Justice
DIANA. And for you, Harbinger Prime, Nemesis will be a particular
hell. For she binds and burns in proportion to your sins… and your soul shines
bright with the blood of the innocent. The burn you feel, Harbinger… Know
that it is the result of the pain you have wrought on others. All you are
feeling, you have earned. Accept Nemesis’s judgement of you.
HECATE. There is a great and powerful game afoot, Circe. Each of us with our
roles to play. Each of us with our sacrifices to make. The arc of the
universe is long, and it should bend toward justice. But at every chance…
it does not. Instead it dies, smothered in its cradle, over and over again. No
more.
DIANA. She either cannot see the cruelty in it, or she does not care.
HECATE. You’re right.
DIANA. About which?
HECATE. Perhaps both,
but certainly the second.
DIANA. The second scares me more than the
first.
HECATE. Perhaps she does not care simply because she knows how to
weight things appropriately.
CIRCE. The King said it was a place that allowed the gods alone to decide
someone’s fate, but everyone knew that was less true than he claimed.
CIRCE. If you were trying to make a weapon, why also make her a kind
little girl, who feels every sling and arrow with the entirety of her being?
It’s unfathomably cruel.
DIANA. With respect, goddess. The world is not in balance. The existence of me,
and others like me, is long overdue. I’m afraid that even with us, any balance
is a long way from being restored. There is an imbalance in this world,
goddess. But I don’t believe I am the aberration. If you take a closer look
for yourself, I think you will see.
GAIA. It’s bold to suggest you know
the world better than I, as I am the world.
DIANA. Sometimes,
goddess… the closer you are to something… the harder it can be to see.
Nature of Evil
DIANA. Hecate, give me strength to not murder whoever is behind this needless
cruelty. I am certain this is some version of the tetracide’s sound… so
someone recorded it and weaponized it… immediately. This is a blind spot
for me. I never… I never expected treachery to be so… immediate. To deploy
such a weapon while a city is vulnerable and recovering from such a traumatic
event… even the gods are rarely so craven.
DR. POISON. It’s strange. You seem angrier now than when you were fighting a
skyscraper-sized monster on the beach.
DIANA. That was an ancient
monster from another world doing only what it knew how to do. It was not a
clever human harnessing dangerous weapons it doesn’t understand, only to use
them to purposely hurt fellow citizens.
DIANA. I hope freeing her is not a mistake I will come to regret. What she
became inside the maze may be unforgivable, especially when others like
Ferdinand and Io held onto their beliefs in spite of the horrors they faced.
Time will tell if she can become something else with her freedom. And it will be
my burden to carry if she cannot.
Other Snapshots
DIANA. Perhaps it is a legend without teeth. Perhaps it was a story told, as you
suggested Barbara, only so that the dead would always have a place of honor,
never forgotten.
References
- Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon Comic Issues #1-7. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Mattia De Iulis. www.hoopladigital.com . Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 2: As My Mothers Made Me Comic Issues #8-14. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Matías Bergara. www.hoopladigital.com . Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #2. The Last Amazon, Part 2. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . Nov 27, 2024. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #4. The Last Amazon, Part 4. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . Jan 22, 2025. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #5. The Last Amazon, Part 5. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . Feb 26, 2025. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #7. The Lady or the Tiger, Part 2. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . Apr 23, 2025. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #8. As My Mothers Made Me, Part 1. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . May 28, 2025. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #9. As My Mothers Made Me, Part 2. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . Jun 25, 2025. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #10. As My Mothers Made Me, Part 3. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . Jul 23, 2025. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #11. As My Mothers Made Me, Part 4. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . Sep 3, 2025. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #12. As My Mothers Made Me, Part 5. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . Sep 24, 2025. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #13. The Price, Part 1. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . Oct 22, 2025. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
- Absolute Wonder Woman #14. The Price, Part 2. Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman; Jordie Bellaire. dc.fandom.com . Nov 26, 2025. Accessed Mar 22, 2026.
Nemesis is a fresh take on the Lasso of Truth. I’d like to read a comic based on the idea of Nemesis. What would the antagonist be?