I know Wonder Woman is usually portrayed as pretty much Superman-strong these days, and could probably punch or punt a tank, but she used to have to try harder. A little harder. From 1979, Wonder Woman #258, "The Long Grey Line...of Death!" Written by Paul Kupperberg, plot by Paul Levitz, pencils by Jose Delbo, inks by Vince Coletta.
It's graduation day at West Point, marred somewhat by an assassination attempt on the commanding officer, then a tank attack by remote control. (If they had remote control tanks, why did they need West Point graduates?) In fact, there was apparently a lot of live fire exercises at their "mock battlefield," and Wonder Woman has to work overtime to keep them from killing the graduates, their families, and teachers. Then, she has to keep a fighter plane from strafing the Point or kamikazing a nearby nuclear plant.
The culprit was a major whose son had been a cadet accused of cheating. He had been innocent, but had been hounded into suicide; so his dad was out to kill the liars that drove him to it. Kind of sours WW on watching the graduation ceremony. Since I don't have the previous issue, I'm not even sure what she was doing there: she may have had to change back into Diana Prince and had to sit through the ceremony anyway. Somehow, that would've been even more of a down ending.
The only reason she had to struggle more here was for the purpose of dramatic tension. If he had up to her now normal levels, the story would've ended a lot sooner.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely has an ending not too out of uncommon to shows like Criminal Minds or Law and Order though.