Comics Reviews: Wonder Woman 13, Firestorm 68, Vigilante 50, Warlord 126

Wonder Woman #13 – “Demonplague” – Len Wein/George Perez/Bruce Patterson

This one starts with Hippolyte still reeling from finding Heracles turned to stone, but still tormented by the Harpies despite his new form. She can’t spare much compassion for him, as she’s determined to go deeper beneath Paradise Island to find her daughter Diana, who’s currently undergoing the Trial of the Gods. Hippolyte soon finds herself in the chamber of the Cyclops, who’s thankfully asleep. In the mass of bones, Hippolyte sees a skull with a familiar pair of horns sprouting from it. Watching from Olympus, Zeus and the other gods see it too and realize Pan is dead, which means someone else has been masquerading as the goat-god and it was them who pushed Zeus to abuse the Amazons and put Diana to her near-impossible test. Hera sends Hermes to warn Diana and Hermes finds her with the other heroes, preparing to confront the Manhunters. Hermes tells her about the fake Pan and how he sent her on a wild goose chase, hoping Hippolyte would fail where Diana might’ve succeeded. Hippolyte finds herself grabbed by the newly-awakened Cyclops (Polyphemus), but Diana shows up in time to save her. Polyphemus begs them to kill him to end his eternal hunger, but Diana feels sorry for him and just ties him up with her lasso. Hippolyte feels a call to aid Heracles and goes back to free him, but gets blasted by fire. When Diana tries to help her, she finds herself confronted by the Minotaur, the Chimera, and Echidna, the Mother of Monsters. Diana and Hippolyte fight the monsters and Hippolyte beheads Echidna. Diana tosses the Minotaur and he’s grabbed by the ravenous Polyphemus, who has somehow gotten loose from his bonds. The two of them fight and fall into a chasm and Diana is surprised when Harmonia (once again sane and beautiful) shows up to say she’s the one who freed Polyphemus. Harmonia gives Diana her talisman, saying only someone pure of heart can use it to capture the demons inside Heracles and deliver them to Ares. Hippolyte is near madness from Heracles’ tormented groans (which only she can hear), so Diana figures they need to use love and forgiveness instead of might to solve this problem. She uses her Lasso of Truth to bind Hippolyte to Heracles’ stone form, giving both of them a truthful understanding of each other. As Heracles begins to break loose, the demons inside burst forth and head towards the surface. Diana goes after them, catching them before they can get out and using the talisman to block their path. The energy released in the struggle causes earthquakes all over Paradise Island (and even in Man’s World), but Diana manages to absorb the demons into the talisman, despite the incredible pain that causes her. Ares shows up to claim the talisman and after some hesitation, Diana gives it to him. He’s happy, saying he now has the ultimate power of destruction, and takes off. Diana wonders if she did the right thing, but Harmonia assures her she’s just restored the balance of power … and passed the Trial of the Gods, proving herself a true Daughter of Gaea. Harmonia vanishes, but Hermes shows up to tell Diana she has one more task to fulfill … finding the fake Pan and killing him.

Firestorm #68 – “Planetfall” – John Ostrander/Richard Howell/Steve Mitchell, Dennis Janke

This one starts on Orindo, where the Manhunters have their hidden base. Firestorm has joined other heroes in planning an assault against the Manhunters, but he suddenly hears (or feels) an explosion from deep inside the planet, followed by a cry for help. He takes off, followed closely by Captain Atom. (If this sounds familiar, it’s because we already saw this scene in Justice League 10, but now we get the other half of the story.) Beneath the planet, Harbinger is fighting a bunch of mechanical devices (the Manhunters’ equivalent of the Danger Room, I guess) and gets in trouble, but she’s rescued by her Green Lantern friend, Driq (who’s apparently undead, since his ring won’t allow his spirit to leave its dead body). Firestorm shows up and blasts Driq, thinking he was attacking Harbinger, so he’s surprised when Harbinger gives him shit. Captain Atom warns Firestorm not to judge people on appearance alone. They team up to fight off more mechanical menaces and Firestorm is knocked out. He wakes to find “Ferguson” (actually a Manhunter robot, as we saw last issue) telling him another bullshit story about how the Manhunters are the good guys being persecuted by the heroes. This time, Captain Atom backs Ferguson up, but Firestorm refuses to kill indiscriminately and looks past the appearance to the truth. He finds himself surrounded by Manhunters, who he destroys before confronting Ferguson. The robot tries to appeal to Firestorm’s desire to know himself, suggesting he’s an amalgam of two other beings, but Firestorm blasts the robot. Firestorm realizes the robot was right about the beings inside him and he makes contact with Ronnie and Mikhail, freeing them from his mental shackles in exchange for not fighting him. Harbinger, Captain Atom, and Driq find Firestorm and they all take off right before the planet is destroyed, meeting up with the other heroes amongst the rubble.

