Wonder Woman #44

The lasso of truth brings to light the true past of the Silver Swan.

The confrontation between the Silver Swan and Hank Armbruster finally begins.

Wonder Woman wakes up in an electrified cage with her tiara and lasso removed. She demands to know where Maxine and Etta are. Mr. Choi replies, saying that she shouldn’t ask any questions. She tells him that she can simply break free, though Mr. Choi replies that she shouldn’t. Even though she could break free, even with her pain tolerance, doing so will cause Etta and Maxine’s cage to overload, causing them to die a death of being electrocuted. Mr. Choi also mentions her lasso, and what it did to him and how it compelled him to tell the truth. Mr. Choi then goes on to survey the monitors with Maxine, Etta and Wonder Woman on them. Maxine demands to know where Valerie is, and Mr. Choi tells her to be quiet, as she doesn’t know the politics of power. He then turns on a switch which sends a feed of Valerie hugging Armbruster elsewhere in the complex.

At the laboratory where Valerie and Armbruster are hugging, Valerie apologises for leaving him and Armbruster tells her not to worry over spilt milk. She tells him that if she keeps acting like this, he will eventually leave her. Armbruster tells her that she is weak minded, and will believe anything with a smile, and that’s how Maxine and Wonder Woman used it against her. Wonder Woman watches from her cage and the words that Armbruster is putting into Valerie’s head. He adds that Wonder Woman is just jealous of Valerie. Maxine yells at the video feed, but Etta tells her to calm down. Mr. Choi is like a poker player – there’s a certain time to change them, but for now Etta tells her that they should follow his rules for now. Etta speaks to Mr. Choi about the file she saw about the cat scans and points out that one was titled “Reversion Experiment”. Wonder Woman adds that when she battled Silver Swan, she saw something very ugly. Mr. Choi, with his poker face, doesn’t respond to this. Wonder Woman then asks why the Silver Swan hates her so much. Mr. Choi replies that she is a paragon of a perfect women, and that makes a perfect target for Silver Swan’s insecurities. An added bonus would be the ability to test out Silver Swan’s scream on Wonder Woman because of her durability. Maxine then chirps in, alerting Wonder Woman to Valerie making her way inside a tank, wrapped in bandages. Etta then tells her that this is Diana’s chance to prove what she’s made of. With that, Diana breaks through the cage, electrifying Maxine and Etta.

The monitors blow from the surge of electricity and Armbruster asks Mr. Choi on what’s happening. Mr. Choi tells Armbruster that Wonder Woman has broken out and that they have underestimated her. The technicians then tell Armbruster that they have to shut down to check for any damage to the equipment. Armbruster then asks his security guards if they have located Wonder Woman, but the security guards reply, saying that perhaps she had been killed in the electrocution. Armbruster then asks the technicians if Valerie has been harmed, and they reply that they can’t be sure because Professor Buchman has never been past this stage of experiments. Valerie’s brain could be damaged. Armbruster tells his technicians to continue, saying that if she dies, then so be it. Through the chamber, Valerie is outraged from hearing so.

Wonder Woman makes her way to Choi’s office, knocking the gun out of his hand. She grabs Choi with one hand and grabs her taken equipment with her other hand, and demands to know where Maxine and Etta are. Mr. Choi tells her and within a few moments, breaks open the cage with Maxine and Etta in it, still alive. Surprised, she asks how they survived. Etta tells her that they had been standing on a rubber waist trimmer. Wonder Woman carries them to Mr. Choi with the lasso wrapped around him. Maxine, angry, demands to know where Valerie is.

Back in the experimenting room, the power levels are off the charts as Armbruster demands to know what’s happening. The technicians inform him that Silver Swan is creating the power surges, and Armbruster tells Valerie to calm down or the experiment will be ruined. Suddenly, a massive explosion creates a disruption in the building. The ceiling begins to fall apart and Wonder Woman holds it up. As the dust settles, Armbruster makes a run for it with Silver Swan behind him. Armbruster looks for something to protect himself when Wonder Woman wraps him in her lasso.

