Wonder Woman-Late First Series Index

The Reviews

DC Comics Presents # 41 (backup story)/Wonder Woman # 288
“Swan Song”
Written by Roy Thomas
Penciled by Gene Colan
Inked by Romeo Tangal
Edited by Len Wein

Diana Prince and Steve Trevor are taking an important, secret briefcase to the Pentagon when they are attacked by enemy agents. Steve is knocked out, and Diana runs for cover. She sticks the case in a garbage can and transforms herself into Wonder Woman. She is unaware that one Helen Alexandros is watching her. Wonder Woman handles the thugs easily enough, but Steve is now unconscious.

While he is being taken away by ambulance, Wonder Woman is approached by members of a feminist organization. They want to call themselves the Wonder Woman Foundation. They need her permission to use the name, and they need her to wear their symbol—a stylized double-w—so that the name recognition would get them funding.

She promises to consider the matter, and heads off to Paradise Island in her Invisible Jet. There she makes a most unsettling find—the Amazons are in chains! Hercules and Hermes/Mercury have conspired to steal Hippolyta’s Magic Girdle, which makes the Amazons unconquerable, in order for Mercury to win Diana and for Hercules to exact his revenge on the Amazons.

Diana agrees to surrender willingly provided she is beaten in a contest of prowess. Mercury cannot resist the temptation. He throws the girdle into the distance and he and Diana race to catch it. Since Diana is “Swifter than Mercury”, and since her freedom is at stake, she beats him and catches and reclaims the girdle. Hercules then attacks Diana, but she shows once again that she is “Stronger than Hercules” and ultimately gains the upper hand. The shamed gods return to Olympus.

The Amazons are freed. Hippolyta advises Diana to wear the new symbol for a while (now twenty years and counting), for the good it might do. Diana does so, and likes it. She opines: “The “W” will stand not just for Wonder Woman, but for women everywhere.”

Upon returning to Washington, Wonder Woman makes another unsettling discovery. Steve seems to be dying! The doctor says it seems “as if his body and soul are struggling to get out of this world—into another one” (How did she figure that one out?) Aparently a subconscious part of him yearns for the unknown dimension within the Multiverse from whence he came, and the hit on the head somehow put his mind in limbo. Nonetheless, when Wonder Woman is alone with him he is awake enough to speak, and he recognizes his “Angel”, and is concerned about the briefcase (remember the briefcase?!) and Diana Prince.

Upon leaving the hospital Wonder Woman encounters some bank robbers. She seems to have them under control, but nonetheless she gets an unexpected assist from a strange, beautiful new winged female super-type called the Silver Swan. She seems to create as much trouble as she solves, and her aggressiveness causes the robbers’ escape helicopter to plummet after she throws out its pilot. Wonder Woman prevents a disaster by pulling it with her lasso and bringing it to a landing in a fountain. The Silver Swan claims all the credit, and seems to have a hypnotizing effect on the men around the scene. She flies away, and Wonder Woman decides not to follow her for now. She needs to get that briefcase. She returns to the garbage can where she had put it before, but it’s gone!

She becomes Diana Prince and returns to work at the Pentagon. General Darnell is none too happy about the missing briefcase. However with a creepy harassing move, he promises to protect her from inquiries. Diana rejects his advances, and insists that she doesn’t need his protection.

When Diana and Etta return to their apartment, Diana learns that the rent is being increased. Etta has taken the liberty of inviting a new tenant, a shy plain-looking woman named Helen Alexandros. She had called the Pentagon about something she has found, which turns out to be the briefcase! Etta has learned that she needs a place to stay, so she is taken in as their new roommate, right on the spot.

As Diana showers, Helen retires to her room, and throws back her head and lets out a bitter laugh. It turns out she is the Silver Swan! We learn her story…

Helen Alexandros was an unattractive girl, who faced cruel treatment from her peers, and even her mother. She found escape as a ballet dancer. One day while performing [I]Swan Lake[/I] in an ancient Greek amphitheater, she overhears an unfortunate conversation. The ballet’s director is looking for a new prima ballerina, but decides against her because she is “ugly”. She calls out to the gods in despair that she hates men. Surprisingly she gets an answer!

Ares/Mars appears. He revels to Helen that she is in fact his descendant on her father’s side, and that on her mother’s side she’s the descendant of Helen of Troy, whose beauty had led Greeks and Trojans to war. Helen wishes to bring that same death and destruction to men, and Mars wants to help her. He grants her the power to become the beautiful Silver Swan. She possesses super-strength, and the ability to devastate all life in the vicinity with her birdlike cry. As long as she uses her power to cause wars among men, she can become the Silver Swan for an hour at a time. When she fulfills a mission—that of killing Wonder Woman—she will retain her new form forever.

Soon afterward, Helen had followed Wonder Woman’s exploits, and discovered that Steve Trevor was often a part of them. In following him, she had discovered Diana Prince dumping the briefcase in the trashcan, and changing into Wonder Woman. Now that she knows her secret identity, she plans to use that knowledge, and the briefcase, to destroy her.

Diana changes into Wonder Woman and goes off to return the briefcase, exactly as Helen had hoped. Helen becomes the Silver Swan and chases after her. She steals the briefcase from her, but Wonder Woman is able to grab it back. She throws it to where General Darnell is standing, ending that plotline.

But now Wonder Woman has a new problem. Silver Swan is trying to kill her! First she throws her downward, but Wonder Woman regains her balance thanks to an air current. Then she hits her with a swift kick that knocks her into the bushes. Finally when Wonder Woman attempts an aerial assault, Silver Swan gets her with her excruciating cry. Wonder Woman is thrown into a wall. Silver Swan is about to finish her off, but she is interrupted by gawking fans. She “explains” to them that her attack was only a misunderstanding, and that she had thought Wonder Woman had been trying to steal the briefcase, and the spellbound men believe her. Strangely, she flies off without attacking Wonder Woman further.

Meanwhile, Steve Trevor is suddenly in unexpected peril. His doctor has been convinced to hand him over to one Doctor Psycho!

Rating: 8.0

This is truly a classic, one of only a handful of comics stories that really lasts even two decades after its inception. There are numerous exciting scenes that capture the might and majesty of the character, and the characterizations of Wonder Woman, Diana Prince, her supporting cast, and even the villains have seldom been more nuanced.

It’s actually a little hard to categorize these issues as one or two or several story arcs. If DCCP # 41 and Wonder Woman # 288-290 are all one story, then it’s a somewhat disjointed one, wherein none of the conflicts seen in the beginning are still being dealt with in the end. Or if each issue is an arc in and of itself, then each is an incomplete one, ending in cliffhangers while essential threads are left dangling. For my purposes here, I’m treating DCCP # 41 and Wonder Woman # 288 to be one arc, since there is the consistent thread of the lost briefcase, even if that in and of itself doesn’t make for too exciting a conflict. . But essentially, this is a serialized drama, albeit a relatively short one.

Distance has lent perspective, which doesn’t always flatter a close inspection of the story structure. In DCCP # 41, Diana leaves the all-important briefcase unattended in the garbage can in order to turn into Wonder Woman and save Steve. OK so far. Steve’s life and superheroic duties come first. But then she talks to the foundation. Still with you, Di, I guess. But then she takes off in her Invisible Plane to Paradise Island! Just to talk about the change in logo! It’s a hole in the plot that could have easily been filled. If Diana had received a distress call on the Mental Radio from her Amazon sisters, and found out there and then that they were in chains, that would certainly been enough of a motive for her to forget the briefcase.

Still, this is relatively minor point. The briefcase storyline itself is really just the basic structure upon which many more exciting things are built. In the first act, the main event is Diana’s struggle to liberate her people from their old enemies. The use of a peaceful “contest” to settle the matter, rather than traditional superheroic combat, may seem at first glance to be an unfortunate nod to the passiveness of the Kannigher version of the character. But the contest is enthralling because there is more going on than meets the eye. You can see the wheels turning in Diana’s head as she uses the Olympians’ own pride against them. Her challenge to Mercury is ostensibly a way to “keep him talking”, presumably to distract both gods away from possibly hurting her sister Amazons. But at the same time, you can see she is goading him into doing something foolish, essentially giving up his advantage to prove his worth. Similarly, Hercules is angered by her taunts into making a brutal but unwise attack on her. In both cases, she prevails, and manages to shame both gods into retreating.

In the second act, the main event is the emergence of a new, long-lasting villain, the Silver Swan. Her origin in this arc is one of the great stories in the tradition of the sympathetic villain. We feel her frustration at a world of men where a woman’s achievements as a dancer are not valued or rewarded because of her looks. There is great conviction in her desperate, hateful prayer. Essentially by giving into her anger she is calling on the power of the War God. This is a clever and even realistic way of introducing Ares/Mars into the story, since after all what are the gods but representations of our own human emotional traits.

Also, much more than in the post-Crisis counterpart, the central concept of the “Ugly-Duckling-Into-a-Swan” transformation is handled here with a truly ironic twist. First the ugly duckling is actually rejected from the lead in "Swan Lake". Then when she does become the “Swan”, it is not an expression of the “be yourself” moral of “The Ugly Duckling” at all, but a subtle, determined form of revenge.

Along the way there are many great individual scenes. For the first time in years, she displays the super-confidence and sense of humor that had made her so appealing under Marston. The first time Diana changes into Wonder Woman, her emergence is a wonder to behold. The thugs come after her, expecting demure Diana Prince but instead see the wall in front of them crashing down! “Is it an earthquake or..?” Wonder Woman is revealed behind the wall, “Thanks for the compliment, boys—though, truth to tell, I was actually using barely the force of a small hurricane.”

Another cherished scene comes in the middle of Wonder Woman # 288. After Steve has come briefly back to consciousness, Wonder Woman expresses her joy by running through Washington at superspeed, exclaiming: “He’s alive! The man I love is alive!” This is a wonderful moment that captures both the power and vulnerability in Diana’s character.

If there is one altogether negative element in this arc, it is the introduction of the sexual harassment subplot with General Darnell. It is clear that this was used to show Diana Prince’s self-sufficiency, and perhaps set an example that shows that such behavior is not to be tolerated. But it seems to me to be an ill-advised decision to take a long-established character and corrupt him so nonchalantly, especially considering that Thomas would not stay on board nearly long enough to flesh the storyline out. All in all, it seems like a halfhearted and reckless gesture. Fortunately it doesn’t do much to sour the larger storyline, and better yet future writers Dan Mishkin and Mindy Newell would never do so much as mention it.

I suppose I should mention that this is where the double-w symbol makes its first appearance, replacing the traditional eagle emblem on the boustier. Certainly the reasons given are suitable, but the story of the changeover is lost among much more exciting material. I should say that the symbol probably looks its best it ever has in these issues, penciled by Colan and inked by Romeo Tanghal. There is a fluidity about the look that achieves a good balance between angles and curves, and actually kind of looks like a bird. It is also worth mentioning that the Wonder Woman Foundation, which is still today a part of the mythos, is also introduced here.

One final note: The cover of Wonder Woman # 288 is clearly an homage to Sensation Comics # 1. It's almost as much a classic.

Wonder Woman # 289-290
“His Name Is Psycho”/”Panic Over Pennsylvania Avenue”
Story by Roy Thomas
# 289 script by Roy Thomas, # 290 script by Paul Kupperberg
Pencils by Gene Colan
Inks by Romeo Tanghal
Edited by Len Wein
After a run-in with a kraken and some Russian seamen, Diana rushes to Paradise Island to see if Steve could be cured by Amazon science. Paula says she might be able to help him on Science Island, so Diana sets off back to Washington to fetch him.

Unfortunately, when Diana Prince comes to fetch him together with Etta and new roomie Helen Alexandros, he is gone, taken by Dr. Psycho. Diana manages to get the name and location, then excuses herself from her roommates. Soon after Helen also mysteriously breaks company with Etta.

Dr. Psycho reveals his past to Melvin, his assistant. Tormented by his peers and snubbed by potential suitors for his grotesque looks, he threw himself into mesmeric research. He used it to hypnotize a woman named Marva into loving him and marrying him. He discovered that she had unique abilities, which he could exploit to manipulate ectoplasm from the spirit world, which he then used to create more attractive guises for himself. After she died from a car accident (not his fault, he swears!) he was left without a medium. Other women did not have the same ability.

But he has now has discovered that Steve has unique properties of his own, derived (though neither Steve nor Psycho knows it) from his being from the earth of another dimension. All Psycho knows is that he is near death, and that this is enabling him to call forth ectoplasm too. He has hypnotized the hospital staff into turning him over into his care. Now he has a machine, the “ectoplasmotron”, which can use the image in Steve’s subconscious to create a new body for himself.

