Launching in October, 2024 with “Absolute Batman,” DC Comics’ Absolute Universe is a separate publishing line from the main books where a host of different writers get to reinvent classic DC Comics characters in new and creative ways within a fresh setting. Kelly Thompson is writing one of the flagship titles for this new universe, “Absolute Wonder Woman” in collaboration with fellow DC Comics writers.
“So a regular Wonder Woman exists in the main DC Universe and in the Absolute version, there’s also a Wonder Woman, but she’s had different experiences, but hopefully also in many ways the same as the original character,” she said. “Alternate reality stories that take place with classic characters tend to be a great way for new and lapsed readers to jump on board.”
The “Absolute Wonder Woman” title launched two weeks after the launch of the universe absolute and, according to official sales numbers, it was the second highest selling book that month, surprisingly beating out the two highest selling, “Batman” and “Amazing Spider-Man” in sales.
“She’s a Witch Wonder Woman, raised in hell by her classic enemy Circe,” Thompson said. “We obviously fleshed it out quite a bit from there, but that was the sentence where I knew we really had something special that had legs to it.”
“Absolute Wonder Woman” came out alongside fellow titles “Absolute Batman” and “Absolute Superman” written by Scott Snyder and Jason Aaron.
“I’ve been in writing rooms with Jason before when we were at Marvel together and on top of being a terrific writer he’s an incredibly collaborative and generous person,” she said. “Scott I’ve known for years but never gotten to work with before, and it’s been super cool. Scott is full of so many great ideas, maybe more than anyone else I’ve met in comics, but he’s also just the best cheerleader for everyone else’s stuff, which is an amazing quality in a creative collaborator.”
The success of Thompsons title put her alongside the comic industry’s top talent.
“I was honored when Scott Snyder asked me to pitch for Absolute Wonder Woman, and given their plans and once I started seeing what Scott and Jason Aaron were cooking up, I knew the Absolute line would also be very good and that was both exciting and a bit scary,” Thompson said. “You want the whole line to be strong, but you also want to be “the best book” so it challenges you to do your best work.”
Collaboration isn’t something we only do in the classroom as it also extends to the professional setting.
“Collaborative creators feeding off of one another holding each other up, sharing ideas, cooking plans together, it’s one of the best experiences in comics and getting to do it on a big title that’s also selling well? I don’t know if there’s a better gig in comics than that situation,” she said.
