Wonder Woman – Volume 1 – 193

Synopsis

The issue opens with Diana confronting Tony Petrucci who is armed with a gun. She is shielding an unseen figure behind her as she pleads with Tony to put down the gun. He replies that he has been looking for his quarry a long time and warns her to get out of the way, asking what business is it of hers anyway. She replies that she is here because his mother had asked her to stop him. Meanwhile, Diana thinks to herself that if she can just keep him talking long enough she can distract him and make a grab for the gun. She begins to recount how she had ended up standing between him and the mystery man…

Diana had been working in her Boutique when Mrs. Petrucci had rushed in. Seeing that the old woman is distressed Diana asks her what the matter is. She replies that her son Tony has gone and taken his service pistol that he had kept as a souvenir when he left the army. Mrs Petrucci then leads Diana to her apartment and into Tony’s room where she shows the empty draw in which the gun had been stored.

Diana double checks but finds it empty as indicated and she notices the photos on the dresser. She recognises Tony in one of them but asks who the girl is. Mrs. Petrucci replies that it is her daughter Angela . Diana remembers her being mentioned previously and had been told by the old woman that the girl had gone away. The Amazon Princess says that she would love to meet Angela some day and Mrs Petrucci suddenly breaks down in tears.

A few moments later they are sitting in the kitchen as Diana makes her a cup of coffee. She asks Mrs Petrucci to calmly tell her about Angela and why Tony is out there somewhere with a gun. The old woman then recounts how three years ago they had received a call from the police. She and Tony had rushed to where Angela had been attending a party and when they arrived they were shocked to see almost two dozen people being stretchered into ambulances! When they asked what had happened the police had told them that some sick individual had spiked some of the food with “funny” seasoning, which had resulted in twenty two very sick party goers – with four of them in comas.

Fearing the worst they had rushed forward and had been horrified to see one of the coma victims being carried out was Angela! Tony had comforted his distraught mother as the doctors assured them that they would do everything they could for the young girl. As the ambulance had pulled away Tony had spotted one of his friends, Eddie Dean, being helped out of the building. An angry Tony had confronted Eddie, demanding to know whether he had been responsible for the prank, just like he had been back in Vietnam when they had served together. Tony had then reminded his friend how he had set off blanks outside the barracks, making Tony and the other soldiers think they were under attack. The groggy Eddie had reassured him that he was completely innocent though and Tony had duly apologised for the unfair accusation.

Later at the hospital the doctors would not let Mrs Petrucci and her son see Angela because the young girl had still been in a deep coma. They had been told to go home and rest and that the medical staff would let them know if there was any change in Angela’s condition.

It took seven months before she would finally emerge from her comatose state during which time the other three coma victims had all died. Angela had then stayed in the hospital for a further year, where she never said a word and did not even recognise her own mother and brother when they visited.

Mrs Petrucci then finishes her story by telling Diana that Angela now currently resides in a nursing home. Diana asks if the police had ever found out who had been responsible for the prank and Mrs. Petrucci shakes her head. It had driven Tony crazy and he had not stopped looking for the culprit since. He drove everybody crazy with his questions…always searching for an answer. Sometimes he would come home late at night with his knuckles raw and bloody. The Bums that moved into the neighbour hood were scared of Tony and he took his frustrations out on them. But what happened to Angela was not their fault.

The old woman places her hands on Diana’s shoulders and asks for her help. She almost lost a daughter all those years ago and she fears that with Tony on the loose with a gun she will also lose a son. Diana agrees to help and asks where she can find Eddie, the friend whom Tony had initially accused.

A while later at Eddie Dean’s apartment, Diana is told that he does not know where Tony is. His friend has been acting crazy since it happened and Eddie asks the Amazon Princess if the armed Tony knows who the real culprit it. Diana nods. Eddie replies that he has told her all that he knows but volunteers to go out and look for Tony. Diana thanks him for his help and says that in the meantime she will asks around to see if anyone has seen Tony about.

She asks several of the neighbour hood residents but gets no joy. Then one of the hippies she asks says that he has seen Tony and invites her down some alleys so they will not be seen together. But when Diana follows him she realises he has other intentions and she deals out a karate chop to fell the guy. As she makes her way back along the network of alleyways though she is confronted by several men armed with weapons. The lead gang member tells her they do not like “dames” asking the wrong kind of questions and they are going to teach her a lesson. The Amazon’s lightning reflexes strike and she takes each member down in turn until she has the leader by the scruff of the neck. She demands to know who had sent them to stop her and begging for mercy, he tells her that they had been paid by a man named Runty Sneed.

