Wonder Woman #45 – “Legacy” – George Perez, Mindy Newell/Jill Thompson, Cynthia Martin, Colleen Doran/Romeo Tanghal
This one starts with Harmonia asking the Fates about some strange visions she’s been having. She feels the visions are prompted by the talisman she wears and tells the Fates they have something to do with Diana (aka Wonder Woman) and Pandora. Harmonia can’t really see a connection between the two women, aside from the fact they were both created from clay, so the Fates show her the past. Ages ago, Prometheus stole fire from the gods to aid humanity and Zeus was ready to punish him, but the other gods pleaded for mercy on his behalf. So Zeus sent Prometheus a “reward”: Pandora, formed from clay and bestowed with the blessings of all the gods.
But Zeus also sent an ornate box (as a gift for Prometheus), which he told Pandora could never be opened. But Prometheus didn’t trust Zeus and refused Pandora, so his brother (Epimetheus) married her instead. Prometheus ended up chained to a rock where a giant eagle devoured his liver every day for ages, until he was rescued by Hercules (and Xena). As Zeus planned, Pandora’s curiosity got the better of her and she convinced Epimetheus to open the forbidden box with her (much like Eve convincing Adam to eat the forbidden fruit), thus unleashing all manner of evil on mankind. Pandora as exiled to wander the Earth, with only hope to sustain her. The talisman that Harmonia now wears once 
adorned Pandora’s Box and Harmonia wonders if there’s a deeper connection between Pandora and Diana. The Fates tell another story, of the prehistoric past before the Olympian gods existed. Gaea, the Earth Mother goddess, wanted to help humanity (who she’d birthed from her own soil), so she manifested as Pandora and gave humans the gifts of trees, plants, fire, and the first stirrings of humanity, to set them apart from the primitive animals. She smashed the urn from which she’d drawn the gifts. A long time after, the war between the Titans and their children tore the Earth apart, making Gaea weep so much that the whole world was flooded. Only two humans (Deukalion and Pyrrha, a son of Prometheus and a daughter of Pandora) survived. Zeus wandered the ravaged Earth and gathered certain items before departing for Olympus
to keep them from humanity: the talisman from the urn the original Pandora broke, the gift of fire, and the magical clay dug from holy earth. So the later Pandora wandered the Earth, eventually being absorbed into it, and when Diana was created, some of Pandora’s essence was infused in her. But Harmonia’s vision shows Diana being absorbed back into the earth, which brings about the destruction of the planet. When she asks the Fates if this is a portent of the future, they don’t answer.
Green Arrow #35 – “The Black Arrow Saga Part 1” – Mike Grell/Mark Jones/Bill Wray
Last issue, Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen was convinced by Eddie Fyres (who was supposedly representing the DEA) to place a tracking device in a drug shipment that was destined to be hidden on the bottom of a ship’s hull, so the DEA could track the drugs through the Panama Canal. But the tracker turned out to be a bomb and exploded on a Navy ship, so the FBI showed up to arrest Oliver for sabotage and terrorism. Oliver refuses to answer any questions and insists the DEA knows what’s going on. But a local DEA agent tells him that the explosive could’ve blown up the munitions in the Navy vessel, causing a wreck that would’ve shut
down the Canal for a long time. The agent also tells Oliver that Fyres doesn’t work for the DEA (or the CIA anymore), but for Manuel Noriega, the ex-dictator of Panama. They figure Noriega wanted to sabotage the Canal and hired Fyres and Oliver to do it. Oliver is stunned but still won’t talk, so he’s tossed into prison. Meanwhile, Dinah (Black Canary) Lance is worrying about him, even as she’s still reeling from the news that she’s biologically incapable of having children. She goes to see Oliver with a lawyer (a public defender), who recommends he cop a plea. Oliver tells him to fuck off, but admits to Dinah that he did 
technically sabotage the ship. His need for revenge against Reggie clouded his judgment and let Fyres play him for a chump. He knows he needs to find Fyres and Dinah says she’ll help, even though the Feds will obviously be watching her. Oliver is transferred to a place with tighter security, but along the way Fyres takes out the transport to “rescue” him; I’m assuming Fyres is going to kill him to tie up loose ends. Meanwhile, Dinah swallows her pride and calls Shado for help.
