Wonder Woman – Volume 3 – 30

Synopsis

Wonder Woman is greeted by Steve Trevor and as they hug each other warmly he advises her that he has taken command over the entire Department of Meta Human Affairs Operation now – and that it is no longer in the business of hunting Wonder Woman. He then begs her to bring Etta back safely…

Meanwhile at the headquarters of the Secret Society, Genocide torments Etta like a cat playing with a ball of wool. Coiled in the magic lasso, she is almost strangled as Genocide demands to know everything about Wonder Woman – what will make her burn. It wants Etta to feel the bitter taste of betrayal by giving away her friends weaknesses but Etta is a fighter and refuses to give back anything other than her name and rank. Genocide pulls tighter on the lasso around her neck…

Back at the ruins of the Department of Meta Human Affairs, Wonder Woman instructs Steve to keep the others back as she leaps back down into the whole where she had left Cheetah tied up in the steel rebar. Diana demands to know where Etta is being kept and why she has done this. The villainess then snarls back that she likes to play with her food and that she wanted Wonder Woman to know who had destroyed her. Diana kneels down and places her hands on either side of Cheetah’s head. She asks Cheetah if she knows who Maxwell Lord was? She stands up again as a smug Cheetah smiles back, taunting that Diana appears to be down to her last cards, pretending that she would actually kill a helpless captive again.

Wonder Woman removes her razor sharp tiara and replies “Quite the opposite. I regret my actions that day. I wish there had been another option…” Suddenly she throws the tiara across the room and it slice across Cheetah’s cheek, causing her to cry out in pain. The tiara ricochets around the walls before returning to it’s mistress who continues “But you declared this war professor. And for one of the few times in history, it won’t be merely the foot soldiers who suffer the consequences. This time the generals will pay as well!”.

She asks again where Genocide is hiding with Etta as Cheetah snarls in shock, asking why Diana did that and that she thought the Amazon Princess stood for something. Diana calmly replies “I do. The preservation of life. All other priorities are secondary.” Cheetah bemoans the fact that her face has been sliced as Wonder Woman effortlessly picks her up by the tail, hanging her upside down. She asks again where Genocide is. As Cheetah begins to panic, Wonder Woman positions her tiara ready to cut through the tail of Cheetah…

At the Secret Society’s HQ meanwhile, Genocide tells Etta how it wants to hurt and ruin Wonder Woman. Etta weakly replies that it cannot win and that the Amazon Princess will beat it. “You will beg before her.” Genocide lashes it, slapping Etta, before grabbing her by the scruff of the neck. Using the lasso it determines that her husband, Steve Trevor, once loved the Amazon before he fell for the fat, useless lump that was Etta and that he still loves Diana. Etta spits back that she will kill Genocide herself if Diana does not do it first!

On the newly created island of Thalarion Zeus watches as his men return with the spoils of war, carrying a nuclear missile retrieved from the US Destroyer they had boarded. As they kneel before Zeus with their tribute, he acknowledges their offering and says that they will now have a hero of their own. He then turns to the fire he has started and utters an incantation and an animated skeleton rises from the flames. As Zeus re-enacts the ritual that Hippolyta had performed hundreds of years ago when creating her own daughter, he hands the skeleton the heart of Kane Milohai. Flesh, muscle and tissue begins to form all over the skeleton until a blond haired, muscle bound warrior steps from the flames. Zeus bellows “You will put paid to the bringers of death and war. You will not parse or debate intentions. Made for war, you will stand for peace. My son, my prince. Behold Achilles, King of the Olympians!”

Meanwhile on Themyscira, Hippolyta kneels in prayer as the Amazons return home from exile across the globe. The Queen hears a familiar voice and looks up to see her Amazon Captain, Phillipus standing there. They embrace tearfully as more and more of their sisters appear around them and Hippolyta announces to them “You’re home”. The Bana-Mighdall Amazons however say that their own home has been destroyed. One named Akila asks Hippolyta if they are allowed to stay here on Themyscira. The Queen replies that this island belongs to all of them. Akila replies that they had lost their path and had strayed. “We stand defeated, humbled and naked.” Hippolyta picks up a sword and handing it to Akila responds “”You belong here by birth and will. Let this sword cover your nakedness…Amazon….and sister.” They all embrace warmly.

Elsewhere, Felix Faust and Dr. Magnus Morrow watch their monitor screens concerned as Wonder Woman approaches their HQ. She calmly rips the huge metal doors off their hinges before striding resolutely into the lobby. A tank is waiting for her and she hurls the doors at it, destroying it. Faust declares that he’s out of ideas and decides to exit. As Morrow accuses him of being a coward the sorcerer replies that although he had agreed to helping with the experiment and creating the monster – he had not agreed to facing an enraged Wonder Woman on the rampage!

As the Amazon Princess smashes her way through the last line of defending society members and the automated defenses, she confronts Morrow. She grabs him by the scruff of the neck, lifting him off the ground and demanding to know where Genocide is. A terrified Morrow recounts how this had all been Cheetah’s plan. The villainess had told her comrades that the society would never achieve their goals by cooperating. She had said that they were incapable of working together and thus would always be at a disadvantage against the Justice League. They needed something to do the killing for them. She had brought them a body that even in death pulsated with energy and glowed. She had told them that it would take science and magic to make their weapon. But they would need something to power the creature…hate and pain. They had therefore used dirt from where dictators had killed millions all over the world such as Rwanda, Darfur, Cambodia and made it part of the beast.

Cheetah had made a plan even beyond that though and had them implant it in the creatures brain so that it would take orders only from her. And something worse…it has no off switch. “If it takes decades…eventually it will come for us all! I’m sorry, Lord knows I’m sorry!!”.

Wonder Woman hurls him to the floor in disgust saying “For yourself, or for the world professor?”. He then reveals that Etta is on the roof and Wonder Woman immediately flies up through the ceiling, smashing her way though dozens of storeys before reaching her friend, who she is horrified to see has been strung up by the neck with a copy of her lasso and left to slowly suffocate. Diana quickly unties Etta and finds her friend unresponsive – in shock – or worse. She returns to the lobby area cradling Etta in her arms and tells the others to get out. “I’m shutting you down. As from this moment your ‘society’ no longer exists. If you try and regroup in any way I will tear you down. there will be no further warnings. take your wounded and go.”

She then proceeds to pummel the walls down and they flee terrified, as she brings the entire building crashing down into the river! As she carries Etta out of the smoking ruins she sees Morrow standing there and warns him that if he is here to gloat he is making a big mistake. He replies that Genocides actions have not been random. Cheetah wanted Diana alone. Before her grand design she wanted the Amazon Princess to feel despair. Her friends, the D.M.A, the Justice League…Cheetah wanted her to see them suffer. “It’s your only weakness Diana”, he adds.

She asks what he wants of her and he replies that he had made Genocide – it is like a child to him. He wants to help her.

“Then how do I kill it professor?” she asks coldly.