‘The Last Amazon’

Written by Kelly Thompson

Art by Hayden Sherman

Colours by Jordie Bellaire

Letters by Becca Carey

Assistant editor Ash Padilla

Editor Chris Conroy

Circe is in Hell. Circe has just been given a child. The last of the Amazons, to be raised in Hell, and cursed never to know what she is. But Circe is a witch, and a witch is never trapped, merely temporarily inconvenienced…

Kelly Thompson is always a writer worth paying attention to and this issue shows why. Cutting between Diana’s past in Hell and present battling supernatural creatures on Earth, Thompson’s script shows us not only who she is but why she’s like this. Circe is a fantastic character, arch and furious but also increasingly in love with her surprise daughter. The line ‘Raising a child is how you fall in love’ is returned to and explored and we see that form the basis for the deep bond between the two women. The heart of the book is the heart of this relationship, as Thompson and Sherman give us multiple splash pages of the cave the women live in as Diana grows up. One of the last shows Diana, almost grown, reading intensely as her mother watches proudly from her nearby cauldron. Love in Hell is still love.

And love is the core of this book. Circe’s love for her adoptive daughter and Diana’s love for her are the closed, wrapped fists holding this very different, but very familiar heroine’s weapon. Bellaire’s letters give the dialogue rhythm and weight, while Sherman’s art is as precise as a sword cut and ragged as a bruise. Emotion, power, strength and heroism all boil down to a single word in a closing scene that means, and is everything. Diana reclaiming her identity, making her stand and, like this new version of Bruce, finding her absolute self.

Verdict: Beautifully drawn and achingly well written this is the best debut Wonder Woman’s had in a long time and another big hit for the Absolute line. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart