Wonder Woman – Volume 1 – 308

Synopsis

A solemn ceremony is about to take place on Paradise Island. Wonder Woman, her wrists bound together with chains, enters the Temple of Aphrodite followed by her mother, Queen Hippolyta. The Amazon Princess kneels before the altar and Hippolyta asks for the Goddess of Love to pass judgment on her daughter’s honour.

A hazy figure begins to materialise and forms into that of Aphrodite herself. The Goddess says she is ever at the call of those who live by her laws. Is the daughter of Hippolyta one of those people? Wonder Woman replies that she has tried to be a worthy servant and prays that Aphrodite finds her so. The Goddess in turn responds that only the test of steel will determine that fact. She then commands Diana to do as the Law of Aphrodite commands in front of her witnesses. Diana says “I will o Goddess” and snaps the chain that binds her in two. She then says that she submits herself to the rule of Love and dons the shackles of the Amazons’ former subjugation.

Aphrodite then commands Diana to rise to her feet, wearing bracelets freely chosen in submission to the ancient code of love and honour. She tells Diana to remember always the past and the Amazons’ slavery, binding herself henceforth to Aphrodite’s canons and freedom.

Just outside the Temple meanwhile, Sofia Constantinas (see issue 301) secretly listens in on the ceremony taking place inside. Since arriving on Paradise Island, the Bracelets of Submission that the Amazons all wore had never quite made sense to her. But now she understood their significance. She is glad that she had disobeyed Hippolyta’s instructions to stay away and had instead sneaked up to watch the ancient ceremony to replace Wonder Woman’s shattered bracelet taking place. She feels this will help her better learn what it is to become an Amazon.

Back inside the temple, the Queen asks her daughter to kneel once more as a supplicant before the great and giving spirit of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. Another form materialises next to Aphrodite and Hippolyta steps forward to address Athena. She tells the Goddess that the magic lasso, her gift to Wonder Woman, has been severed and defiled. She beseeches Athena to make it whole once more. The Goddess of Wisdom calmly replies that it is already done and Hippolyta is amazed to find that the golden rope she has been holding in her hands is unbroken once more. She thanks the Goddess and then asks Diana to leave her alone with Aphrodite and Athena so she can speak with them in private. Diana bids her mother a fond farewell and steps outside of the Temple.

Sofia darts behind a pillar so as not to be seen and watches the Amazon Princess stride towards her Invisible plane. Sofia muses to herself that Hippolyta almost sounded worried that her daughter might overhear her conversation and, therefore, she would like to know just what sort of things that even the Queen’s daughter cannot be told about. As she steps back to the doorway to continue eavesdropping she hears Athena ask whether Hippolyta is troubled. The Amazon Queen replies that she is concerned about the man Steve Trevor. Diana has told her that she plans to share her greatest secrets with him. Hippolyta begs Athena to tell her why this mortal is so important to her daughter’s life that fate has twice brought him back from the dead? A listening Sofia cannot believe her ears on hearing this! But just as she strains to listen in more she hears a voice behind call her name and she turns to see Wonder Woman standing there…

Elsewhere in Man’s World in a place known as Star City, the heroine Black Canary patrols the streets on her motorcycle. Suddenly she hears a commotion nearby and sees a woman chasing an old man. Canary orders the woman to stop right there but her quarry has no intention of stopping her pursuit and with a wave of her hand creates a wall of flame between her and Black Canary. The heroine just manages to skid to a halt in time and wonders how on earth the woman had created the flames. However, she can see through the smoke and flames that the woman is still racing after the man and uses her Canary Cry to knock the woman to the ground.

As the stunned woman tries to come to her sense the old man suddenly turns and snaps his fingers. As ape like creatures emerge from the shadows he tells her that the power he first sought forty years ago will soon be his and how the Fuehrer would have been envious of him. He then orders the creatures to take the woman inside one of the nearby warehouses so that he can question her.

Black Canary, who has been watching this through the wall of fire realises she has made a big mistake and that the old man is actually some kind of Nazi menace. What is more, the woman on the ground seems to be just staring at her. Canary feels a chill the woman’s gaze bores through her. And then, without another word, Black Canary gets on her bike and leaves the scene…

Meanwhile back on Paradise Island in the Plaza below the Temple of Aphrodite, Diana and Sofia are walking together. The Amazon Princess says that when she was a girl she used to spy on her mother as she went about her private duties. She does not think anyone is immune to curiosity but there are limits when one becomes an adult, even for one who is still a stranger to Amazon ways. Sofia apologises to Wonder Woman and explains that she really only wanted to see the Bracelet Ceremony. Her own ideals once led her into crime so she sometimes wants to know more clearly where her new Amazon life is taking her. But she had gotten caught up in what the Queen was saying and perhaps had got carried away in the process. Diana tells Sofia she understands and that she will not tell her mother about the indiscretion.

