Wonder Woman – Volume 1 – 157

Synopsis

On Paradise Island, Queen Hippolyta and her daughter, Diana, watch the start of an incredible experiment as volcano erupts before them. Hippolyta explains how the world has always been powerless against the fury of volcanoes and as if to prove her point, the mountain before them is shattered into pieces of rock by the immense forces of nature. The Amazon Queen then instructs her scientists to aim their AS-R (Atomic Structure – Reassembly) beams on the rubble. Diana watches in amazement as the giant heap of debris reforms into its original state.

She congratulates her mother and says that if the AS-R beams can restore shattered mountains then why not humans? Hippolyta replies that they have so far only experimented on inanimate objects and she is afraid to try the beams out on humans.

Not long afterwards Wonder Woman is speeding back to Military Intelligence HQ in America and changes back into her secret identity of Lt. Diana Prince. She muses over her mother’s words and agrees that no one really knows what fantastic changes might happen to a human test subject, assuming they survived the process.

Once she has arrived , she enters her office while next door a briefing is taking place between Steve Trevor and General Darnell. The General tells Steve that he will not order Steve on this mission as he has already lost eleven of his best operatives behind the Bamboo Curtain in China. But Steve is determined to go and so Darnell continues that in order to give the Colonel a 1000 to 1 chance of returning alive and to prevent news of his mission from reaching the enemy, his orders will be radioed while he is in flight. Using her Amazon hearing, Diana listens in as Darnell tells Steve he has an hour to say goodbye to anyone before he leaves.

Distraught, Diana realises she cannot just let Steve go off to his death but before she has a chance to change into Wonder Woman he enters her office. He places his hands on her shoulders and says that she is Wonder Woman’s best friend. She knows how crazy he is about the Amazon Princess but as there is no chance of him seeing her again, he wonders whether perhaps Diana will go out with him for an hour and pretend to be Wonder Woman, just for laughs. Diana find herself in the awkward position of having to pretend to be Wonder Woman in order not to reveal her secret identity! At least, until she can find some way of changing without revealing her true self. She tells him she will try to pretend but he might want to check his own office as her women’s intuition tells her Wonder Woman is there waiting for him. But Steve grabs her hand and says they should both go and look!
As he leads her to his office he is disappointed to see that there is no sign of the Amazon Princess. He resigns himself to the fact that there is no chance of him seeing her before his hour is up and tells Diana that he is going to hold her to her promise of being Wonder Woman by proxy! The frustrated Diana wishes her could see through her disguise and realise that his beloved Wonder Woman is right next to him!

Taking a jeep they drive out to a deserted beach and Steve reminds Diana again that she must pretend to be Wonder Woman. He then caresses her face and asks her if she remembers the first time they found this beach? No matter what happens to him she must remember that he always loved her. His tenderness for her is torture to Diana who prays for some distraction that might allow her to transform unnoticed into Wonder Woman.

At that moment not far off shore, three Chinese Saboteurs paddle towards the beach having just disembarked from a submarine. They see the couple in the distance and decide to dispose of them quickly before they are spotted. They open fire and slugs whistle past Steve and Diana’s heads! Steve tells Diana to take cover while he turns and draws his own weapon. Diana thanks Hera that she has finally been given a chance to transform but before she can, one of the wild shots flames across the side of her head and she falls unconscious! Meanwhile Steve wades out to the boat still firing and manages to overturn the dingy. He decks the closest saboteur and proceeds to kick and karate chop the other two. But suddenly the three saboteurs detonate, sending a stunned Steve reeling.

He manages to swim back to shore, unable to believe how any Country could think so little of human life or of turning men into human bombs? He rushes over to where Diana still lies and helps the dazed Amazon to her feet. He asks her if it is alright if he kisses her as if she was Wonder Woman? She agrees and as they embrace passionately, she thinks to herself that it was more important for her to change into Wonder Woman today than at any other time since she assumed a secret identity…but…for the first time in her life, she has failed!

Fighting back the tears, she drives Steve back to HQ and watches as he bids farewell and enters. She wonders if she will ever see him again? If only she knew what his mission was she could try and help him. But even Steve will not his own orders until in flight! She quickly transforms into Wonder Woman and summons her invisible plane. She tunes the onboard Omni-Receiver to Steve’s plane’s frequency and unscrambles the message. Colonel Trevor is instructed to fly to the island of Odlong and to take high-altitude photographs of the enemy’s top secret weapon installation. Previous pilots have all been lost over these co-ordinates and if for any reason his own plane malfunctions, he has been given a special miniature camera.

At the same moment on the enemy island of Odlong, the most baleful brain that had even been steeped in oriental cunning for the sole purpose of annihilating the free world plots its master stroke. Egg fu, a giant talking Egg shell, addresses his troops, telling them that the foolish Americans do not realise that the instant any of their pilots attempt to take a photograph they are condemning themselves to death! He turns to survey the Doomsday Rocket which rests on its launch pad, designed to wipe out the entire American Pacific Fleet with one blow! To avoid giving the Americans any chance of advance warning, he has decided to wait until the fleet comes close before launching and his scout planes advise that they are already very close!
Meanwhile onboard Steve’s plane, the Colonel is musing over what could possibly have happened to the other eleven planes sent previously? They were destroyed the instant they took their photographs which may be the answer. And yet, his mission is to take those very photographs so how can he take them in a different way to the other pilots?

