Synopsis
Five years ago, David Reid was caught in the midst of the Parademons’ attack on Metropolis. He attempted to get home to his mother, but was attacked by one of the creatures. Fortunately, his mother came to his rescue with a baseball bat, but she was injured. As she led him away, she warned him that he would have to keep moving no matter what – and never to stop no matter how scared he got. Suddenly, the downed Parademon returned for revenge, and carried her away. Remembering her advice, he ran for his life.
Now, David is Magog – armed with magical ability and weapons by the sorceress Circe. With Superman desperately holding up the George Washington Bridge in order to spare the innocents trapped on it, Circe warns that she knew Wonder Woman’s mother Hippolyta and Diana will make no move to stop her, or innocents will die.
Angrily, Superman uses his heat-vision to burn the monsters holding hostages at knife-point, so Circe sets Magog on him. Unfortunately, Superman’s vulnerability to magic means that he must weigh keeping the bridge suspended against the pain that Magog causes him. Circe entraps Wonder Woman within stone, forcing her to watch as Superman takes a beating. Magog warns reminds of how he watched his family killed because of the Justice League’s failure to save them. Though he is weak, Superman responds by blasting Magog directly in the face with heat-vision, using the momentary distraction to solder the bridge’s cables back together.
Superman then approaches Magog and apologises for his loss, before grabbing his staff and snapping it in two. In doing so, though, he is magically transported away. Magog, abandoned by his benefactor, is left to be captured by A.R.G.U.S.
Circe, meanwhile, has taken Wonder Woman to the island of Aiaia in the River Okeanos, taunting her of her arrogance at taking the role of God of War. This is the arrogance of all Amazons – to take what doesn’t belong to them and act as if they are god’s gift to women.
She explains that she intends to make Diana listen to every humiliation that was visited upon her by Hippolyta. Back in the earliest days of the Amazons of Themyscira, Circe had been the first outsider to visit them. She brokered a deal with Hippolyta then that she would enchant the armoury of the Amazons in exchange for the lives of all the surviving male children of her people. With them, she would create her Ani-Men. Unfortunately, Hippolyta had lied to her. She had made a secondary deal with Hephaestus trading those men for weapons that would protect her from the magicks of people like Circe herself, should she attack. But Hippolyta had underestimated her patience. Hippolyta is long gone, and Circe’s power is greater. She has watched Diana grow to become a figure of authority and power in two worlds, but she has seen how everything about Diana is built on a pile of dust – including her love life. As she says this, she draws Superman out of his hiding place.
Distracted by Superman, Circe is surprised when the Lasso of Truth wraps around her hand, and Wonder Woman breaks free of her prison. Angrily, Diana fights her way through the Ani-Men and warns that while she may be the daughter of Circe’s nemesis, she is not guilty of the same crimes. Circe responds that in truth, Diana is nothing to her but a device to illustrate that she is not to be trifled with – but she now sees an opportunity to make their encounter more personal. She has no need to destroy Wonder Woman when she can destroy everything she loves instead, and tear her apart. She uses her power to enchant Superman into attacking the woman he loves.