Firestorm #100 – “Blaze of Glory” – John Ostrander, Gerry Conway/Tom Mandrake, Al Milgrom, Joe Brozowski, Tom Grindberg
This is the last issue of Firestorm, which explains the litany of creators credited (although most of their work appears in flashback sequences during the retelling of Firestorm’s origin and later career). Last issue, Maser found out that the sun’s increased solar flares were caused by Brimstone, who’d been reborn inside the sun after Firestorm threw him there in issue 76. Now Brimstone is amping up the solar activity, threatening to incinerate all life on Earth. Dr. Lagrieve is contemplating
what to do when Rasputin shows up and tells him to gather Martin Stein, Firehawk, and Firestorm. When they learn what’s going on, Firestorm blames himself and tells Martin that he was originally meant to be Earth’s Fire Elemental alone, without Ronnie as a partner. Now that Stein has been left out of the Firestorm matrix, things have gotten worse for everyone. Since Firestorm is an Elemental, he can’t leave Earth to confront Brimstone, but he’s willing to try. Firehawk talks him out of risking his life needlessly. When Stein gets back to his office, he finds a letter from Ronnie, written before he was 
subsumed into the new Firestorm. The letter basically recaps Firestorm’s origin and touches on some of his adventures before he was blown up with Mikhail Arkadin in the Nevada desert and they transformed into the new Firestorm. Of course, Stein knows the rest of the story (the Russians created a soulless clone of Firestorm called Svarozhich forcing Ronnie and Mikhail to bond permanently in the Firestorm matrix to stop him) and we get a rundown of that too. Stein gets an idea of how to fight Brimstone and gathers the others at an airfield. Stein thinks that if he and Firestorm can get into orbit and blow themselves up, a new Firestorm might form in space and he’d be free to travel to the sun to
confront Brimstone. Firestorm points out that Ronnie and Mikhail would die too and Stein says he can release them from the matrix before they make the attempt. (Apparently, he always had the power to release them, he just didn’t want to because he was afraid they might choose not to reform and he’d cease to exist. Firestorm releases Ronnie and Mikhail, ho appear at their respective homes in New York and Moscow. The version of Firestorm that’s left is controlled by Svarozhich, who refuses to risk his existence to save Earth. Stein (with help from Rasputin) uses the connection he has to Firestorm 
(because he was meant to be the Firestorm Elemental originally) to dominate Svarozhich’s mind and force his to cooperate. Firestorm and Firehawk push the shuttle into orbit, but Firehawk is forced to stop inside the atmosphere. They reach orbit and Stein blows up the shuttle, causing a new Firestorm to form just as planned. But this is Firestorm as he was meant to be, an Elemental with the mind and memories of Martin Stein. Firestorm heads into the sun to fight Brimstone and they start pounding the shit out of each other. Firestorm finally flies inside Brimstone to destroy the techno-seed that Darkseid used to grow him in the first place. But Brimstone’s demise causes a black hole to begin forming on the sun’s surface. Firestorm asks Maya
(the Earth goddess) for help and she tells him to go through the black hole and shut it from the other side. Firestorm does that and finds himself stuck in another universe, with no way to get home. He looks on it as an opportunity to explore a whole new world … I guess that’s Stein’s scientific curiosity kicking in. Later, we see Firehawk recovering in hospital and Ronnie coming to visit her. She’s worried because Firestorm never returned, but Ronnie says he can feel that Firestorm is still alive somewhere. And that’s it for Firestorm, at least for a while. The series started out as kind of a Spider-Man pastiche, showing someone gaining powers and trying to balance being a superhero with having a personal life. But it got kinda weird later, with all the Russian clone stuff (although I suppose the clone thing fits with the Spider-Man theme) and all the Elemental stuff. I think I prefer the older issues; I tend to lean more toward traditional superheroics than esoteric symbolism.