Chapter Eight: …And the powers you possess…
Place: Offices of DC Comics, New York City
Year: 1986
Peres mischievously smiled. "Like I said, the best stories happened when Steve was dead. That Steve held her back is seen in a Bobby Kanigher year one story; there, a newly arrived Diana said he was so cute that she would spend all her time with him thus abandoning her responsibilities if she didn't fight it. 'Guess I'm weak, that way,' she muses. The absurdity is highlighted in another flashback issue where she, with a bored out of her mind look on her face, thinks to herself that she fell in love at first sight with the only man she'd ever met in her life!
"Now to be fair, he and Wonder Woman can work when done right. For example, the Golden Age version and the TV show versions of Wonder Woman did love their Steves and left Paradise Island for them but not only for them. They also left to fight the Nazis and save the world. The Lynda Carter Wonder Woman loved her Steve and they dated all through season one but when the show returned for a modern era season two, Steve was long gone and she was still there fighting the good fight. The existence of Trevor Junior by an unnamed woman shows that that Diana would be just dandy if she never married her Steve. As long our comic book Diana defined herself by a relationship to a man, she was always holding herself back so as not to offend him masculine sensibilities. But with him gone, so is that mental block!
"To show that, we go back to the beginning when her mother Queen Hippolyta and the Amazons, sick of its ugliness and brutality, left Man's World to create their Paradise Island and, yes, it deserved its name. Crime, poverty, war, hunger, disease, were all banished, it was a world where love was the answer to every problem. Yet while love was the answer, it was only a certain kind of love. As the centuries passed, a world without men meant they lacked that which only men can give them. Some even went mad and carved 'whittle babies' from wood." He saw Jenette Kahn reflexively put her hand over her stomach. "Hippolyta…" he choked, "Hippolya is too strong to fall into that dementia but she too feels the ache of an empty womb.
"By the gods' command, the desperate queen goes to the beach on a storm lashed night. Drenched to her skin, Hippolyta uses a dagger to both dig up clay for molding a doll and to paint on the doll's forehead a star with her own blood. All of a sudden the doll begins quiver and cry! Ignoring the pain from her wounded hand, she picks the girl up and lets the rain wash the mud from her body. Tears streaming from her face she thrusts her daughter to the sky and screams hymns of praise to the gods for the gift they have given her!
"The child is brought to the temple and all the Amazons follow. There, Aphrodite tells her daughter that yes the child was given to ease her loneliness; she herself is happy to look on her granddaughter. However, there is more than that. The time will come when the Amazons will reunite with Man's World and Ares will surely try to destroy these attempts for peace. That is seen when Ares tries to kill the newborn child but fails, instead kidnapping the baby's sister." He saw a certain old man who never forgot a character smile. With a Cheshire Cat grin, Perez said, "Yes, Mr. Bridwell there is a Nubia and her loss just emphasis that the Amazons will need a worthy champion. Diana will be that champion and guiding her to that destiny will be Hippolyta's responsibility.
"Hippolyta does so ably, personally training her in everything she knows and Diana proves an excellent pupil. Her mother was the 'Wonder Woman' of World War II (yes I see those looks on your faces, I'll say more later) and the young princess dreams of going to Man's World to fight for love and justice like her mother did. She dreams of being her grandmother Aphrodite's champion bridging the gap between Paradise Island and Man's World. Every morning she wakes up looking forward to that day's training session and throws herself into it 110%.
"As Bobby Kanigher told us, even though she did get superpowers from her gods, Diana still has to train in order to prove herself worthy. No matter what it is, be it martial arts, survival training, etiquette, math, philosophy, bodybuilding, logic, rhetoric, she trains until she literally drops. She pushes her superpowers past the limit so often that Hippolyta occasionally orders her to stop lest she permanently injure herself. Other times, she just has Diana train just enough so that she falls asleep on which she takes the child to bed.