Wonder Woman bursts in just as he finishes his story. But she is not in time to stop him from using his machine. Using Steve’s own impression of Wonder Woman, Dr. Psycho creates a guise for himself that is Steve’s own self-idealization—himself as male Wonder Woman—Captain Wonder. He is, it seems, even stronger than Wonder Woman, as strong as Steve thinks Wonder Woman is. Worse yet, it is hard for Wonder Woman to fight back, because it seems like she’s fighting Steve. Still, Wonder Woman manages to throw Captain Wonder at the ectoplasmotron and destroy it. It doesn’t turn him back, but something else that moment does. Steve wakes up for a second and Psycho’s Captain Wonder disguise is eliminated. Steve then immediately slips back into his coma. Wonder Woman is about to take him to Science Island, but just then the Silver Swan bursts in, about to kill them both.

As they fight, Dr. Psycho gets a look at the Silver Swan and is immediately smitten. But then Wonder Woman and Silver Swan take to the air to battle. Wonder Woman stands on her Invisible Plane and snares Silver Swan in her lasso, but using the power of Mars she nearly resists it. Dr. Psycho is able to use Steve again to become Captain Wonder. He joins the fray and punches Wonder Woman off her perch on the wing of her plane, then catches the lasso and snares her in it, letting her dangle from the plane. At that moment, Captain Wonder gets a look at the Silver Swan, and the two fall instantly in love.

Silver Swan is able to convince Cap Wonder to go along with her in Mars’ plan for the destruction of both Wonder Woman and the US president. Using the lasso, he commands Wonder Woman to command the plane on a collision course with the White House! The Reagans see her approaching, but not the Invisible Plane, and are blissfully ignorant of the doom approaching. It seems hopeless, but suddenly Wonder Woman can see that Dr. Psycho is losing the Captain Wonder power and his hold on the lasso. She gives the lasso a pull and Captain Wonder loses the lasso and falls off the plane. As Steve wakes up in Dr. Psycho’s lair, Dr. Psycho himself plunges down to the ground, losing the guise of Captain Wonder just after hitting the ground.

Wonder Woman attempts to command her plane to turn, but it is a difficult task even for her to change the course when it moves so fast. Silver Swan attacks her before she can complete the task, but an impatient Wonder Woman quickly has the upper hand. Silver Swan is also thrown to the ground. At the last instant Wonder Woman manages to command the plane to narrowly miss the nearly oblivious president.

Mars appears to Silver Swan. He is angry that she has failed. At that moment he takes away her powers and she becomes Helen Alexandros again. Wonder Woman watches, and is thus made aware of her new roommate’s dual identity. More importantly, both Helen and Dr. Psycho now see each other in their true forms. They are repulsed, and they turn away.

Wonder Woman hurries back to Dr. Psycho’s now-unattended hideout to rescue Steve Trevor. Happily he is awake and back to his old self. He has struggled in his dreams, longing in his subconscious for the alternate earth which he has come from but which his conscious mind has forgotten.* The cosmos pulls him, demanding that he returns, but in his heart he wants to stay, thanks to Wonder Woman: “I dreamed I wasn’t of this world and was trying to get back to where I belonged…until I realized that I really belonged wherever you are, my lovely angel.”

* This is a reference to the events of Wonder Woman # 270-271.

Rating: 8.0
A somewhat more focused and urgent telling than the previous two issues, these two issues contain plenty of action and suspense. There are a couple of brief diversions, such as Wonder Woman’s battle with the Kraken (a classic scene in its own right), but for the most part the essential action involving Steve’s predicament is what drives the story.

Particularly interesting in this vein is Wonder Woman’s initial inability to fight Dr. Psycho/Captain Wonder, since he looks like Steve. Up to that point she is holding back on expressing her feelings for him. She looks to protect her secret identity and through that also Steve and other friends. The concern, similar to many superheroes, is that villains will strike at her through them. But her inability to fight Captain Wonder seems to give her affection for Steve away.

The new Dr. Psycho is as classic a villain as the Silver Swan. His motivation, simple though it is, is essentially misogyny. He hates women as surely as Helen Alexandros hates men, making their flirtation that much more ironic. Still, the scene establishing his origin is even more awkward in its placement than that of the Silver Swan. It slows the story way down. If it had been placed at the beginning of issue # 289, perhaps with the benefit of an omniscient narrator, it might have been much more effective. Furthermore, while Captain Wonder is an interesting visual, it is a paper-thin concept besides. Had Dr. Psycho appeared more often thereafter, one would have hoped that he use other guises to more varied and subtle purposes. It is unfortunate, in that vein, that this incarnation of Marva (Dr. Psycho’s wife and his traditional put-upon medium) is deceased before she is even introduced.

Nonetheless, the suspense that follows is intense. The last few pages are exciting reading, even after repeat readings, as Diana and Steve strive against their respective predicaments, with only seconds to spare. It also contains a rather ironic twist on Wonder Woman’s trademark stance, wherein standing on the wing of her plane with the magic lasso is replaced (temporarily, fortunately for her!) by her dangling from the lasso hanging off her male dopelganger.

Roy Thomas’ scripting on # 289 may sometimes be corny, but it can also be very descriptive, and at the best of times provides a great atmosphere for the story. Paul Kupperberg scripted # 290 with a smooth, flowing narration and a sense of action that is often compelling. He is also less corny than Thomas, despite the bizzare appearance of the Reagans in the last act.

Since Steve comes out of his coma more or less on his own, he never does make that trip to Science Island and the Purple Healing Ray. His discovery of his and Diana’s past would have to wait another three years and 32 issues.

Wonder Woman # 291-293
“Judgment in Infinity”
Story by Paul Levitz
Script by Roy Thomas
Pencils by Gene Colan
Inks by Frank McLaughlin, Romeo Tanghal, Bob Smith, and Adrian Gonzales
Edited by Len Wein
An alert at the Pentagon has all the males rushing off and leaving Diana and Etta (still discussing the Silver Swan events of the previous arc) behind. No problem. With a dash to a private room and a spin of the lasso, Diana Prince transforms herself into Wonder Woman and rushes off to confront the problem.

What she finds is a towering blue figure in purple robes, imposing over the Capitol Mall and confounding the people on the ground. Despite an errant shot from one of the army men, Wonder Woman tries to convince him they are friendly. However the creature has his own ideas. With a multicolored beam from his multifaceted eyes, the soldiers are disintegrated. Wonder Woman attempts to lasso him, but he shakes it off easily. She manages to read his thoughts telepathically, and essentially reads his riot act: This is the Adjudicator. For eons he has stood in judgment over planets and civilizations, and found each unworthy. In most cases, each world has doomed itself, and he has only hastened their destruction. Yet the Earth(s) puzzle him—the humans seem to survive despite being unworthy. Still, the Adjudicator plans to put four of the Infinite Earths to the test. If (actually, when) they are found unworthy, he will destroy all.

She rushes to report her findings in an emergency meeting aboard the Justice League of America’s satellite, including even non-member Supergirl. Black Canary goes off to warn her friends, the Justice Society of America, on her old home, Earth-2.. The rest of the Justice League scatters to watch out for the Adjudicator’s threats.

Meanwhile, the Adjudicator dispatches his henchmen---no less than the Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse!

Wonder Woman and Zantanna square off with the first one, Famine, in Earth-1 India. The already undernourished people of this impoverished nation are attacked by the skeletal rider, whose touch causes deadly starvation. A Hindu who experiences starvation shows the strength of his convictions by not eating any of the cows who are everywhere. Meanwhile, even the two heroines are cursed with the rider’s touch, and experience true hunger for the first time. With her Magic Lasso, Wonder Woman forces Zantanna to concentrate so she can shake off their affliction with a spell. They confront the foe, and after a courageous assault the rider disappears.

In Earth-2 Atlanta, Georgia, Power Girl, Black Canary, and Huntress fight the second Horseman, Plague. He delivers a fatal illness with his touch, and even the Kryptonian Power Girl is effected. Those who are not afflicted show their heroism by staying to help those who are. Black Canary and Huntress deliver a frontal assault, and the rider is soon recalled as quickly as he had appeared.

Earth-1’s Supergirl and Madame Xanadu are teamed up on Earth-X’s Paris with that dimension’s Phantom Lady. In this world, the Nazis have won World War 2, and the world is ever at war. There the third Rider, War, brings a maddness to all people in his wake, and the Parisians are soon chanting “Death to the Americans!” Supergirl handles the tanks with her superstrength. The Phantom Lady does the best to calm the mob, while Madam Xanadu manages to snare the rider with a tarot card ideally suited to him, the fool. Soon he too is recalled.

In Earth-1 New York, Raven is being killed by a psychic energy. Wonder Girl and Starfire fly her to Paradise Island, where Hippolyta and Paula examine her. They discover that her pain originates on another world, and will not leave her until the trouble on that world is ended. The two heroines thus agree to travel, with the aid of Amazon science, to Earth-I. Here all are imortal, but are now being attacked by the Death Rider. They rescue some of the realm’s residents and confront the rider. Soon he too is recalled, and Raven cured.

Amazed by the courageous acts of the DC Universe’s many superheroines, the Adjudicator makes a decision. The Earths will indeed be destroyed, but the heroines will be spared and put in a museum. The superwomen are trapped in impermeable (even to them) orbs. Wonder Woman manages to vibrate her lasso out of her trap, and then with a twirl she makes it solid and smashes the prison from the outside. From there she manages to free her sister superheroines, but the Adjudicator is poised to destroy the Earths.When they confront them he sends his Four Horsemen to fight them, but the superheroines are now wise to their ways and have the upper hand. The Adjudicator responds with vengance. He is about to destroy the heroines too as he destroys the world, but Wonder Woman tries a last ditch effort.

She vibrates her lasso to its greatest solidity, and finally manages to snare the villain by the neck. She demands a question out of him: “Who Gave [this mission] to You?” The Adjudicator is forced to remember that an overseer had given him the mission in order to keep him out of mischief. They gave him unimportant (to them) worlds, in effect, to keep him out of their hair. But by his thinking about them, the overseers are able to sense where he is. They see that he has gone too far, and they finally drag him away before he can do more damage.

The world is saved! With a spell from Zantanna, the many superheroines return to their home dimensions. Donna tells her sister Diana: “I’ve never been prouder of you in my whole life!”

Rating: 5.5
This should be a great story. The scale is certainly epic, almost like a mini-CRISIS. The villain is menacing and omnipotent. Wonder Woman and the other heroines triumph in the face of overwhelming odds. There are many exciting scenes displaying the heroines’ courage and cleverness. Wonder Woman’s characterization is excellent, as with nearly all stories from this period. She remains confident and strong throughout.

And yet, out of the final 42 issues of the first series, this is probably the story arc I treasure the least. Whereas most Thomas, Mishkin, and Newell stories are a great treat to revisit, this one is a bit of a chore. I’m not greatly inclined toward comic book epics, or toward superhero teamups, but I think the problem is something more.

Part of the problem comes with storytelling shortcuts. Wonder Woman finds out the Adjudicator’s name and “mission” by a telepathic link. This seems like a lazy and superficial device, essentially serving as a surrogate for omniscient narration. It might have been more interesting if the cause of trouble had been revealed by systematic detective work, or at least by a confession from one of the Riders via Magic Lasso.

Another problem comes with Roy Thomas’ narration. His dialogue is mostly excellent, but the establishing panels seem to me to be overly flowery, repetitive, and long winded all over. His descriptive style had been largely an asset with the previous story Silver Swan/Dr. Psycho arc, providing atmosphere and adding to the characterization. Here it is mostly redundancies. The narration serves mainly to disrupt the action, and basically slow things way down.

A much greater problem in my eyes is the story itself. It seems just a tad unfocussed, and a little depressing. Certainly any “epic” scale story is bound to have its dark periods. Bill Loebs’ later “Space Pyrates” story arc, to use another Wonder Woman example, has many painful, even devastating scenes early on. But that story is about surviving, resisting, and overcoming oppression, and there is great payoff in the end resulting from Diana’s (and others’) resilience.

By contrast, the threat in this arc isn’t so much overcome as it is recalled. In each scene, the heroines are given a chance to give an impressive but essentially token gesture before the rider is simply sent back. The final victory results partly from some clever maneuvering on Wonder Woman’s part, but also from a great stroke of luck. The payoff just isn’t there.

It revealed in the beginning that the Adjudicator destroys by acting on elements that are already there, and indeed the Horsemen do go where their respective curses already have a boost (for instance the Famine Rider goes to India.) This might have been a better story if that concept had really been followed through. Perhaps instead of merely impressing the Adjudicator, Wonder Woman and the other heroines could have had to try and make a real change in the worlds they try to save. Maybe by working to eradicate societies ills they could have helped to take the wind out of the Horsemen’s and Adjudicator’s sails. That might seem lofty, but it is the logical extension of the central conflict.

