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    Wonder Woman #43

    Wonder Woman » Wonder Woman #43 - The Armageddon Aria released by DC Comics on June 1990.

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    The tragic past of the Silver Swan is revealed.

    A continuation from the previous issue, dealing with Silver Swan's emotions. And it doesn't go so well.

    Silver Swan releases her sonic cry while still tied up in Wonder Woman’s lasso. Maxine, Solomon and Wonder Woman crouch behind a rock while Silver Swan destroys the area around her. The screaming finally stops, and Wonder Woman pokes her head out to see where the Silver Swan is. She sees something like a deformity and Silver Swan cries out for Armbruster not to abandon her. She then flies off, taking Wonder Woman with her.

    Elsewhere, some technicians are telling Mr. Choi that they have lost contact with the Silver Swan. The technicians tell him it will take half an hour to re-connect with her. Mr. Choi informs Armbruster of the problem and annoyingly tells them to quickly fix it. He then looks at a photo of Valerie and throws it against the wall.

    Back with Silver Swan, continues flying, taking Wonder Woman with her. Diana reasons with her, but Silver Swan tells her if she doesn’t let go, she’ll kill them both. Silver Swan begins to get into a frenzy again, and Wonder Woman counters this with a flick from her lasso and throws the Silver Swan into the lake below. Maxine rushes to the lake and yells to Wonder Woman that Valerie can’t swim. Wonder Woman flies down and lifts her out of the water. Maxine asks why she had to be so rough on her, and Wonder Woman replies that she had no choice. Diana explains that Valerie isn’t hurt, but Solomon and Maxine are. Maxine pleads not to get the doctors involved, especially the police because the both of them broke in Julia’s house to find Diana. Also, the police will treat Valerie like a monster if they get a hold of her. Maxine continues to explain that this is all Hank Armbruster’s fault. He was the one that turned her into this. Maxine and Solomon had been trying to get Valerie out of his clutch, and that’s why the ninjas came and attacked him. Wonder Woman, confused explains that it felt as if Valerie didn’t want their help, though Diana had felt her pain when she grabbed hold of the lasso. Maxine explains that that was Valerie’s true self. She continues to explain that Armbruster uses Wonder Woman as someone Valerie could never live up to. Maxine says that with Diana’s lasso, they can now get inside her mind and help her out.

    Wonder Woman is still confused though, and asks why Solomon had attempted to shoot Silver Swan and why would he want to help her now? Maxine pulls out some records Solomon’s father had been keeping. Armbruster had taken them and they stole it. So that’s why Armbruster wants them dead. They then hear helicopters coming towards them and Maxine says that it’s Armbruster’s men. The lead pilot radios his boss, saying that he can see three survivors. Armbruster orders him to kill everyone there, even Valarie, as long as they get the records back. Down below, they hear the helicopter warning them to release the Silver Swan and too give back the records. Wonder Woman questions them by asking who they are and demands that they identify themselves first. Meanwhile, Maxine is pleading with Valerie, asking her to help them out. Valerie replies that she can’t, or Armbruster will kill her. Valerie is still confused and wonders why her lover would want to kill her. Maxine reminds her of the things that Armbruster has done for her: nothing. Valerie stands up and cannot stand for her friend getting hurt. Valerie asks Maxine for the files. Wonder Woman tells Maxine that Valerie had the lasso around her so she is telling the truth.

    Silver Swan flies up towards the helicopter and tells the lead helicopter to stop what they’re doing, in the name of Hank Armbruster. The pilot asks Armbruster if they need new orders, and Armbruster orders his men to stand by. Armbruster then seeks advice from Mr. Choi, and Mr. Choi tells him that Armbruster should’ve allowed her to visit Maxine. He then tells her to reason with her as Valerie seems as she is still on the side of her mentor and lover. Armbruster talks with Valerie and tells her to go home. She asks why she can’t talk with her friend and Armbruster orders her to come home with a scowl. He then orders his men to open fire on her. The helicopters then open fire on Silver Swan, and Wonder Woman flies up and blocks the bullets with her bracelets. Silver Swan pushes Wonder Woman out of the way and uses her sonic scream, destroying the cockpit of the helicopters. The helicopters ask if they can retreat, but Armbruster orders them to keep firing. With that, Silver Swan increases the intensity of her scream and begins to destroy the helicopters’ weapons. Silver Swan loses her breath and stops screaming. Exhausted, she falls from the sky and Wonder Woman flies to catch her as the helicopters fly back to base. Armbruster angrily questions Mr. Choi on how both Wonder Woman and Silver Swan can still be alive. Mr. Choi retaliates, saying that it should not be blamed on him. He was not the one who pushed her so hard. However, Armbruster has a smug look on his face. She will return to him – it’s just a matter of time.