"It's at fifteen that she undergoes a ritual that all girls her age undergo; though they are exceedingly rare, children are not unknown on Paradise Island. I'll say more later. Queen Hippolyta knows that her daughter is no longer a girl but a woman. Diana's given her bracelets and kneels before Aphrodite's statue where she swears to her grandmother to be true now and forever to the cause of love. There's always more training but now she's ready; she's just waiting for a sign. That's when Steve Trevor crashes. Diana and Mala see him and rescue him from the water. On speaking with him and learning that his plane was shot down by a terrorist group called Sons of Ares, Queen Hippolyta knows its time.
"On seeing her make goo-goo eyes at Steve, she also knows that whoever the champion is going to be that it can't be Diana. All Diana does is talk about being Steve's girlfriend and going on dates but not about being a hero or bearing her people's ideals or reuniting Man's World and Paradise Island. Hippolyta remembers how blind infatuation ruined Artemis, the original Wonder Woman of ancient Greece. She remembers how it led to her betrayal and near destruction of her people when she fell in love with Hercules. The Queen knows that the champion can't be compromised like that and thus says that the champion will be chosen as she always has been: the contest.
"She forbids Diana from competing, citing the above reasons to Diana's face. She protests but to no avail. It's her baby sister Donna—who would have competed herself if not her age—who suggests that she enter secretly. Refusing to be denied her birthright and filled with love for Steve, Diana does so and wins every contest. All that's left is Bullets and Bracelets against Mala. They start off easy, each contestant having to deflect a single shot but it quickly escalates to having to deflect fire from x-number of Tommy guns Hippolyta brought with her after the war. Its dead heat and they're both sweating because every time one gangster gun runs out of ammo, two loaded ones take its place. When Mala is nicked in the shoulder, she is out and as for Diana, now all the guns are pointed at her! It continues until the last gun overheats and the gunwoman throws it at Diana! She deflects that too.
"She collapses to the ground trembling, but victorious. She goes to Hippolyta whereon the Queen takes the tiara from her head and places it on Diana's. She removes bracelets made from the Zeus' Aegis from her wrists and places them on Diana's. She removes the golden Lasso of Truth from her side and places it on Diana's. She says, 'These are the arms of the champion and you are she, my daughter.' Diana is shocked. How did her mother see through her disguise? Hippolyta laughs; she's her mother. How couldn't she?
"Diana arrives in Man's World and leaves Steve in a Washington DC hospital. Following Hermes' advice, she goes to a local all women college, Holiday; she finds a society of women philosophers and scholars easy to understand. More specifically, Diana's left by the messenger god at the door stop of Etta Candy, a Greek American Air Force ROTC student, who goes on to prove herself the greatest friend anyone could ever hope her. The same is true of her stepmom Mrs. Julia Kapatelis; the Greek she speaks isn't Diana's ancient dialect but its close enough and she's a professor of ancient Greek studies to boot! Rest assured, we'll be seeing a lot of her. Anyways, she's been urging her kids to get more in touch with their roots; her late husband's family name Candace was Americanized into Candy and so was he. She never imagined it would be like this, though!
"But if Diana teaches Etta and baby sister Vanessa about Greece, Etta teaches Diana about America. Hippolyta did teach her daughter English along with American culture and manners to better understand the people she will serve and protect. With how she left the US shortly after World War II, however, her daughter's references are over thirty years out of date so Miss Candy's efforts to get Diana caught up are appreciated. Thrilled at helping a real life… superhero," Schwartz raised an eyebrow as he saw how reluctantly Perez used that word, "Candy also helps her design a secret identity. A secret identity, how fun! With Etta's help, Princess Diana eventually creates the identity of Diana Prince, regardless of Etta's objections."
Elongated Man's creator snickered at that. "Hey," retorted Perez, "our heroine was an over eager rookie so let's cut her some slack there!"