Diana again goes through the frustrating business of asking questions and again everyone in the area knows nothing about Sneed. Suddenly as she is walking down the street a figure stumbles out of an alley way and collapses in front of her. As onlookers crowd round she tends to the shot man who she realises is Runty Sneed. He dies in her arms and feeling the eyes of the crowd around her, she decides to play a ruse to try and shake one of them up. She pretends Runty is still alive and is whispering in her ear. A few moments later she stands up and announces he is dead, although he had managed to talk before he died. She then strides off down the street hoping she has managed to scare someone into making a mistake.

As she leaves the scene one of the crowd members makes his way to a phone booth and calls an unseen individual, to whom he explains that Diana has been snooping around and that Sneed had spoken to her before he had died. The stranger on the other end of the phone says that he will take of her and the other man adds “And after that…Tony too!”.

An hour later Diana wonders if her plan has failed. She has played a target for ages now but nobody has bitten yet. As she walks down the empty street though a car pulls up and the window lowers. A gun barrel protrudes and the Amazon spots the danger in the wing mirror of a parked car. She dives out of the way as a hail of bullets pepper the sidewalk. The car screeches away but she manages to get the vehicle’s registration number and racing back to her apartment, she calls an old and influential friend in the police force. She gives him the number and he provides her with the registered owner….Eddie Dean!. She is shocked by what she hears and as she hails a cab she realises that she must get to Eddie before Tony does.

She arrives at Eddie’s apartment building and asks the doorman if he had seen anyone enter. He tells her that one of the Tenants, Eddie Dean, had just got out of his car when another man had stepped out of the shadows and punched him! It had been Tony, who had raged that he had come to settle the score. Eddie had made a run for it and Tony had given chase. Diana desperately asks in which direction they had gone and the Doorman points to a nearby building site. She tells him to call the police before racing over to the site, praying that she is not too late.

Darting through the maze of steel she frantically searches for the two men. She hears a crash upstairs and clambers up a ladder to see Tony firing rounds into the air. He rants that Eddie is not going to get way with it this time. Eddies’ voice comes back that he had not meant it. The party had been so boring he had only intended to liven it up a bit by spiking the salad with all sorts of hot stuff…red peppers, Tabasco and vinegar. He was not to know that the cleaning lady kept a powerful detergent in an old vinegar bottle!

Tony is unimpressed by this and races up a staircase, firing wildly and yelling that Eddie should tell that to Angela and the three who died. He continues that the reason he had finally figured out Eddie was responsible was because he had pulled the same gag at his most recent party.

Diana calls after Tony, but he has already raced up another level. Without a moment’s hesitation the Amazon Princess leaps into the night and grabs a hanging cable. She hauls herself up the cable to the next level and sees Eddie kicking barrels and boxes down the stairs at the advancing Tony.

Eddie yells that even though Tony knows the truth, his former friend cannot prove it. Just then he feels a tap on his shoulder and turns to see Diana standing there. He rages “You! You meddling Dame!” and pulls out his own gun but Diana clouts him several times, saying that he had been trying to lure Tony into thinking he was unarmed when in fact he was intending to kill him all along.

As Tony reaches their floor he warns Diana to step away from Eddie, who lies groaning in pain on the floor. She refuses to move and says that he must leave Eddie to the law. Tony holds up the gun and replies that this is the only law he is getting. Diana holds her ground and as he moves to pass her she grabs his wrist with one hand and with her other, lashes out at his neck. Dropping the gun, Tony sags to the floor and tries to get air back into his lungs. Seeing his chance, Eddie tries to make a grab for the weapon but Diana’s leg flashes out and sends him tumbling down the stairs!

Seeing Eddie is unconscious, Diana helps Tony to his feet as they hear police sirens in the distance. Soon Eddie is in custody and after making a full confession, is charged accordingly.

Later at the Petrucci home, Diana and Tony arrive to find mrs Petrucci and a smiling Angela waiting for them. Brother and sister embrace and Tony is overjoyed to see Angela is her old self again. He asks her how this has happened and she introduces them to her doctor, Henry Hurtz. He had persevered with his treatment until she had finally woken up. She and Henry then hold hands and she asks her brother’s permission to date the doctor. Tony hugs her and gives his blessing.

A week later Diana reads out the newspaper report to Tony, which recounts how Eddie has pleaded guilty to charges and has been given ten to twenty years. Tony sighs and says that he had hoped that the prank Eddie had pulled back in Vietnam might have cured him of playing such practical jokes, particularly as it had almost wiped out a twelve man patrol! He should have stuck to electric shock buzzers and exploding cigars but instead his pranks just got nastier and nastier.

He then thanks Diana for saving him from himself. After reading the papers full of reports of crime and unrest though, he says that he wonders if they are fighting a losing battle. She replies that win or lose, they are going to continue fighting it. There are too many “Eddies” out there and if somebody does not stop them – what will happen to all the other Angelas without a big brother to look after them?