It's that time again! It's time to rejoin Wonder Woman as she undergoes her Twelve Labors. Last time, the Atom monitored the Amazon Princess as she battled his archnemesis: Chronos, the Master of Time in New York City as her tenth trial. However, the League's very own Aerial Ace, Hawkman, claimed that he had monitored Diana undergo another trial in the Catskill Mountains at the exact same time. What went down in this Catskill trial? And did Diana somehow manage to split herself in two? Let's find out as we look at Wonder Woman #221!
"The Fiend with the Face of Glass"
Writer: Martin Pasko
Penciler: Curt Swan
Inker: Vince Colletta
Colorist: Unknown
Letterer: Unknown
Editor: Unknown
The story begins at the Justice League Watchtower. The Aerial Ace, Hawkman, believed he monitored the Amazing Amazon's 10th trial, but it turned out to be number 11. You see, it turns out that somehow, Wonder Woman did two trials at the same time. The other trial she did was shown last issue, so let's look at the one Hawkman monitored, shall we? The adventure started in the Catskills, as Hawkman revealed last issue.
The UN's Crisis Bureau has called a summit meeting at Sallinger's Resort Hotel in the area. You see, a Princess Elaa from a nation known as Khimyo in the Himalayas has a case containing a special formula. The formula is a powerful psycho-active chemical, and the Crisis Bureau fears that this formula could cause an arms race that's potentially more destructive (not to mention weirder) than the current nuclear arms thing going on (Remember, this was from the 1970s. The Cold War was still a thing).
Elaa ends the conference, saying she will consider handing the formula over. Afterwards, Diana stops for a chat with an old friend of hers: Marjorie Sallinger, who is the proprietor of the hotel. The superpowered princess has noticed that there are quite a few famous females staying at the hotel...all incognito, of course. Sallinger points out a conference room, saying that the activity in there will explain it. After Diana enters, Sallinger gets ambushed and presumably killed. So, what's going on in the room?
A glorified sales pitch for a new skin cream from Gustav Renault, a rather famous cosmetician. Diana notices that Princess Elaa herself is there as well. Otherwise, it seems like a perfectly normal bit of sales work. Try to get some endorsements and the like. Diana heads off to bed to spend a few hours in Morpheus's realm. Even an Amazon needs a good's night's rest after all.
The next day, Diana hears a scream, and the source is not somebody playing a horror movie a bit too loud.
She switches into her Wonder Woman togs and leaps after the kidnappers, but ends up being trapped in a very dark place. A mysterious voice reveals that they have Renault captive. And in that classic supervillain tradition, he's in a death trap. If Wonder Woman does not find him in five minutes, his last meal will be liquid plastic. Diana makes her way through the dark room (while avoiding a couple of death traps) and finds Renault. She's able to save the man from the fatal faceful of liquid plastic...but there's a twist.
Yup. He was already dead. Been dead the whole time. A group of henchwomen ambush our Amazing Amazon, but Dian notices something off about them. They move too...mechanically to be human. Diana realizes they're robots. She tosses one into a control panel, wrecking it. The mysterious kidnapper/killer of Renault is furious as Diana evidently destroyed the villain's computer system. Oops.
So, who is the mysterious villain?
Evidently, Marge Sallinger is a bad guy. And she was working with Princess Elaa. Elaa gave her the psycho-chemical formula mentioned earlier in exchange for the new beauty cream Renault developed. However, Diana wrecked the computer that the beauty formula was stored in. Wait, she didn't back it up?! I get that this was the 1970s, and the cloud didn't exist yet, but surely there must have been some form of storage media Marge could have used! Reel-to-reel tape!
So, thanks to Marge's lack of foresight, Princess Elaa is not going to get her beauty treatment. She's also going to have a life. Literally. Meanwhile, Diana had been tossed out of the room thanks to a Jetsons-style tube, and found herself in a broom closet. Not realizing that Marge is not who she thought she was, Diana goes to her to find some answers.
After the two have dinner, Marge is like, "Hey Di, I wanna show you something in this room! It's totally awesome!" She then takes Diana to a hidden room at gunpoint. She's also not the real Marge Sallinger. Diana uses her lasso to change into Wonder Woman, but is overcome by rage. That was because "Sallinger" had dosed her food with that psycho-chemical Princess Elaa had. "Sallinger" then traps Wondy in a cocoon of liquid plastic. So who is "Sallinger", really? Well, she's an old "friend" of the Amazon Princess: Dr. Cylvia Cyber. And yes, that is how her name is spelled.
Wonder Woman and the criminal genius have battled before, with the Amazon believing she was dead. But as it's shown in the costumed hero biz, reports of death can be greatly exaggerated. The evil doctor was far from dead, but she didn't exactly come back unscathed.
We get a quick recap of Wonder Woman #188 (June 1970), which was the last time the two crossed paths. Cyber blames Wonder Woman for a lot of stuff. She blames Wondy for the loss of her man, her face, and now the beauty formula. To be fair Cylvia, when it comes to the beauty formula, you didn't back up your data regularly. That's all your fault.
Wonder Woman blacks out, then regains her consciousness on an operating table. Cyber then reveals another foe from Di's past: Doctor Moon (called "Professor Moon" in the comic). The criminal neurosurgeon last crossed our heroine's path in Wonder Woman #200 (June 1972). Despite plastic surgery not being his specialty, Moon is going to remove Diana's face and graft it on to Cyber's.
Wondy manages to wake up, still affected by the psycho-chemical. The enraged Amazon breaks out of her bonds, and Moon sends her table speeding down an icy hill (the table conveniently has skis on it). Cyber chases after her on a ski lift. Wonder Woman makes her way to Cyber's lift. The two women grapple over a ski pole in the criminal's possession as the ski lift goes over a ravine. The tug of war causes Cyber to shatter her glass facemask, making her fall down the ravine.
Diana overcomes her chemical-induced rage and dives after Cyber to save her. The villainess thinks Diana is coming to finish her off and tosses the ski pole like a javelin at her. Diana is able to deflect the pole, but is unable to catch Cyber. Yeah, she'll be back.
Hawkman finishes his recap and says he votes to readmit Diana in the Justice League. But Atom points out he monitored the events of the last issue at the same time. Wonder Woman can do a lot of things, but even she can't be in two places at once! Batman arrives, and like the Bat-God that DC likes to portray him as, instantly knowing why this is. And next month, we'll find out ourselves.
I admit, I like this story. It is goofy, but it has a sort of a James Bond vibe. Which makes sense considering Wondy once did the whole Emma Peel spy thing for a while. I think Doctor Cyber is a villain that should be given more spotlight. In my opinion, Wonder Woman doesn't have many major iconic villains like say Batman or Spider-Man, so giving her another one on the level of Cheetah would be nice. Curt Swan is back to provide art, and he does a fine job. I did wish this Twelve Labors storyline did retain a regular creative team for it. I think it would have helped give the Labors a more...consistent feel.
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 yourselves, and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, and wear a mask! As Veterans' Day is next week, join me next time as we take a look at a Captain America adventure!
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