"From here on, the story continues more or less like it was in the original comics. Second Lieutenant Diana Prince, a plain Jane non-practicing Christian with no family and who explains her occasional oddities as her being from Canada gets a job at the Pentagon working for Air Force Intelligence. She meets the other DC heroes and, after fending off an alien invasion, helps form the Justice League. Baby sister Donna comes visit and adopts Diana's childhood nickname, Wonder Girl; our heroine thus has her very own sidekick. As per Maggin's ideas she takes Supergirl under her wing and adopts her into the Amazons. She dates Steve Trevor in an up and down roller coaster romance. And finally, Queen Hippolyta sees that her daughter is alright and is balancing her career and any feelings she might have for Steve quite handily. Deciding that all her worries were for nothing, she lightens up and lets her hair down for some Bobby Kanigher style Wonder Queen, mini-skirt wearing, she can fly too adventures.
"Here's the thing, however," added Perez. "All the earlier issues by Kanigher, the ones where he rebooted Diana for the Silver Age and that form the nucleus of my Diana's early career imagine a dream world where nobody ever got hurt or died. Just read them; for all her stupendous feats and for all her telling Steve that they couldn't marry until she was no longer needed, it was almost a game to her. It's like what Maggin said about Superboy; Diana knew that bad things could happen in theory, but she never really believed they would. She always thought she would be there in time to save the day; that's why she left Paradise Island, isn't it? She learned the hard way that the real world doesn't world that way.
"It was in #120 where a fire monster went on the rampage that she caught her first glimpse of cruel reality. It was destroying who knows how many cities and presumably killing thousands with no hesitation. It thought that Wonder Woman would never attack as long as it held Steve hostage; it was wrong. This was the reason she had trained all her life, and here the people whom she'd sworn to protect are begging her to save them. Although she was crying the entire time and it seemed as if she would hate herself for the rest of her life, she destroyed the fire monster thus killing Steve in the process.
"Of course, it turned out he wasn't really dead but it proved a grim harbinger of things to come. Diana left Paradise Island for him and renounced her immortality to be with him so when Dr. Cyber finally does kill Steve it destroys her. She's heartbroken by his death and by the loss of her family; they had withdrawn from the mortal world to 'recharge' their magic. She tries to ignore it with a silly smile and her new fashion sense; she even finds hope in a new boyfriend. When he turns out to be an enemy agent only pretending to love her, however, she beats him half to death and runs off sobbing into the London fog."
Perez paused and gave a good long look to the people listening. "Look," he sighed, "Diana was a child, a total innocent from a magical land of unicorns and rainbows and where you fall in love at first sight and live happily ever after. All of a sudden then, her only love is killed in her arms, she loses her family and home, she's stripped of her powers, and her new boyfriend backstabs her. It all comes to a head with #183 when one of the Amazons arrives seeking her help she finds the great and glorious champion of Themyscira on her knees, whimpering, 'being mortal hurts!'
"The Amazon messenger explains to this little sniveler that she has to save Themyscira, and all the worlds of myth, from Ares and his invading armies. Yes, the monster who nearly destroyed Diana's people so long ago and that she was created to stop has at last returned. Now, Bobby Kanigher did write a few Mars/Ares stories but they were so minor I can say that it was one of his minions, Lord Conquest, keeping the seat warm until his master returned. Now, the god of war has returned and aims to overthrow Zeus as Zeus overthrew Chronos. The first strike is against Themyscira.
"On returning to Paradise Island, Diana sees her home is ruins and her mother in a coma. Who knows how many are dead. Ares and his armies of monsters and mortal worshippers, Sons of Ares, have overrun the land. The god of war looks at his granddaughter and says he will release her mother, his daughter, from the mind rape she is enduring if she will give him the secret of inter-dimensional travel. The princess is afraid but on seeing the courage of her sister Amazons, she puts aside her pain to do her duty. She can't be selfish, not when her people need her!
"She proves an able general and a brave one, rallying her troops against impossible odds. She holds the line and brings in the cavalry, recruiting the gods and heroes of many mythologies against a monster who would kill them all. At the end she and we realize that she really is Wonder Woman; even Ares is forced to recognize that as the defeated god returns her body to the Amazons. Diana, of course, doesn't die but she realizes she must be strong for her mission, for her people. If up till then she was a child, now she has grown up.
"This is the white suit era and with or without her powers, she's a hero." She certainly is, Peres cheerfully thought to himself. "She grows closer to baby sister Donna and eventually gets her powers back. After I Ching dies at the hands of a spree killer sniper and she avenges his death, Diana suffers amnesia from a blow to the head and goes to Paradise Island by sheer instinct. Hippolyta, like I said, restores her daughter's memory but very selectively and Diana is very angry when she learns that her mother had been tampering with her mind. Steve comes back from the dead and the happy couple reunites before he dies again. No, things aren't easy, but she survives because she has grown strong and has become the Wonder Woman she was meant to be.
"Ares has returned and he is in full force against the Amazons but for every time the war god strikes Diana is there to stop him. She finds her sister, Nubia, whom Ares had kidnapped so long ago and saves her from his evil clutches. When together they storm his base of Slaughter Island, however, they learn something. He's great at bullying people smaller than himself but when he can't hide behind minions, when it comes to a real fight, he's a rank coward. The two sisters even accuse Ares to his face that ever since the Amazons dealt him an upset victory that he's been afraid of women. Diana takes that into the final battle.
"In the days months leading up to it she had reclaimed her old identity as Diana Prince. Her old superior Colonel Darnell, now a General, had loved her in his own way. When she resigned her commission he had kept up with her exploits as a globetrotting super spy; these parts of her career are public—"
"Hold it right there Perez!" interrupted Schartz. "I remember when we did that story and the whole point was that Wonder Woman lost her powers and became Diana Prince. Don't tell me you're getting as dumb as Magoon there."
Ignoring someone's complaints of nobody remembering his name, Perez silently nodded. "Yes, officially 'Wonder Woman' became Diana Prince with the 'other' Prince disappearing but let's remember, we're taking advantage of Crisis to simplify things.
"Back to the story. It was partly out of lust and partly out of recognition of her very real talents that General Darnell he had her promoted to Major when she returned. For her part, Diana's old friend Etta Candy had since graduated from Holliday to become a lieutenant and our heroine's 'civilian' right hand. The two even rent a room together; Washington DC rental rates are notoriously high. It seems that Diana has finally found some stability in life. She has friends and she has love in Steve Trevor II. She has a nice job. And it all falls apart when she sees the sky turn blood red.
"Diana doesn't know that the Anti-Monitor has launched the Crisis on Infinite Earths, no. All she knows is that Ares has launched his final assault on the Amazons. He's struck at their weakest; he sees that the Amazons have turned against his daughter, Hippolyta, and that Hippolyta herself is wallowing in self pity for betraying Diana's trust. The Anti-Monitor's shadow demons leave Paradise Island in ruins. Hades, forever resentful of the place forced on him gives the god of war a legion of the damned. Aphrodite gave her daughter a dream and now the dream is dead. Diana sees all this but she refuses to lose hope, no matter how hard it gets. She knows that this is her time, that this is the reason she was born, to light her people's darkest hour!
"A brief recap of the last story arc will start my new run and we'll see that after once again saving the day she tries to live happily ever after with Steve. A panel stating a few weeks later is posted and we see the big fight with Steve, whom Diana did not marry. No need to go over it. Now, however, we're going into uncharted territory. "Now," Perez said conspiratorially, "the real game begins!
"As is, Diana's hit rock bottom. She's lost her secret identity. Steve II dumped her. America's turned against Wonder Woman for her 'espionage' activities against the US government. Her old landlord evicted her, and Etta, for fear of becoming a target for supervillains. What hurt the most, however, was being stripped of her military commission when it was revealed she was Wonder Woman. Realistically, however, what else could the military do if it learned that 'Major Prince' was just an alias for a foreign national who infiltrated the Pentagon and stole classified secrets for years in order to further her own schemes? She's awaiting trial for, in effect, being a spy. With how much she cherished her adopted country, this feels like betrayal. What makes it worse is that she knows she deserves it.
"Under constant watch, she and Etta Candy have nobody but Etta's stepmom, Professor Julia Kapatelis to turn to. Yes," Perez happily added, "the professor's glad to have both her girls back; Diana's glad to be back as she sorts things out after the break up. Thus begins a walkabout as our heroine tries to find herself and accept that the original Steve, the one whom she fell in love with, if it can even be called that, is long since dead and that she should stop chasing his ghost.
"As part of that, Wonder Woman comes across a little girl—elementary school age—crying in the park. She goes to wipe the child's tears and asks her why she's crying; it's because her 'boyfriend' left her. With him gone, there's nothing for her. They keep talking and Diana learns that the girl is a straight-A student and a top notch Brownie level Girl Scout. A measure of the girl is seen in how she singlehandedly paid for her neighbor's surgery by means of bake sales. She was a wonder… or she was until she decided all that mattered was making the boy like her. Now, with her grades in the trash and her face smeared in makeup, she asks her idol if she should change to make her boyfriend like her again.
"Seeing herself in the girl, Aphrodite's granddaughter asks her something; yes, she did like him, but did he like her back? If not, then it wasn't love. And maybe, Diana, tells the girl, she is right; she should change but not in the way she's thinking. Perhaps he is a nice boy and maybe he will make some girl happy but if that girl is her, it can't be by her living a lie. Whatever else it might be, love, true love, must never be a crutch or mere possession. It has to be a two way street.
"And all this is none too soon as Wonder Woman suspects that that Ares is up to something. In the town of modern Sparta and across southern Bulgaria/western Turkey, violent crime skyrockets with Sons of Ares taking the credit. Wonder Woman explains to Etta Candy that in ancient times, the places were old Sparta and Thrace, centers of the war god's worship. The lieutenant knows as much from her stepmom but she has to ask her old friend something. Etta has never seen Ares face to face; is he really as bad as the stories say?
"Wonder Woman shakes her head. No, he's worse and now he's more dangerous than ever because with the defeat dealt him in their last battle, he has nothing left to lose. Her fears prove right. He had mentioned nuclear weapons in an earlier issue but had dismissed them as too destructive; after all, what's a god to do if he kills off all his worshippers? But now... ?
"Now, he's just so sick of it. He just doesn't care anymore. He's been defeated and humiliated at every turn and dealt a mortal blow by Wonder Woman; he's dying as much as a god can. He works his Sons of Ares terrorist group for all its worth and has them infiltrate the Soviet and American governments so each can blow the other's country up. He doesn't want to take over the world anymore; he wants to destroy it.
"When that happens, the Candy/Kapatelis family naturally helps her out. Diana Prince has been fired from her job at the Pentagon, yes. However, with how Lieutenant Etta Candy is the only one in Darnell's now defunct Special Assignment's Branch whose hands are still clean, she still has her job and tells her of mysterious goings on." Perez saw the looks on people's faces on the last part and quickly added, "I mean c'mon, Colonel Steve Trevor II is an alternate dimension duplicate posing as the real deal, General Darnell's shady past finally caught up with him, and his adjutant Major Prince lied to the military for years.
"Anyways, as Diana connects the dots from Etta's intel, she realizes just how deep they're in. After a few fights around the world to build up the tension, it climaxes at Lake Avernus in Italy; as per Greco-Roman myth, it hides a portal to the Underworld. Wonder Woman knows what Ares plans to do, so she and a somewhat frightened but nonetheless stalwart Etta Candy acquit themselves handsomely against Ares' thugs. Alas, courage is not enough and the lieutenant is captured. The price of her safety is that Wonder Woman surrender and allow her bracelets to be chained thus robbing her of her strength. Ares insists on doing it personally. The war god and his minions and his prisoner all descend into the land of the dead leaving Etta to weep.
