Wonder Woman #6 – “Power Play” – Len Wein/George Perez/Bruce Patterson
Last issue, Ares influenced people in the United States and Russia to prepare for a nuclear war. An American general (Tolliver) actually took over a military base, planning to launch nukes at Russia to kick things off. Wonder Woman, Julia Kapatelis, Steve Trevor, Etta Candy, and Colonel Michaelis made it into the base using the talisman Diana got from Harmonia, but before they could stop Tolliver and his men, Ares showed up in person. As Tolliver takes the key to the nukes and prepares to head into the control room, Steve, Etta, and Michaelis grab some gas grenades and Diana starts
pounding Tolliver’s troops. She’s still weak from Deimos’s poison, but manages to hold them back, giving Steve time to follow Tolliver through the door to the control room. Diana tries to pull the steel door apart, but gets zapped by lightning and disappears. Steve shoots Tolliver before he can activate the nukes, but Ares’ power animates Tolliver as some kind of zombie. Diana finds herself elsewhere, facing Ares. He admits he wants to take over from Zeus as leader of the Olympians and figures World War III will be a nice legacy to leave Earth. He gloats over how easily he pushed humans to turn on each other, and how a world-ending war is now imminent, showing Diana how 
he’s infused Tolliver and his men with demonic spirits. On Themiscyra, the Amazons are aging because the other gods have fled to Oblivion, but Hippolyte urges them to trust that Diana will triumph over Ares. She’s not having an easy time of it though, getting the crap kicked out of her as Ares toys with her. She uses Harmonia’s amulet to strike him, but that just pisses him off even more. He shows her Tolliver’s zombie troops attacking her friends (and killing Michaelis) and Diana wonders why the gods aren’t helping her. Most of them have assumed Ares will win and willingly boarded a boat to Oblivion, but a few goddesses refuse to board, thinking Diana can still win. She manages to pull herself out of Ares’ fire and uses her Golden Lasso of Truth on him. The lasso shows him what will happen if he wins … all life on
Earth will be wiped out and he’ll be left to rule a lifeless planet, but not for long; without worshippers, he will fade away too. Ares sees the difference between destruction and oblivion and decides to restore balance to the world using the amulet. That causes his animated pawns to expire and he promises Diana he won’t directly interfere in human affairs again (pointing out that humanity is quite capable of destroying itself without his help). He tells Diana it’s up to her to teach mankind a better way, but if she fails, he may take another shot. Back at the base, Tolliver’s troops are gone and General Hillary’s men bust in to find Steve carrying Diana’s unconscious body out of the control room.
Firestorm #61 – “Thunderstruck” – John Ostrander/Joe Brozowski/Dick Giordano
This one starts with a recap of Typhoon’s origin, his fights with Firestorm, and lets us know that he’s figured out a way to actually meld himself with a hurricane-level storm. He’s brought that storm to Pittsburgh to get revenge on Firestorm. The wind, hail, and tornadoes wreak havoc on the city, destroying buildings and killing hundreds as Typhoon screams out for Firestorm to face him. Ronnie and Professor Stein are discussing Stein’s brain tumour, wondering what they can do as Firestorm to make the time he has left meaningful. When they realize Typhoon is back and gunning for them, they know they have no choice but
to become Firestorm and face him. At first, Firestorm is kept buy just rescuing people from the effects of the mega-storm, but Typhoon soon goes on the offensive, zapping them with lightning. Stein says they need to get above the storm to check things out, so they fly right through Typhoon. Firestorm conjures up some metal armour to protect himself (saying he saw it in a comic book, which I assume is an Iron Man reference) and they make it through, despite more lightning strikes. The view from above is discouraging, as Typhoon has spread himself over five states, screwing up weather patterns over the entire Midwest and beyond. Stein knows Typhoon must be 
heating water vapour to maintain the hurricane (since the weather is too cold for a hurricane to form) and thinks they could get rid of him by taking away that water vapour. Ronnie actually retains something from his science classes and creates huge sodium crystals in the atmosphere to absorb the water vapour. He also triggers a sonic boom inside the hurricane’s eye and that disrupts things enough to change Typhoon back to human again. The police chief (Ferguson) gets pissed off when he finds out Typhoon’s attack was targeting Firestorm and he guilts the hero into working himself to exhaustion trying to fix the damage. But the relentless pace takes its toll on Stein and when they finally separate, he keels over.