Valerie uses her sonic scream to look for Armbruster when Wonder Woman steps in asking Valerie to stop what she’s doing. Valerie warns Wonder Woman that she will count down to three. When she hits one, Maxine steps in between them, and says that this will stop. No one will get hurt. Silver Swan replies, by saying that she loves the Silver Swan, and not Valerie as nobody does. Mr. Choi then chirps in, saying that Valerie should open her eyes and that she should not feel sorry for herself. Mr. Choi tells Armbruster to tell the truth. Armbruster, surprised, refuses but Mr. Choi says that the only way out of this situation is to tell the truth. There is no other choice anyway. Armbruster then begins to recount the events leading up to this one. Armbruster begins, saying that Valerie didn’t kill Professor Buchman, and that it was an accident. All Armbruster really wanted to do was make money, while Professor Buchman wanted to help Valerie, as the radiation made her ugly, though it gave her gift, and that was reshaping things with her voice. Professor Buchman wanted to help her by rearranging her molecules to fix her voice. However, Armbruster saw this as an opportunity to make money from this technology and maybe even become bigger than Lex Luthor. Professor Buchman was against this and said that Valerie would never agree to this, though Armbruster says that he seduced her and took advantage from there on. Maxine then interrupts asking whether Armbruster really loved Valerie or not. Armbruster replies that he never loved her – how could anyone love someone as ugly as her? Armbruster continues explaining, saying that Buchman was not fond of this idea because of work ethics. Buchman had then discovered Armbruster’s plans to sell this idea to overseas investors and Buchman didn’t want this risk to Valerie’s life. Armbruster and Buchman then got into a fight and then the explosion happened.

Silver Swan cries out in guilt from the fact that she killed an innocent man. Maxine replies that she didn’t kill Buchman, as Armbruster had said. Armbruster had lied about her killing Buchman. However, Maxine’s letters had almost revealed Armbruster’s plans and it had also surprised him that she teamed up with Solomon Buchman. Even though Silver Swan was powerful, her up against Wonder Woman on their first encounter was an unfair match, with Wonder Woman overpowering Silver Swan easily. Armbruster then decided that she needed a power up, so he put her through the experiment again. She had been powered up successfully, but she had been transformed into something uglier than before. Armbruster himself was shocked, but he played the lover by calming her down with alcohol. Mr. Choi then mentions some mutant type heroes and their powers. Wonder Woman replies in acknowledgement, and that it happened during the Alien Invasion. Armbruster then says that Choi believed there was something wrong with her gene that caused this. Mr. Choi advised Armbruster that this was fixable, and so Armbruster hired the top scientists to revert her back. She was reverted back, but she had lost her strong power. Armbruster decided to experiment on her some more and so she was brought back to the beautiful form of the Silver Swan. Before Armbruster could experiment on Valerie once again for more power, Maxine and Solomon had stepped in. Maxine says that Valerie had been nothing more than a money making scheme. Maxine then asks whether they told her the experiments could kill her. Choi replies that he gladly would’ve, though it was up to Armbruster, and he had not asked Choi to tell Valerie about the danger of the experiments. Valerie then glares at Armbruster who shows his frightened state. She walks towards him when Wonder Woman steps in between them, and reminds her that this is not Valerie. Maxine asks Valerie to come home, and Valerie runs into Maxine’s arms.

A few days later on Themyscira, Solomon thanks Wonder Woman on the Amazons healing them. Solomon is then told of the events that happened a few days earlier, and Solomon cannot believe this is happening. Wonder Woman replies that Valerie wishes to talk to him and explain what happened, but she is afraid. Solomon doesn’t want to talk to her either. Wonder Woman asks if he is afraid, and Solomon replies that he isn’t, as his life with his father is over now and has no direction now. Can Wonder Woman say the same?