Not far behind, Wonder Woman tracks Steve’s plane but suddenly finds herself under attack from Chinese MIG fighters! She realises that if she does not stop them they may go on to attack the Pacific Fleet below, but it will mean she will be letting Steve speed on to Odlong Island alone, probably to his doom! Fighting back the tears, she uses her plane to rip through the wings of her attackers. However, she decides that it will be better to capture the pilots and take them to the Fleet for questioning. She uses her lasso to ensnare all the MIGS and starts to tow them down towards the ocean below where the Pacific Fleet makes its way towards Odlong Island. But suddenly, the planes erupt into flame sending the Amazon Princess tumbling earthwards.

As the battered Wonder Woman hits the water she realises the planes have been booby-trapped! Just then beneath her, she then sees an enemy sub unleashing a torpedo towards the fleet! Swiftly she swims after it and manages to grab the fin, stopping it in its tracks. But the missile is a two stage weapon and a smaller torpedo erupts from the front and continues towards the fleet. Desperately, Wonder Woman throws the first stage, knocking the second stage off course. But yet another stage deploys and she realises that like an Oriental Box within a Box puzzle, the torpedo keeps firing another inside it every time it is deflected from its course!

As the missiles speed towards their targets she knows that the only way to stop them is for them to explode against a target. With that she pushes the enemy submarine into their path and as they explode, the concussion pounds Wonder Woman, who struggles not to lose consciousness as she still has to find Steve!

At that moment high over the mist shrouded Odlong Island, Steve prepares to take his pictures. He sets the plane on auto pilot and sets the camera to take its pictures in sixty seconds time. He then ejects from the plane and waist as his plane circles round to take the pictures. But just as the sixty seconds is up the plane is shot down. Steve watches from beneath his drifting parachute and muses that Anti-Aircraft guns below must be uniquely synchronised to home-in on the vibrations of any aerial camera over the island. However, whatever diabolical brain devised such a weapon did not reckon on anything other than an aerial camera as a target. Steve then proceeds to use his miniature camera to take the shots he needs before attempting to swing out to sea for a rendezvous with the fleet. But suddenly search beams train on him and he finds that they are magnetic, dragging him down towards Egg Fu below!
He come to a stand still and hovers helplessly in front of the giant, gloating Egg Fu! The villain instructs his men that before he turns this American into a giant Fire Cracker, they should train the X-Ray beams on him to see if he is hiding anything. Steve realises that they will discover the miniature camera, disguised as a lighter, and in an incredibly daring move, he coolly takes out a cigarette and lights it up using the lighter just before the X-Rays scan his pockets. When his men advise that Steve is all clear, Egg Fu tells the American that the beams holding him in place are also injecting him with Atomic Explosive force, turning him into a human-time bomb and timed to explode with the force of an erupting volcano against his own Pacific Fleet!

A shocked Steve realises he has to do something and plans to blow up the Doomsday Rocket before it can be fired against the fleet. But just then Egg Fu’s scout planes announce that the Fleet is within striking distance and both Steve and the Rocket are launched skywards!

Not far away out to sea, Wonder Woman has been revived by the icy water and swims back to the surface. She summons her plane and climbs onboard, intent on racing towards the Island of Odlong in the distance. But she suddenly sees Steve flashing through the air like a rocket. As she steps out onto the wing he yells at her that he did not dream he would see her before the end and for her not to approach as he has been turned into a human bomb! However, Wonder Woman loops her golden lasso around him and tells him they will find a way to disarm him. He replies that they have little time as he is timed to detonate in ten minutes in conjunction with a giant rocket coming from the other direction.

Suddenly more Chinese MIGS appear and open fire on Wonder Woman in order to stop her helping Steve. He yells at her to let go and save herself but she replies “Never!”. She the uses her bracelets to deflect their bullets back at them, destroying the planes in mid air but in the process lets go of the lasso and Steve. She races after him as he converges on the path of the Doomsday Rocket approaching in the distance.

As the Fleet tries to shoot it down, Wonder Woman tells Steve she will divert him from the Rocket’s path, but he tells her that when she had swung him off course it had given him a chance to head towards the Rocket. He intends to intercept and ram it before it destroys the fleet. He shouts at her to head for safety but she tells him she is staying with the bravest man she ever knew.

Below, the awe struck crews of the mighty task force stare incredulously at the resulting titanic explosion. The Admiral orders a wire to be sent, sending his condolences to Queen Hippolyta at her daughter’s astonishing self-sacrifice to save their lives…

News of Wonder Woman’s death plunges the whole world into deepest gloom, including Paradise Island. As the Amazons grieve, a weeping Hippolyta decides that it is worth trying to use the AS-R Beams to restore Diana – not just to reunite a daughter with her mother but because Wonder Woman is needed in this world as a force of good! With that she summons the Amazon Task Force who use their Gliders to magnetise everything in the air, on the sea and below it. Every single atom of Wonder Woman’s atomic structure is collected and returned to Paradise Island. there, the Amazon scientists lay out the remnants and Hippolyta takes on the responsibility to activating the AS-R Beam. The Amazons watch, not knowing what the outcome will be.

Slowly, two figures emerge on the table and the Amazons realise that Steve and Diana must have been together in the explosion. However, although the beams have worked and reassembled them both, why are the two of them glowing like volcanic fire? The answer to the mystery comes swiftly as the world’s most famous couple reach out their hands to each other and as they touch, ignite a huge flash. They realise they have now both become human bombs, not only a danger to themselves but to the whole world!

To be continued…