Vigilante #43 – “Capitol Offenses” – Paul Kupperberg/Tod Smith/Rick Burchett
This one starts with the Washington cops searching the train from New York looking for Vigilante, who had a hell of a gunfight with an assassin last issue. Vigilante killed the assassin, but now he has to toss smoke bombs, run through crowds, and steal a taxi to get away from the cops. In Valentina Vostok’s office, she’s getting mad because nobody can find Peacemaker, who tried to kill Vostok and Harry Stein last issue. A general named Stark comes in to give Vostok shit
about Peacemaker’s increasingly public activities, but Stark is really just worried about the President finding out he knew about Peacemaker all along. Stein throws Stark out of the office and Vostok congratulates him, saying she’s glad she picked him as her possible successor. They don’t know that Peacemaker isn’t far away, listening to their conversation through his special helmet (which he also believes holds the souls of those he’s killed). Peacemaker still thinks Harry is the terrorist Achmed in disguise and still wants to kill him (and Vostok) before going after Vigilante. Speaking of Vigilante, he leads the 
cops on a car chase through Washington before finally losing them and heading for Vostok’s building. Vostok sends out all her agents to look for Peacemaker, who shows up at her office minutes later. Stein pretends to beg for mercy while trying to convince Peacemaker he’s not really Achmed. As Vigilante arrives at the building and heads for Vostok’s office (having to fight his way through security), Peacemaker toys with Stein. Stein finally gets close enough to jump Peacemaker and starts pounding him just as Vigilante busts in. Peacemaker stuns them with a sonic attack, but Vigilante manages to knock him out. Vostok thanks Vigilante and says she needs his help with
something. Across town, we see some more Middle Eastern terrorists, but these guys are dope dealers, bringing crack into the city (targeting the young wealthy people) to destabilize the government and American society in general while making money for their cause. (Crack actually was pretty rampant in Washington around this time … remember Marion Barry?) Elsewhere, we see a drunkard named Jerry who’s hit rock bottom and wants to get help, but finds that crack addicts have taken up all the available beds in rehab facilities. I assume this is all setting up next issue’s story.
Warlord #119 – “The Kraken Pentacle” – Michael Fleisher/Ron Randall
This one starts with Travis Morgan in Shamballah, worrying about Tara (who took off last issue). He’s jumped by assassins and kills most of them, but one gets away so Morgan decides to follow him. In Kiro, Machiste is practicing in the gladiatorial arena and is in pretty good spirits. We soon find out why, as we see Tara come in and start making out with him. In New Atlantis, Power Girl finds a shrine to her supposed grandfather, Arion, and goes inside. She doesn’t notice a mysterious mist start to materialize behind her. Morgan trails his
would-be assassin to a castle on an island in the middle of a lake. He crosses the lake in a small coracle, but gets grabbed by a giant squid and has to fight it off to reach the island. In Kiro, Tara tells Machiste she’s worried about Morgan retaliating against them for their affair (even though Morgan cheated on her first with Mariah). No sooner has she finished saying that than a gaggle of assassins show up to attack them. These are the same Kraken-inspired guys who jumped Morgan, but Machiste doesn’t know that so he assumed they were sent by Morgan and Tara reinforces that belief. Elsewhere, Redmond (the renegade CIA agent) continues his search for Morgan, but 
gets into trouble for stealing food. He’s chased into the country, where he tries to climb a steep cliff and falls off. In New Atlantis, the strange mist affects Power Girl, compelling her to use her heat vision to blast a crystal prism. When the prism shatters, a demon appears and Power Girl bows down to it. Morgan gets inside the castle and overhears the Kraken Pentacle assassins discussing how they were hired by Machiste. Before he can process that, he’s jumped by an assassin and ends up facing the whole lot of them. Meanwhile, in a dungeon deep beneath Kiro, we see that the Tara who’s been banging Machiste isn’t the real deal, she’s Y’smalla in disguise and she has the real Tara chained up.