In this issue we see the return of Angleman, the villain responsible for sending Wonder Woman across dimensions and where she joined with her Earth Two counterpart to fight a common foe. The issue concerned was 243 and featured the plot device which allowed DC Comics to revert from W.W.II story lines back to the present day ones.
The story opens on a Washington bridge where two policeman look on in amazement as Wonder Woman strains on her golden lasso, which is looped around an unseen object in the water. A senior officer from the Pentagon has driven off the bridge but by the time the officers have arrived on the scene the Amazing Amazon is already trying to haul the limo out of the Potomac River! One of the policeman comments to his buddy that she does not stand a chance as the vehicle easily weighs over a ton. But his colleague replies that if he believes that then he does not know this Amazon! They wonder why she is here in Washington DC as they thought that her base of operations was New York? In reply, Wonder Woman says that times change as well as people. She adds that they will be seeing quite a bit of her around the Capital in the future too.
With a final heave, she pulls the limo up out of the depths of the river and drags it back onto the bridge. Quickly she races to the door which is jammed solid. She tells the officers to stand back as she wrenches the door off its hinges and leans inside to retrieve the unconscious soldier, who she recognises as General Darnell. She sees that he is half drowned and immediately gives him the kiss of life. A few tense moments later he begins to cough and splutter and slowly opens his eyes. But his saviour is already running off and he calls after her, but to no avail.
The police officers advise him that the Amazon has gone and that she “isn’t the sort of lady to stick around for applause.” The groggy General replies that he has heard of this Wonder Woman on the news but that he never realised she was so beautiful.
Meanwhile up in the skies over the nation’s capital, Wonder Woman is back on board her invisible plane. Seeing the General had reminded her that she is late for work but when she had seen his car swerve and crash through the wall she just had to respond. She now swoops down over the Pentagon and leaping down, she sneaks inside the building behind the guards’ backs.
Once inside she changes into her new everyday persona as Captain Diana Prince of the US Air Force. She makes her way down the corridor and is saluted by some marines. As they watch her go by one of them whispers to his colleague, saying that she must be the brand new Captain who is also supposed to be a top pilot too. So why is she working behind a desk at the Pentagon? The other marine replies that he has heard she is working in the Special Assignments Branch as an Adjutant for a Colonel Steve Trevor, who in turn works for a General Darnell who is in overall charge of the operation.
Meanwhile Diana continues to make her way through the labyrinth building taking and giving salutes as she goes. She cannot get used to all this military discipline. She remembers that she had only created this identity and planted false records in the Air Force computers after wiping out all previous records concerning her old Diana Prince identity so she could be close to Steve. The other reason is to do with her mission in Man’s World – to discover who or what is behind the current escalation of world tension. Her mother believes that it is the work of some evil force but she wonders whether it is not simply male stupidity.
She enters the Special Assignments Office and is greeted by Lieutenant Candy, who advises that they have received confirmation from Edwards Air Force Base that this morning’s test is still on. Etta adds that the General is also late for work which seems strange. Diana agrees, not letting on that she knows the reason why and asks Etta not to use her formal title of ‘Captain’ and to call her ‘Diana’ from now on.
As Diana steps inside her own office, Etta thinks to herself how she believes that her and Diana will become good friends because she seems positively human – for a captain that is!
Once seated, Diana reviews the paperwork regarding the test of the new single stage space shuttle. If it works, this new craft, code named ‘Daedelius’, will mean the Air Force can put men into space in a matter of hours. That way, America can protect herself against laser-armed satellites and other threats from space.
Just then Steve walks in and asks if she has heard from General Darnell yet because the test cannot be delayed. Just then the phone rings and Diana answers it. She hears the news regarding Darnell and relays to Steve that he is currently at Walter Reed hospital after a car accident, although the General seems to be fine. It looks like the test will have to proceed without him.
