Wonder Woman #34 – “The Tournament of the Crown” – George Perez/Chris Marrinan/Will Blyberg
This one starts where last issue left off, with Hermes attacking the hidden Amazon city of Bana-Mighdal. The Amazons start fighting back, but Diana intervenes before things go too far, calming Hermes down. He tells her he received a plea from Gaea herself to come here and retrieve the Golden Girdle. But inside the palace, Faruka (the one-eyed Amazon who hates Diana for accidentally killing her teacher, the high priestess) has stolen the girdle.
She takes it into some caverns under the palace and we find out that the dead priestess and Faruka have been plotting for a long time to seize the crown and expand the Amazons’ territory to the outside world. They had planned to kill Queen Anahid, but her death at Cheetah’s hands has played right into their plans. Faruka finds some fellow conspirators and tells them the time has come to take power, apparently by calling for a tournament to decide the new queen (since Nahebka is just acting as regent for now). Across the desert, Julia Kapatelis and Steve Trevor have arrived to look for Diana. Julia was summoned by an old colleague (Osman) who introduces her to General 
Masat, who’s investigating the slaughter carried out by the Amazons in the nearby village. Masat isn’t to charitable, suspecting Diana might’ve been involved. In Bana-Mighdal, Diana tries to convince Nehebka to turn over the Girdle to Hermes, but Nehebka doesn’t believe he’s really a god, and wouldn’t trust him anyway. In the desert, Steve uses a miniature caduceus he got from Hermes to track him to the mystic sandstorm that hides Bana-Mighdal. They find the bodies of a bunch of rebels just outside the storm and General Masat decides to bomb the place back to the stone age. In Bana-Mighdal, Diana asks Hermes to cure Cheetah’s addiction to the bloodwine, so she can lose her anger and live a normal life. Diana mentions her own anger that
almost pushed her to kill Cheetah and wants to spare her foe to keep herself from giving in to that anger. Meanwhile, Faruka is agitating for a rebellion and Nehebka confronts her, but is surprised to learn that Faruka isn’t the one who wants to become queen … it’s someone else. Hermes can’t cure Cheetah and realizes there’s something about Bana-Mighdal that’s sapping his power. He says Gaea is in anguish because of the missing girdle and goes to look for it while Diana frees Cheetah. They head for the temple of the dead, where Hermes is tossed out on his ass as soon as he enters. Diana goes in and finds the heads of all the former queens impaled on stakes … and is hit with the still-bloody head of Nehbka. Faruka introduces Diana to an Amazon in a mask and fancy 
armour (Shim’tar), who she says is the new queen. Shim’tar attacks Diana, who realizes the usurper is much stronger than her (which makes sense, since she pounded Hermes quite easily). They fight, destroying half the city in the process, and Shim’tar batters Diana relentlessly. Even Diana’s lasso doesn’t hold her, but Diana refuses to give up. Hermes convinces an Amazon to take him to the Girdle, but they find it missing from the sacred temple. I assume Shim’tar is wearing the Girdle and that’s where her godlike strength is coming from. Before Diana and Shim’tar finish their fight, a window opens in the sandstorm and General Masat’s jets swoop down, with orders to obliterate the city and everyone in it.
Firestorm #89 – “Sundering” – John Ostrander/Tom Mandrake
This one starts with Firestorm recovering from his wounds incurred last issue in the fight with Maser. He’s been hanging out in a volcano, using the close contact with Earth’s elemental fire to heal, but he’s worried about the fact that he was hurt in the first place. Firestorm has basically become a Fire Elemental—almost a god—but now realizes some part of him is still mortal. He vows to go back and destroy Vandermeer Steel and make its CEO (Finch) pay for hiring Maser to attack him. In Ogaden, we see Sister Martinon going to look at the fertile land that
Firestorm grew out of the desert (in issue 78). We see that the “paradise” has become a hellscape of twisted trees and mutated plants. At Vandermeer University, Martin Stein is talking to Dr. Lagrieve about where Ronnie might have disappeared to. Stein is also worried about the weird dreams he’s been having about being Firestorm, and the strange feeling that something’s wrong whenever he sees Firestorm on TV. Lagrieve has a pretty good idea what’s causing Stein’s feelings, but he can’t say anything without breaking his promise to keep quiet. At Vandermeer Steel, Firehawk shows 
up and Finch blackmails her into defending the plant from Firestorm by threatening to expose her secret identity. (They don’t know it yet, but Finch figures they can uncover it pretty fast if they have to.) Firehawk doesn’t want Firestorm rampaging around destroying companies, so she agrees to try and stop him, but points out that his power is much greater than hers now. Firestorm interrupts their conversation when he shows up to burn down the plant. Firehawk tries to reason with him, but he won’t listen so she fights him. He almost kills her before his humanity kicks in and he saves her life, but she’s pissed off and starts pounding him. The National Guard breaks it up and
Firehawk gets mad at everyone, giving them shit for all their macho flexing while they pretend to be acting for noble reasons. She points out that they could’ve worked together to find a mutually satisfying solution, but chose to fight instead. Firehawk forces Firestorm to acknowledge that some part of him is still human and tells him he’ll have to kill her to get at the plant again. Firestorm leaves and Finch thinks he’s won, but the fight has wrecked the plant anyway, so Firehawk says the shareholders won’t be too happy with Finch’s way of “protecting” their investment. At the heart of a volcano, we see Firestorm crying over losing Firehawk’s love and trust, proving she was right about him still being human somewhere inside.