"The evil god is granted an audience with his uncle Hades. Ares asks for his uncle's help; as the eldest of the family, older than Zeus, only he can undo the curse placed on him that robs him of his strength. The king of the damned asks his nephew why he should do such a thing and is told that if he does there will begin a war that will flood the underworld with more souls than its king could know what to do with. Hades rolls his eyes; worship of the Christ eclipsed worship of the Olympians over 1500 years ago and the Christ guards the souls baptized in His name most jealously!"
Schwartz smirked at that. Maybe DC should restart its old Bible project!
"Ares is no fool," continued Perez, "he knows that but responds by asking what about the unbaptized? Whether by apathy of oppression, there are in both America and the Soviet Union the godless whose souls belong to whatever god claims them first. It will just be the beginning. Ares reminds his uncle of their alliance during the Crisis and says that this time it can work!
"Hades is intrigued and mentions that on learning of his son's new scheme, Zeus had begged on his knees not to lift the curse he had placed on him. There will be consequences but Hades has high hopes for what Ares can do. And so, despite Persephone's pleas, Hades lifts the curse on his nephew and tells him to make the world bleed.
"As for Wonder Woman she's been beaten as horribly as the Comics Code can allow and it's through blackened eyes that she wakes up to see her torturer atop the steps of the Lincoln Memorial surrounded by every terrorist minion he has. Oh, and an army of monsters given him by Hades: Cyclopes, hundred handed giants, Kampe the dragon woman, hydras, Cerberus, everything. She struggles against her chains but her bracelets have been bound by a man and so she is helpless. Ares hoists her up by her shackles and shows her to the reporters like some obscene trophy so that all the people everywhere can watch in horror.
"He boasts to the bloodied Wonder Woman that this is where it ends. He turns to his soldiers and tells that they've waited patiently but that the time had come to spread his gospel of hate once again. Let the blood flow, let the land ring with battle, and let war be waged until he can walk upon the broken backs of six billion corpses!
"The US Army sends in everything it has but mortal weapons aren't much use against magic. They get some help, though, when Etta Candy returns from Paradise Island inside the Invisible Planed with the cavalry in tow. At least in my stories," Perez quickly added, "Paradise Island is magical and so can be reached from any body of water. Conversely, it can reach any body of land." By that point, he saw everyone was on the edge of his seat, even the grand old curmudgeon, er, grand old man. Good!
"Hundreds of landing crafts disgorge thousands of Amazons ready for battle! As for Queen Hippolyta, the horse woman comes in leading Pegasus cavalry. The soldiers of Man's World are glad to have the Amazons at their back but Wonder Woman knows it's not enough. She knows she has to break free. She has to save the day! She keeps struggling against her chains but nothing seems to happen at first, other than bloodied wrists. As they begin to break, however, a horrified Ares screams, 'But you're no stronger than any other woman in this man ruled world!' Breaking the chains, she replies, 'And that's more than enough strength to beat you!'
"All her strength has returned and then some and so begins what I plan to be the greatest fight in Wonder Woman history! She rallies the men of the US Army as her mother did in World War II; many of them, however, are just paying back the debt their grandfather's owe Hippolyta. For her part, the Queen of the Amazons takes command of the combined Amazon/US forces; just like the old days, she jokes. For their part, Diana and the war god go at it and at first it seems that Diana is winning until Ares reveals his trump card. Yes, the gods have become mere fairy tales since their glory days but in the time since, men have created a weapon of such destructive power that should even just one be used in his name it would give him the power of a thousand wars! Wonder Woman turns to see a nuclear missile shoot into the sky and then sees the mad god become a titan.
"See, by that time Ares' sleeper agents along with his daughter Eris, Duchess of Deception, had taken control of America's nuclear arsenal and performed the rituals necessary to consecrate it to her father. Thus firing the missile at Russia will not only lead to a nuclear war that will destroy all life on Earth (to the goddess of discord's delight) but it will make Ares invincible. As for Ares, he tosses Wonder Woman aside like a rag doll and boasts that now he is the one stronger than Hercules, now he is the one faster than Mercury. Like Zeus, he can bring down lightning and, as seen with an army of Amazon zombies that he raises up to strike down their sisters, he, like Hades, can command the dead.
