Meanwhile, Persephone visited the young Absolute Wonder Woman as a child and told her the story of how she became trapped in the Underworld.
To that end, Diana ate a seed from one of the pomegranates from Hades’ garden, provided by Persephone. By the laws of the Underworld, this required her to return to the Underworld for one month every year. For Hades to change the law, he would have to lose the bride he tricked into having to stay with him.
This gives Absolute Wonder Woman a unique weakness, limiting her time on Earth. It is also an ironic one. Diana takes what is meant to be a punishment and twists it into a way to keep seeing her mother. It is also another way that she spites the will of the gods who condemned her to Hell for the sins of the Amazons.
Absolute Wonder Woman #7 is now available at comic shops everywhere.