Another annoying thing is that Wonder Woman herself sometimes gets lost in the story. She hardly appears at all in the second issue, apart from a basically inconsequential interview with Lois Lane.

That said, I do enjoy a number of things here. Colan’s art is consistently good, even with the various inkers. One thing I do appreciate is the way the “all female” hero thing is achieved. Unlike later stories like “Created Equal” and the current “Witch and the Warrior”, there is no excuse needed. The males are not knocked out of commission. The villain is not female. The men of the Justice League do in fact appear (even Superman and Batman), in what amounts to a cameo, aboard the satellite. It is shown that they will too act if they are confronted with the Adjudicator’s threat. It is simply a matter of the females being present when the Horsemen appear (Coincidence? Perhaps.) There is no sense that they should need the males were they available since they don’t look for them even when they are. In short, the women act without the men because they can, not because they have to.

There are also many good-to-great individual scenes. Though it may be a tad preachy, Wonder Woman’s and Zantanna’s revelation of the meaning of true hunger is pertinent and even powerful. There is also a humorous undercurrent in the idea that the omnipotent Adjudicator is essentially called back by his “mother”, and in the notion that the Adjudicator is being allowed to play with entire civilizations to “keep him out of trouble.” The opening scene involving Diana Prince, Etta Candy, General Darnell, and the off-panel Steve Trevor is also appealing if essentially irrelevant within the context of this individual story.

If the story seems out of focus, it is hardly unusual for an epic crossover. Still, I wonder if it’s also a case of “too many cooks.” The plot was written by Paul Levitz, essentially serving as a filler, while Roy Thomas (theoretically the “regular” writer at this point) only provides the script. The credits in the last issue also seem to suggest an editorial shakeup. Len Wein is credited as editor throughout, but this would be his last effort. Incoming editor Marv Wolfman receives an “assist” credit in Wonder Woman # 293.

Wonder Woman # 297-299, “Thunder On The Wind”/”Catacombs”/Target: Paradise”
Written by Dan Mishkin
Penciled by Gene Colan
Inked by Frank McLaughlin
Edited by Marv Wolfman

Hippolyta's Magic Sphere warns of an unknown mystical danger to Paradise Island. Diana searches the Pentagon's intelligence records without avail.

Meanwhile a terrorist group, led by Nikos Aegeus, commits a cruel and senseless murder of a member of the Greek parliament. They escape to an uncharted island where they encounter a strange old man with a blindfold.

Later Diana Prince and Steve Trevor are ambushed in the midst of a training exercise by a mysterious man, calling himself Aegeus, on a Pegasus, throwing Zeus's thunderbolts. Diana changes into Wonder Woman. She uses the lasso on Pegasus, but to no avail. She rescues Steve's plane, but he's not on it! Steve has been transported by the bolts to the island hideout, where Aegeus and his organization are demanding he take them to Paradise Island!

Diana returns to Paradise Island and reports to her mother. Hippolyta is reminded of Bellepheron, a man from classical Greek times. The Gods had given him the saddle to tame Pegasus, and Zeus's thunderbolts. He had killed the Chimera, but then become dangerously ambitious. He'd attacked and nearly destroyed the Amazons, then flown to Mount Olympus expecting to be elevated to godhood--only to be cast out, blinded, and forced into exile forever.

Diana questions the Greek government, and they suggest that Aegeus might have fled to one of the mysterious uncharted islands in the Aegean. This immediately makes her think of Themiscyra--the island where the Amazons had lived within "man's world" before their exodus to Paradise Island.

Aegeus and Bellepheron try to force Steve to disclose the whereabouts to Paradise Island, but he refuses. His loyalty and to his “angel” has prevailed, and anyway he crashed there by accident himself and doesn’t remember the way. He escapes, only to fall into an underground tunnel. There he discovers a disturbing sight--a skeleton in Wonder Woman regalia!

One of Aegeus' people attacks Steve, but is distracted by a treasure (Athena's scepter) which suddenly disintegrates him! Steve quietly stuffs it into his jacket. Sophia, another of Aegeus' people, is about to capture him when she is struck by a vision. Athena tells Sophia that she has lost her way, and that her association with Nikos Aegeus has made her a crueler person. She resists at first, a victim of his charisma, but when she takes Steve back to Aegeus she does not mention the treasure he has hoarded.

Aegeus forces Steve to take him to Paradise Island, or as close as he can get. Aegeus has promised Bellepheron that when he destroys PI he will steal the Purple Healing ray, and restore Bellepheron to his former vitality, but he clearly intends to go back on his pledge and keep the power for himself. Wonder Woman appears, and Steve attempts to help her by sticking Athena's scepter on Aegeus--but Aegeus trips him and instead it throws Wonder Woman of her Invisible Plane and into the sea.

With the use of his thunderbolts, Aegeus finds and attacks Paradise Island. He throws Steve off the Pegasus, and Hippolyta catches him, doubtless saving him from death. The Amazons take him to Science Island to confer with Paula.

Wonder Woman surfaces, not dead (as Steve feared.) She flies to Themiscyra to confront Aegeus's group. She fights with Bellepheron, and is unexpectedly assisted by Sophia. She tells of her vision and (off-panel) Wonder Woman spares her from arrest.

Steve attempts to attack Aegeus on a hanglider, but is in serious trouble until Wonder Woman shows up. This time she knows of the saddle’s magic properties, and she is able to turn Pegasus against Aegeus. Pegasus throws Ageus off, but using the last of Zeus' thunderbolts he transepts himself away. Aegeus has escaped, but Paradise Island is saved.

Rating: 8.5

This is a complex story, with a plot that doesn't allow for much characterization. But even so we get an excellent idea of Diana and her sense of purpose. Also the story does a lot to deepen and flesh out the Amazon mythos.

Aegeus is a great villain. Mythology plays into his origin, in this case in the best way possible. He and Bellepheron are not gods but charismatic mortals with godlike ambition. Aegeus is also cruel and treacherous, as shown by the senseless murder in the first act. It is clear that his personality and the gods' power are a dangerous mix.

Unfortunately he also joins the list of great Wonder Woman villains who are never used. After a thankless return in 306-307, he is never seen again. Imagine what they could do with him today!

This story also introduces elements (Themiscyra, Sophia, the skeleton in Wonder Woman garb) which would play a larger role in later stories.

In short it's a stellar beginning to a run that would expand the Wonder Woman mythos.

Wonder Woman 301-302, "Dark Challenger"/"Victory"
Written by Dan Mishkin.
Art by Gene Colan and Frank McLaughlin.
Edited by Marv Wolfman (as is the Aegeus storyline)

Diana wins a race during a tournament Paradise Island, and Sophia, who has been taken to PI to become an Amazon, complains that Diana should not be allowed to compete, since her gods-given powers give her an unfair advantage. Hippolyta scolds her, but Diana calms her down with a show of her and Sofia’s cooperative skill with a crossbow (of which, more later.)
Sophia apologizes, explaining she was used to being cheated, and worries that she is not worthy of being an Amazon. Diana reminds her that the change in her life was already happening when she'd come upon her.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, Steve and Etta marvel at Diana Prince's survival. Steve is lost in thought, since Diana has told him she has something to discuss with him. Then General Darnell introduces Steve and Etta to a new member of their team, Major Keith Griggs. (More of him in upcoming stories.)

The scene shifts back to Paradise Island. Hoping to prove herself, Sophia does a difficult swim as part of another of the tournament's events. Suddenly, a bony hand pulls her down. She cries out, and Wonder Woman saves her.

Diana deals with the villain, a sword-wielding skeleton wearing the same tiara! They fight on a small island, where an eagle (a symbol of Amazon courage) helps the unarmed Diana by distracting her foe, but then the skeleton kills the bird. When the skeleton drops the sword, she immediately dives back into the ocean to grab it.

The skeleton is gone for a while. Diana returns to Paradise Island, where Hippolyta has a suspicion of who she could be. Then the skeleton appears suddenly out of the ocean. She knocks Diana out, hitting her with her sword on the back of her head (the soft spot.) As Diana's consciousness fades, she hears the skeleton speak. She forces Hippolyta to reveal that she is Artemis, and that she had once been known as Wonder Woman.

Diana comes to, chained up in a cavern under Paradise Island, which has a sealed up tunnel to Hades, built by the god Hades himself. (A precursor to post-Crisis Doom's Doorway?) Her chains extend all the way down to the underworld, where ogres tirelessly torture her by pulling down on the chain.

She remembers the story of Artemis. 3,000 years earlier there had been a contest to determine the Queen of the Amazons of Themiscyra. Hippolyta won, just beating out her best friend Artemis. When the gods ordered the Amazons to send a champion to the outside world, Artemis was chosen. But she was seduced by the power lust of men, and ultimately she met her downfall when she challenged Athena (perhaps that is why Athena's scepter had been found with her remains in the previous story arc.)

Diana manages to break the chain by exerting a courterforce against the force of the ogres' pull. But in the process the tunnel starts to cave in. The ocean bears down upon her. She holds her breath, and follows the updraft, barely avoiding the jagged rocks before she surfaces--grateful as never before for a breath of oxygen.

She confronts Artemis, whom the Amazons have barely held at bay. She manages to steal her sword, and keep it from her with her Invisible Plane. Artemis crumbles into dust. Diana and Hippolyta wonder who had animated her remains in the first place.
Behind the scenes, Circe watches in her crystal ball. Her scheme failed for now, but she will strike again.

Rating a solid 9.5 out of 10!

The conflict involving Artemis is suspenseful and unsettling. As with the previous story arc, the Amazons are haunted by an old villain. The story continues to add depth to the Amazon and Wonder Woman mythos. But even these events are overshadowed by the wonderful focus on Wonder Woman tradition.

In fact, the early scene shows two great traditions. First there is the reformable villain. In fact you can really see the wheels turning in Sofia’s head as she fights her tendency towards distrust.

Also, related and just as important, is the very strong emphasis on Amazon training. It is made very clear that with the Amazon way, any woman can improve herself and accomplish wonders. Indeed it is through her own accomplishments that Sofia redeems herself after her outburst.
In fact, in said outburst, Sofia brings up one of the uncomfortable contradictions of Wonder Woman, or at least the then current Earth-1 version. If she and the Amazons are about the untapped abilities of ordinary women, then how is she an example when she herself has magical gifts from the gods?

Hippolyta gives a great answer, saying that the winner of the opening scene's race was not important, as long as each woman reaches her own personal best. But in fact it doesn’t quite answer the question. I think the fact that Dan Mishkin dealt with some inconvenient contradictions showed how much he cared about the character.

There are many favorite scenes, but the standout, one of my favorite Wonder Woman moments ever, comes next. Diana challenges Sofia to display her skill with a crossbow--by aiming directly at her! "Aim at the target (behind her), through me if you can. I assure my sister Amazons have not gathered here to watch me die." Sophia shoots at Diana, as Diana says "You'll soon find yourself doing things which you thought..."--Diana deflects the arrows with her bracelets and they hit two targets behind Sohipa! "...Impossible!" exclaims Sophia. It is clear that the coop is the result of the skills of both Diana and Sophia in cooperation. I love this scene!

The brief appearance of the classic Washington supporting cast seems irrelevant in the context of this story arc, but is the beginning of a journey Diana will take with her "family" in the USA in future issues. From Colan's drawing, I get an interesting question. As Steve wonders what Diana wants to talk to him about, does he suspect the truth of her secret identity?

Wonder Woman # 303-304
"Mystery of the Magnetic Menace"
or "Polaris Means Peril"
Written by Dan Mishkin.
Pencils by Gene Colan.
Inks by Frank McLaughlin.
# 303 edited by Marv Wolfman. # 304 edited by Ernie Colon.

Synopsis:

During a test of the "Northstar" navigation system, which uses the Earth's magnetic field to plot a course, a pilot named Clayton is downed under mysterious circumstances.

Unaware of the adventure that awaits, Wonder Woman changes into Diana Prince and arrives at work at the Pentagon for the first time since her "accident" in issue # 300. She is greeted by a warm reception from her "roomie" Etta, though Steve seems preoccupied with the morning's tragedy. Keith Griggs introduces himself, flirting in the process.

Steve and Keith both fly a simulation of Clayton's mission. At right around the place that Clayton was lost, a giant apparition of a man suddenly confronts them. They lose control of their planes, and communication is lost.

