Wonder Woman #126

Where Have All the Heroes Gone?

John Byrne Writer-Artist
Tatajana Wood Guest Colorist
Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt Assistant Editor
Paul Kupperberg Editor
Wonder Woman created by William Moulton Marston
The Demon created by Jack Kirby

The cover, designed and written by John Byrne, is a pretty fun re-creation of the front page of a newspaper. I do find it a bit odd, however, that Byrne chose to go with The Daily Planet, which usually focuses on Metropolis and Superman. I guess Gateway City doesn't have any recognizable papers. Anyway, this story blurb tells us that Wonder Woman has fallen in a recent battle with Neron (hence her absence in this Genesis storyline). Diana is now currently in a hospital, where doctors are baffled by her condition. Her body is completely fine, but her soul is damaged.

And that leads us directly into our story, with Wonder Woman in a hyperbaric chamber, while several of her friends and close acquaintances gather around. This group includes a young teenager with short blond hair, cut-off jeans and a Flash T-shirt. Her name is Cassandra Sandsmark, and she passionately declares that Wonder Woman will, and has to survive. Impulse hasn't met Cassie yet, but he will before too long.

We then cut to Mount Olympus, where Herakles brings a lifeless Zeus to the other gods. He tells them that he and Zeus went to the Source Wall to investigate the disturbance. But Herakles was ambushed by Ares, and when he finally came to, Zeus was in poor condition. Kupps tells us in an editor's note that if we want to find out what happened to Zeus, we need to check out Jack Kirby's Fourth World #8. But Impulse doesn't appear in that issue, so we'll stay blissfully in the dark on this one. Anyway, Herakles decided to leave all the fighting at the Source Wall to bring Zeus back to Mount Olympus to save his life (which did work, apparently).

We then get a bit of Earth's heroes fighting the forces of Darkseid, and take a quick peek into what the small group of heroes did inside the Source before being expelled. The new god Metron explains that the Source will protect itself the same way a body defends itself against diseases. Soon after he says this, Donna Troy and Queen Hippolyta (Wonder Woman's mother) are attacked psychologically. They both receive haunting visions. Hippolyta is tormented by a dying Wonder Woman, who claims she was betrayed by her mother. Donna is confronted by past versions of herself, including the Darkstar version Impulse teamed up with in the New Titans. These illusions are joined by the original Teen Titans (with Wally West as Kid Flash) and they mock Donna for how weak she's become and all the mistakes she's made.

And I guess that's all that really has to do with Genesis and Impulse, so we'll leave that there. This wasn't a terrible issue, although I had little to no connection with most of the story here. But it was kind of refreshing to read an issue written and drawn by the same person. I always say the fewer people who work on a comic, the better, more consistent it will be. And Byrne definitely feels more at ease here with the gods of Olympus than he does with the mega-large unfathomable threat he's trying to create in Genesis. I do think Byrne drew a rather demented-looking Impulse, though.

Next time, we'll take on the final issue of the main series, Genesis #4.