Girl Power: WONDER WOMAN #309

Previously...

Black Canary interfered with an angry gypsy woman chasing a Nazi war criminal.  The gypsy, Zenna Persik, used her magic to transplant her mind with the Canary's so Dinah ended up in a stranger's body and captured by the mad Doctor Schlagel.  Zenna used the Black Canary's bod to board the Justice League satellite where she was captured by Wonder Woman and the Elongated Man.

Wonder Woman #309: "The Black Canary is Dead" is written by Dan Mishkin with art by Don Heck.  It was published in November 1983.

While bound in Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth, Zenna recounts how she swapped minds with Black Canary, the unfortunate result of which left Dinah powerless in the clutches of Dr. Schlagel and his army of mutant Bigfoots.  Wonder Woman refuses to believe that Dinah is dead, especially since Zenna didn't see Schlagel kill her.

Wonder Woman and Zenna Canary teleport down to Star City.  Zenna explains that Schlagel converted a warehouse into his lab to continue the inhuman experiments he began under Hitler.  She reiterates how he tortured and killed her people and her hatred for him knows no limit.

These panels amuse the ten year old boy in me.

Meanwhile, in Schlagel's lab, Dinah has been sneaking around in Zenna Persik's body.  She might not have her sonic scream or Zenna's gypsy magic, but she still has years of martial arts training locked in her mind.

She lets the villain monologue so he can reveal that he's been kidnapping children to tap into their latent psychic abilities to feed his powerful machine.  With gypsy telepathic and telekinetic powers feeding him, Schlagel will be able to destroy America and take over the world.

While he's rambling, Dinah notices her own face looking down from the skylight.  Wonder Woman and Zenna Canary are on the roof, preparing to act.  Wonder Woman uses her lasso to stun two of Schlagel's mutant servants, and Zenna reverses the mind-swap with Black Canary.

Dinah cautions Wonder Woman against treating the monsters too roughly--they are children after all--while Zenna uses her new spacial position to try to kill Schlagel.  Unfortunately, his machine is working, giving him enough superpowers to hold them off.  "Even if you were men, you could not reach me!" he taunts.  (Sexism from a Nazi?  Now I've seen everything!)

Wonder Woman punches through the psychokinetic shield, slowly forcing her way to Schlagel despite his powers and protests.  "It is impossible!" he shouts.  "They don't teach us that word on Paradise Island," Wonder Woman responds.  At the second-to-last second, Schlagel teleports himself, his machine and Wonder Woman with him.

And at the very last second, Zenna uses her powers to swap bodies with Wonder Woman so that she travels with Schlagel, leaving Diana trapped in her gypsy body.

Across the country at Walter Reed Army Hospital, Colonel Steve Trevor is about to be discharged.  On the phone with Etta Candy, he learns that the general sent someone else to an assignment in the Caribbean that was supposed to be Steve's.  Before leaving, he's visited by Lisa Abernathy and her daughter, Eloise, thanking him for saving their dad.  They know he knows Wonder Woman and hope they get a chance to meet her someday.

Wonder Woman in Zenna's body and Black Canary fly across the ocean in the Invisible Jet to where Schlagel is going to sabotage the United States' new missile defense system.  Zenna in Wonder Woman's body is trapped in a psychic cage, unable to use any of Diana's powers.

The missile turns right back into the machine killing Schlagel, and appearing to kill Wonder Woman in Zenna's body.  As Black Canary and the Army search the area, Wonder Woman comes ashore.  And it is the real Wonder Woman, who explains that Zenna swapped minds with her so that she could sacrifice herself to kill Schlagel and stop his weapon.

Hey, wait... Wasn't that machine powered by a bunch of children strapped down to it?  Did that missile blast just murder a bunch of kids?  Huh, I guess it was fully powered and Schlagel no longer needed the kids anymore.  Maybe I missed something.

Anyway, that's the concluding half of the crazy gypsy body thief.  Dan Mishkin delivered a fun little story that shows how obsessed Zenna became with revenge to the point that she endangered the others and had to die to fulfill her mission.  Black Canary gets some decent action in this issue, but as a character she's mostly a spectator this time around.  Her body at least appears on almost every page.

Black Canary returns in Wonder Woman #310 as Diana tells her a story of Amazonian glories past.  Come back next Thursday for that review!

Girl Power: WONDER WOMAN #308

Once more, I draw inspiration from the 1976 Super DC Calendar for a segue into the day's post.  According to said calendar, February 6th is the birthday of the lovely Sue Dibny, wife of Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man.  Though Sue does not guest star in this issue of Wonder Woman, Black Canary and Elongated Man do, so that's what I be reviewing this morning.

Wonder Woman #308: "Heritage" is written by Dan Mishkin with art by Don Heck.  It was published in October 1983.

