Wonder Woman #25 (Story Three, Part 3): THE JUDGMENT OF GODDESS VULTURA

When last we read, The Purple Priestess had decided to keel Wonder Woman, Etta Candy, and the Holliday Girls. And now, back to the story:

Etta and her girls are babed out in swimsuits (Woo Woo!), ready to rescue Wonder Woman. (note: in Wonder Woman comics, Etta Candy -- a short, overweight college student -- comes to the rescue of WW as often as she herself needs rescuing. Etta has saved Diana on many occasions. She's also saved Steve Trevor. It's pretty remarkable, when you think about it, that in this comic the message isn't that you have to have superpowers to be brave and heroic. You just have to care about others. Etta was a unique character, the likes of whom hasn't been seen since.)

The girls swim through the underground river, looking for windmill pipes. Suddenly, they feel something pulling them underwater! (and not one of them is swimming on their heads with their feet out of the water, like the maids. I'm proud of Etta and the girls for learning how to be captured properly. I do wonder where Etta suddenly acquired those enormous Popeye arms and legs, though.)

With ropes around their ankles, they're pulled into an underwater pipe by divers, one of whom is clearly the Purple Priestess! Once inside, PP closes a gate and drains the pipe. Etta instantly realizes that this is why the windmills stopped pumping water. She threatens to tell the king, but PP is unfazed. "You'll nevair tell anyone anyzing, Fatima!" (Ooh, that low-down Pimply Priestess made a fat joke! Them's strugglin' words!)

PP and her slave maids carry the bound women through a labyrinth of pipes, into a room with metal tables. They are strapped down onto the tables (anyone wishing this story had MORE bondage? Because there was one panel awhile back that didn't have anyone tied up. We could draw in little chains so it wouldn't feel lonely). PP calls for some purple mind-paralyzing gas™. Things don't look good for Etta and the gals.

Back in her throne room, PP hears from a slave maid that the king is in the temple. We hear that PP has plans to take over Zarikan and rid herself of Wonder Woman once and for all. (Where is WW, by the way? Two whole pages just went by without any mention of her. Pretty significant for a 12 page story.)

The king supplicates himself in front of PP and the statue of Vultura, asking why his daughter is still missing and why there's still no water. PP blames the "foreign women". Vultura is angry at them and will decide their fate, after which the windmills will be turned on again, and the princess returned.

The prisoners are paraded in front of PP. There's Wonder Woman! Finally! She's with Etta and the girls. They're all bound and dizzy (you can tell they're dizzy because they have swirly lines above their heads). Wonder Woman is chained to the huge statue of Vultura, while Etta and the girls are made to kneel before her, their hands tied behind their backs. (Cool visual, huh? That massive statue of Vultura is neato. But threatening and menacing -- I'm sure there's no escape!)

Ooh, but things aren't looking good. PP gives "mentally helpless" WW a peculiar command: "When Princess Allura calls for judgment, you will pull forward on your wrist-chain with all your Amazon power!" "Y-Yes, Mistress," replies mentally helpless Wonder Woman. (Holy falling statues of Vultura! That will kill everyone! Wonder Woman, the king, the princess, Etta, the holiday girls and maybe even a slave maid or two! Oh, I don't like the looks of this, no siree bob!)

Will Princess Allura call for judgment? Will Wonder Woman pull on her wrist chains? Will the giant statue crush everyone despite the fact that there's decades worth of Wonder Woman comics yet to printed after this story? Stay tuned tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion to THE JUDGMENT OF THE GODDESS VULTURA!

Wonder Woman #25 (Story Three, Part 1): THE JUDGMENT OF GODDESS VULTURA

"Never before has the alluring maid from Paradise Island faced a more scheming and sinister villainess than the Purple Priestess. It takes great ingenuity -- superhuman courage for our lovely heroine to save her friends -- in fact a whole kingdom from a fiendish death trap in the story of "THE JUDGMENT OF GODDESS VULTURA."

In the magnificent splash page, Wonder Woman is chained (how unusual!) to a giant winged statue of a woman, and it is falling, about to crush Diana, Etta Candy, and some of the Holliday Girls -- all of whom are also bound. I'm shocked -- shocked! -- that there would be bondage in a golden age Wonder Woman comic! It's unheard of! Unique! Unexpected! In nearly every panel!

The story starts fast from the first panel. "In a tenement basement of the city's waterfront district, a strange spectacle takes place." We see three well-dressed women with their hands bound behind their backs. (Bondage! I'm shocked! I'm -- oh forget it.) Men in robes, with half masks on their faces are holding the women. On a throne, holding a torch, is the Purple Priestess. She appears to be wearing a daisy on her head. Brrrr... nothing scarier than a daisy!

The women are upset because they gave all their money to the Priestess so that she could cure their ailing husbands with her mystic powers. But it was all bunk. The Priestess decides to kill the "lowly females", so there'll be no proof of her racket (her word, not mine). But one of the women had notified Wonder Woman, and suddenly, that is exactly who bursts through the door. "Get her! Keel her!" (Apparently, Daisyhead is rather nautical.)

Wondy makes short work of the henchmen, and does it so handily, one of the henchees admiringly says, "Oof! Whatta woman!" Methinks he was the masochist in the bunch. Bet he's gonna miss being stepped on by the priestess's purple sandals. Meanwhile, our villain slips away.

After beating up half a dozen guys (and those were only the ones pictured), and realizing that the priestess had escaped, Wonder Woman carries the unconscious thugs on her back to the jailhouse. She figures she'll trail PP after going to the lock-up.

Alas, months pass and there's no sign of the cult leader. Then one day, Diana (Wonder Woman) Prince receives a mental radio message from Etta Candy. Etta is visiting Zarikan, studying their windmill waterpower system (green power, baby, it's the wave of the future!). But horrors! The Purple Priestess has kidnapped the Princess and "the country's strongest maids" and there's no one left to vacuum and dust! No, wait -- she meant maids as in 'maids a'milkin' not 'You missed a spot, Hazel.' Etta fears she and the Holliday Girls will be next! "Suffering Sappho!"

Diana speeds out of her office, while Steve Trevor uses his high IQ by dismissing the thought that Diana Prince could be Princess (Wonder Woman) Diana. Using the Wisdom of Athena, Wonder Woman thinks, "The leader of that cure-all cult was called 'Purple Priestess.' Hmm -- she talked with a Zarikanian accent -- I must fly to Zarikan pronto!" Hmmm, indeed, Diana! Imagine the coincidence of a villainess speaking with a Zarikanian accent and then suddenly someone by the exact same name starts causing trouble in Zarikan! Could there be some connection between the two Zarikanian Purple Priestesses? Or is there an evil, daisy-wearing, purple-garbed Zarikanian Priestess around every corner these days?

In a blur of flying clothing (not pictured because this is a G-rated blog) Diana Prince becomes the Alluring Amazon herself: Wonder Woman! She calls her plane via mental robot control (I don't make this stuff up, I just report the facts) and leaps out of the window, grabbing the invisible ladder. She's very worried about Etta and her gang, because the Purple Priestess will know something's up if she spots "American girls."

Uh oh, this doesn't look good! Etta is in trouble, the Purple Priestess is on the loose, and thar be trouble ahead! What a terrible place for me to stop posting, huh?

And yet, I will. Tune in tomorrow for part two of THE JUDGMENT OF GODDESS VULTURA!