Diana Prince transforms herself into Wonder Woman and confronts the menace, who reveals himself to be the Green Lantern's archenemy Dr. Polaris, just in the process of reverting to human form and size after GL had trapped him in a pure energy form. He demands to see Green Lantern, hoping for a revenge. WW informs him that he's on an outer space mission, but he does not believe her.

She gets in a good punch, but he is able to use his magnetic abilities to cage her in the wreckage of Clayton's plane. She is able to distract him with her Invisible Plane long enough to break free, but then she sees that Steve and Keith are heading straight into a head-on-head collision--just in time for the cliffhanger.

As the second issue begins, Wonder Woman lassoes Keith's plane. Stretching the limits even of her super strength, she manages to pull the plane off its collision course. Steve's plane, however, is still on a tailspin. He bails out, losing his parachute in the process. Wonder Woman catches him and glides him down gently.

Polaris makes a grand exit, attacking Wonder Woman and Steve with the wreckage of his plane. He escapes, but Keith has tracked him (with Northstar) on a course to the Arctic.

She slips away to change herself back into Diana Prince, just long enough to make an excuse that has Steve giving her "time off". She returns to the Pentagon as Wonder Woman. General Darnell reports that Polaris is threatening to reverse the polarity of the earth if GL is not produced. The JLA has confirmed that he has a laboratory in the Arctic that just might be able to pull it off, but that it is impregnable.
At an unwitting suggestion from Etta, a plan is hatched to draw Polaris out. Steve dresses up as Green Lantern. He is tethered to the Invisible Plane to give the illusion of "flying", and uses an Amazon "heat balm" to protect him from the Arctic weather.

Dr. Polaris takes the bait, and carelessly leaves the door open for Keith to sneak in. Just as he discovers that Steve is a fake, Wonder Woman attacks. Without any metallic objects around, WW clearly has the upper hand. She is able to keep him at bay long enough for Keith to sabotage and destroy the laboratory.

Rating: 7.5

Review:

Turning away from the complex, mythology-driven plots of the previous two story arcs, this arc is simpler, with more of a traditional superhero formula. There is also happily a greater emphasis on the DC supporting cast. It is a testament to the character's versatility that she can work under so many different styles, and indeed many of Mishkin's later stories found success (artistic if not commercial) with just this genre. This time around, however, the results are mixed.

For one thing, the villain is a borrowed one. He doesn't seem to have too much to do with Wonder Woman, other than her membership in the JLA. The action scenes have their good moments and their bad. The best come when she is shown using her own trademarks, her lasso and bracelets and even the Invisible Plane.

On the positive side, this arc has some excellent character-driven scenes. The earlier arcs had characterization too, but had never slowed down for it. Diana, Steve, and others were developed through their quick thinking and actions in a crisis. This time around things finally slow down just long enough for the characters to simply be themselves.

It's nice to see Diana and Etta acting as sisters (as they would continue to do with the next arc.) The classic DC supporting cast was really beginning to feel like Diana's adopted family, with General Darnell acting as sort of a father figure. This would develop further in later months, as Keith begins to usurp Steve's territory as the General's "favorite".

There is also a nice character-driven scene in the heat of battle. When WW catches Steve, he admits that he had been counting on it. WW replies with a quick, witty retort "I suppose you'll be wanting a discount rate on rescues." But then she regrets it, since she values the trust he has put in her.

There is also a great moment of witty attitude in her final confrontation with Polaris, rare in the post-Marston days. At Polaris' discovery that this isn't the Green Lantern, WW attacks with the remark "...and in case you're wondering, I'm not the Good Witch of the North." Noticing his lack of potential metallic weapons in the Arctic wilderness, she comments "I suppose you could throw your helmet at me, but then your ears would get cold."

Gene Colan provides a spectacular transformation moment in at the beginning of # 303, showing Wonder Woman change into Diana Prince by a tumbling glide through the lasso.
The scene also provides a good argument for WW's SI situation as a way to hold onto her connection to humanity: "I have friends who trust and care about me, and they deserve better than the fleeting attention of a superhero who is more concerned with stopping the next villain or diffusing the next crisis."

Diana Prince's first scene, as mentioned above, is a nice example of her place in her world as a human being. Unfortunately, her fleeting appearance in the second act seems only a convenience.

Issue # 305
"Day of the Man-Beasts"
Written by Dan Mishkin. Pencils by Gene Colan. Inks by Frank McLaughlin
Edited by Ernie Colon.

As Diana Prince prepares for an outing with roommate Etta Candy, she catches a quick glimpse of another ominous face staring back at her in the mirror. Etta doesn't see it, so she convinces herself she imagined it.

The pair rides off on bicycles, headed for a picnic. In a setup for the next issue, they see their landlord, Senator Abernathy, being pestered by reporters.

It looks like a lovely day. Diana is without a care in the world, apart from Etta's weight problem (which Diana seems more concerned with than Etta herself.) But just as they pass near the White House, the pair is suddenly accosted by a Minotaur!

Diana gives Etta's bike a swift kick, pushing her out of harm's way. But it is Diana the beast is after. He grabs her and begins to crush her, and is apparently aware of her true identity. Etta is too frightened to move. Diana manages to appeal to her sense of duty ("The President's life may be in danger!") and Etta is off to warn Steve and the Pentagon.

Diana lets the Minotaur carry her to a secluded spot, then breaks away long enough to transform herself into Wonder Woman. She taunts him into a foolish frontal attack, then leaps out of the way as the beast trips over himself. She snares him in her lasso, but he resists her control. Then suddenly the lasso breaks the spell over him, and he is turned back into a man, with no memory of the day's events.

Then as she confers with the Secret Service, she is suddenly attacked again, this time by a falcon. He carries awkwardly into the sky. Wonder Woman manages to blind him with a flag she grabs off a pole. As he drops her, he too is changed back into a man. He falls into her arms and she brings him back to safety.

Wonder Woman is quite sure she knows who is behind the attacks, and that she must have a vantage point nearby. She challenges her: "Show yourself, Circe!"

Circe speaks, inhabiting the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol Dome. WW asks why Circe attacks her, when she has no quarrel. Circe gives a cryptic answer that their enmity is something the fates have decreed. Then suddenly, the statue falls to the ground, apparently in an attempt to kill Wonder Woman. She catches the enormous, heavy statue, keeping it from crushing an innocent bystander. Wonder Woman reckons she may have an enemy for life.

Rating: Just about a perfect 10!

This single-issue story arc is just about the simplest of Dan Mishkin's Wonder Woman tales. It's also right on target, presenting a clear picture of our heroine in a "day in the life" format.
This features one of my favorite portrayals of Diana Prince. She isn't particularly mild-mannered, but she isn't exactly abrasive either. Perhaps more than any other time, she seems real. Her separation from the Wonder Woman persona is not exaggerated Clark Kent style, but is shown to be simply Diana's natural personality, away from the baggage of the costume and powers. For a moment, it seems that Wonder Woman is the furthest thing from her mind.

By this time, Etta Candy had long since been moved away from the free spirit of the Marston era. But here she is beginning to wake up from her subservient role and show just a few signs of her former vitality. She is a little insecure about her body image, but she isn't about to allow Diana to change her. She reacts to Di's bossiness with sarcasm. She wonders to herself "Why do I always end up with friends who try to improve me?"

And, while Di is a bit nagging to Etta, it is clear that is out of love. It's nice to see them behaving as sisters. It kind of makes Diana seem less lonely in "Man's World".

The idyllic early scenes make the abrupt attack that much more jarring. The story flows amazingly well considering the change in tone. Over a couple of pages, the scene shifts to the other side of Diana's life, the villains who threaten her and charge her with responsibility to protect her world, and to her superheroic alter-ego.

As with the previous story arc, this battle scene also has a nice moment of Wonder Woman attitude. She manages to taunt the Minotaur into making a foolish error.

Circe is in her classic element, doing what she is best known for--imprisoning men in the forms of beasts. She is made all the more menacing by her mostly off-panel presence. And as with # 302, in the sparing on-panel portrayals of her, Gene Colan makes her look ominous and mysterious, a sharp contrast to Don Heck's portrayal in 313-314 where she looks no more threatening Bewitched's Endora.

Colan also provides a classic image in the splash page which opens the issue. As Diana Prince fixes her hair in the mirror, it is Wonder Woman who stares back.

Unfortunately, this marked Gene Colan's last Wonder Woman issue. IMHO the Don Heck artwork that followed wasn't exactly bad, but it was markedly inferior to Colan's. Heck rarely carried Mishkin's stories across as well as Colan had before.

# 306-307
"Secrets and Suspicions" or "Vulcan's Daggers"
Written by Dan Mishkin
Art by Don Heck (#307 inked by Sal Trapani)
Diana and Etta's landlord, the former Senator Abernathy, is under a lot of stress. The press is hounding him about a rumor that the President will name him to the Arms Control Post. He suddenly has a heart attack in their apartment. But instead of calling an ambulance, Etta informs Steve, who sends a millitary ambulance--and a virtual commando team to pick him up. He will not tell Diana why.

She changes into Wonder Woman and follows the ambulance--which is suddenly ambushed! Wonder Woman diffuses the situation, but Steve is hardly more open with her than he is with Diana Prince.

At the hospital, Steve tries to question the barely concious Abernathy, while his daughter Lisa (a reporter) looks on, as does his former aide (now in Intellegence) Howard Kohler) Diana is outraged, and later in a cab she blows up at him.

Steve finnally explains the situation to her: Senator Abernathy had resigned from the Senate after he'd leaked secrets to the USSR. (In his defense, his wife had been dying and the Russians had convinced him that they had a radical new cure.) Abernathy's indiscretion had ruined an arms reduction summit.

Steve hadn't told her because he hadn't wanted to ruin Di's image of her landlord. She is relieved that, while his protectiveness was miscalculated, his heart was in the right place. She actually kisses him. But then, out of nowhere, Aegeus appears, and and stabs Steve in the shoulder him with a knife!

Wonder Woman comes to Steve's defense, but Aegeus has a dangerous new weapon--Vulcan's Daggers! It seems that in using the last of Zeus's thunderbolts (in # 299) Aegeus had transported himself to Mount Olympus. Finding better luck than Bellepheron had, he had found an ally in Ares.
His knife manages to cut through Wonder Woman's lasso--then one of her bracelets. Wonder Woman, stripped of the bracelt which preserves her sanity and clear thinking, drives him into the ground, with the daggers digging him into a hole (he would escape off panel by digging a tunnel.)
Steve is brought to the hospital. He is dangerously wounded, and the dagger Aegeus had stuck into him cannot be pulled out (except by Aegeus.)

Back at the pentagon, Lisa Abernathy reveals the Senator's secret to Diana's office (which they already knew.) Howard Kohler is suggesting that they make the senator's indiscretion public.
Back at the hospital, Diana and Keith Griggs review thew situation. They wonder who could be after the senator's life. It could be the Russians, trying to prevent him from going puclic. Or, suggets a barely concious Steve, it could be someone apparently on their own side who was on top of the ivstigation.

Diana becomes Wodner Woman, and races to the senator's bedside. She arrives just in time to stop Aegeus from attacking. Then Keith bursts in with the mastermind of the operation--the senator's own former aide, Howard Kohler.

It seems that Kohler wanted to deliberately sabotage the continuing arms talks. He didn't believe any aggreement should have been signed with the Russians, who would turn arround and break it. He'd started the false rumor of Abernathy's appointment to the cabinet as a means of forcing him to go public, and to turn the American public opinion against the talks.

Wonder Woman must set Aegeus free (since a trial would only bring out information that would destroy the former senator), but only on the condition that he remove the dagger from Steve's shoulder.

Rating: 7.25
This is very much a mixed bag. There are plenty of good ideas here, but perhaps better editorial control was needed. The plot is somewhat overcomplicated and contrived (actually it takes longer to explain that it does to read), but the good points in this story, especially the characterization, are so good at places that it makes the rest of the story worthwhile.

The strain on Diana and Steve's friendship, and their warm makeup at the end of # 306, is wonderful. There is such a genuine sensitivity in the way both characters are drawn.
In fact (not to put my agenda forawrd), this is one of those stories that really makes me miss Diana Prince. As with the story in # 305, she is a character whom you just can't help but love.

Sure today's Diana has friends she cares for, but Dan Mishkin's Diana Prince needs her friends as much as they need her. Futhermore, the alter-ego makes her very much a part of the world she lives in. She is in a position to learn as much from them as they do from her.
For the first half of # 306, Diana is really daunted by Steve's behavior. In fact, she's hurt. She has trouble understanding how a person she thought was so loving and honest could betray her. (It's made doubly troublesome by the fact that she wabout to tell him her secret!)