"Wonder Woman tries to stop this but she's busy with Ares and it's not like the Pegasus cavalry is fast enough to go chasing after a missile. Etta Candy thus goes to the rescue; she's the one who took the Invisible Plane with her to Themyscira, she's the one who called in the cavalry, and now she's the only one with a chance of stopping the missile. If she fails, the world will be destroyed and Ares will burn down Olympus and then all the realms of myth leaving him as the only god to rule over an enslaved humanity. Of course, it's above the skies of Moscow, at the last second, that she scores a direct hit. The Russians cover their eyes as night turns to day but it's after they realize what's just happened that they cheer Etta as she circles a few times to reassure them that it'll be alright.
"Meanwhile, this has an immediate effect back at Washington. Ares feels himself weaken and everyone pauses as the undead Amazons stop fighting. On looking at themselves, however, the zombies either scream in horror on seeing what they have become or, if they have rotted all the way to skeletons they pantomime it. One Amazon who died earlier in the story, Sofia Constantius, an ex terrorist who reformed in earlier issues, says that in life she was a slave to Ares but in death, she is an Amazon. Still fresh enough to do it, she screams the battle-cry… HOLA!
"Diana takes full advantage of this and charges Ares; in so in a double page spread we see just how crazy it's become. Wonder Woman throws a punch that sends everything within a hundred feet flying including Ares who ricochets so hard off of the Washington Monument that it snaps in half and he crashes into Congress. Half DC's monuments in flames and the other half are in ruins. Queen Hippolyta and her pegasi engage in aerial battle against swarms of harpies. The US Army and the Amazons, living and dead, engage in mortal combat against Ares monsters. Cyclopes tear apart tanks, Cerberus devours people left and right, attack copters rain hell on Sons of Ares, and yes, reporters get the biggest battle ever waged by the US military and its Allies on American soil all on film! HOLA!"
The people there started looking at each other and looking worried. When Joe writer starts acting out the battle scenes, you know someone's gone crazy.
Crazy or not, however, Perez wasn't stopping. "Ares knows its end game and goes berserk, calling down lightning with his remaining strength. The exhausted Princess blocks with her bracelets but she is nevertheless pounded into the ground by the lightning bolts. Battered and bruised, she fights just to stay conscious and she knows it's time to end it. Though a suicide gambit, Diana waits for Ares to call down the lightning, lassoes him, jumps to dodge the lightning, and pulls the war god into its path! With how Ares was already in a weakened state, it's clear what happens next. Maybe she didn't mean to kill him but Ares it still dead and for her part, the Amazon doesn't shed a tear.
"With Ares dead, his monsters disappear and the broken Sons of Ares are easily taken prisoner by the US military. For their part, the zombie Amazons die again, crumbling to dust as they say goodbye. Lieutenant Etta Candy returns and lands the Invisible Plane whereon she gets a big hug from Diana and a hero's welcome from the Amazons. The President of the US arrives and is given a steely glare from Diana's people. Wonder Woman, however, clad in her torn and bloodied American flag costume clicks her heels, salutes, and says, 'Major Diana Prince of the US Air Force, sir!'
"She lied to her adopted country for years and violated its trust by fleeing the US to fight Ares. For that, she tells her Commander-in-Chief that she is ready to face any punishment he might deem worthy. The President assures Wonder Woman that with all she's gone through and all she done for America, that she need not fear any recriminations. In fact, for having saved America from Ares—for saving the world!—he's giving her a full pardon, effective immediately, and an honorable discharge from the US military… with the rank of Colonel. She gasps and says, 'thank you sir!'
