Adventure Comics #460

Stories featuring Wonder Woman, the Flash, Deadman, Green Lantern, and more!

A Nightmare to Remember!

On Earth II, the Golden and Silver Age Flashes are playfully racing. The Golden Age Flash stops short, to the puzzlement of the Silver Age Flash. The Golden Age Flash has reached their destination, a vibratory focal point he uses to cross the inter-dimensional void to Earth I. The Silver Age Flash bids farewell to his parallel counterpart, and vibrates his way across the inter-dimensional gulf, separating the parallel Earths. Suddenly, the Silver Age Flash hits a barrier and is thrown back to Earth II. Racing back to Keystone City, to confer with the Golden Age Flash, the Silver Age Flash encounters the Shade, one of his counterpart's arch-enemies. The Silver Age Flash races in a tight circle around the Shade, creating an updraft that propels the villain into the air. The Shade counters, by bathing the Silver Age Flash in negative light waves. The resultant exposure transforms him into a blind, living silhouette. Still able to pinpoint the Shade's location by the sound of his voice, the Silver Age Flash grabs him, and begins blindly racing through the city. Terrified that the blind Flash will crash them into something at hyper velocity speed, the Shade reverses the effect of his black light beam, returning the Silver Age Flash to normal. The Keystone City cops arrive to arrest the Silver Age Flash, for his unprovoked assault on Keystone City's mayor, the Shade. Even more incredible, they react as if the Silver Age Flash is really the Golden Age Flash. Investigating this strange turn of events, the Silver Age Flash journeys to the Golden Age Flash's home, only to discover his counterpart's wife married to another villain, the Fiddler. Stunned, the Silver Age Flash speeds outside the Keystone City limits, only to run headlong into a shimmering barrier. The impact activates a preset message from the Wizard. He reveals that the Silver Age Flash's astral body has become trapped in a nightmarish prison culled from the subconscious mind of the Golden Age Flash. As the trap was intended for his counterpart, all within react as if the Silver Age Flash is the Golden Age Flash. Now knowing the prison is all in his mind, the Silver Age Flash creates a vibratory jamming frequency that blocks the Wizard's spell. Reconnecting his astral form to his physical form, still drifting in the void, the Silver Age Flash finally bridges the gap between the two parallel Earths, and returns home.

The Canvas Inferno

Investigating the suicide killer of a trapeze artist, Deadman possess the body of a city morgue worker, to look for answers. The body of the murderer, however, has already been claimed. Deadman catches up to the hearse, transporting the body, and follows it to it's destination. Meanwhile, Lorna Hill, the owner of Hill's Circus is facing hard times, due to a rash of "accidents" that have befallen her performers. A man named Winchell is willing to buy Hill's Circus, despite it's woes, but Hill has no interest in parting with her family's business. When Winchell won't take "no" for an answer, the circus strongman, Tiny, forcefully puts him out. Winchell reports his failure to his superior, who suggests Winchell engineer another "accident". Winchell's superior then goes to check on a man named Kronsky, who is being held against his will. Kronsky's freedom is dependent on his revealing information that he refuses to give up. Deadman arrives at a chemical plant on the waterfront. There, three men prepare to dispose of the dead killer's body, in a vat of acid. Deadman possesses one of the men and fights against the other two. They, however, overpower Deadman, and manage to throw him, and the corpse, over the rail. The corpse is lost to the acid, but Deadman's acrobatic prowess allows him to flip back up onto the catwalk, landing on the two thugs. Still in possession of the one body, Deadman flees the scene, then returns to Hill's Circus. Deadman is just in time to witness the fortune teller's tent going up in flames. Trapped within is the fortune teller, Vashnu, and Deadman's own niece, Lita Brand. Deadman takes possession of his brother's body, ties a guy-wire around his waist, & leaps from high above, into Vashnu's tent. Grabbing Vashnu and Lita, Deadman calls out to Tiny to take his end of the guy-wire and pull. The circus strongman hauls the trio up and out of the burning tent, saving them all. Meanwhile, Kronsky fakes a heart attack, which allows him to overpower his guard, and make his escape.

Pursuit to Eternity

Darkseid has gained the anti-life equation and combined it's power with his own omega force. He travels past the Promethean Giants, forever locked in orbit, around the Source Wall, for failing to pierce it's barriers. Darkseid easily defeats the rock trolls, who serve as the first line of defense protecting the final barrier. Then parts the temporal storm that serves as the second line of defense. At that same moment, Metron responds to the signal emanating from a Mother Box, somewhere on Earth. In Darkseid's absence, Desaad takes over the rule of Apokolips, and readies an attack on New Genesis. In New Genesis, Izaya, the Highfather, leaves to confront Darkseid. Darkseid is just about to breach the barrier, when Izaya makes his presence known. Izaya, though, proves a poor match for Darkseid, and suffers a brutal defeat. Orion arrives too late to aid the Highfather. Izaya, however, reveals that, though, he did not possess the power to defeat his enemy, Darkseid expended much of his own power in besting Izaya. Now is Orion's best time to defeat his father, once and for all. Metron gathers a half dozen humans, each of whom possesses a piece of the anti-life equation. Metron takes them, via Boom Tube, to the other New Gods, who are locked in combat with the minions of the Antagonist. Using a Mother Box to pull the anti-life equation from the human's subconscious, Metron uses it to defeat the Antagonist. Orion confronts his father, Darkseid, outside the Source Wall barrier. His power diminished from his conflict with Izaya, Darkseid cannot defeat both Orion and the Source Wall barrier. Like all other before him, Darkseid is transformed, by the barrier, into a planet size Promethean. The planetary Darkseid is cast on a collision course with Apokolips. Desaad fires upon the Promethean Darkseid, with the Uni-Cannon, blasting him into screaming fragments, that rain down on Apokolips.

