Wonder Woman was created by Dr William Moulton Marston in 1941 and is the © copyright trademark of DC Comics. My Wonder Woman stories are only fan fiction and based, primarily, on the 1970s CBS TV show (albeit, updated to the present time of writing). However, any resources from adaptations and comics may be utilized. All characters are entirely fictional. Except for any characters found in DC Comics or related adaptations, these stories and characters are my creations, unless otherwise stated. In my stories, Wonder Woman is the only known superhero. Wonder Woman was created by Dr William Moulton Marston in 1941 and is the © copyright trademark of DC Comics. My Wonder Woman stories are only fan fiction and based, primarily, on the 1970s CBS TV show (albeit, updated to the present time of writing). However, any resources from adaptations and comics may be utilized. All characters are entirely fictional. Except for any characters found in DC Comics or related adaptations, these stories and characters are my creations, unless otherwise stated. In my stories, Wonder Woman is the only known superhero.
09 The best medicine
When Roger returned to Diana’s bedside, a nurse in protective clothing was taking her vital signs.
“How is she?” he said.
“We’re concerned about her temperature,” replied the nurse. “She’s burning up.”
Asleep, Diana was perspiring like crazy. Threads of hair were soddened on her forehead.
“I’ve brought Diana her bracelets,” said Roger. “She wanted me to place these on her.”
“You can’t bring jewellery in here,” stressed the nurse.
“They’re very important to her.”
“Well, you’ll have to get them deep cleaned first.”
Being a rational and amenable man, Roger accepted the nurse’s contention. She placed a wet flannel across Diana’s brows. The cold sensation awoke the patient; her blue eyes were still radiant under the flutter of wakeful attentiveness.
“Roger…”
“I am here, Diana.”
She held his gloved hand with an insipid grip, which gravely concerned her friend, but he didn’t say.
“How‘s Warren?” she asked faintly.
“No change. He’s still in a coma.”
“Oh,” she murmured as her eyes drew shut. When she opened them again, Diana found herself in a very different setting…
Her hand no longer gripped Roger’s but the main sheet of a small sailboat. She felt her tiara and girdle in place, her bracelets on her wrists. Wonder Woman realised she sat caped in full regalia in a sailing boat without any prior memory of how she got there.
A breeze caught the sail. The boat began breaking through the dark turquoise sea towards a black mountainous-looking islet, which lay conspicuous before a pink sunset. As Diana traversed the islet, it became apparent there was nowhere to beach. On closer inspection, she spotted steps etched out of the rock. She threw a line to a convenient wooden piling.
Once securing the craft, Diana made her way up the steps to a path covered in broken slate. Its course looked as though it wound around the islet to the summit. In truth, Wonder Woman could have reached the top in a single bound but, instinctively, decided to stick to the path.
Diana didn’t get far before seeing a tall gentleman heading down towards her. He wore a black three-piece suit with a ducked trilby secluding his face. As he drew closer, she noticed his white collar.
“You’re not doing very well, are you?” he said.
The familiar plum tone shuddering inside Diana’s eardrum was met with immediate distaste.
“Still pretending to be a cardinal, I see Mendo.”
“Cardinals tend to be such upstanding citizens of the world and I’m merely reflecting their virtues through me.”
“And what do I owe the honour of your sickening presence this time?”
“You really don’t know, do you?”
“Why don’t we cut to the chase, Mendo, I don’t have time for your pomposity.”
Mendo raised his hat to show the long face, rodent-like eyes, and distinguished Greek nose of the dead priest he once inhabited. He must have been fond of the clergyman’s appearance since he had no obvious reason to continue to materialize in such a form.
“The last time we met you thought you banished me to the lower echelons of life, but as they say, where there’s a will there is a way. I burrowed my way out of your imposed incarceration. I’ve been keeping tabs on you ever since, waiting for the day when I can execute my reprisal – one more repulsive than any you’ve faced so far. However, I realise this is not my time.”