But in the end, she sees that Steve was only trying to protect her feelings. Sure he was wrong to think that she'd needed her protection, but his heart was in the right place. He'd acted out of his concern for his friend. This was clearly a learning experience for both of them.

But more importantly, it's just a nice, genuinely sensitive moment. And believe it or not Don Heck's artwork actually conveys it pretty well. There is a sweet vulnerability in Diana's face as you see how touched she is by her understanding of Steve's heart. You could see both of them walking away feeling eight miles high--that feeling you get after having a really good, honest conversation with someone you love.

But then that moment gets abruptly interupted by Aegeus. In some ways Aegeus is somewhat eroneous here, and it comes off as kind of a slight to one of the best (then) new villains in the series. But I do see how his fanatical ambition plus Ares' agenda fit into the villainy of the story--the two had essentially conspired with Kohler to prevent peace. But somehow that dosen't quite come through in the story.

Aegeus also does some of the bidding of the continuing plot: Wonder Woman's bracelets and lasso would be repaired next issue, and Steve's long recovery would prompt General Darnell to start favoring Keith Griggs, much to Steve's chagrin.

A few other random notes: In the opening scenes Etta is talking to Senator Abernathy about her "wild, carefree college days." Could that have been at Holliday College? (I believe it is within Earth-1 continuity, as the Holliday Girls did appear in the early 1960's.)

Also, the principal non-super adversary is a fellow named Kohler. Interesting that the name would apply to a similarly jingoistic adversary, who was also allied with Ares during the second issue of the Potter-Perez relaunch.

There is what should have been a magical moment at the end of the story arc. Steve stirs in his his hospital bed. He thinks he sees Wonder Woman in his hazy eyes. He cries "Angel?". But as he wakes he realizes it's only Diana Prince. "No, just me." It is a nice moment, but Don Heck's art does nothing for it.

Then at the very end is an apparent cliffhanger. Diana holds Steve's hand and says "We have things...to talk about." It looks as if she is about to tell him her secret. But annoyingly this does not happen next issue. Seeing as this subplot has been going since # 301, and will continue until at least # 312, this does tend to belabor the suspense!

Wonder Woman # 308-309
"Heritage"/"The Black Canary Is Dead?"
Written by Dan Mishkin
Penciled and Inked by Don Heck
# 308 Edited by Ernie Colon
# 309 Edited by Alan Gold (who would remain through the end of the first series and The Legend Of Wonder Woman)

A ceremony is held on Paradise Island, whereupon Aphrodite replaces Diana's broken bracelet and Athena restores her broken Magic Lasso. Sophia eavesdrops through the thing, and remains afterward to witness a private conversation between Hippolyta and the Goddesses. She then discovers that Steve has been twice brought back from the dead.

Over in Star City, The Black Canary is chasing a gypsy named Zenia Persik, when Zenia performs a trick that switches their minds.

Wonder Woman is about to relieve The Elongated Man on JLA satellite guard duty when they are both aparently attacked by The Black Canary. She is subdued, and under the spell of Wonder Woman's magic lasso, Zenia reveals herself and tells her story: Zenia was chasing a notorious Nazi war criminal, Karl Schangel, who had committed atrocities against her family. BC had mistakenly thought her to be the villain and chased her.

BC is now a captive in Zenia's body, and a prisoner in Schangel's lab. She discovers that Schangel is conducting a plan for world domination. He has kidnapped many children, with the same mental powers as Zenia, and is exploiting their powers to turn them into his beasts. He is about to use them to destroy America's missile defense system.

Zenia and Wonder Woman attack Schangel's lab. Zenia restores herself and Black Canary to their own bodies--but then switches bodies with Wonder Woman. When Zenia can't make WW's powers work, Schangel makes off with her, managing to escape to the site of the missile defense system.

WW manages to fly her plane there even with Zenia's body. She also uses the lasso to snag a test missile about to destroy the sabotaged military installment. She hangs on to the missile, but without her powers, she is trapped in its trajectory--she just managed to alter its course so it will hit Karl Schangel directly. At the last moment, Zenia switches her body back with Wonder Woman, and it is she who dies completing her revenge.

Meanwhile, General Darnell sends Keith Griggs to the Caribbean Control Center instead of the slowly recovering Steve. Back in the hospital, Steve meets Lisa Abernathy's daughter Eloise.

Rating: 4.5
This is, in my estimation, the only real failure in Dan Mishkin's run. The story is convoluted, and contrived past the point of reasonable suspension of disbelief. Despite several good ideas, it never really provides much suspense or interest. It's actually boring, especially the second half.

Maybe the body snatching is the problem. It's just a little too far over the believability line, and it seems to enable overly convenient plot twists. I do see that it was supposed to show Diana and Dinah using their wits instead of their powers (stolen with the body switching.) But somehow that idea gets lost in the mire.

This is one of the rare moments in Earth-1 Wonder Woman which uses a Nazi as a villain. That seems superfluous, even if there is a twist inasmuch as the Gypsies are the injured party instead of the Jews.

The only really good scene is the first. We get to see the Amazons practicing their religion--too rare in the post-Marston, pre-Crisis era. Diana's bracelets are chained, and the "test of steel" is performed: If she can break her chains (which she does) then she is a worthy servant of Aphrodite's Law.

Wonder Woman # 310
"All's Fair..."
Written by Dan Mishkin
Penciled by Mark Beachum
Inked by Pablo Marcos
Edited by Alan Gold

When Wonder Woman tells Black Canary of her plan to tell Steve her secret, it throws her for a loop. To explain her point of view, Diana relates an Amazon legend:

Thousands of years ago, when the Amazons still lived on Themiscyra (an island in the Aegean), Hippolyta won the right to be the Amazons' queen in a contest. The runner up was Hippolyta's best friend, Artemis. She was chosen by the goddesses Athena and Aphrodite to venture into the outside world with the title "Wonder Woman".

During a tidal wave, Artemis rescued a seafaring warrior named Cleon. The two fell in love. But Cleon's co-captain (secretly Ares in disguise) told him lies that a woman like her could never love him unless he is stronger than she. Then as Ares he told Artemis that a man would never love a woman stronger than she.
Artemis agreed to do Ares work and become a ruthless warrior--repudiating the peaceful lessons of the Amazons and their patron goddesses. She refused his plan to conquer Themiscyra and rule in Hippolyta's stead, and Ares seemed to play along. In return, Ares had Eros hit Cleon with an arrow that aparently made him fall in love.

The two became feared world over as conquerors, and their greed grew with their success. Just as Artemis reefed to attack Themiscyra, Ares came disguised as Cleon's captain, bringing news that Hippolyta had been killed.

She rushed to Themiscyra, but Ares led Cleon's charge behind her, and followed her through the mystic barrier around the island*. When she arrived, the attack followed, and her momentary relief at the Queen's safety was replaced by anguish at Hippolyta's accusation of betrayal. Still under Ares' influence, she dueled with Hippolyta for the island's rule.

The Amazons were victorious despite their greater numbers. Just as Artemis was about to slay Hippolyta, the queen realized something was wrong. She threw her sword at Ares, and he cast away his disguise. Artemis was now furious at Cleon, believing he had been part of the conspiracy all along. She tried to slay him, but could not. Ashamed, she left Cleon and her sister Amazons forever. She continued down her path of corruption, and fell when she challenged Athena.

Dinah is puzzled at the moral of the story--shouldn't that discourage her from telling an "outsider" a vital secret. But though that is the way Hippolyta had always told the story, Diana sees it a different way:

"There was another secret she didn't tell...She kept secret the fact that she'd loved Cleon all along, as he'd loved her! If she'd told him that, then Ares could never have led them into lies and betrayal, and she could have been happy with the man she loved."

Rating: 8.0

This single-issue story-arc is a nice, uncomplicated return to form after the mess of # 308-309. The Amazon fable format presages some stories of the Perez run (such as found in the first Annual.) I love that the story is open to interpretation as to what exactly the moral is--and that happily Diana is on the side of trusting the one you love.

The fable itself is an interesting one, but it maybe needed a little tightening up. It is a tragic story, but we don't quite get enough feeling of Artemis' motivation, or enough of her sense of rage and betrayal.

I also like the glimpse into the Amazons' past. It's a nod to the "Earned Power" concept that Hippolyta had become queen by way of a contest, not a divine right.

Guess what, folks. IT'S GREMILIN TIME!

Wonder Woman # 311-312
"Gremlins!"
Written by Dan Mishkin
Penciled and inked by Don Heck
Edited by Alan Gold

Wonder Woman can't control her Invisible Jet. It has been tampered with by gremlins! After an abortive attempt to steal it back, she joins forces with Steve (who has been chasing the tampered jet since it buzzed a secret air force installment.) They chase the plane down in a fighter jet.

They follow it into some mysterious clouds which, to their complete surprise, house a "Sargasso" (the legendary resting place of ships) of the sky. There they find the plane being delivered to an enormous spacecraft.

Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor manage to come aboard the ship. After a run in with an (apparently) large menace, they fall into the ship's garbage incinerator. Wonder Woman is about to tell Steve her secret identity when they get attacked by laser beams (aparently for the purpose of incinerating the waste.)

Wonder Woman spins her lasso to form a protective shield, while Steve manages to knock out the control panel by throwing WW's tiara ("Would it help if I said 'Artemis guide my aim'?")

Escaping the incinerator, Steve grabs a gremlin, and he and WW begin to make him talk. Suddenly, the big alien attacks them. WW lassoes him, but WAIT--he falls over. He's not even alive! The gremlins have been using this long-dead creature as a scarecrow

It seems that the gremlins had been the slave mechanics of the big but dumb conquerors called the "Ytirflirks". 75 years ago, in an attempt to escape, the Gremlins stole the mothership, while the Ytirflirks pursued in a small surveillance craft. Both ships crashed in Siberia. Aparently the Gremlins survived, but the Ytirflirks did not. They had been spending the last three quarters of a century stealing aircraft and taking them apart to find parts to repair their ship.

The Invisible Plane, it seems, is being used for its propulsion system. The Gremlins are pretty sure it will boost the ship's primary thrusts.

Wonder Woman offers a solution: She distracts the gremlins while Steve flies the Invisible Plane (now mysteriously talking!) which his prisoner gremlin frees at the last moment after it has done its job and boosted the mothership's thrusts. The ship takes off, and the gremlin is not on it. Wonder Woman and Steve are now responsible for their gremlin prisoner.

While the Gremlin is futzing around, Wonder Woman tries again to tell Steve her secret identity, but amazingly Steve doesn't let her! "You're my angel, and that's how I want you to stay...not turn out to be someone who sweeps up at the Pentagon at night."

However, over at Paradise Island, another secret is being uncovered. Sophia follows up on her eavesdropping (from issue # 308) and steals some of Diana's memory tapes--the memories that have been taken from her.

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, Keith Griggs' mission (the one that was supposed to go to Steve) isn't going well. He and his partner are being chased by mysterious man-beasts. Then Keith's partner is transformed into a panther, and Keith is captured by Circe.

NOTE: In truth, from here on is pretty much one big story arc. The plots begun here didn't all wind down until after Dan Mishkin's departure--and some plot elements (such as the brewing Darnell scandal) were never settled after CRISIS cut them short.

Rating: 7.5

This story marks a noticeable change in direction from the earlier Mishkin stories. The mythological elements were still present, as are the splendid characterization of Diana and friends. But now there is an equal emphasis on goofy, somewhat childlike fantasy (perhaps Mishkin realized that "cute" was something Don Heck could actually do well.) Also, the subplots involving the supporting cast gather storm, beginning to reach soap opera levels of complexity. But amazingly, the story remains focused, and for the most part the subplots all remain relevant and interesting--each element reflecting the fragility of Diana's world as it begins to come apart.

The Gremlin (who would remain unnamed until christened "Glitch" by Eloise Abernathy in issue # 321) is probably the single most controversial element in Mishkin's run. Personally, I like him. He was cute, sure, but not cloyingly so. Like Diana's patron gods, Glitch was a somewhat sprightly and unpredictable ally.

I also love Steve's angle with his new "little buddy". Just as a child often invents an "imaginary friend", when a baby brother or sister steals attention away, Steve too developed a magic buddy (who none could see but he and the only semi-present Wonder Woman) at a time when his father figure (General Darnell) had found a new favorite (Keith Griggs.) Soon he would react against his boredom by taking off with his new invisible friend and having an adventure!

I suppose one might be offended by a grown man acting out of such childlike impulses, but to me it's just endearing. This is a place where we get to see Steve's inner workings. And anyway, there is a child inside every adult. And the psychological undercurrents are absolutely true to the Wonder Woman title--lets not forget who invented the character! This is one of the very few times since Marston's death that we see psychology play into the stories.

