Absolute Wonder Woman Debuts A New Suicide Squad With A Surprising Leader
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Spoilers for "Absolute Wonder Woman" #16 follow.
The "Absolute" line has turned the DC Universe upside down; Batman's not the only hero who has undergone massive changes. Al Ewing and Giuseppe Camuncoli's "Absolute Evil" revealed that the "Absolute" Universe's Justice League is composed of major villains; the laws of man and the universe (built by Darkseid) are on their side, after all.
One member of this Justice League is National Security Advisor Veronica Cale, the main villain of Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman's "Absolute Wonder Woman." Cale has a prison, Area 41, filled with superhumans and she's decided to unleash those prisoners on Diana. The previous arc, "As My Mothers Made Me" ("Absolute Wonder Woman" #8-12) ended with a tease of who Cale would be sending after Diana: Zatanna, the magician who casts her spells by speaking backwards. (In Area 41, Zatanna's mouth had a Hannibal Lecter style gag.)
In "Absolute Wonder Woman" #16, Zatanna makes her move against Diana at the Gateway City museum, with a team of traditional Wonder Woman enemies backing her up: Giganta, Doctor Poison, and the Cheetah. (Apparently, Diana's friend Barbara Minerva will not yet become the Cheetah.) What do these imposing women call themselves? The Suicide Squad!
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The concept of Suicide Squad, who've become movie stars over the last decade, is that the government uses imprisoned supervillains for black ops. (The name "Suicide Squad" goes back to 1950s "Brave and the Bold" comics, but the team as they're known today were created by John Ostrander in the 1980s.) Usually the Squad is the brain-child of Amanda Waller, not Veronica Cale, but Cale is a classic Wonder Woman villain. The most important twist, though, is using a longtime hero like Zatanna as the villain.
Why Zatanna is Absolute Wonder Woman's perfect next foe
This arc of "Absolute Wonder Woman" is called "Season of the Witch," because there's now two witches in play on opposite sides. Unlike classic Wonder Woman, this Diana was raised in Hell by the witch Circe, so she practices magic herself. (Wonder Woman even sacrificed, then restored, her right arm in a magical ritual.) That means Zatanna, another sorceress who matches or might even exceed Diana's skill, is a perfect adversary for her.
In "Absolute Wonder Woman" #14 (drawn by Matías Bergara), when Diana fought an echo of herself, she couldn't outmatch her perfect equal. Zatanna appeared in astral projection over the defeated Diana and cast a spell: "I bind you to me while in my presence. Your voice is mine alone."
Since Zatanna was speaking backwards, Diana didn't immediately realize what had happened. Now, though, Wonder Woman understands Zatanna can control, and disable, her magic. Wonder Woman's trademark weapon is a lasso, but now, the Suicide Squad have her bound in Zatanna's snare.
Created in 1964 by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, the classic Zatanna Zatara is a longtime member of the Justice League. She hasn't made the jump to DC movies yet (director Emerald Fennell worked on a now-dead Zatanna film), but don't think she's a lesser hero because of it.
Though a genuine sorceress, Zatanna typically dresses like a stage magician, top hat and all. The "Absolute" Zatanna is more punk, wearing fishnets and a sleeveless leather jacket, and skin so pale its coloring resembles an undead gray. It's a crackling redesign, especially for a villain, but I don't expect Zatanna to stay one for long. (Her sexual tension with Diana, though, who she calls "cutie," is something worth carrying on.)
How Absolute Wonder Woman vs the Suicide Squad might play out
Diana's MO so far has been to outwit or reform her enemies. (Well, aside the enormous Tetracide, a monstrous personification of death, that Diana petrified with help from Medusa.) In "Absolute Wonder Woman" #12, she faced down Clea, queen of the Labyrinth. Diana showed mercy to her enemy and freed her: "Time will tell if she can become something else with her freedom. And it will be my burden to carry if she cannot."
As for Zatanna, Diana may not even need to change her mind, but release it. One of Cale's treasures locked in Area 41 is Starro, a mind-controlling alien parasites, and it's implied Cale is puppeteering the Suicide Squad with implanted Starro tissue. Note, too, how Starro was the main villain of James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad," a connection that might've helped inspire Thompson and Sherman's Suicide Squad reinvention here. (Then again, "Suicide Squad" rolls off the tongue better than the usual alliance of Wonder Woman villainesses: "Villainy Inc.")
If Diana learns the Suicide Squad are not fighting her of their own free will, that might make her hesitate to attack them all. But, to protect innocents, she may not have a choice: Cale chose the museum as the attack site to ensure civilians would be put in harm's way. While Cale seems like one villain Diana who cannot redeem, don't doubt she'll try. Wonder Woman's bottomless kindness is her most magical quality of all.