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This issue is a part of the "War of the Gods" crossover event and follows on from War of the Gods #2 and is a companion issue to Wonder Woman #60.
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Summary: |
Wonder Woman streaks across the sky on her way to Keystone City after Lord Hermes has summoned her. Suddenly she is confronted by several police helicopters who order her to surrender herself to arrest or be fired upon. Now that the Gods of many Pantheons walk across Earth again, the world believes that Wonder Woman and her Amazon sisters are responsible, as well as for the the ensuing chaos it has caused.
The Amazon Princess apologises but replies that she cannot comply with their wishes. The police in the lead helicopter give her a final warning as the door slides open on and a marksman leans out, aiming his rifle at Wonder Woman. She continues to fly past, yelling back that as soon as she is able to, she gives her word she will surrender to their justice. But the police do not value the word of an Amazon and open fire!
Wonder
Woman instinctively uses her bracelets to protect herself but the resulting
ricochets hit the chopper. As the police inside duck for cover one of the stray
bullets hits the rotor blades and the helicopter begins to spiral out of control!
Wonder Woman sees her opportunity to flee but sees that the chopper is in trouble
and that the occupants will die if she does not intervene. As the flaming craft
goes down she swoops after it and moving underneath, catches it. Using all her
strength she carries the helicopter safely down to the ground!
No sooner has she done so she finds herself staring down the barrel of the marksman's rifle who prepares to shoot her at point blank range unless she surrenders herself. But his captain clambers out of the helicopter and pushes the barrel away. He tells the confused marksman that Wonder Woman had just saved all their lives. He turns to the Amazon Princess and advises her to make haste, adding that he cannot promise her more than a ten minute head start.
She thanks him and assures the captain that when all of this is over, and if she can, she will return as she promised. He smiles back that if it is all the same, he would rather she did not as it would make things a lot easier for him! He then picks up the radio in the chopper and orders the other units to pull back and allow Wonder Woman safe passage.
Elsewhere Hawkman (Katar) and Hawkwoman (Shayera) have been summoned to a meeting with Thanagarian Ambassador Klus and two FBI Agents at police HQ. Their help is requested in bringing Wonder Woman into custody and Shayera is ecstatic at the chance of hunting down and bringing to justice the Amazon Princess, who she loathes. The Thanagarians are told that she had last been seen fleeing New England and flying at high speed in their general direction. Other super heroes have also been contacted to assist and Hawkwoman and Hawkman are told that they are free to use any weaponry at their command to bring Wonder Woman to ground. She should be considered very dangerous and needs to be brought down - but not necessarily alive!
The Agents then tell the Thanagarian Ambassador that this is an "unofficial request" and that they hope he will be amenable so as to improve the image of his planet. Klus however insists that they put their request in writing. A furious Shayera rages that the one time they are allowed to take off the gloves without worrying about the consequences, he decides to play a stupid diplomatic game! For his part, Klus yells at her to shut up as she has no idea what is going on. He continues that the Agents who are "so generously" allowing them to take off their gloves are also setting them up! For whatever reason they hope that Shayera will indeed find Wonder Woman, who will no doubt resist arrest and whom the Thanagarian will, with her customary enthusiasm, then kill! If there is then any subsequent public outcry, this "meeting" will officially never have "taken place" and the government will deny all knowledge.
Katar protests, asking how Klus can go along with the Government's request. What about the rights to a trial; to a jury of one's peers; the rights of life and liberty? Klus places a reassuring hand on Katar's shoulder and says that this sort of thing happens all the time and the only thing that really bothers him is that the Agents thought he was naive enough to fall for it.
The two Agents confer secretly, saying that Circe will be displeased with this turn of events. They decide to kill the Thanagarians and suddenly reveal themselves to be bestiamorphs. Now ferocious wild animals, they pounce on the unsuspecting Hawkman and Hawkwoman and a fight ensues. The police chief bursts into the office and shoots one of the creatures while Katar manages to kill the other one.
A short while later Katar, Shayera, Klus and the chief sit in the office discussing events. The chief tells them that after checks it appears the two agents had indeed been real federal officers, but their offer to the Thanagarians had not been authorised at the time. However - it is now! The FBI are worried that they have been infiltrated by someone working their own agenda and it seems tied in with the various Pantheons appearing across the world. It also all seems linked somehow to the Amazons - including Wonder Woman. He tells them that the Princess had recently busted a bunch of her fellow sisters out of jail and was last seen heading in their direction.
Klus asks what the U.S. Government is asking from the Thanagarians? The police chief replies that local police have not been very effective in bringing Wonder Woman in for questioning and would like Shayera and Katar to try. A skeptical Hawkwoman asks what exactly the Thanagarians get out of this? She is told that the FBI are willing to extend "professional courtesy" to them and make them honorary agents during their stay on Earth - in other words they will have federal jurisdiction. And this time everything will be in writing.