Then there is the other Steve matter: He refuses to be told Wonder Woman's secret identity! He rejects a bit of knowledge you'd think he'd have given anything to have. But in a way, it makes sense. Perhaps he already knew, on some level, who Wonder Woman was. But perhaps he also sensed his world changing around him. It's as if he was resisting a change with love because he desperately needed to hold on to his one illusion.

Meanwhile, Sophia turns on her newfound "sisters" out of apparent loyalty to Diana. And the foundation is laid for a plotline that would expose Hippolyta's years of lying to Diana--and attempt to have her atone for her sins. And there is a segue to the next story arc, involving Circe....

Wonder Woman # 313-314
"The Nature of the Beast" or "The Animal Within"
Written by Dan Mishkin
Pencilled and inked by Don Heck.
Edited by Alan Gold

Reporting by mental radio from the jet, Diana confers with her mother about Steve's refusal to hear her secret identity. Hippolyta muses that Steve is unworthy to hear such secrets. Both Diana and Sophia (right behind Hippolyta) are annoyed at the suggestion. Sophia is reminded of the secrets Hippolyta apparently thinks her daughter is unworthy of hearing.

On a mysterious Carribean Island, Keith Griggs is a prisonier of Circe. Having already transformed his partner, she transforms Keith into a ram.

When Wonder Woman returns to the Pentagon as Diana Prince, she hears of Keith's plight. It seems that he had been in the Carribean investigating reports of arms smuggling by American Intelegence officers when his plane disappeared. Diana is alarmed. Steve is offended that Keith was picked instead of him, though he dosen't exactly say it outright.

She flies over in an air force jet. But Circe sends a dragon-man to bring her plane down. Diana abandons her plane, changes into Wonder Woman, and glides down to the island.

She confronts Circe, who sends every man-animal she can find at her. She also does some mysterious musing about a prophecy that Diana will be her downfall. It seems that she is trying to kill Diana to forestall the possibilty of fufilling it.

Suddenly lightning starts to attack her from the sky. She deflects them with her bracelts, but amazingly the lightning fuses her braclets together--and suddenly she is powerless! Then Circe sends the transformed Keith Griggs ram at her!

Wonder Woman does manage to talk Keith out of Circe's influence. He does charge at her--right between the bracelets! The bond is broken and her powers returned. The spell on Keith is broken, and Wonder Woman sends him away.

Wonder Woman realizes Circe must have a male accomplice who sent the lightning down--her bracelts must be chained by a male to take away her powers. She deflects another bolt (wisely with only one bracelet!) and it hits a garden of flowers and sets them aflame. Circe is pannicked--not only were flames part of the prophecy, but those flowers have been the tool she has used for her eternal youth! Then suddenly a giant mirror appears, and Circe sees a reflection in the mirror of herself as an old woman. She reacts against it--but gets swallowed up

Wonder Woman sees just who this male accomplice was--and that in fact he was the master rather than her "pet"--as Circe's leaopard transforms into the giant Aztec God Tezcatlipoca! He forces her to look at an image of herself as Diana Prince--which not only changes her into her Di Prince guise, but removes her powers! Keith and his cohort are rounded up, and they are all taken prisonier in Tezcatlipoca's dream realm. There Diana finds yet another surprise--Amazons!

Back in Paradise Island, Sophia swims with Diana's memory tape to Science Island. She attacks Paula, knocking her unconcious, and plays back the tape in the memory chair. She wants to tell Diana what she learns, and realizes that after her indiscretions she whas effectively burned her bridge with the Amazons. She resolves to escpae from Paradise Island.

Meanwhile, General Darnell is off to the Senate to try and defend his department's funding. Steve is left to mind the store, but he gets bored fast. He slips off to Andrew's Air Force Base to kill time (making a dinner date with Etta which he will not keep) where he meets up with his Gremlin buddy. It seems the little guy has been trying to repair the Invisible Plane. When Lisa Abernathy comes by to warn Steve of General Darnell's political danger, Steve realizes that she can't see his gremlin pal. Then suddenly the Gremlin gets a message on the mental radio from Sophia.
Rating: 8.0
Several plots begin to really heat up here. The many subplot could have diluted the book's focus, but amazingly they don't. In fact, this period comes off as quite a ride through Diana's world.

Wonder Woman's encounter with Circe is pretty satisfying. First of all, despite the constant attacks, Wonder Woman does seem to be looking for a peaceful solution. Her primary concerns are Keith's safety (he is an innocent bystander after all, whom Circe had just used to lure Diana) and trying to understand why Circe finds the need to attack her.

The idea that Circe's enmity with Diana stems from a prophecy is introduced here. The same idea would be reintroduced in the Perez run. Personally I like it better here, maybe because the story is kept simple and straightforward: Circe tries to kill Diana because it is foretold that Diana will be her downfall, but in doing so she causes the prophecy to come true. The Perez version, by contrast, also contains a long and (IMHO) not entirely relavant story about the origin of the gods, which seems to only make the story longer
.
Meanwhile, the supporting cast's subplots really take off. Steve begins his childlike adventure with Glitch, right after his father figure (Darnell) denies him attention.

Sophia has some great moments too. Even as she pushes forward, she senses that she may be making a mistake, and there is a real sense of regret: "I've lost any chance I had to become one of them...It's all been just another wrong turn ina life that's full of them...and I'll take care of myself the way I always have."

Wonder Woman # 315-316
"The Face In The Mirror"/"The Chaos Game"
Written by Dan Mishkin
Art by Don Heck
Edited by Alan Gold

Last issue, Tezcatlipoca, an Aztec god, had appeared as a battle with Circe ended. He had tthen changed Wonder Woman back into Diana Prince. She now finds out that she's also without her powers! Keith Griggs is dragged in just in time to miss the transformation (good thing, too!) and all are transported to his "dream" realm, where he's apparently in complete control (though as the story goes on, it seems more and more like he's talking trash.:) )

Diana Prince must use what remains of her memory of her powerless months to confront the mad gods' Amazon slaves. Diana and Keith then escape and hide out in a small supply building. Keith is astonished at Diana's courage and skill. And Diana appreciates that unlike Steve, Keith recognizes these qualitites in her.

They come accross a small statue of the mad god tied to a warrior. Diana tries to pick it up, but she gets an electric shock from it. Then they are kicked out by some Aztec warriors. Comming out the back doorm, they head for a temple adorned by black mirrors, hoping to confront Tezcatlipoca there. They each enter from a different angle. Diana has considerable trouble climbing over a door and slipping in through a grillwork, without her powers.

She comes upon Tezcatlipoca in a room full of mirrors. She gets a quick glance of an eagle, a symbol of Amazon courage, in a cage. Tezcatlipoca proceeds to taunt Diana with disquieting images of herself--as Wonder Woman lusting after power, as a Wonder MAN, and as young princess seeking her mother's favor. He then starts boasting about his plans to create chaos and war in a Central American country called Tropidor, and an image of savgery in that counrty appears in the mirror. Just then, Keith bursts in and attacks, but missing Tezcatlipoca, he falls into the mirror, and into Tropidor!

While Tezcatlipoca is distracted, Diana gets a hold of herself. She manages to break the mental hold the mad god has over her. Reaching into the mirror, she manages to change herself once again into Wonder Woman!

With a throw of her tiara, the mirrors are shattered. The shards fly at her from all directions, but she deflects them with her bracelts. Then as the Amazons attack, she preforms the [i]coop de grace[/i]. With her lasso, she opens the cage and frees the eagle. Suddenly the Amazons are freed of the god's mental enslavement. Together, WW and the Amazons easily take on the threat of some moving statues.

Over in Tropidor, Keith comes upon an army captain, whose name (we find out) is Emillio Montez. He is being cruelly sacrificed by some rebels. Using a few tricks from the spy book, Keith gets him free, and they meet up with Montez's army just in time to try to prevent an advance of the rebels.

Returning to the storehouse, Wonder Woman finds the statue of Tezcatlipoca tied to the warrior. Since she still can't touch it, she lassoes it. Right in front of the mad god's face, she throws it on the ground and destroys it. Tezcatlipoca is removed from his mortal host, but all he can do is laugh.

His words echo as as Keith and the Tropidorian army stake out the road: "The seed of madness has been planted...and it will bear the fruit of chaos! I hold the key to the secret corner of the mind..." Keith and the army ambush the rebells advance, brutally blowing up their calvary, "...that revels in discord and disarray. I need only unlock that place in a few, and then they will work my way upon their fellow men!" Rebels are shot and killed. "For it matters not who wins or loses a single battle, so long as the day of final chaos is brought closer to hand!"

On that eerie note, Tezcatlipoca disapears, leaving Wonder Woman to question just who these strange Amazons are!

Back in Washington, General Darnell testifies in Congress, trying to avoid losing his department's funding. Reporter Lisa Abernathy worries that his adversary, Senator Covington, may have some dirty tricks up his sleeve.

At the Pentagon, Etta is being stood up by Steve. She covers for his absence by lying to General Darnell. Then as she leaves she discovers that her suspicion that she was being watched was true. The watcher is Howard Huckabie, aide to Senator Covington. He wants to look at some files, and then will Etta go out to dinner with him afterwards? She accepts.

In Amazon territory, Sophia escapes Science Island by bluffing Hippolyta into thinking she can erase the captive Paula's memories. She tells her she knows about Diana's lost memories. Her mental radio calls to the Invisible Plane go unanswered, since occupants Steve and his little buddy, the Gremlin, can't get the mental radio to work. But they head for Paradise Island. Upon arrival, they are greeted by Amazons on hanglider: "Intruder, land the robot plane immediately!" "Uh-oh!" muses Steve. We've just bought ourselves a mess of trouble!"

Rating: 8.0

This story, or rather this part of the many larger stories, is fun, exciting, and thoughtful all at once.

The centerpiece is Diana Prince/Wonder Woman's confrontation with Tezcatlipoca. The theme of Wonder Woman battling with a god or goddess of discord foreshaddows George Perez's "Ares Project" story arc, which two and a half years later would begin his relaunch. It also bears resemblance to the "Gods Of Gotham" storyline unfolding as we speak.

What makes the concept really interesting is that since Tezcatlipoca feeds on chaos and discord, it actually dosen't matter to him which side comits the act of violence. This is shown in especially well in the last act, where Tezcatlipoca's taunting words echo as Keith Griggs and Captain Montez, the "good guys", ambush their enemies.

Since Wonder Woman spends the first half reverted to a powerless Diana Prince, we get to see the storytelling bennefits of depowering the heroine. As with the powerless Diana Prince era, Diana is given a very good chance to show her courage and stamina. As she climbs up the temple's ddorway, she is momentarily taken aback by how hard it suddenly is for her. But then she reminds herself: Keith doesn't complain that he's not a Superman.

The mythical country of Tropidor is introduced here, together with Captain (soon Colonel) Montez. Soon the country and the Pentagon's involvement would contribute to the upcoming General Darnell scandal.

It is natural, but nonetheless intriguing, that General Darnell is on the side of military spending. This was a hot issue in the 1980's, a time when Reagan's military spending grew to excess (with items such as a $4,000 coffee pot showing up regularly), and no doubt would contribute to the recession of the 1990s.

What is interesting is that this generally progressive and peace-loving book reminds us that our protagonists are, by profession, soldiers. In a way, Diana's man's-world family is suddenly on the wrong side of history. It's also intriguing that this comes just as Diana fights a villain who proponent of unchecked warfare.

Some of the first stirrings of the Darnell plotline come with this issue. Senator Covington has obviously sent Howard Huckabie to spy on the Pentagon. His sweet-talking with Etta would soon grow into a fascinating storyline, that would finally begin to give Etta Candy her due.

Sophia has a good moment confronting Hippolyta. However, so far the growing story about Hippolyta's lies does not make the Amazon Queen look good, at least at this point.
Steve and Glitch, for their part, provide a few genuinely "cute" moments

Wonder Woman # 317
"Amazons!"
Written by Dan Mishkin
Penciled by Don Heck
Inked by Rick Magyar
Edited by Alan Gold

With Tezcatlipoca beaten (for the time being), Wonder Woman follows the freed Amazons to their secret home on the Amazon River (appropriately enough!) in South America. When they hear that she is Hippolyta's daughter, they try to arrest her. But the Queen, Atalanta, stops that nonsense and explains their ire.

It seems that these are descendants of the same tribe as Diana's ancestors. After Heracles betrayed Hippolyta, her personality had changed. She withdrew her nation from the outside world and forbade her subjects to consort with men. At that order, these Amazons left the mainstream nation and found a new home in South America.