Sofia then asks if Diana would explain something to her that she had not quite understood. What did Hippolyta mean when she had said that Colonel Trevor had died and had been brought back to life? Diana stares at Sofia confused and almost a little dazed. Sofia asks if she is all right and the Amazon snaps out of her trance, having no recollection of Sofia’s question. The Greek decides the matter is not worth pursuing and so Diana bids her farewell and heads towards the Teleporter recently installed on the island, as she is scheduled to do some monitor duty on the Justice League Satellite. As Sofia watches her leave though, she decides to do some checking of her own…

High up in space, Wonder Woman’s atoms are transported through the void to re-materialise inside the HQ of the Justice League. She is due to take over the watch from the Elongated Man but as she enters the control room she sees the hero lying groggily on the floor. She rushes over and asks if he is all right? He replies that his jaw is a little sore but otherwise he is OK. He tells her that Black Canary had unexpectedly beamed up, strangely asking whether this was the JLA’s HQ before knocking him out. He adds that he could not have been out for long though and that the monitors should be able to pinpoint her whereabouts within the station. As they walk over to the console and check the screens they see her inside the Arsenal.

Back on Earth in the Pentagon meanwhile, general Darnell is speaking with Major Keith Griggs. The General tells him that after Griggs’s good work on the Abernathy case he has every confidence that the Major will be perfect for this next assignment. As Keith steps out of the office Darnell adds that he wants daily reports through their Caribbean Control Centre. Etta overhears his words and jokingly asks Keith if he is going to catch some rays? Keith smiles and replies that his trip is purely business as otherwise he would have taken her along with him. As she watches him leave she thinks to herself that Griggs is a cutie all right, but that assignment was supposed to go to Steve. She wonders how the Colonel will take the news…

High up in orbit on the JLA Satellite, Wonder Woman and The Elongated Man are giving chase to Black Canary who is now armed. The Amazon Princess tells her to stop running as it will achieve nothing. Her response is to raise her weapon at them. They all come to a halt and Canary tells them that she does want to hurt anyone if she can avoid it. As she speaks, The Elongated Man uses the distraction to stretch one of his legs around behind her. But she sees the move and fires a stun blast at his leg.

Wonder Woman then advances on her saying she has now gone too far. Canary shoots again but this time the Amazing Amazon deflects the beam with her bracelet. However, unfortunately the beam ricochets through one of the walls and air begins to escape out through the hole. At the same time the Artificial Gravity begins to lessen and The Elongated Man tells Wonder Woman that Canary must have fiddled with the controls and messed up the Automatic Sealing System. Wonder Woman responds by ripping off some housing from one of the nearby consoles and throws it to where her colleague is floating. He menages to plug the leak before Canary is sucked out through the hole, although the air is almost gone. Wonder Woman says that she had better release the Emergency Oxygen Supply but The Elongated Man tells her that he will take care of that and she should instead attend to Black Canary.

Soon the Oxygen and Gravity are restored and Wonder Woman has Black Canary bound within her golden lasso. The Amazon Princess says to her captive that she cannot really be the Black Canary because she did not even recognise the Satellite and not once during the fight did she use her sonic Canary Cry. The impostor replies that her real name is Zenna Persik and that Black Canary had interfered with her attempt to capture the notorious Karl Schlagel, known to his victims in Auschwitz as “The Knife”. Her mother’s entire family were among his victims and The Elongated Man assumes she is Jewish. She replies that she is in fact a Gypsy and that a quarter of a million of her kind died in the camps. Wonder Woman then asks how she had managed to take over Canary’s body? Zenna replies that when it became clear that Canary’s meddling had put the Gypsy firmly in the hands of Schlagel and his monsters, she drew upon Psionic Powers that are her Gypsy Heritage, sometimes referred to as Gypsy Magic. She had switched minds with the heroine and then used her abilities to reach into the brain that now housed her mind to find the memory imprints that told her how to get to these headquarters. She planned to look for a weapon that would stop Schlagel from carrying out his current scheme. Wonder Woman then asks her about Black Canary’s fate and where she is now? Zenna coldly replies that the Nazi no doubt captured her and that she is at his mercy – or already dead!

Meanwhile down in Star City, Black Canary (now in the body of Zenna) comes to and tries to piece together the last few hours. Although still feeling groggy and confused, she remembers being dragged here by her captors who then proceeded to drug her. The old man asked a lot of questions which she could not answer because she is not who he thinks she is! She decides she had better find a way out of here but sees that the door is locked and that there are no windows. Still, assuming she is still in the same warehouse they took her to originally there must be a way out somehow. The buildings in this part of town are old and weather beaten, leaving much of the structure is probably weak. She kneels down and uses one of the nearby crates to smash down on the floor. The floorboards shatter and she manages to jump down into the gloomy hole below. As she makes her way along the darkened passageway she sees the faint glow of another room up ahead. Although she knows that it is probably occupied, it may offer her only exit out of here. She walks up to the entrance and takes a cautious peek through a crack in the doorway. Her eyes widen in horror as she sees down below a group of children strapped to a huge machine and she whispers to herself “What is that madman trying to do?”.

Suddenly her arms are grabbed from behind by a pair of the ape like creatures and she turns to see Schlagel standing there smiling. He says that if she really does not know what he is up to then that means she cannot tell anyone else. Which means he is free to dispose of her forever. With that he steps towards her with a syringe…