Wonder Woman #43 – “The Armageddon Aria” – George Perez, Mindy Newell/Chris Marrinan/Romeo Tanghal
Last issue, Wonder Woman found Maxine Sterenbuch and Solomon Buchman going through Julia Kapatelis’s house. Maxine had some files on Silver Swan she wanted Wonder Woman to have, but Silver Swan showed up and attacked Solomon, then came after them. Swan went a little overboard, letting out a devastating sonic scream, but Wonder Woman managed to dampen its effects by getting her golden lasso around Swan’s waist. Silver Swan is so out of it she doesn’t even care about Wonder Woman and the others, she’s fixated on making her “boyfriend” (Henry Armbruster)
happy. Unfortunately, her love for him has blinded her to the fact that he doesn’t really give a shit about her, other than using her powers for his own ends. Silver Swan freaks out and takes off, dragging Wonder Woman with her. Choi reports to Armbruster that they’ve lost contact and Armbruster orders him to get it back. Wonder Woman pulls Silver Swan into the lake to calm her down, but has to save her from drowning. Maxine tells Wonder Woman how Armbruster is using Silver Swan, driving her crazy by holding Wonder Woman up as an impossible paragon of beauty and virtue. Wonder Woman’s lasso lets her 
sense Silver Swan’s true nature and Maxine urges her to try and break through to the good person inside. Armbruster’s men show up to get the files back and kill Wonder Woman and the others (including Silver Swan if she can’t be taken). Swan promises to listen to Maxine if she gives the files back, but refuses to believe Armbruster would hurt her. She tries to call off the helicopters, but Armbruster orders them to fire on her. Wonder Woman saves her, but Swan freaks and blasts the choppers, which retreat. Armbruster is sure Silver Swan will forgive him trying to kill her, since she’s so in love with him, but Choi’s not so certain. Wonder Woman drops Solomon off in Themiscyra to be healed and takes
Maxine and Silver Swan to stay at Etta’s place. There’s a bit of tension when Etta admits she’s always been jealous of Diana and it’s even affected her relationship with Steve. It’s kind of a parallel with Silver Swan’s jealousy, but Etta is mature enough to get past it and help Diana. They watch some video of Silver Swan killing Solomon’s father and Swan tells them how Armbruster found her while she was still ugly and told her he loved her. She felt unworthy, so he hired Dr. Buchman to change her into a babe. Buchman wanted to experiment on her some more (which is how she got her sonic powers), but when she came out of the 
second experiment she saw Buchman trying to kill Armbruster. She killed Buchman and Armbruster protected her, keeping her from going to jail. Silver swan insists Armbruster loves her, even though he tried to kill her. Etta notices a discrepancy in Swan’s medical files, almost as if there were two Silver Swans who were analyzed a couple years apart. Before Diana can think about that too much, Armbruster’s chopper shows up and Silver Swan flies out to it. Wonder Woman is ready to follow, but Armbruster’s men have grabbed Etta and Maxine.
Green Arrow #33 – “Broken Arrow” – Mike Grell/Dan Jurgens/Frank McLaughlin
This issue deals with the PTSD caused by Green Arrow being captured and tortured last issue, and having to be rescued by Black Canary. Basically, it’s a reverse of what happened to her in the Longbow Hunters mini-series and I’m glad they’re addressing it instead of just having Oliver miraculously “get over it”. Throughout this issue, there’s a metaphorical “door” that exists inside Oliver’s mind, representing the barrier to dealing with his trauma. Oliver starts out trying to keep the door closed because he doesn’t want to deal with his feelings, but that just ends
with Dinah finding him crying in the shower. Oliver goes to see a psychologist; I’m not sure if she’s the same one that helped Dinah, but she does seem to know all about the events of Longbow Hunters. The doctor gets Oliver to admit his anger and desire for revenge, but he also concedes that he’s kinda pissed off at Dinah for killing most of his opponents and cheating him out of his vengeance. Speaking of Dinah, she’s having her own trauma about killing all those guys and thinking about how she told Oliver she didn’t want children (because their jobs are important but dangerous and she doesn’t want to 
make any orphans). The doctor talks to Oliver about his sense of helplessness and humiliation about having to be rescued by Dinah, pointing out that she probably felt the same when he saved her. She also prods him to confront his feelings about choosing to kill the guy who was torturing Dinah, when he could’ve just disarmed him. When Oliver gets home later, Dinah tells him she’s ready to have a kid with him.
Firestorm #98 – “Balance of Powers” – John Ostrander/Tom Mandrake/Carlos Garzon
This one starts with some astronomers discovering something wrong with the sun. Apparently, it’s much too active and will probably destroy Earth within weeks. We’re told (in the captions) that Firestorm is responsible, but nobody knows that yet. Speaking of Firestorm, he returns to Earth in Ogaden with Shango and Obatala. Firestorm still feels guilty about the desolation in Ogaden caused by his trying to make it a paradise, but Obatala points out a seedling growing in the waste and Firestorm takes that as a good omen. Outside Pittsburgh, Dr.
Lagrieve returns to the Metahuman Institute and lets Emily Rice know he’s not happy about some questionable experiments being carried out in his absence. He finds Dr. Caius and Dr. Pangloss using Thinker’s helmet on a patient with a fractured personality. There’s a metahuman (Catalyst) there to keep the patient in line. The subject turns out to be Cliff Carmichael, who seems to have absorbed some mental power from the helmet, as he uses some kind of Jedi Mind trick to mollify Lagrieve. Rice takes Lagrieve to meet Abrams (who works for Sunderland, the new corporate sponsors of the Institute) 
and Maser, who used to be the second Air Wave. Maser has a report on the problems in the sun and wants to go check it out, but Abrams doesn’t want to risk Sunderland’s investment. Lagrieve tells Maser to go ahead and lays down the law with Abrams. We also learn that Killer Frost may die soon if they can’t find a cure for her condition. In Ogaden, Firestorm asks Shango for rain to feed the new plant and it rains. Firestorm decides to go make amends with Firehawk, but after he leaves Shadowstorm shows up to destroy the plant. In Pittsburgh, Lagrieve meets with Lorraine (Firehawk) Reilly and Martin Stein, asking them to keep an eye on Sunderland’s dealings at the
Institute. He also asks Oracle to poke around Sunderland’s computer systems for anything strange. There’s an epilogue with some shady guys sending a drugged-up Parasite to waste Killer Frost. It sounds like these guys developed the virus that gave Killer Frost her powers and now want her dead, hoping the virus will kill Parasite too after he absorbs it.