Diana of the Wild Isle is back in the depths of hell after battling Veronica Cale’s Suicide Squad in “Season of the Witch“. But instead of finding her home as she left it, she finds it has been burnt, the creatures she grew up with have been killed, and her mother has been taken. Part 1 of “Friends & Neighbors” saw Diana battle the Manticore as part of her quest to find Circe, her missing mother. For Part 2 in Absolute Wonder Woman #22, Diana reaches Scylla’s island, where her mother is being held.
Whilst this does set up a strong premise for Diana and Circe to take on their patron goddess, Hecate, and her daughter Scylla, the story ends before it even maximizes its potential. That’s rather unfortunate because writer Kelly Thompson and artist Dillon Snook draw heavily on Scylla’s lore as a strong emotional hook. In this case, they go with the version of Scylla’s origin where she is Hecate’s beautiful daughter who was turned into a hideous monster by Circe. Scylla’s original “sin” that offended Circe was being loved by the sea god Glaucus, whom Circe was herself in love with.
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Since the story of “Friends & Neighbors” is, at its core, a story about mothers and daughters, it’s a bit surprising Thompson and Snook don’t lean harder on that idea to more strongly conclude this story. In this case, Scylla does have a valid reason for hating Circe because of the eternal grievance she caused her by cursing her the way that she did. This can also be established as a grievance for Hecate, which would give her a reason to punish Circe in the first place. But instead of Circe taking ownership of that or Diana encouraging her mother to make amends with both Scylla and Hecate as part of setting herself free, Diana just frees her mother with a convenient spell, and Diana distracts Scylla long enough to draw Hecate’s attention.
It feels like a missed opportunity to meaningfully address Scylla’s cursed existence and turn that into a source of character growth for both Circe and Diana. Then there is Hecate’s antagonistic role in the story that is never explained. What exactly was she hoping to achieve by abducting Circe and putting her in the custody of the daughter she cursed? More importantly, what was she trying to prepare Diana for? How does this tie to everything that’s happened so far, from Diana being given to Circe to care for as an infant to Circe being abducted by Hades to Diana being forced to fulfill her deal with Hades? Much of Hecate’s actions here feel like setup for a future storyline, but it struggles to build on the developments of previous Absolute Wonder Woman stories.
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Whilst the story with Scylla and Diana is underwhelming despite the strong setup, Absolute Wonder Woman #22 does have one high point, and that is Barbara Minerva’s transformation into the Cheetah. What really stands out about the execution here is that Thompson and Snook lean on Barbara’s own selfish desires for fulfilling her destiny. They do a great job at acknowledging Barbara’s complexity as a character, namely by showing that she wants to be a good person and wants to follow Diana’s lead. The bigger question they pose, however, is whether Barbara wants to be these things at the expense of her own desire for power.
Barbara’s arc in Absolute Wonder Woman #22 is also where the art shines the most compared to the pages with Scylla and Diana. In this case, Snook excels at capturing Barbara’s uncertainty about accepting power from the god Urzkartaga, because she knows there’s always a price to pay when making a deal with a god. This sense of caution is especially captured with the heavy use of reds and dark greys by Jordie Bellaire. The red hues used on Barbara do well to convey her anxiety about the situation she finds herself in but also hint at deep-seated anger over the lack of recognition for her accomplishments. The use of dark greys also foreshadows a dark path ahead for Barbara. Whether or not she becomes a villain for Wonder Woman in the future remains to be seen.
All in all, “Friends & Neighbors” is a decent mini-arc that plants seeds for future Absolute Wonder Woman storylines but struggles to adequately conclude the mini-arc itself. It does well to set up an emotional hook with Scylla and Hecate, Circe and Diana, but doesn’t maximize it. It also misses an opportunity to deliver a more emotionally impactful story by leaning harder on the fact that it’s a story about two mothers and daughters that’s built on Greek lore. Its saving grace is Barbara’s transformation into the Cheetah, which at least promises a potential villain arc for her.
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