You know Darkseid was the one who created this universe when this is the kind of crap heroes have to deal with... in their first outing.
Meh, close enough, welcome back Bikini Bottom Horror Mr. Krabs!
What's the Work?
Absolute Wonder Woman is a comic book series in DC's "Absolute Universe" intiative, making new versions of their superhero characters in a world where "good is the Underdog", and in which the villains constantly have much more advantages over the heroes. In her case, Wondy was created in an Island in Hell, raised by Circe away from any other Amazon... but she gets some cool magic powers so, hey, maybe her case isn't so bad after all.
Who is it?
The Tetracide is the main antagonist of the first arc of the series, The Last Amazon. It is a marine monster with curstaceous and cephalopod appearance that attacks Gateway City, and it said by Wonder Woman herself to be something worthy of fear. One of the most powerful monsters Diana ever took on, even though it was her big fight in publication order, the Tetracide's very existence is a turning point in the Absolute Universe, as its battle with Diana was the thing that started the new age of heroes that this universe's Justice League is trying to avert.
What does it do?
The Tetracide is an ancient beast who comes from the sea and is enough to make Diana show clear fear. Having killed many people in the past, it is known for its particular agonizing brand of death; the 4 Deaths, that basically makes everyone commit suicide and then crush their body, mind and spirit.
Its first impact is shown as it order its Harbingers to attack Gatewa City, quickly attacking lots of citzens before Wonder Woman stops them. Harbinger Prime, the Leader, tries to kill Diana but she defeats it and orders them and their leader to go back and never return.
Now of course, their boss doesn't listen and comes out on the shore to finish the job itself. Diana attempts to reason with it... to no avail, and quickly uses a spell to deafen the entire City, preventing Gateway's population from hearing its death song. Angered, the Tetracide attacks the City personally, and battles Diana. Our Wondy eventually beats it by transforming herself into a gorgon and petrifying the creature before destroying it and thus ending its horror and attacks for good.
Heinous Standards
We have some quite brutal competition:
- Joker is a mysterious man who believes the Absolute Universe's true justice is that immorality and suffering stay on top, for which he creates many different black sites known as "Arks" across the world, where unlawful experiments on humans happens.
- Braniac is an alien that serves as Ra's Al Ghul's chief scientist and keeps entire cities miniaturized and begging for their deaths. He also made Kal-El, Superman, go through hours of intense torture and orders his clones to self mutilate for his own pleasure.
- Mr. Freeze is a sadomasochistic scientist whose greatest pleasure is putting people in chryogenesis, leading to them suffering terrible pain and even if they get out alive, their bodies are rotten and barely able to walk.
Confirmation of its past kill count and horrible way of killing its victims.
The Tetracide has killed hundreds, very likely thousands of people in the past, as shown by Diana's description, and tries to kill everyone in Gateway City, thus attempting to kill tens of thousands. But that isn't the main reason it pass the standards, but rather its way of doing. The Tetracide kills in you in 4 ways: Death of Fear, Death of Body, Death of Mind and Death of Soul. Death of fear is the sound that it emmits, causing everyone to lose its fear of it and go straight for its jaws. The rest happen within it, with the body being destroyed, as well as the mind, and the death of soul not being described in detail, but said to be the worst of all. All in all, a terrifyingly slow and agonizing process that is quite obviously worse than just the kill count itself (but it certainly helps too).
What Prevents it From Pure Evil?
It utimately lacks enough personality. However, the prevention isn't that big and the Tetracide isn't a GDV because it is clearly shown to be unreasonable, wrathful and impatient, as well as having sapience and intelligence. It sent its Harbingers to attack Gateway City, with Wonder Woman talking to them and defeating them, before telling them to come back and tell its master to go away. Soon after, the Tetracide appears, clearly not obeying the heroine's orders and attacking. She goes up to its face to confront it, and talks to it, unable to convince it to go away. Once no one goes to it as Diana nullified the effects of its death song by deafening the city, the Tetracide starts to march within the city itself, looking for victims.
So it has lackeys that obey it and can talk in plean English, can talk to Wonder Woman and is clearly in a hurry to kill lots of people... but we still don't see it talk and is mostly just a monster for most of its pagetime, so yeah, just enough characterization.
Veredict
Absolute yes.