"And yes, the reporters there catch it all on film. The people watching it on TV agree whole heartedly with the President, forgiving America's favorite daughter and welcoming her home. As for Hippolyta, she sheds a silent tear when she sees the men (and women) of the US Army triumphantly carry a Wonder Woman on their shoulders once again. They carry Diana under an arch of Amazon swords as those swords' keepers cry, 'Hola!'
"As for Ares, he's a whiny ghost in Tartarus with Hades pondering his final fate. Hades remarks that it was for Ares' sake more than anyone else's that Zeus placed a curse on him. The reason Zeus had allowed the war god to run unchecked for so long was that he couldn't bring himself to deal the lethal blow. He also knew that in the wake of what he did in the Crisis that he could not hope to save his foolish son from himself yet again.
"Berating the war god for his stupidity in allying with the same deity who turned against him in the Crisis, Hades asks the ghost, 'Didn't you ever think stop to think that if I am keeper of the souls of all the innocent people butchered in the wars you started, that your evil wouldn't break even my stone cold heart?!' Hades looks to his dear Persephone and knows that his queen will follow him into exile (Zeus will surely place someone else as king of the dead for this) and he cries. He remembers how Wonder Woman helped reunite him and Persephone during the Crisis and wonders what he did to deserve so good a wife. As for Ares, as his last act as king of the dead, Hades hoists the whimpering war god over his head and throws him to bloodthirsty mob made of the ghosts of people killed in Ares' wars. Hades last words as the dead tear his nephew apart? 'See you in hell.'
"Meanwhile, Diana and Hippolyta are sitting on the edge of the ruined Capital building watching the cleanup efforts below. The queen jokes that she always wanted to see DC again but never imagined it like this. In all seriousness though, Diana tells her mother that she was right for criticizing her for leaving Themyscira for the wrong reasons. There were many good things about Steve and part of her still loves him, always will. But it's all over and if she's going to be Wonder Woman, if she's going to be a hero, she'd better start acting like it.
"She proves that the next day when she and Etta are taking a stroll in the city. The two friends are talking about everything that's happened recently, saying it's not about the destination but the journey, when they hear an explosion and see Debbie Domaine, the Cheetah, run out of a bank with money bags in her hands. Leaving Etta to call in backup, Diana runs ahead and in full view of the public materializes her suit by means of her lasso. The little girl whom Diana had seen earlier and whom she had taught to be brave squeals, 'Look mommy, its Wonder Woman!'
"Yes it is Wonder Woman and our first story arc of the new run closes with her having lassoed Cheetah, swinging her in and delivering a knockout punch! Freeze-frame... and fade to black.
"So guys," asked an oh-so cocky George Perez, "what do you think?"
Standing ovation is what the assembled writers thought.
Author's Notes: I should have put this here when I first wrote but... I didn't want to leave you waiting any longer! So...
MarkMark: ...More a plot than a story. One of my failings is that I'm a little like George Lucas. I'm great at thinking stuff up, but not always so great at what's next. Part of that, is that I think of things faster than I can turn them into stories. With how, like I said, I have other ideas in the works for other stories, I don't want to risk making "the greatest DC fanfic ever" and then leaving it half finished. (I came dangerously close when I wrote my Godzilla: The Monster Wars series.) Don't worry about Diana, though, she gets over Steve and thanks for your kind words. Good to be back!
Sir Thames: Thank you for kindess! DC's biggest mistake, post-Crisis, wasn't revisionism (though there is that), it was that they didn't get their act together. If they'd gone Wolfman's route and started everything over, all the continuity contradictions would have been avoided...
"Anon": You might not believe this, but I don't hate Steve Trevor. I only dislike the way he was used in the pre-Crisis DCU-and the whole point of this story is [the effects of] the Crisis doesn't happen. There, he was a chauvinist pig and worse, Diana let herself be dragged along. I understand how it would work but they'd have to break up sooner or later. I hope you like what I wrote about their relationship in this chapter!
Guys, that's all. As for the next chapter, the outline is already going to rough draft, so don't worry. See'ya soon!