Diana reminds Atalanta that the removal of the Amazons from "man's world" had been Aphrodite's order. Atalanta replies that she believes the love goddess was testing Hippolyta's ability to overcome her wounded pride and learn to love again. She momentarily thinks that Diana's presence shows that she had indeed opened her heart, until of course she hears of Diana's clay origins.

Diana is bewildered by the picture Atalanta paints of Hippolyta. Atalanta replies that while Hippolyta was a fine teacher, she refused to be taught. Knowing that Hippolyta had never told her daughter a thing about the nation's South American offshoot, Atalanta wonders what other secrets she is keeping...

On Paradise Island, Hippolyta and her troops assault Steve and his Gremlin buddy on the Invisible Jet. When the Gremlin gets the mental radio to work, Steve communicates with Hippolyta. He confronts her about the secrets he has heard from Sophia (when the mental radio was receiving her messages, but not transmitting.) He now knows that she had kept Wonder Woman's memories from her, and he even knows something about his having been dead! She brushes him off. He demands to know where Sophia is, but then he suddenly sees her on a raft, drifting out to sea.

The currents drag her into a mysterious cave, in a trance. Steve lands the plane near the cave's mouth. He and his Gremlin buddy follow her boat by foot on a ledge. They pass a number of gods, apparently frozen in place and standing in a row like statues. Then they find Sophia, being rowed by Charon the Ferryman into the Gates of Hades!

Cerberus, the vicious three-headed hound, guards the gates. While the Gremlin bites the hellhound's tail, Steve grabs Sophia, knocking her out of her trance. They dive into the water and grab the ferry. Steve punches Charon out and pushes him overboard. (!) Finally, Steve, Sophia and the Gremlin escape in the Invisible Jet and return to Washington DC....

.... Only they have awakened Eros, the god of love. And he wants to reclaim (?) Wonder Woman as his own!

Meanwhile, Etta shares a pizza with Howard Huckabie. They make a second date and Howard secretly plans to put a mysterious plan into action.

Rating: 8.0

True. Hippolyta wasn't looking good at this time. It is perhaps ultimately not to the advantage of Wonder Woman mythos that she has apparently become such a coward. But that, unfortunately, was long since a fact of the "Earth-1" Hippolyta. Clearly Mishkin intended to have her ultimately repent for her sins. Unfortunately, the repentance would be cut off by the series' cancellation, and at this point she just seems cowardly.

Nonetheless the storytelling is excellent. Diana learns of one of her mother's indiscretion, and begins to wonder what else she is keeping from her. But she is still blissfully ignorant of just how much of her home front was about to unravel.

The lost tribe of Amazons is a somewhat curious retcon. It does spark interest in the DCU Amazons' back history (definitely a plus) but to be honest the lost tribe is not quite explored to my satisfaction. The idea would of course come up again in the Perez run, but by contrast the Banas storyline would seem rather overly drawn out in this reader's eyes.

Probably the most exciting scene is the rescue of Sofia from the Gates of Hades by Steve and Glitch. This is the climax of Steve's adventure with his "little buddy", and an exciting one at that. It may be pushing it to suggest that a mortal like Steve might manage to defy a death legend, even with a gremlin's help. But for the fun of this story, I am willing to suspend disbelief.

Speaking of such, Steve had himself aparently returned from the dead twice himself by this time---or had he. Though he now knows something of his weird past (or was it his past?), he too is blissfully ignorant of the storm he has just unleashed by waking the god Eros.

Wonder Woman # 319-321
“Diana Prince: TRAITOR”, “Launch On Warning”, “Doctor Cyber’s Revenge”
Written by Dan Mishkin
Penciled by Don Heck
Inked by Rick Magyar

Steve Trevor drops off Sofia off at the pentagon and begins looking for Diana Prince. She aparently catches her in the hall and pulls her inside. She starts to tell her the secrets she’s learned, not only Steve’s two returns from the dead, but also (obviously) her dual identity. But then Diana Prince zaps her with a bracelet, knocking her out! The gremlin looks on from outside the window.

But if that was Diana Prince, then how is Wonder Woman chasing a big mechanical bird? It seems that the Diana Prince we saw was actually Doctor Cyber, who has long known Wonder Woman’s secret identity, and is using it against her. Sofia is taken prisoner, and while Wonder Woman is led on a merry chase with this shape-changing robot, Dr. Cyber uses her disguise to drag Diana’s name through the mud. She knocks out a guard, and steals nuclear submarines’ launch codes!

When Wonder Woman finally subdues her mechanical foe, she changes herself back into Diana Prince and tries to return to her Georgetown apartment. But Keith Griggs is waiting for her, and is about to arrest her. Of course, she wil not be chained by a man, so she eludes arrest.

Steve gets a major chewing out from General Darnell for his long disappearance (his adventure with his gremlin buddy from 313-317.) But then his gremlin visits, telling him he knows that it wasn’t Diana Prince who had stolen the launch codes. Steve swallows his embarrassment and begs the General to let him investigate. Even though Steve can’t reveal the source of his suspicions (he’s not about to tell his angry boss about his invisible gremlin!) Darnell lets him go.

The act of treason creates a big scandal for Darnell, and gets tremendous, unwanted media coverage. Etta Candy watches Lisa Abernathy’s coverage at home with Lisa, daughter Eloise, her father (and Etta and Diana’s landlord) Senator Abernathy, and Howard Huckabie, and is angered. But Lisa reminds her that she has not revealed Di’s name. Meanwhile, it seems Howard is convinced that Etta is really Wonder Woman!

Later, we also find out that Lisa is a little too cozy with Senator Covington, General Darnell’s enemy.

Wonder Woman manages to avert disaster when she prevents a nuclear submarine from launching. She manages to deduce that it is Dr. Cyber’s work, but is unsure of her whereabouts and her ultimate intentions.

Keith is targeted by one of Cyber’s people for trying to clear Di’s name when he is pushed in front of an oncoming subway train. Diana Prince rescues him at the last moment. They both team up to find Cyber. Keith breaks into the war computer and discovers that Cyber has stolen cyphers for top-secret messages which she will sell to the highest bidder. And by tracing her messages Keith and Diana find her hideout, audaciously placed inside an emergency command base the president would use in case of nuclear war. Diana convinces Keith to let her go ahead without him, but not before the two share a kiss.

Steve and his gremlin have found the base themselves and broken in part of the way. Wonder Woman bursts through a wall and joins them in confronting Dr. Cyber, and attempting to rescue Sofia who is held prisoner. Cyber lassoes Wonder Woman with wires that absorb her energy and burn her. The more she struggles, the more they burn. But then unexpectedly the god Eros bursts in and rescues her.

When Eros finds out who he is fighting, he goes ballistic. He wants revenge for killing him (read on!) and will not be satisfied with anything less than her death. Wonder Woman briefly subdues him with her lasso, then releases him with a promise that he won’t kill Cyber. Just as they seem to have her, she disappears, aparently using an invisibility ray. They track her down to a rocket which she tries to escape with. Wonder Woman and Eros try to stop her, but she gives the rocket full blast—then succeeds only in crashing her rocket into the ground. Naturally, they find no sign of her. (She has to be kept alive for her next villainy—Wait! She never came back!) Nonetheless there is enough evidence to clear Diana Prince’s name.

While Diana, Steve, and Eros are occupied outside, the gremlin rigs the base computer to pick up hyperspace messages. He discovers that the Ytirflirks are returning!

With the action over, Wonder Woman and Steve ask what Eros what he was doing there, and why he was so vengeful at Cyber. His answer: “Because I am the real Steve Trevor, and she killed me!”

up to this point I had been collecting on and off. It was 319 that first made a big impression on me. I remember reading about the Di Prince alter ego being dragged through the mud by Cyber while Wonder Woman was occupied, and I was enthralled! I believe it was here that my fandom really took off. And I got to colecting back issues fervently--and it was back issues exclusively for a while once the post-CRISIS relaunch happenned.

Anyway, my rating is 7.5

Reading the whole story arc now, I do have to admit that things had grown awfully complicated by this point. The subplots which here come to a boil might be a little much, especially for a new reader. And while most of them involve supporting players who were absolutely relavant to Diana and her world, the story between Lisa Abernathy and Senator Covington might just be one degree of seperation too many.

But you know what? I LOVE this story! Once you know what's going on, it's exciting! I love watching Cyber work--I only wish there were more scenes of her plotting revenge before she's in the heat of battle. I love watching Diana Prince resuce Keith from the oncoming subway train. I love their sparks, and the inevitable heartbreak. I love watching Steve get yelled at by Gen Darnell, then have to go back to him on hands and knees after a tip from Glitch. And then I love watching him talk to his invisible gremlin while a puzzled Etta watches on!

The addition of Eros to the mix is weird, but I actually kind of like it. I thought it was really funny, especially when you find out he has the original Earth-1 Steve's memories, that he wants revenge on Dr. Cyber! It really brings out the werid side of Steve's nine-lives syndrome.

And best of all, there is the truly inspired storyline, where Howard thinks Etta is really Wonder Woman! This case of mistaken secret identity would soon finally give Etta her due.

This story is a sure sign that there was still plenty of umph in the Wonder Woman legend.

Wonder Woman # 322
“Bid Time Return”
Written by Dan Mishkin
Penciled by Don Heck
Inked by Rick Magyar
Edited by Alan Gold

NOTE: Since the events in Diana’s main storyline are so momentous, I’m actually starting with the subplots, to get them out of the way.

The gremlin sits worried. The previous issue he had picked up a transmission that the Ytirflirks were coming back to earth, and after him! He looks for Steve and Wonder Woman, but cannot find them anywhere.

But he is seen by a man in S.T.A.R. labs named Gardiner Grayle. The sighting confirms what he too had picked up: the transmission from space that shows an invasion is imminent. The former guinea pig of US government experiments, he has special perceptive powers that allowed him to pick up the Ytirflirks’ transmission, and he can also see into the future to see what it might mean for the planet earth—total nuclear devastation! He resolves to warn the people of the world, but he is visited by Cassandra, and warned that he is like her—a prophet who will never be believed.

At the Pentagon, the Gremlin can’t find Steve there. He listens in on a conversation between General Phillip Darnell and Major Keith Griggs. They are plotting a desperate action, perhaps in Tropidor, to prove themselves to Congress and the public, and hopefully save their department’s funding. Lisa Abernathy joins the discussion, leaving her daughter Eloise in an absentminded Etta’s charge.

As the gremlin stalks out, invisible (he thinks), he is startled when Eloise sees him and follows him. The frustrated gremlin yells “Glitches!”, and thus is born his earth name, “Glitch”. She shows him to her friends, Michelle, Mark, and Kevin. The children all band together with Glitch to fight the invasion.

Now the big news:

Diana now knows of Hippolyta’s manipulations with her memories. She has come to Science Island with Steve Trevor, Sophia, and Eros and played back her memory tapes. She is devastated at her mother’s betrayal. She suspects that her mother’s motive had been to thwart her love affair with Steve.

Steve is utterly confused at the talk of his two deaths, and Eros’ words about having been Steve Trevor himself. He demands to know: “Am I Steve Trevor or am I not?” Hippolyta reveals the events of issues 270 and 271, that he is a Steve Trevor from an alternate universe (no “Earth-?” number given), that his experimental plane had pierced the veil between dimensions and crash-landed on the Paradise Island of Earth-1, just like his namesake. His memories, as well as those of the outside world, had been altered by the Mists of Nepenthe so that they would think that this Steve had always belonged to Earth-1.

Eros is a harder question to answer. Leaving the males on Science Island, Diana, Sophia and Hippolyta pray to Aphrodite in the shrine on Paradise Island for the answers. She relates the story. It turns out that when Steve was first resurrected, he was not entirely himself. Aphrodite had reanimated Steve with the life force of her son, Eros, and the memories of the original Earth-1 Steve Trevor. So it was Eros, with Steve’s memories, who had served as Steve Howard in the 1970’s issues. And when this incarnation died in issue # 248, Eros’ spirit had been intertwined with his killer, Dark Commander, turning the spirit of Eros into a mad god. Aphrodite had then put him to sleep in the cavern where Steve and Glitch would inadvertently awaken him in issue # 317.

So now Eros believes he is the real Steve Trevor, and in the absence Diana on Science Island, he has attacked the current Steve. In a show of godlike power, he takes the “big god” form, tries to step on Steve (Wonder Woman saves him), and in the process, inadvertently harms the Purple Healing Ray. Paula tries to save the ray, but it suddenly goes off, discharging a lethal ray at Paradise Island that devastates its architecture.

Meanwhile, Hippolyta begins to redeem herself. As her daughter fights Eros, Hippolyta and Sophia lead a charge against the mad Eros on horseback. An oversize Eros cruelly drops Steve to the ground, and for a moment it seems like Diana will watch Steve die for a third time!

