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During her time as writer on the main Wonder Woman book, Gail Simone expressed her fondness for the sword and sorcery genre. It even inspired a story during her run, featuring Diana being transported back in time and wielding a sword a la Red Sonja. And in fact, Simone would later go on to write for the Red Sonja series over at Dynamite Entertainment.
So, when DC announced a special mini-series crossover with Dark Horse Comics, featuring a Wonder Woman and Conan team up, it should not have come as a surprise that Simone was the creative mind behind it. She even brought along the same artist she had worked with on the Wonder Woman book during her stint, Aaron Lopresti, whose artistic style certainly lent itself to these sword and sorcery type adventures.
Synopsis
As Conan rides his horse through the countryside he recalls a girl from his youth named Yanna who has captivated him. Just then his thoughts are interrupted as he comes across a man named Kian about to be killed by a gang of men. Kian pleads for Conan to help him but at first the barbarian is uninterested in getting involved. But when he is offered gold he suddenly changes his tune. He is attacked by the men but easily dispatches them only to discover that the reason they had taken Kian is because he had defaulted on a debt – in other words he had no money!
As Conan rides towards the next city Kian tells him that he will soon have more gold than he know what to do with because he has placed a bet on a fight being organised by the slaver, Dellos, that he cannot lose! Apparently, Dellos has a female slave who is going into the arena – a favourite apparently – but Kian has bet against her as she will surely lose.
Meanwhile, unknown to them, they are being followed by two crows who later transform into women and reveal themselves to be The Cordivae.
They take their seats at the arena and see a beautiful raven haired woman step out. As a group of warriors charge at her it seems she is surely about to be slaughtered but she deftly defeats her attackers with grace and fierceness. However, her victory is short lived as more men enter the arena and she is clouted unconscious and escorted back to her cell. Conan is convinced that it is Yanna.
While out for the count she dreams of her childhood. She knows she has a mother…and sisters. And that they leave somewhere out in the ocean. And while she may be forgotten to the she knows she had a title – and even a weapon – a golden lasso. And she knows one more thing. She was a WONDER.
Meanwhile Conan manages to sneak into the holding pits and finds the woman bound in her cell, now awake. She hears him coming and warns him but he reassures her he is not here to kill her. He asks her name and standing up she hesitates, struggling to remember, before smiling and revealing her name to be Wonder Woman. He asks her if she ever went by another name…”Yanna” perhaps? She ponders the name, as it sounds familiar and yet somehow wrong to her.
He introduces himself and tells her that he is convinced she is Yanna, the mysterious girl he had fallen for many years ago. As she asks him if he is sure she is this woman as she has no recollection of him, Conan is clouted unconscious as Dellos and his mean burst into the cell.
Smirking, he tells her that as they obviously seem to have some romantic connection, it will be most entertaining to force them to fight each other to the death tomorrow in the arena.
