Comic books are notorious for lacking long-term consequences. People die and come back at the drop of a hat, and sacrifices are only as impactful as the run they appear in. Concepts like magic, especially, suffer from this lack of consequence. In both Marvel and DC, a recurring theme is that all magic has a price. It’s a built-in limitation to explain why magic-users like Doctor Strange and Zatanna can’t do whatever they want while still keeping the magic system of both their settings pretty soft. However, we rarely, if ever, actually see these prices paid for more than a single story.
Much like a lot of other things, this missing price is finally being paid in the Absolute Universe. Specifically, its number one magical hero, Wonder Woman, Witch of the Wild Isle, is paying the price for all of her incredible feats. We’ve seen Wonder Woman pay the price of her magic in small doses before, but those were almost always inconsequential debuffs that she overcame immediately. Even sacrificing her right arm to save Steve Trevor was barely an inconvenience. Now, Absolute Wonder Woman #13 showed us the real cost of her magic, and it is anything but negligible.
Issue #13 began with Diana and Barbara going over what the human world knew of the Amazons before their disappearance. Unfortunately, they were interrupted by a breaking news alert about a monster attacking Reno, Nevada. Wonder Woman flew off to fight it, finding a creature seemingly made of pure energy, destroying everything around it. As if its raw power wasn’t bad enough, even being near the thing inspired an unrelenting rage and dark thoughts in Diana’s mind. She fought it while trying to control herself, but the creature managed to escape and lose her.
Wonder Woman would fight it multiple times, and every time the creature would escape after roughing up Diana, only to reemerge somewhere else in the world. Diana was driven to her wits’ end, but her allies discovered there was a pattern to the attacks. They all corresponded to ancient Amazonian battle sites or places associated with them. Just then, reports of it attacking Delphi, Greece, rang out, and Wonder Woman rushed off to meet it. She fought the creature once again and finally realized what it was.
All magic had a price, and Diana had used plenty to come to Earth and live up to her heritage. This creature was the price for that; an evil, unstoppable version of Wonder Woman made up of pure negative feelings. Her heroism had a cost, and it was collecting in the form of her evil self.
The price Wonder Woman has to pay for her magic is very present, very clear, and very dangerous, and that is exactly the type of thing that’s been missing from these types of stories for a very long time. This is a legitimate consequence that is the result of everything that Wonder Woman has done to help the world, which adds stakes and tension to every action she takes. Magic is no longer a get-out-of-jail-free card. Instead, it solves one problem to create a new one later. It gives inherent limitations to her abilities that the audience can understand because we’ve seen what the punishment looks like, which lets us get more invested in the stakes.
Similarly, it’s also important that this is not a one-time thing. Diana has paid prices for her magic the entire series thus far, and this new enemy only shows that DC is doubling down on the costs. Small cantrips and inconsequential spells require small payments, but the larger magic and bigger impact spells require large, painful encounters. This is no longer lip-service to explain why magic can’t solve every problem or a one-off event to generate drama, but a real, internally consistent mechanic in the Absolute Universe, which only makes magic and the comics surrounding it that much more interesting and engaging.
I, for one, could not be happier that this type of cost has been implemented, and can’t wait to see how it’s handled more in the future. Do you want to see more of this type of payment and rules, or would you rather handwave that sort of thing for the sake of the story?
Absolute Wonder Woman #13 is on sale now!
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