This issue formed part of the five part mini event “The Witching Hour”.
The story started in Wonder Woman – Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour #1 and continued in Wonder Woman #56 and Justice League Dark #4, then in this issue and concluded in Justice League Dark – Wonder Woman: The Witching Hour #1.
Wonder Woman wakes up to find herself in a strange netherworld. She sees Witchfire sitting on a rock and Manitou Dawn and Black Orchid lying unconscious nearby. Witchfire explains that their consciousness is being held here by Hecate in her own subconscious, while she controls their physical forms in the real world.
She adds that although she is dead, Hecate is taking her time burning through the rest of them. Mortals cannot withstand the amount of power she is channeling through each of them, although she recognises Diana is a demi-god. The Amazon Princess might even be strong enough to push back if her conscious mind was at the foreground. But she is now deep in the collective conscious where she is powerless. Sure she will probably burn through slower than the others but like them, she will eventually die.
Meanwhile in the real world Zatanna and John Constantine are taking cover as Wonder Woman wreak havoc throughout Nanda Parbat. He lights up a cigarette and tells the magician that he wishes he was at a pub right now to drink away his final hours. But she slaps the cigarette out of his mouth and tells him to snap out of it and be the clever jackass she knows he can be. He then reveals how his cancer has returned and that he is no more than a back alley exorcist. At this, Zatanna smiles and says that’s exactly what they need right now.
The whole ground begins to shake around them and they realise that Hecate is winning and soon will have wiped out all magic. Across the other side of world Swamp Thing attempts to prevent Black Orchid burning down the Parliament of Trees but he is powerless to stop her.
At the Oblivion Bar meanwhile, Bobo and Man-Bat have lead the monks now possessed by Rama Kushna to safety. But suddenly Manitou Dawn arrives through the portal having followed them. As she prepares to strike however Enchantress, Nightshade and Traci 13 – who had managed to transport themselves into the Shadow dimension to escape the fireball that had been unleashed by Witchfire – emerge and restrain her.
In the Netherworld, Wonder Woman admits to Witchfire that had been too presumptuous about being able to understand and control magic. Just the she hears her nae called and back in the real world sees Zatanna approaching her, trying to reach her. Momentarily it seems to have worked before the Amazon is once more consumed by Hecate’s power. But Zatanna had merely been a ruse to distract Wonder Woman, allowing time for John to create a holding spell.
As she is held in check, so too is Black Orchid by Swamp Thing while the Sisterhood of the Sleight Hand ensnare Manitou Dawn.
In the Netherworld Wonder Woman screams in agony and collapses, as Manitou Dawn and Black Orchid de-materialises. Black Orchid rushes to her age and cradles the weakened Amazon Princess, telling her that she suspects her friends had just tried to sever the connection between her and Hecate. But they had not measured it right. Manitou Dawn and Black Orchid had managed to break free. But all their power had raced into Diana. A universal level of power more than any mortal host has ever carried. Or is capable of carrying.
She tells Wonder Woman that she believes the Amazon Princes may have just died!