Moments later Diana and Steve lift off in a helicopter from the Pentagon grounds. As they fly, she contemplates how Steve has no idea that she is the same woman who saved his life only a few weeks ago. She remembers how she had landed back in Man’s World as Wonder Woman and rushed into a hospital with the sleeping Steve in her arms. The nurses and doctors took him from her for a check up and Wonder Woman assured them that Steve was fatigued but otherwise fully healed. Before they could question her further she had made a swift exit.
Once he had checked out of hospital, Steve returned to his place of work as head of Special Assignments under General Darnell, a role created by Aphrodite’s spell. Soon Steve had been introduced to his new Adjutant who he was told had recently transferred from Hawaii – a Captain by the name of Diana Prince. For a moment he thought he had met his new Captain before but did not recognise who she really was.
She now hopes he never will too. She realises she is in the perfect place to observe Man’s World because of her anonymity as Diana Prince USAF. She does not want to lose that, even if it is only with Steve, as she feels the world needs Wonder Woman now more than ever.
Soon they have landed at Edwards Air Base and once disembarked, walk towards the launch platform of the Daedelius. They are greeted by a Professor Bennington and a senior Air Force Officer. Steve apologies for Darnell’s absence and they enter the launch bunker as the countdown commences. They watch as the clock reaches zero and the shuttle blasts into the air.
Suddenly though, a beam of light reaches out from a clutter of hangars and surrounds the Daedelius. To their amazement the craft simply vanishes into thin air, as if turning off at a ninety degree angle – from everything! As they struggle to come to terms with what has just happened, Diana takes the opportunity to slip out of the room and transform into Wonder Woman. She has seen this effect before and quickly summons her robot plane.
Once onboard, she twirls her magic lasso at super speed, setting up sympathetic vibrations in the air. They react to the residue left by the energy beam in its passing, providing her with a clear trail to its source! As she follows the trail, she ponders that the culprit must be a certain villain by the name of Angleman who tried the same stunt by capturing a space shuttle and holding it for ransom. But this time he must have a new angle. Instead of enclosing the craft in a force field bubble high up in space as per last time, he has managed to teleport the Daedelius somewhere off the base.
Soon she has reached the hangar from where the beam originated from and as she she swoops inside she is greeted by the Angleman! He informs her that he is not surprised to see her, even though he thought she operated from New York normally. He assures her he has covered all the angles this time and that she can capture him if she wants but she will never get the Daedelius back! Not unless the government pays a ransom of half a billion dollars in sterling silver!
As she unhooks her lasso and twirls it over her head she asks why he wants silver this time and not gold? He replies that gold prices keep fluctuating up and down and he prefers his “fee in a more predictable coin!” He dives out of the way of the lasso and gloats that she has missed him. But she calmly advises that she was not aiming for him and instead loops the golden rope around a nearby petrol pump. She yanks it out of the floor causing gallons of petrol to fly up out of the ground, momentarily blinding Angleman and smothering his Angler device, apparently rendering it useless.
While her quarry is indisposed, she grabs the pump and slams it back into the hole, plugging the leak before turning her attention back to the fallen criminal. She warns him that he will soon tell her the whereabouts of the shuttle under the influence of her lasso. He smiles though and replies that he can do better than that – he can show her! With that he lifts the Angler and fires at her. She thinks he is faking but this new, more sophisticated version of the Angler Device has not been incapacitated as she had planned. Instead she is blasted off into a ninety degree angle from reality and Angleman laughs as he watches her disappear.
“Imagine her trying to play all the angles with me!” he cries. With his new Angler he can dry the messy petrol off just by gesturing and he was never in any danger, nor even blinded! As he opens up a dimensional port hole for himself to escape through, he thinks to himself that when he broke out of prison he could not wait to get back into action. But dealing with such “chumps” as Wonder Woman is a bore. Still there is one consolation – at least the money is good! And with that he steps through and disappears.
While on the other side of the world at a ninety degree angle to reality, a helpless Wonder Woman plunges through a realm of abstract insanity and wonders if she will ever find her way home!