But Hippolyta acts instantly to save Steve, and fixes the ray just enough to aim its healing power at him. Eros tries to stop the ray from healing the man he wants to kill, but he too is caught in the ray’s healing power.

When the purple mists have cleared, a most remarkable thing has happened! Eros is cured of his madness---and he no longer has the original Steve’s memories. Now all Steve’s Earth-1 memories belong to the current Steve Trevor!

But not all souls are as easily healed. Even as Sophia decides to stay on Paradise Island and help rebuild, Diana cannot find it within herself to forgive her mother. She leaves Paradise Island with Steve, saying “This place has been a refuge since I first ventured out into man’s world, but now I feel as much a stranger here as I ever have among the mortals, for though the world of men is flawed and often hostile, I have seen too much—and loved too much, to be satisfied with Paradise again.”

With those words, Hippolyta is left alone, wishing only that she could take her foolish actions back.

Rating: 8.5

Ten years and over a hundred issues earlier, Len Wein had done an issue (212) that straightened out the loose ends of that time. But in the decade since, the character's continuity had long since become a big mess once again.

The course Dan Mishkin took with this arc may be the single most controversial move (among Wonder fans) in his three years on the title. Some fans feel (understandably) that this storyline dragged out story elements that shouldn't have been there in the first place, and was an unfortunate reminder of dishonorable portrayals of Hippolyta, and by extension, Paradise Island.

With the CRISIS and the end of the series approaching, it would have been easy to let things stay as they were let much of Diana's Earth-1 history remain a lie. And Hippolyta could have remained a liar. But this was not Mishkin’s decision.

My own feeling is that by the early eighties, the odd continuity and bizarre manipulations were too big to ignore. For instance, Gerry Conway's plot contrivance reviving Steve (from an indeterminate point in the Mulitverse) worked as far as restoring the classic supporting cast, which I'm thankful for, but effectively he had created a Steve who was essentially an impostor.

Personally, I thank Dan Mishkin greatly for not giving up on Wonder Woman. I thank him for making Hippolyta own up to her sins, and showing that she is a loving mother despite her actions. I thank him for recognizing all the essential elements of Diana's history, even the inconvenient parts. I thank him for resolving Steve's weird history. And I thank him for bringing closure to my favorite comics character before her story ended forever.

Diana's remark at the end is an eye-opener. Back in # 301, she had explained to Sophia her own motives for leaving the island, saying (to paraphrase) that it takes someone who really understands how Paradise can be to find the strength to leave it. And here she says that having lived and loved so much of man's world, she may never be satisfied with Paradise again.

I think what is implied is an interesting comment on Paradise Island, and her mother. It's as if the nature of Paradise itself had been threatened by Diana's exploits in the outside world. By venturing outside, Diana was subject to the pain of the flawed world of mortals. Hippolyta's efforts at editing her memories were Paradise's answer--since Diana's memories gave her sorrow, then they were simply removed. Diana, however, was changed by the world of mortals, in some ways for the better. She wished to live as she had been doing, as a mortal, for all the natural pain and imperfection that implied.

Clearly Hippolyta's actions were wrong, but they were done out of love. And this issue goes out of its way to have Hippolyta redeem herself. First we see her heroically leading a charge against Eros' assault. Then she acts quickly and decisively to save Steve's life--significant because Diana had accused her of trying to get between her and Steve. Finally, at the end she acknowledges, accepts, and praises her daughter's independence.

But the rift is not so easily healed. The end is truly emotional, with a quote from Shakespeare’s "Richard II" illustrating Hippolyta's regret at her intractable actions. Sad to say, though, Don Heck's compositions do little to carry the emotion through.

Steve's fight with Eros might have turned into a Popeye-style fight-for-the-girl scene, but it is saved by that sexist fate by a line from Steve: "You can't tell people whom to love, or beat up other guys to win the girl." Clearly, it is only Eros who fights for Diana's heart. Steve only fights for his life! And there is another moment (forgot to mention it above) where Eros tries to smite Diana with one of his love arrows (ala Cupid), but fortunately the ever self-sufficient Diana deflects it with her bracelet.

In other news, the gremlin finally has a name! Within the story, the name is picked by Eloise Abernathy (with an acknowledgment of the then-popular "Gremlins" movie, which incidentally came AFTER WW's gremlin’s introduction, as well as the Smurfs!) In real life, the name "Glitch" was selected in a contest announced in the lettercol. The reader who suggested the name was Mrs. Mary Lou S. Mayfield of Union, New Jersey. She received Dan Mishkin's script for the issue, as well as Ed Barreto's original sketch for the cover.

Meanwhile, the seeds are sown for another story arc, which would fill issues 324-325 (following the next, wonderful Etta-centered issue # 323), and turn out to be Dan Mishkin's last.

Wonder Woman # 323
“Night Of Many Wonders”
Written by Dan Mishkin
Penciled and Inked by Don Heck
Edited by Alan Gold

High up above the earth, the Monitor is watching. He has been helping out some of Wonder Woman’s greatest villains. He has given Dr. Psycho an “ectoplasmic extractor” (we’ll find out what that is later), told Silver Swan where her love “Captain Wonder” is (that’s one of Dr. Psycho’s disguises), sent Angle Man to a place where he could re-power his angler, and aparently let Cheetah into the same place too.

Etta Candy and Howard Huckabie look for the missing Eloise in the closed National Air and Space Museum (aparently that’s part of the Pentagon?) Instead they run into the Cheetah!

By now, Howard is convinced that Etta is really Wonder Woman. He unwittingly spills the beans, and Cheetah takes them prisoner. Their Dr. Psycho is behind the controls of a fighter plane, pretending to be a war hero (!) Cheetah tells him that she has Wonder Woman in her alter ego, and he ties Etta’s wrists together hoping to turn off her “powers”. He then displays the properties of the Ecotplasmic Extractor: Using the image he had plucked from Steve Trevor’s mind (way back in issue 289), he is able now without a medium to turn into Captain Wonder again. (“Oh brother” muses Etta.)

Silver Swan busts in, very angry to see Captain Wonder consorting with another woman (Cheetah.) She starts to fight her, but then it is explained that they have Wonder Woman’s alter-ego prisoner, and a surprised Silver Swan reveals that she is really Helen Alexandros.

Angle Man has broken in too, and found the Daedelus Space Shuttle, where a couple of years earlier (somewhere in the 270’s) the power of his angler had been transferred (as he had just found out from the Monitor.) The angler does charge up, but surprisingly the space shuttle does too, and crashes through a few walls then meets the rest of the villains at the museum. Captain Wonder and Silver Swan maneuver it so it ends up outside. While the villains fight amongst themselves, Howard and Etta get themselves free. Etta tells Howard that she is not Wonder Woman.

But she can be! She manages to extract some power from the machine, and transform herself into a Wonder Woman! Finally the tables turn, and Wonder-Etta has things almost at hand.

Meanwhile, Wonder Woman and Steve are returning from Paradise Island. Steve is now contented, and finally whole with his new memories. But for Wonder Woman the memories are not so easy. She almost stops in South America to meet Atalanta and her tribe, but decides against looking for substitute “mother”. Instead, she and Steve return to the Pentagon, where they are shocked to see the space shuttle outside next to a huge hole in the wall.

Investigating the situation, Wonder Woman comes upon Wonder-Etta, and together they subdue the four villains. Etta is transformed back into herself. Howard tells her that he doesn’t care that she’s not Wonder Woman—he loves her anyway! And Steve tells Wonder Woman he loves her.

But later Diana Prince is feeling forgotten, actually offended that nobody thought she might be Wonder Woman. But she runs into Keith Griggs, who has feelings for her, and the two have a talk.

In another part of town, Gardiner Grayle is tormented by his knowledge of the future. Hoping to warn the world of its impending doom, he puts on a super-suit and takes the guise of The Atomic Knight.

And Eloise Abernathy is no closer to being found. She and her friends hide out in a computer store, where Glitch tries to send the Ytirflirks false information to prevent them from landing on Earth. But all he succeeds in doing is revealing his (and the kids’) location. Trying to run away, they are caught in a park. Glitch and all but one of the kids are beamed up to an alien spacecraft.

Rating: 7.0

Admittedly, a lot of my affection for this somewhat silly story has to do with nostalgia. The main attraction is, of course, that it finally, finally gives Etta Candy her due. But that plus some clever scripting is enough to make this story fun and enjoyable, despite its flaws.

The plotting is somewhat weak. For much of the issue, little progresses is made in the story while more and more characters are added to the mix. (sound familiar?) Also, one’s suspension of disbelief is somewhat strained by the choice of a major American landmark as the villains’ hideout.

It is nice to see some of Wonder Woman’s classic (and underused) villains appearing in a story. This one does build on their various histories since Gerry Conway’s 1980 mini-revamp. Unfortunately it also has a fairly major continuity flub involving Silver Swan.

When first introduced by Roy Thomas in issues 288-290, Helen Alexandros’ powers had been granted by Ares/Mars, who took them away just as easily after her failure to defeat Wonder Woman. Here she is Silver Swan again, as if the end had never happened (maybe the Monitor re-charged her?) Also, Helen had already learned Wonder Woman’s actual alter ego. Yet here she is convinced with the others that Etta is Wonder Woman.

This is another of Mishkin’s stories to have a somewhat weak ending. Once Etta is charged up, and the real Wonder Woman arrives, the action is ended without a whole lot of ceremony.

Even so, this is a genuinely fun story. There is a lot of wit in the execution. Mishkin, like Dr. Marston before him and Bill Loebs after him, has an eye for a funny situation and clever dialogue. There’s Dr. Psycho’s childish game of make-believe in the fighter jet, Steve’s witty remark about the out-of-place space shuttle (“How did it get out here? And don’t say ‘through the hole in the wall!’”) and a lot of gentle characterization involving Eloise and her kid friends, hiding out with Glitch in a kid’s parents’ computer store.

This issue was one of many DC Comics from this period (late 1984) leading up to CRISIS On Infinite Earths (which would ultimately kill this very series.) There are some interesting scenes between Lyla (soon “Harbinger”) and the yet unseen Monitor. She is confounded and annoyed at his flaky shifts in alliances, and suspects that he is enjoying the game.

But of course the main event is Etta Candy’s Big Moment. I love that she was mistaken for Wonder Woman. The Golden Age Etta Candy is (IMHO) easily the best sidekick Wonder Woman has ever had. Her never-say-die attitude made her almost as good as Wonder Woman herself, even without the benefit of superpowers. But she had been so badly compromised over the years, and often not used at all. Mishkin was the first writer since Marston (or at least Robert Kannigher) to really bring her out of her shell and show that she has a killer personality.

Her scenes as a Wonder Woman are classic Etta. She is shown to be fearless, and witty to boot. “My name may be candy, but I ain’t all sugar!”

Sadly, the scene is too short. And I suppose there is a compromise on the “earned powers” concept in the way she comes about the Wonder-powers---through a machine. Even so, Etta is easily more appealing than any of the Wonder-clones who populate today’s title.

Oddly, Wonder Woman/Diana Prince has a fairly incidental role herself. But the natural emotional consequences of the previous issue’s events are played out convincingly. She has come to feel like her true self has been lost. She tells Steve: “I’m supposed to be a princess, a hero, a role model”, but she is still her mother’s child.

At the end of the issue, Keith Griggs comes by to discuss with Diana the events between them from issue # 320, showing that Diana Prince is not as much a non-entity as she thought. Evidently, however, he didn’t get very far with her. When Diana Prince wakes up next morning (at the beginning of the next issue) she is alone.

Oh! One other bone to pick: Etta, Howard, and the others seemed to forget pretty fast to look for Eloise and her friends!

Wonder Woman # 324-325
“The Cassandra Complex” or “The Gremlin From The Kremlin”
Written by Dan Mishkin
Penciled and Inked by Don Heck
Edited Alan Gold

In 1908, a mysterious nuclear blast had occurred in Tunkuska region of Siberia. Aparently it was caused by an alien space ship, jettisoning its nuclear fuel.

Back in 1985, Glitch has been caught by the Ytirflirks, together with Eloise Abernathy and two of her friends. But one friend, Michelle, has been left behind. As the morning arrives, she bangs on the Abernathys’ door. From upstairs, the Abernathys’ tenant Diana Prince listens in on their conversation. Hearing of the situation, she slips out the back window (sneaking past a sleepy Etta Candy) and changes into Wonder Woman.

Searching for clues in the school yard where the kids and gremlin disappeared, she sees a dog disappearing into a warp. She rescues the dog, then pushes hers

Wonder Woman-Late First Series Index

by Andrew/"MisterK"

The Reviews