“Then why do I have the displeasure of your company?”
“I’m present because you are facing a force which could scurry my plans if you don’t win. I may be a demon, but at least I’m an Earth-bound one. The enemy you’re up against is alien and has a foot in both realms.”
“You’re scared of it,” Diana deduced.
“Oh, I openly admit to being wary. This creature, known as the Visitant, collects minds like some people collect stamps and isn’t picky about which species in which galaxy or dimension.”
“You mean demons are on the menu?”
“Very much so. I can’t tell you how to beat it, but I can certainly give you some inside knowledge which may prove useful later.”
“I’m all ears,” Wonder Woman said with some scepticism.
“You don’t remember, do you?”
“No…no, I don’t,” Diana conceded, intrigued by the insight. “All I remember is waking up on a sailing boat.”
“Nothing is as it seems. The Visitant forms psychic connections with life to distort reality for its own ends. This entire world is a concoction of your unconscious versus the Visitant’s effect on your mind. Neither of you has the upper hand yet, but if the Visitant wins, you will belong to that beast forever. First your psyche and then your body.”
“That sounds terrifying enough, but why should I believe you?”
“There’s an old saying, only your enemies speak the truth.”
Wonder Woman simpered. He doffed his hat and carried on along the path.
“Then again,” he said, “this all could be a figment of your overactive imagination and I’m still safely incarcerated where you left me.”
When Diana glanced back, Mendo had disappeared. She intuitively glanced out to the sea and identified the thin of a great white shark heading away into deeper waters. She knew Mendo too well not to suspect the animal was him in a shapeshifted form.
Wonder Woman continued her way up the islet. A flock of seabirds abruptly scattered near the summit. Diana’s instincts spelt danger. She was right. The ungodly sight of a human skeleton abseiling onto the path in front of her, she feared, wasn’t searching for an undertaker. The zombie released the rope from its belt, which looked identical to those worn by the Chinese. It drew a sword from its’ sheath.
“American…” seethed the skeleton through its’ jaws.
“I am Princess Diana of Themyscira. An Amazon demigoddess. What type of entity are you?”
“American…” it repeated creepily. There was no indication of how the skeleton managed to speak without a voice box.
On second thoughts, Diana found something eerily familiar about the lanky skeleton that was standing before her. Could these be the bones of Bo Hung she contemplated? For all she knew he was no more.
“It seems there’s no talking sense to you. Clear the way.”
As Wonder Woman walked towards the skeleton, it whipped the sword through the air in response.
“Who are you protecting?” Diana said.
She stepped forward again. The skeleton lunged with the sword and Wonder Woman sidestepped the blade in haste. Diana faced the zombie on the side of the path. She used her cape like a matador to direct the fiend’s attention. It plunged the blade into what it saw as Wonder Woman, but when her cape pulled away, the skeleton found itself at the edge of the cliff face.
“Over here,” said Wonder Woman behind it.
As the skeleton turned about on its bony heels, the fiend slipped on the loose slate. As it toppled backwards, the ghastly abomination shot another rope line into the rock. It began using the spring mechanism in the belt to winch itself back onto the trail.
Diana thought fast. She removed her cape and threw it over the fiend before it could rise to its feet. On one knee, she knotted the four corners of the cape together with the skeleton unable to find a way out. For the first few seconds, agitated movements protruded from the inside, before ceasing without further protest. Diana felt gross disfigurement in the appendicular structure.
“Well, it looks like all I’m left with is a bag of bones,” she remarked.
The summit of the islet was peculiarly flat as if the top had been sliced off. It was no bigger than a helipad. There was a circular hole in the centre about five feet in diameter.
Against the flushed horizon, Diana identified the outline of another skeleton. Only this time it wasn’t human, but a bipedal alien made from a transparent fibre barely registerable by the naked eye. The figure’s cranium was large like that of an elk but with eye sockets the size of a hand. However, what caught Diana’s eye was the razor-sharp appendage extending from its right arm.
