Wonder Woman #8 – “Time Passages” – Len Wein/George Perez/Bruce Patterson
This is kind of a downtime issue that uses a different format for a lot of the story, combining a handful of images with page-long blocks of text. Most of the text is told in the past tense, reminding us of what’s happened in the first seven issues and bringing us up to date on events since last issue. These mini-stories are interspersed with scenes of Cheetah and her manservant heading to the United States to find Wonder Woman … or more specifically, her magic lasso. I get the feeling Perez might’ve been having deadline problems and this was a way to ease the pressure. The first part is Julia Kapatelis writing in her journal about Wonder Woman’s testimony in front of the United Nations.
She was trying to convince everyone that Ares was behind the near-nuclear war, but apparently some people just chose not to believe her, while others denigrated her for various reasons. Even the Americans were skeptical, so she had to go prove herself to the military. It was during this time that the Legends mini-series took place and Wonder Woman ended up joining other heroes to fight Glorious Godfrey’s influence on society. (I guess that means the first seven issues of Wonder Woman took place before Legends.) The next story is Etta Candy writing a letter to Steve Trevor, telling him about Wonder Woman’s tests with the U.S. Military. Diana impressed 
everyone (and maybe scared them a bit too) by deflecting bullets, tossing a tank around, and holding a jet fighter back from taking off. The guy in charge (Major Warren) was impressed by her powers, but contemptuous of her regard for life. His attitude didn’t improve when she refused to let the military analyze her bracelets and lasso. The third part is Vanessa Kapatelis writing in her diary about how much she admires Wonder Woman and how she convinced Diana to come give a talk at her school. That got Vanessa some positive attention from her fellow students, including the guy she has a crush on (Barry). When some other guys drew a smutty picture of Wonder Woman, Vanessa and Barry beat the shit out of them and Vanessa got grounded by her mom. The next part is Myndi Mayer, Diana’s publicist, writing to Julia about Diana’s various appearances and schmoozing (she even met the
President). Myndi is pretty proud of herself, but worries that some of the negative stuff (sexism, religious people bitching about Diana being a “pagan”, and all the anti-superhero stuff Godfrey stirred up) might be getting to her. Myndi has received a letter from archaeologist Barbara Minerva that she thinks will make Diana feel better. The letter claims that Minerva has found a second Amazon lasso (made from another of Gaea’s girdles) and that she wants Diana to see it before she goes public with it. Unfortunately, Minerva is actually the Cheetah (who wants Diana’s lasso) and she’s killed someone to use as a sacrifice so she can gain enough power to fight Wonder Woman.
Firestorm #63 – “Rogue Hero” – John Ostrander/Joe Brozowski/Dick Giordano
Last issue, Martin Stein decided he wanted to do something positive before his brain tumour killed him, so he convinced Ronnie Raymond that Firestorm should try to end the worldwide threat of nuclear weapons. Firestorm changed the warheads on some American and Soviet missiles to make them harmless and threatened to detonate some nukes himself if every nuclear power in the world didn’t voluntarily disarm. Firestorm was just bluffing, but everyone’s taking him seriously and we see various reactions to his ultimatum. General Eiling and Nathaniel Adam kind of agree with Firestorm about how dangerous nukes
are, but know that disarmament won’t work because anyone could whip up a nuke of their own and shift the balance of power. The JLA have to knock Guy Gardner out to keep him from going after Firestorm and Superman talks to the President (admitting he’s thought about forcing people to get rid of their nukes too). The President gives a news conference, telling Firestorm he wants to meet to discuss things and Firestorm figures his fake threat is working. He sends a message for the President to meet him alone at the Statue of Liberty (thinking the authorities wouldn’t dare use too much firepower there). 
Meanwhile in Russia, the guy who survived Chernobyl is being tested by the KGB. He’s now called Pozhar because he can burn any substance, reducing it to energy and consuming it to feed himself. At the Statue of Liberty, Firestorm shows up to meet the President, but Ronnie gets paranoid about an ambush. He’s right … Captain Atom shows up and starts pounding him. During the fight, Stein has another seizure, which causes Firestorm to lose control. Captain Atom grabs him, but Firestorm sends a fireball at the President (which turns out to be fake) to get Captain Atom to let go. Firestorm heads into New York and Captain Atom follows, catching him at DC’s corporate headquarters. We
get cameos from various DC staff (Marv Wolfman, Barbara Randall, Denny O’Neill, Joe Brozowski, and someone named Bob … Greenberger maybe?) before the fight moves outside and Captain Atom knocks Firestorm into another building. He comes in looking for Firestorm, but finds only Ronnie and Professor Stein. Ronnie tells him Firestorm took off and Captain Atom goes looking for him, leaving Ronnie to get Stein back home. Since Captain Atom failed to bring Firestorm in, Amanda Waller gets a call and prepares to send in the Suicide Squad.