The issue opens with Wonder Woman on Paradise Island, being led in chains to an altar by her mother, Hippolyta.  The goddess of love, Aphrodite, is summoned to pass judgment on Diana, who must pass the test of steel.

After breaking the shackles, Diana freely dons the Bracelets of Submission, pledging herself to Aphrodite and the Code of Love.  This ceremony is done to replace Wonder Woman's usual bracelets, damaged in the issue before.  Queen Hippolyta then calls upon Athena, goddess of wisdom, to repair Diana's Lasso of Truth.  Once done, Diana is dismissed so her mother can talk about her to the goddesses behind her back.

Once Diana has left, the queen expresses her concerns about Steve Trevor to Athena and Aphrodite.  They mention that Trevor has twice been brought back from the dead.  This revelation is shocking to Sofia Constantinas, the young Amazon (or woman living among the Amazons) who has been eavesdropping on the ceremony.  Just then, she's caught spying by Wonder Woman.

Meanwhile, Black Canary is on patrol in Star City when she finds a young woman accosting an old man.  When Dinah tries to intervene, the woman conjures a wall of fire!

When the seeming attacher is felled by the Canary Cry, the old man calls in some backup, which happen to be hairy Bigfoot-lookalikes.

Black Canary realizes she attacked the wrong person with her cry, but before she can correct her mistake, a mysterious and unseen event changes the game.

Back on Paradise Island, Diana walks with Sofia, explaining how she used to spy on her mother, too, and that it will take time to grow used to Amazonian customs.  Sofia seems receptive to the idea, but she asks Diana about the deaths of Steve Trevor.  This causes Wonder Woman distress, and she seems to forget where she is and what they were talking about for a moment.

Diana leaves Sofia so that she can take up monitor duty at the Justice League Satellite.  When she arrives, though, she finds Elongated Man knocked out on the floor.

Not the best endorsement for one of the world's best detectives to be caught unawares by Black Canary acting so out of character.

Planetside at the Pentagon, Etta Candy is disturbed to learn that another Air Force major is getting a high profile assignment that was supposed to go to Colonel Steve Trevor, who was wounded.

Back in the satellite, Wonder Woman and Elongated Man use the security monitors to track Black Canary to the League's arsenal.

With the hull breached, the artificial gravity fails.  "Black Canary" is sucked up toward the hole that would shoot her out into space.  Wonder Woman rips a piece of metal from the wall to create a patch, and Elongated Man stretches up to the hull to seal the hole.

Once they have Black Canary captured, Diana knows she's not the real Canary.

"Concentration camp... Then you're Jewish?" Ralph exclaims.  Man, again with the awful, awful detective skills on this guy.  Anyway, Zenna Persik explains that she is a gypsy.  Using her psionic powers that people call Gypsy Magic, she swapped bodies with the Black Canary, putting her mind in Dinah's body and Dinah's mind in hers.  Then Zenna was able to tap into Dinah's memories in order to get access to the satellite.  She needs a weapon that can destroy Dr. Schlagel.

Wonder Woman is more concerned with the fate of her friend, Dinah Lance, the real Black Canary.  Zenna suspects that as soon as Schlagel had her captured, he probably killed her.

However, back in Star City, Dinah wakes up in Zenna's body.

Dinah sneaks around the dark looking for an escape.  What she finds, though, is a nightmarish invention: Schlagel has a dozen children strapped to a machine that draws energy from their life-force.  At that moment, she is captured by the Bigfoot goons.  Schlagel comes at her with a syringe, threatening to kill her.

Next issue: Three women against a madman's menacing scheme, and a battle that must end with... "The Death of a Hero!"

The ceremony scene that kicks off this issue is a little confusing if you didn't read the issue before it, which I didn't.  But once Black Canary and Zenne Persik enter the story it's nonstop fun and adventure.  

Black Canary gets plenty to do in this issue, whether she's in the right body or not.  I love that the Canary is considered one of the two heroes of Star City, as if she gets equal billing with Green Arrow in that department.  I always love seeing her cruise around on her motorcycle, and later, when she's trapped in Zenna's body, she still manages to escape captivity and find the villain's weapon.  Her body sees some action, too (teehee), when Zenna uses it to attack Ralph and Diana.

I really like Zenna.  Her background as a gypsy's whose people were butchered during the Holocaust is terrific motivation, and her psionic powers are great for story and visual purposes.  Dr. Schlagel could be a worthy mad scientist when we learn what he's doing with the kidnapped children.  In any event, he's got hairy Bigfoot goons.  That's cool.

There's nothing really to complain about Don Heck's artwork.  His rendition of Black Canary looks good, though not as good as how Mike Grell, Mike Nasser/Netzer and other artists drew her in the '70s and '80s.  His Ralph Dibny seems to be lacking the signature schnoz that made Elongated Man so distinguished.

All told, a really good story.  I'll post the next chapter, Wonder Woman #309 next Thursday.