Klus also requests a personal thank you from the President and the chief reluctantly agrees. With that Katar and Shayera don their helmets and head for the door. The chief thanks them again and says that he will ensure they receive Wonder Woman's last reported position and probable course. Within ten minutes they are air bourne in their Thanagarian fighter craft and Shayera eagerly scans the radar for signs of their quarry.
Suddenly she picks up a signal on the monitor and realises it is Wonder Woman! She accelerates the craft towards the Amazon who seeing it, muses to herself that the authorities have even resorted now to sending Thanagarians to bring her down now! The last time she had come across their race was during the Alien Invasion over the skies of Themyscira.
Back
on board Hawkwoman orders Katar to take the controls as she leaps out of the
hatch. She draws her weapon and confronting Wonder Woman, barks that the Amazon
is under arrest and for her to put her hands behind her head in surrender, or
else she will be forced to shoot. Wonder Woman raises her bracelets in a defensive
pose and replies that she cannot surrender and that she does not expect a Thanagarian
to listen to her reasons. "Take me if you can" she says defiantly.
Hawkwoman smiles "Oh, I can...." before unleashing a blast from her heavy duty Thanagarian rifle. The beam strikes Wonder Woman's bracelets hard and burns her. She cries out in pain and as she looks at her still smouldering bracelet, Hawkwoman tells her that she knows all about the Amazon's "bullets and bracelets" routine but that her weapon fires energy bursts! "Your so called Amazonian training doesn't mean squat to me" she snarls. Wonder Woman replies "There is far more to Amazonian training than "Bullets and Bracelets" Thanagarian. Allow me to demonstrate!".
With that she flips through the air dodging Shayera's blasts and reaching the stunned Hawkwoman, slaps her hard across the face, causing her to drop her weapon. Wiping away a trickle of blood from her lip, Hawkwoman compliments her before rushing Wonder Woman and clouting her aside. As Shayera swoops round for another strike she orders Wonder Woman to give up because "you are going down one way or another!". The Amazon Princess replies resolutely that she cannot allow that. As Hawkwoman charges at Wonder Woman again though she suddenly finds herself ensnared in a net thrown by Katar!
She demands to know what he is doing and he replies that he is keeping someone he cares about from either getting killed - or doing something that she will regret for the rest of her life. He then turns to Wonder Woman and says that they need to talk. He explains that he has landed his vessel nearby and suggests they meet there. Wonder Woman agrees and soon they stand in a cornfield as the Amazon Princess explains to them recent events and her theory on who is behind all of the current troubles.
An unconvinced Shayera demands to know why she broke the other Amazons out of jail. "That was a felony lady!". Wonder Woman replies that one of her sisters was dying and the authorities could do nothing for her and furthermore would not release her to be healed on Themyscira. She therefore had no choice other than to either break the law or let her die. A sympathetic Katar suggests to Shayera that she too would have done the same thing in Diana's position. Shayera snaps back that this is not about her - it is about Wonder Woman and what she did to break the law!
Wonder Woman bows her head and murmurs that Shayera is right and that she is guilty. When she had come to Man's World she had sworn an oath to respect their laws. Regardless of the reason, she has now broken that oath. She turns to them and continues that Beings like them and her are held up as heroes - as models to others by which they pattern their own lives. When heroes take up that mantle they also take on that burden. America is a nation of law and she has put her own needs above that. How is she any different from the most common of thugs? Indeed - is she not perhaps worse? At least they never held themselves up as heroes. "By my actions I undermine that which I would uphold."
Katar tells her that he thinks she is being too hard on herself. The law is not always right....nor are those who enforce those laws. He adds that she may well be the only person he has met since he came here who seems to really believe in the principles on which this country is founded - and she is not even an American!
Wonder
Woman tells him that she is willing to come back and face the consequences of
her actions but first she must attend to Lord Hermes. Katar ponders a moment
and says that it will be difficult. They could let her go but there is still
a lot of police between here and Central City and he is not sure how she can
get past them. Just then Shayera pipes up " I think I know a way"
and they turn to see her smiling back.
She explains that she and Katar can take Wonder Woman as close as they can in their ship and then she can take one of Hawkwoman's spare uniforms and some wings. Shayera will then remain in the ship while Katar escorts Diana, pretending to be Hawkwoman, the rest of the way. Wonder Woman places her hands on Shayera's shoulders and smiling, thanks her. Katar asks if the uniform will be a little tight and the two women turn to look at him in disgust, before marching off to the ship to get ready murmuring "Hmmmpfh! Men!".
Soon the ship is air bourne again and Shayera announces that they are over the drop zone. Wonder Woman, now wearing a Hawk costume, thanks them again for their help. She adds that when she had first seen their ship all she could think of was the Thanagarians who had invaded Earth a while back. Katar replies "wasn't us."
Diana and Shayera then give each other a sisterly hug and the Thanagarian tells her new Themysciran friend to take care of herself. The hatchway is then opened and Katar leads Wonder Woman out into the night air. She yells back that once she has reached her destination she will leave the Hawk gear where agreed.
As Shayera watches them go she waves to Wonder Woman and whispers in a concerned voice "Don't die on me Diana".
To be continued in War of the Gods # 3
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