Wonder Woman – Volume 1 – 6

Synopsis

Wonder Woman headlines a much-awaited charity performance, but her popularity inadvertently angers program spokeswoman Priscilla Rich. Consumed with near-psychotic jealousy, Priscilla secretly sabotages Wonder Woman’s main act, a complex water-tank escape; though she nearly drowns, the Amazing Amazon improvises quickly enough to escape, winning even more accolades.

After the performance, Priscilla’s ego continues to deteriorate, reaching a nadir when event treasurer Courtley Darling cancels a date in favour of partying with Wonder Woman. As she broods at her bedroom vanity, Priscilla is suddenly confronted by her repressed “secret” personality – a snarling, ruthless woman in a cheetah-skin. This alternate personality quickly dominates Priscilla, driving her to become a new villainess, the Cheetah.

Possessing all the stealth and grace of her namesake, the Cheetah effortlessly steals the money Wonder Woman’s performance had raised, then sneaks into Wonder Woman’s bedroom and prepares to knife the sleeping Amazon. Only a last-second whim convinces her to forgo the murder, and instead frame her enemies for stealing the money. The next day, Wonder Woman and Darling are charged, but the former accepts all blame, leaving Darling free.

Hours later, Wonder Woman is sent bail and a lawyer’s card by an anonymous “friend”. The card leads her to a local granary, where she finds the Cheetah and a bound Darling. At gunpoint, the Cheetah forces her enemies to jump into the main wheat-bin, meaning for them to suffocate in its millions of grains. Meanwhile, Steve and Etta prepare a real lawyer for Wonder Woman, only to learn about her “friend” from the police; the pair find the granary just as Wonder Woman is starting to free herself, and help her save the near-suffocated Darling.

As the quartet escape the building, they find the Cheetah trying to burn it down. Upon seeing her quarry free, the Cheetah is paralysed with anger, and falls into her own blaze. The case now seems closed, Darling claiming to have a confession of the frame-up; nevertheless, Wonder Woman continues to ponder the truth behind her latest opponent.

Later during an espionage epidemic, Diana is inexplicably invited to the Beauty Club, a posh salon servicing many Army officers’ wives. The suspicious Diana accepts, and soon learns her “patron” is none other than Priscilla Rich – a fact that clears Diana’s theory of Priscilla being the (now-dead) Cheetah. Moments later, however, she finds a new conspiracy, involving salon manager Brenda West and a strange stenographer named Gail Young.

Diana changes into Wonder Woman and lassos Gail, extracting a truly incredible story in the process. Gail and Brenda had once been friends of Priscilla’s, with Gail being a genuine telepath who read minds for light entertainment. At one of Priscilla’s parties, Gail had accidentally revealed secrets about Brenda’s fiancé, commander of a secret airbase in China; Priscilla, jealous of Brenda’s romance, had then regressed into the Cheetah and abducted the girls.

By threatening to leak the air-base secrets to the Japanese (and implicating Brenda’s fiancé as a traitor), the Cheetah blackmailed Brenda and Gail into slavery. As her slaves, the girls’ main duty was to use the Beauty Club to blackmail other women the Cheetah envied, such as the wives of Army officers. While Brenda relaxed them with beauty treatments, Gail was to read their minds, and record their secrets – secrets which now include Wonder Woman’s dual identity.

To her horror, Gail soon learns the Cheetah has already leaked several secrets to the Japanese, badly damaging the American war effort. Seconds later, she is caught by the Cheetah, who accuses her of betrayal and spirits her away. Lacking the time to search the salon’s many secret passages, Wonder Woman deploys Etta to rescue Gail, then flies to China with Steve, determined to disrupt Japanese intelligence as quickly as possible.

At the first Japanese base she finds, Wonder Woman surrenders, and is taken prisoner. As the base officers prepare to torture her, the Amazon sows chaos by using ventriloquism to impersonate each officer, “making” them disagree with one another. In the confusion, Wonder Woman escapes and reunites with Steve, who estimates her disruption has bought the Allies more than enough time for reinforcement. Subsequently, Etta reports a successful rescue at the salon – but the Cheetah remains at large, already planning her next attack.

Next an Army Drill Sergeant repudiates Wonder Woman’s superhuman feats as hoaxes, only to be given a personal – and humiliating – demonstration by the Amazon herself. While impressed, the Sergeant remains sceptical about “Amazon training”, which Wonder Woman claims can give such power to any ordinary girl. To prove her claims, Wonder Woman proposes a mini-Olympics, pitting a team of Amazons against America’s best female athletes.

The Sergeant’s handpicked American team soon arrives on Paradise Island, their opponents being Paula’s former slave-girls – all Amazons-in-training. Both parties are unaware the American team’s hurdler, Kay Carlton, has been kidnapped and impersonated by the Cheetah; only Gail Young, a stowaway on Wonder Woman’s invisible plane, has some inkling, but her telepathy fails to provide enough details for Wonder Woman to act on.

As the Amazons-in-training (wearing their chains as a deliberate handicap) win event after event, the Cheetah becomes more and more enraged, until she brazenly challenges Paula to high hurdles. Upon realising how fast Paula is, the ersatz hurdler wins through flagrant cheating – a victory that Paula nevertheless concedes, having appreciated the challenge. Further enraged by what she sees as pity, the Cheetah begins hunting for the secret to the Amazons’ power, eventually determining that it stems from Queen Hippolyta’s golden girdle.

Near midnight, the Cheetah sneaks into the Queen’s palace and steals the girdle, which she dons herself. Her strength augmented, the Cheetah kidnaps the Queen, meaning to rule all Paradise Island with her as a hostage. When Gail tries to investigate, the Cheetah quickly overpowers her and erases her memories with a magical drug; not until morning do Wonder Woman and the other Amazons find Gail, as well as their captive Queen.

The Cheetah soon appears, threatening to kill the Queen if not obeyed. Thinking fast, Wonder Woman taunts the villainess into one-on-one combat, handily winning and recovering the stolen girdle in one fell swoop. The Cheetah is then unmasked as Priscilla Rich, and bound with the Lasso of Truth, whereupon she confesses all her insecurities and begs for Amazon training, to better control her “secret” self.