    On Paradise Island, an Amazon called Ismure enters the healing room as Epione heals Solomon. Hippolyta and Euboea watch the treatment and Euboea asks why this man is here. Hippolyta replies that Diana had brought him here and gave an Amazon’s promise that this man would completely heal and recover to Maxine. Euboea asks Hippolyta why they would bring him here if they are just bullet wounds. Surely Man’s World has dealt with bullet wounds before. Hippolyta wonders that too, though she is certain her daughter would’ve taken this man to a Man’s World hospital, so there must be a reason why he is brought here.

    At Massachusetts, Diana thanks Etta Candy for taking care of Maxine and Valerie. However, something is troubling Etta and she feels that around Diana’s presence. Maybe it’s because Diana’s so beautiful, or maybe because they would’ve gotten married by now. Wonder Woman explains that they are nothing more than friends and that Steve loves Etta very much. Etta replies that it’s not a matter of love, but of time. She loves her job, but together with the Hermes, being around Steve could be a problem. Wonder Woman now realises how Etta feels and that she and the others will leave if she wants. Etta feels that that’s not necessary, as she has the video set up for them. Maxine and Valerie then come out of a room, with Maxine comforting Valerie, as they prepare to watch the video from Buchman’s laboratory. As the tape begins to play, they see the Silver Swan release one of her sonic screams to Professor Benjamin Bunchman, Solomon’s father. Maxine tells Valerie that she does not have to watch the video if she wants, but Valerie says that she wants to. Valerie explains that she was defending her and Armbruster, who Buchman was trying to kill.

    The others do not believe her however and snarls, but Maxine asks her to tell her story from the beginning. Valerie says that she was ugly and unloved, until Armbruster appeared. He did not care for her looks. Though Valerie knew that he would lose money because of her, as he was a rich businessman. Armbruster offered his help, and had found Ben Buchman and given him money to make Valerie happy. Buchman had developed a special liquid and Valerie was dipped in it. When it was finished, Valerie was revealed in front of a mirror, and she was so happy with the result – she was beautiful. Valerie begins to cry as she realises that she has turned her back on the man that helped her out when nobody would. Diana reminds her that Armbruster had tried to kill her some hours ago. Valerie snaps back, saying that Diana knows nothing about men, especially coming from a woman who came from a female society. Diana replies that she knows enough about men that they wouldn’t hurt the woman they love. Valerie replies that she is wrong. Armbruster had in fact protected her from Buchman. Buchman wanted to experiment on her some more but she didn’t want to. Armbruster assured her that it was alright, so she climbed back in the tank. She then heard Buchman and Armbruster arguing, and then there had been a flash of light, and she woke up to find herself floating while the tank had exploded. She then saw Buchman was a monkey wrench in her hand, and Armbruster on the floor. It was obvious that Buchman was trying to kill Armbruster. She then had this urge to release something from her stomach. She kept building it up, and then released a sonic scream that destroyed the whole laboratory. Armbruster then taught her how to use her scream so no one else would hurt her.

    Maxine then asks sarcastically, “Or still ugly, right Val? A fate worse than death.” Maxine then talks about the letters they had sent each other. Maxine does not care what Valerie looks like. How could she believe what Armbruster had said about her? Valerie replies that Armbruster still loves her. If Maxine had really cared, then she wouldn’t be trying to kill her. She brushes if off though, as she says that she will die soon anyway. Wonder Woman asks what that means and Valerie walks out of the room. Maxine suggests that Wonder Woman use her lasso on her, but Wonder Woman says that she shouldn’t as she is emotionally fragile, and that doing so could be very harmful. Etta then calls them to her computer, where she was looking at Buchman’s files. Etta says she looked over Valerie’s body scans, and that she spotted some weird. It seems as if there are differences in the body scans – that there are two Silver Swans! They then hear a noise from the other room and sees Silver Swan fly out the window up to a helicopter. Before she can react, she hears another noise where Etta and Maxine were, and find them being held at gunpoint by Armbruster’s men.

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     This issue wraps up some of the action from the previous issue and once Diana and Val’s friend have calmed down the Silver Swan they finally learn some of her background.   It seems the first part of the Perez run was based a lot around a bit of mystery behind certain characters but with the second part of his run he seems more interested in telling their background stories in order to fill out their stories.   This isn’t wholly unnecessary but it maybe is to the degree which he has done over t...

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