The alien skeleton charged at Wonder Woman. It tried decapitating her with a horizontal chop of its’ appendage. Although the outline was hard to see, Wonder Woman was quick enough to duck. She manoeuvred out of the skeleton’s sight and fled to the other side of the summit. The alien eerily stopped to refocus before attacking Wonder Woman again. Now Diana’s retreat made sense: the increase in distance made room for lassoing the skeleton’s arms against its frame, which neutralised the deadly appendage. The alien hobbled about, hopelessly, tilted on one side, then tumbling over. The dead creature’s bones sprawled loose on the ground.
Diana shook her head at the ghoulish mayhem. She peered into the hole. There were flickers of firelight below. Everything leading up to this point suggested Wonder Woman needed to drop down. She landed on a cube-shaped table made of bricks and stepped onto the surrounding wooden floor. To little surprise, it was another circular cavern. Firey lanterns were bolted into the four poles of the room.
“Enough of your games, Visitant,” Wonder Woman said circling the centrepiece table. “Why have you brought me here?”
A speck of light flickered over the table. More followed in quick succession until a full stream of white translucent light beamed down, from the sky, through the hole, and onto the centrepiece.
“I have travelled the stars, and read the minds of many different beings, but I have never experienced an aura like yours,” said the Visitant in dramatic fashion. “Your enemies are human like you, yet they concern themselves only with earthly notions of power and profit. You answer to a higher law. Such energy can neither be replicated nor replaced. Let me consume you…”
Diana scoffed. “Thanks, but I think I’ll take a raincheck.”
A mirror image of Wonder Woman reflected from the light beam. Diana examined its projection.
“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go now,” she said.
“Time to go, indeed,” replied the Visitant, ominously.
Her reflection appeared to turn asymmetrical. Diana studied it. She saw her image becoming independent of her: a second Wonder Woman trapped in the light source.
“Another game, Visitant?” Diana said.
“It’s no game,” Visitant replied. “I shall consume you or you will die.”
“Help me, Diana!” begged the second Wonder Woman caught in the light.
Diana moved a fraction too close in response. The arms of her second form sprouted out into the room and clamped her hands around Wonder Woman’s throat. Strenuously, Diana attempted to pull the doppelganger’s hands away. The more she tried, the tighter the grip seemed to get. Wonder Woman was suffocating…
“Visitant has done it!” Jun De Wang pronounced.
“Done what, my dearest?” said Mei Li.
“Project the video into the lounge,” he commanded Visitant.
Video footage displayed molecular human cells moving about in a solution.
“What am I viewing?”
“For Wonder Woman to be weakened, Visitant needed to study her. Her biology is pretty unremarkable aside from her increased immune response.”
“I found her totally unremarkable,” interjected Mei Li.
“Sure, you did, but only after she had been weakened. Visitant determined the source of her powers was coming from somewhere else.”
“Eh? Where?”
“The source is a mystery that even Visitant couldn’t figure out. What Visitant does know is her girdle functions like a receiver, disseminating her great abilities. When Wonder Woman was exposed to radiation, it damaged her molecular structure, and her source of power no longer recognised her.”
“Sounds similar to a computer unable to access a server,” said Mei Li, whose cyber skills were another one of her specialities, “but how can it be made to serve us?”
Jun laughed jovially. “When we first met, I considered you nothing more than another agent sent to spy on my activities from Beijing. You’ve come a long way over to my way of thinking.”
“I realised I loved one thing more than my country and that is personal power,” she said.
“And you shall have it by swallowing this pill,” he claimed, holding a black capsule between his fingers.
“What can it do for me?”
“It will make you stronger and faster than Wonder Woman ever was.”
“What? That little pill?” Mei Li responded, sceptically. “How could it work?”