The Hunt

Aquaman has been called to Coney Island, by the Coast Guard, to investigate the slaying of a whale. It's is the fifth such whale that has washed up on shore, butchered The Coast Guard believe an English millionaire & big game hunter, Colin Landau, is responsible for the killings. Landau's yacht is outside the territorial waters of the United States, and thus outside the jurisdictional reach of the Coast Guard. Aquaman, however, has no such limitations. The Sea King , and his wife, Mera, go to confront Landau. They arrive, just as Landau is trying to harpoon a dolphin. Aquaman thwarts the shot, then bodily drags Landau back to his yacht. Aquaman furiously warns Landau to cease his hunting practices or suffer the severest of consequences. Landau lashes out at Aquaman, giving the Sea King an excuse to beat Landau down. Aquaman telepathically summons whales to batter Landau's yacht, threatening to sink it, if he catches Landau hunting again. Aquaman spends the rest of the day, with Mera, beneath the waves, shadowing Landau's yacht. A helicopter arrives in the middle of the night. Landau's yacht then begins following an erratic course. Aquaman boards the vessel, hauling it's anchor up with him. Aquaman uses the anchor to smash the yacht's harpoon gun. The noise draws the attention of the helicopter's occupants, a group of thugs, Landau hired to handle Aquaman. With ease, Aquaman trashes the lot of them. Searching the yacht, Aquaman quickly discovers that Landau is not on-board. Diving into the ocean, Aquaman finds Landau on a floating weapons platform, attacking a blue whale. Aquaman ferociously tears into Landau. This time, though, Landau is wearing a powered dive suit that augments his strength. Landau manage to get a steel net around Aquaman, just before his floating weapons platform crashes into him. His oxygen supply compromised, Landau cries out to Aquaman to rescue him, as the wrecked platform drags Landau down, ever deeper into the sea. Aquaman telepathically sends the blue whale to Landau's rescue, but Landau fires on the whale again, refusing to allow the creature to come near him. By the time Aquaman extricates himself from the steel net, Landua has vanished into the darkness, a victim of his own monstrous ego.

Deadly Song of the Wizard

Having fended off an attack by giant energy leeches, the Green Lantern repairs his damaged rig in space. Searching the nearby vicinity for his power battery, the Green Lantern discovers that something is blocking his ring beam from making contact. The Green Lantern follows the residual battery energy trail to a mist enshrouded planetoid. Unbeknownst to the Green Lantern, time move much faster within the mist. The 16 hours he has left on his ring charge is very quickly being burned away. Rising up out of the ground to engage him, golden gryphons and harpies attack the Green Lantern. With his ring powerless to affect the color yellow, the Green Lantern must resort to indirect methods to defeat his attackers. Fighting his way into an alien palace, the Green Lantern reaches the throne room to find the sorcerer, Myrwhydden, waiting for him. It is the wizard who has kept the Green Lantern from his power battery. With his ring charge used up fighting through Myrwhydden's defenses, the Green Lantern can do nothing to stop the wizard from imprisoning him within a stone cage. Previously an occupant of the Green Lantern's ring, Myrwhydden was released by the energy leeches, who sucked him out while draining power from the Green Lanterns's ring. Myrwhydden wasted no time in setting up his trap for the Green Lantern, by first stealing his power battery. The Green Lantern bluffs Myrwhydden by telling the wizard that the battery's power has been shut off by the Guardians of the Universe. When Myrwhydden removes the yellow shield, surrounding the battery, a second Green Lantern appears to take it into possession. Anticipating the trap, the Green Lantern created an energy duplicate with his ring, and left it in orbit, to strike at an opportune moment. With Myrwhydden defeated, the Green Lantern opts to turn the wizard over to the Guardians, rather than imprison him in the ring once more.

The Quest for the Stolen Soul

Steve Trevor is dead. Outside, in the United Nations plaza, Wonder Woman lays the deceased body of her lover down. With Trevor's corpse turned over to Morgan Tracy, the chief of United Nations security, Wonder Woman takes to the air. Summoning Aphrodite, Wonder Woman begs her patron Goddess to restore her love to life, as she did once before. This time, however, Aphrodite refuses. Undeterred, Wonder Woman uses her lasso of truth to open a gateway to the underworld. There, she goes to confront Hades, and demand the resurrection of Steve Trevor. Hades, too, refuses the Amazon Princess. Wonder Woman fights a fierce battle against all the hordes of the underworld. Seeking an end to the conflict, Wonder Woman offers to strike a bargain with Hades. If Hades will return Steve Trevor's soul to his earthly body, Wonder Woman will remain in the underworld for all eternity. Hades refuses to have Wonder Woman so easily, holding fast to his desire to see her succumb body and soul to his power. The very ground swallows Wonder Woman up, but she fights her way to freedom. Once more she finds herself assailed by the seemingly endless denizens of the underworld. She pleads with Hades to accept her terms. Ultimately, Hades is forced to reveal that, in truth, he does not possess Trevor's soul, and thus has nothing with which to bargain. Wonder Woman realizes that Aphrodite tricked her into coming to the underworld. Now her mortal soul is in jeopardy. With a Herculean effort, and some timely guidance from Trevor's spirit, the soul of Wonder Woman escapes the underworld's hold on her, returning through the gateway to re-unite with her mortal body. Aphrodite reveals that, on Hera's insistence, Zeus placed Trevor's soul among the stars. Aphrodite's lesson learned, Wonder Woman takes comfort in the knowledge that the love Trevor felt for her will live on in her heart forever.

Notes:

• This issue published material that was unpublished due to the DC Implosion.