Comics Reviews: Wonder Woman 28, Firestorm 83

Wonder Woman #28 – “Jungle Sacrament” – George Perez/Chris Marrinan/Will Blyberg

This one starts in England, with the mercenaries who grabbed the captive Khunds last issue showing up at a meeting on Barbara Minerva’s estate. They think it has something to do with the Khund job, but are suspicious enough to bring weapons. Their guns don’t do them much good against Minerva’s alter ego (Cheetah), who stalks and kills them. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman has asked Hermes to help her contact the Greek gods, hoping they’ll help locate her missing lasso (which Minerva stole last issue). There’s no response from the absentee gods, but Wonder Woman already has a pretty good idea who was behind the theft. In fact, she’s sent Julia, Steve, and Etta to see the cops, but they say there’s nothing they can do without proof (and point out that England is a little out of their jurisdiction). Diana decides to take matters into her own hands and travels to England as Wonder Woman, making sure the press covers the visit to let Minerva know she’s onto her. Barbara Minerva’s manservant (Chuma) reads about Wonder Woman in the papers and knows why she’s really in England. Since his mistress is “indisposed”, he decides he’d better do something to protect her against Wonder Woman. Back in Boston, Hermes is upset that Diana left to handle things herself, but Julia and Steve remind him that the gods created Diana and have apparently made her a very modern woman, who doesn’t take a back seat to anyone. That’s a foreign concept to Hermes, but Steve says maybe women have always been independent, it’s just that the rest of the world is finally catching up to them. In England, Diana drops by Professor Minerva’s house and senses the danger (not to mention smelling the blood from the recent killings), but finds Minerva is away. Chuma poisons her tea and while she’s lying paralyzed, tells her Cheetah’s origin. Years ago, Minerva went on an expedition into the African jungle to find the temple of Uzkartaga, the Cheetah God. Chuma was the guide, but he was a member of the Cheetah cult and led them into an ambush. Most of the expedition were caught and sacrificed so their blood could be used to restore an old woman who waited to receive the powers of the Cheetah. But Minerva got away and sneaked into the village, hoping to loot some treasures from the temple. When another tribe attacked the village and slaughtered most of the cultists, Minerva shot the old woman. Chuma thought the connection to Uzkartaga was broken until a grenade buried him and Minerva in the rubble of temple and he realized she had all the qualities associated with the Cheetah god … if he could keep her from killing him before he had a chance to explain all that.

Firestorm #83 – “Lord of Fire” – John Ostrander/Tom Grindberg/Sam De La Rosa

This one starts in the ruins of a secret scientific research centre in Russia. Zastrow (the government agent who seems to deal with any meta-human activities) interrogates one of the scientists about what happened. She tells him they were trying to create a new meta-human using tissue samples taken from Firestorm while he was recovering from the Gene Bomb (during the alien invasion). The experiment worked and they created a fire-based being (named Svarozhich after the Slavic God of Fire) and put him in a containment suit to control his power. But things went wrong quickly when the scientists found out they’d created a being with no humanity, no conscience, or emotions. Svarozhich blasted his way out of the lab and the scientist speculates that he may have gone to find Firestorm to replace his missing soul. In Pittsburgh, Ronnie Raymond is taking Professor Stein around the campus of Vandermeer University to see if anything sparks his memories, but nothing does. Dean Rice tells Dr. Lagrieve (who’s agreed to come and head up the new Meta-Human Studies program) about Stein’s brain tumour disappearing along with his memory. She introduces Lagrieve to Clement Morrison and Lagrieve tells Morrison his theory about Killer Frost’s powers being caused by some kind of virus (which would explain how they transferred from Crystal Frost to Louise Lincoln. Morrison agrees to check it out, but looks pretty sinister. Ronnie runs into his ex-girlfriend Doreen Day, but she runs away from him and we see that she’s really paranoid. Because police chief Ferguson vanished right after she told him about Ronnie being Firestorm, she assumes Ronnie killed Ferguson and will kill her next. Seems like a bit of a stretch, seeing as how long she’s known Ronnie. In Russia, Nina Arkhadin’s father takes her to his dacha in Archangelsk and when Mikhail finds out, he figures he’ll never see her again. His father-in-law is an army general and hates Mikhail for his liberal views. In Moscow, Svarozhich rescues a woman from a burning building, but the smoke has already killed her. When her son (believing he really is a god) asks him to restore her to life, Svarozhich complies, but she comes back as a mindless shell. The old woman and her son end up staying with the family of a Soyuz member, who calls Mikhail’s niece Serafina to figure out what’s wrong with the old lady. Serafina reads her mind and goes to see Mikhail, telling him Firestorm is needed. Mikhail is reluctant to summon Firestorm, since he’s still feeling guilty for the people he accidentally killed when the Gene Bomb screwed up his powers. Serafina forces Mikhail to change to Firestorm and tells him he shouldn’t feel guilty, since he had no control over what happened. She tells Firestorm about Svarozhich and that he’s an immensely powerful being with no soul, as likely to destroy people as to help them. Firestorm goes to talk to Svarozhich, who attacks and separates him into Ronnie and Mikhail. Svarozhich says he now knows who and what he truly is, leaving Ronnie and Mikhail to wonder just how much trouble they’re in now.