Vigilante #50 – “A Life” – Paul Kupperberg/Steve Erwin/Jack Torrance

This one starts with Adrian (Vigilante) Chase reading about how the Homeless Avenger was killed by a mob of scumbags in Grand Central. Chase feels guilty for not staying to help (as we saw last issue) and reflects on how his life has gone downhill since his family as murdered, seeming like one death after another. Black Thorn shows up to give Adrian shit for pounding her last issue, but he’s feeling too guilty about Homeless Avenger to indulge her need to argue. He decks her and takes off. Meanwhile, Captain Hall has become obsessed with finding Vigilante and putting him away. He and some other cops follow a black-clad guy but it turns of to be just a common burglar. Adrian is hanging out in a movie theatre, thinking about his dead family, and how he’s lost others like J.J. And Marcia (who didn’t die, but went nuts when she found out Adrian was Vigilante). Some kids are harassing an old man in the theatre and Adrian freaks out, pounding the shit out of them and pounding a cop who comes in to stop him. He takes off, realizing that he’s finally gone over the edge, unable to control his anger anymore. Black Thorn meets with Harry Stein to tell him how broken up Adrian was about Homeless Avenger. She’s contemptuous of Adrian’s softer side, but she’s also worried he might do something crazy, so Stein says he’ll have his operatives keep an eye out. Adrian has put on the Vigilante costume (which he knows is just an excuse for him to embrace his violent thoughts) and started wandering the streets. He finds some punks robbing an apartment and blows them away, reflecting on how he “inspired” two other men—good men—to follow in his footsteps as Vigilante. But Alan Welles and Dave Winston both ended up dead and Adrian blames himself (which makes sense in Welles’s case, since Adrian actually shot him). As he’s climbing a fire escape, someone inside an apartment takes a shot at him and he goes in with guns blazing. After wasting everyone in the place, he realizes it was a drug den and he’s killed not only the dealers, but the junkies too. He embarks on an odyssey of violence, cutting down criminals across the city and leaving a trail of bodies for Captain Hall to follow. Adrian acknowledges that he basically has a death wish, but his training won’t let him die at some punk criminal’s hand. Hall sets a trap and Adrian walks right into it, realizing too late that he’s been shooting at cops. He takes off and Hall tries to stop him, but Adrian reacts instinctively and shoots Hall, who curses Adrian with his last breath, calling him an animal. Adrian goes home and decides he has to end things himself, instead of waiting for fate to do it for him. He reasons that his original desire was to stop madmen and killers and now that he’s become one, it’s up to him to stop himself. He goes in the bathroom and blows his brains out and Black Thorn finds him only minutes later. At the funeral, Stein tells Black Thorn that Adrian’s basic idea—helping people who were screwed by the system—was still good, even if Adrian went off the rails trying to implement it. Thorn admits she really did love Adrian and promises never to forget him. On the letters page, there’s an editorial (presumably by Mike Gold) about how Vigilante’s end was basically set as soon as he killed the cop in issue 37. Gold says that Adrian’s ideals were noble, but his execution was wrong, as taking the law into our own hands is no solution to the problems of society.

Warlord #126 – “The Queen is Dead … Long Live the Queen” – Michael Fleisher/Jan Duursema/Tom Mandrake

This one starts with everyone mourning Tara, who was accidentally killed in a fight with Morgan last issue after she attacked him. Nobody knows that the Tara who tried to kill her husband was just a soulless body, her soul having been harvested by Scavenger on the orders of his evil mistress, Khnathaiti. Shamballah is still reeling from the volcano and the eclipse that won’t stop, but Morgan is too devastated by Tara’s loss to provide any kind of leadership. Later, Scavenger goes into Tara’s tomb to claim her body, which Khnathaiti promised he could have as a reward. Scavenger re-animates Tara and without her soul, she has no will to resist his lecherous call. In the outside world, Mariah is being interrogated by the Russians, who think she’s a spy. When she refuses to sign a “confession”, she’s sent to be executed. When Morgan finds out Tara’s body is gone, he vows to find out who did it. Jennifer has some suspicions about the truth, but doesn’t mention them. In Kiro, Tara harvests souls from the guard barracks, but when she goes after Machiste, Scavenger stops her, saying the king’s soul is his to take. Machiste resists and Scavenger and Tara leave with the souls they’ve already gleaned. When Machiste tells Morgan what happened, he gets Jennifer to lead them into the volcano, where they find Khnathaiti about to “marry” Scavenger to Tara. Morgan and company attack, but Khnathaiti’s spells hold Jennifer and Machiste back. Morgan goes after Scavenger and while they’re fighting, Tara somehow remembers her love for Morgan and stops Scavenger from killing him. Scavenger “de-animates” Tara, leaving her body dead again, and Morgan kills him in retaliation. Khnathaiti freaks out and takes off, leaving Morgan to mourn Tara all over again. Scavenger’s sudden death robbed Khnathaiti of some of her power, releasing the perpetual eclipse. Morgan thinks Tara is gone for real this time, but Jennifer knows Tara is more undead than dead. She also knows if she “revives” Tara, she’ll be a slave of Khnathaiti again, so Jennifer puts protective spells around Tara’s tomb and hopes she can find a way to restore her to true life someday.