Vigilante #45 – “Black Thorn” – Paul Kupperberg/Tod Smith/Rick Burchett
This one starts with the aftermath of last issue: Valentina Vostok manages to get the cops to leave Vigilante alone, despite the destruction he caused, and Peacemaker is remanded to a psych ward. Vigilante tells Harry Stein he’s lost his unthinking bloodlust and is no longer a mindless killer, although he does intend to continue his crusade for justice. Stein is skeptical, but Valentina believes him and allows him to head back to New York to investigate the Black Thorn killings, in which someone by that name has been killing criminals (eight so far) with poisoned thorns. Valentina maneuvers Stein into taking her place at a
seminar for visiting cops, updating them on the rise of terrorism in America. (Interestingly, Stein equates pro-life abortion bombers and white supremacists with terrorists, which is a pretty progressive view for 1987.) Harvey Bullock is one of the cops in attendance and he’s in full boorish asshole mode. In New York, Vigilante threatens an arms dealer to get a line on Black Thorn, but before he can talk, he’s killed … by a poisoned thorn. Vigilante checks around and finds out Black Thorn always leaks their next target and he wonders if Black Thorn is killing for fun, or if he’s just crazy. He heads back to his safehouse, but 
Black Thorn has been following him and gets the drop on him. She turns out to be a woman and is quite an admirer of Vigilante for his criminal-killing ways. They end up fucking each other’s brains out, but when he wakes up the next day, Black Thorn is gone. He goes out to look for her again, unaware that she’s still following him. Apparently their first “encounter” was some kind of test, but she still hasn’t made up her mind about him yet. She alerts him to her next hit and he shows up just in time to see her waste some scumbag who was planning a crime. Vigilante gets self-righteous and Black Thorn reminds him that she’s killing criminals just like he does. He seems to see some difference between them—or maybe the fact they banged is screwing him
up—and he goes after her. They fight and she has the edge because she’s treating it more impersonally than him. He tries to do the same, but she ends up hitting him with a thorn that paralyzes him. She takes off and a couple of cops show up, finding Vigilante paralyzed on the roof. In Washington, Bullock and Stein are bonding (they are kinda alike) and Bullock mentions that a spy in one of the files Stein was handing out (a woman named Katia) was seen recently in Gotham, working for the Russians. Stein says they’d better head to Gotham to check things out.
Warlord #121 – “Clouds of War” – Michael Fleisher/Art Thibert/Pablo Marcos
This one starts with the armies of Kaambuka and Shamballah (led by Travis Morgan) facing off. Morgan doesn’t know why Kaambuka is attacking, so he grabs their general and asks him. The general says it’s in retaliation for a Shamballan attack on their capital three days ago, but Morgan informs him Shamballah had nothing to do with that attack. In New Atlantis, Jennifer Morgan and Power Girl look for the demon they fought last issue, but can’t find him. They decide to review some history tapes and learn the demon (Azmyrkon) was accidentally
summoned by the ancient Atlanteans and laid waste to the realm until Arion (who’s supposed to be Power Girl’s grandfather) showed up. Arion defeated the demon, encasing it in crystal and separating its magic weapon into three parts, which he hid in various places. One piece was hidden under the Mountain of Dragons but before they can hear about the other two, Jennifer and Power Girl are distracted by an earthquake. While returning to Shamballah, Morgan runs into some guys with high-tech weapons. He shoots one, but the others knock him out and take off. In the Vale of Snowmen, 
Redmond (the CIA agent who was turned into an abominable snowman by an ancient curse) decides he’s going to take the cure they’ve come up with for himself. (The snowmen only have a small amount and won’t use it until they have enough to cure everyone.) Redmond steals the cure, shoots his way out of the city, and takes off. In Kiro, Machiste has been getting reports of Shamballan aggression from all over, but still has trouble believing Morgan is being so warlike. He’s right … it’s actually Y’smalla (disguised as Tara and pretending she’s left Morgan for Machiste) who’s behind everything, doing DeSaad’s bidding. The real Tara is chained in the dungeons beneath Kiro, but she tricks a guard and gets free. Outside New Atlantis, Jennifer and Power Girl find Azmyrkon setting off a volcano to bring up the first piece of
his sundered sceptre from beneath the mount of Dragons. They try to stop him, but his magical powers bust some of Power Girl’s ribs and almost send Jennifer into the volcano. Elsewhere, Morgan tries to interrogate the guy he shot, but DeSaad (who’s watching remotely) triggers a self-destruct that kills the guy. DeSaad shows his master Darkseid a new power source he’s discovered, that’s a hundred times more destructive than the old ones. Even Darkseid is impressed and wants more of the substance, which I assume comes from Skartaris. This story is concluded in the Warlord Annual, so I’ll be reviewing that next time.