Wonder Woman #218 (July 1975) - Part 1

It's that time again! It's time to join Wonder Woman on her Twelve Labors. This time, though...we're getting a double feature! That's right! This issue covers two Labors! Which kind of threw off my plan to do one issue a month this year, so...yeah. As such, I decided to do something...a little different here. Since here are two stories, I'm going to do a two-part review. That's right! This month, I'm going to review the first story in the issue, and the next month is going to be the second part. I did do this once before, wayyyyy back in my review of Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961) in 2015 (Part 1, Part 2) .

I did that at the time because I had underestimated the length of the comic. Also, I had not developed the speed when it comes to writing blog entries I have now. I would love to revisit that review one day. Maybe I will. But for now, let's take a look a the first Labor in Wonder Woman #218!

The cover is a Nick Cardy piece, and it's pretty cool. It depicts the Phantom Stranger and the Red Tornado standing next to a giant crystal ball. The ball depicts Wonder Woman getting smacked in the mouth by the Statue of Liberty, showing she has one heck of a right arm.

I'm most amused by the expression on Wondy's face. It's like she's so utterly dumbstruck that this happened to her.

"Revolt of the Wonder Weapons"
Writer: Martin Pasko
Penciler: Kurt Schaffenberger
Inker: Kurt Schaffenberger
Letterer: Unknown
Colorist: Unknown
Editor: Julius Schwartz

The story begins with the robotic Red Tornado getting ready to record the Labor he observed. So, how did it go down? Well, one day at the U.N. Crisis Bureau, Diana Prince was getting ready to have some lunch when she sees some smoke at 59th Street. It's presumably a fire. She changes into Wonder Woman and summons her invisible plane...only for it to have a problem.

"Aw, darn! I knew I should have downloaded those updates to the plane's OS."

That's a whoopsie. But Wondy can't worry about the plane now, there's a fire to stop. So, she takes a page from Spider-Man's book and uses her lasso to swing over to the fire. She then uses the lasso to create an updraft that sweeps the flames upward, and allows her to lasso the flames and douse them in the East River. You may be wondering what happened to the plane? Why did it not follow Wondy's mental command? Well, because of this man.

"Observation: This man resembles a dork."

Meet Damon Celestris, astrologer of the stars. His horoscopes have allowed powerful people in industry and government to succeed, and it's allowed him to have quite a bit of influence. Of course, it's all a lie. Celestris has access to a powerful machine known as a "mento-amplifier". What it does is allow him to steal the willpower from an unknown donor and intensify it. Celestris then channels that power to the people he gives the horoscopes to, allowing them to achieve their desires.

Celestris has no idea whose willpower is being drawn on, and he doesn't really care. His little horoscope scheme has allowed him to become very rich and powerful. He hears an explosion and checks it out.

Yeah. He ain't getting that deposit back. Unfortunately for him, his machine tends to explode a lot. He then notices Wonder Woman flying by on her Invisible Jet. Celestris notes that the machine tends to explode whenever she uses any of her Amazon equipment. He theorizes that when she uses her devices, she creates an interference that causes the machine to explode. As such, the horoscope scammer decides to do something about it. He's going to use his machine to make Wonder Woman leave New York City. Weeks resumably pass (he needed to repair the machine), then he uses his device to mess with Wondy's head, causing the plane to crash into the East River earlier in the story.

Hoping to find some answers, Diana heads back home to Paradise Island. She spots an Amazon falling off a mountain she tried to climb. Diana tries to rescue her with the lasso, but it ends up wrapping itself around her. Forced to improvise, the Amazing Amazon rolls her body to where her falling compatriot will land, and stops her falling with her feet.

Hippolyta suggests Diana use the Deus ex Mach-I mean, the Magic Sphere to figure out why Diana's plane and lasso don't seem to work right. The Sphere shows an image of Celestris, but Diana has no idea who he is.

"...who is this guy?! He looks like a dork!"

Diana continues to fight crime, but Celestris's little mental whammy keeps causing her problems. She throws her tiara, it smacks her in the face. Even her trademark blocking bullets trick causes her to nearly get innocents caught in the ricochet. She finally learns of Celestris's name in the newspaper, as he's hosting a convention in Central Park.

The stage starts to collapse. Celestris really should haven't tried to get it done cheap. Diana is abel to rescue him, though. He laments that this happened, blabbing out to her that he's the reason her Amazon equipment is acting all screwed up. She demands to know why, but Celestris is just all "Ha ha, I made your lasso useless." This infuriates Diana, and she's able to use pure willpower to overcome her mental block and lasso Celestris.

I have to admit, that's pretty awesome. Under the lasso's power, Celestris confesses everything to Diana and leads her to the his mento-amplifier...which explodes again. Diana deduces that she was the reason for it. Evidently, when Wonder Woman uses one of her trademark items, like her lasso or invisible plane, her concentration overloaded the machine. The story ends with Red Tornado filing his report, recommending Wonder Woman rejoin the League.

This story was, in my opinion, not so great. The main flaw with the story is basically Celestris's scheme. Why couldn't he use his own willpower to power his mento-amplifier instead of Wonder Woman's? I mean, it would make a lot more sense. This story feels like a first draft, if that makes any sense. It's a shame because there was a better idea here. Why not show Celestris using the machine, fueled by his own willpower, to turn people against her? That would have made more sense, in my opinion.

The saving grace of this story is the art. Kurt Schaffenberger is mostly known for his art on Lois Lane's comic (Yes, Lois Lane had her own comic for a while), but it was that this time we saw him branch out to other titles. His art is wonderful to look at, and it helps tell the story very well. Some of his facial expressions are rather amusing, especially when Wonder Woman breaks the mental block Celestris put on her. His art is very clean and sharp. Highly recommended.

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2012 trade paperback Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourself and each other. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, and wear a mask. See you next time, where we join the JLA and JSA in a multiversal crisis...