“Since we couldn’t learn where Wonder Woman’s energy originated, Visitant mimicked the idea.” Jun pulled up his shirt to expose a silver belt made from flat circular plates linked together. “The belt gets its energy from this spacecraft. All I need to do to feel the benefit is swallow the pill.”
“Go on then,” Mei Li teased, sensing his reluctance. “What are you worried about?”
“Ah, you’ve got me,” he conceded. “I’ve only just gained all this power. I don’t want to risk any side effects unnecessarily. We could try it out on one of the prisoners.”
“I say Kay-I is the best candidate. Easily manipulated.”
“She may pose a threat.”
“I have an idea to squash her attitude if you wish to try it,” Mei Li replied thoughtfully, “with a touch of poetic justice.”
They led Kay-I into a typically circular room with a torture board on the wall. Jun barred her wrists into the locks above her head; Mei Li did the same to her calves.
“I have something for you, girlfriend,” Mei Li said, playfully.
Kay-I quivered as soon as she saw the container. “Why are you doing this? All I wanted was to be with my family.”
Mei Li plucked the scophoza out with the tongs. The creature was as black and as slimy as the one Kay-I fed to Captain Griffiths. Mei Li taunted the creature close to Kay-I’s cheekbones. The captive screwed up her face. She turned her head away to the side.
Mei Li burst into laughter. “Not so fun, now the shoe is on the other foot – as they say in your adopted country. Eh?”
“Enough!” said Jun.
He strapped a spider mouth gag to Kay-I. It set her mouth open. She blabbed noises of ‘no’ as Mei Li once more dangled the creature in front of her. Her protests were ignored for Mei Li inserted the scophoza through the steel ring to the inside of Kay-I’s mouth and released the creature from the tongs. The girl screamed – but not for long – with the parasite slipping down the back of her throat. The alien’s antennas sprouted roots down into her lungs, and up the back of her nasal cavity, through the sinuses into her brain. She went silent, strangely calm.
Jun went back to the control room to get a reading. Once he was satisfied that the Visitant had taken charge of Kay-I, they proceeded with the experiment. Jun fitted one of the specially constructed belts around Kay-I’s waist. Mei Li dropped the pill into a glass of water.
“Something to swill the little monster down with,” she jested, tilting the captive’s head back, pouring drink through the gag’s ring.
They stood back. Kay-I was awake but motionless like a zombie. The girl began tremoring. She screamed incessantly. As she did so, her right wrist broke free of its bind. All at once she appeared to rip herself off the torture board.
In a terrifying reversal of fortunes, Mei Li and Jun were confronted by a Frankenstein’s monster of their own making. Kay-I seized Mei Li, lifting her above her head and tossing her tormentor against the back wall. She prized the hexagon-shaped door apart. Seeing she meant to escape, Jun wrapped his broad arms around the petite assailant. He received an elbow in his six-pack for his trouble. Crawling on his knees into the corridor, he watched Kay-I force her way out of the ship.
“Any more bright ideas?” Mei Li said in the doorway as she held her head in pain.
Diana rested peacefully. Roger took her hand in his rubber glove. Any fear of radiation cross-contamination had passed. According to Doctor Morecambe’s cold clinical analysis, it was now about the patient living or dying. She received some drugs to increase cell production. However, there was little more they could do.
Roger hadn’t seen her awake for three days. It had given him time to process recent events with Diana’s revelation still fresh in his mind. In any other circumstances, it would have been amusing for Wonder Woman to lie on a bed wearing her bracelets and not get recognised by a single person. Essentially a practical man, who mostly resided in reality, Roger’s mind temporarily wandered off to a better day in the future when he and Diana would laugh at the irony of the situation beside a fireplace. He knew her secret, and he would share his own about her…
“Di, listen to me, you’ve got to pull through. The world needs you. Many people love and admire you.” He paused for thought. “I know you’re going to be all right. Do you know why? We managed to reinject your blood sample from Honolulu.”
“What blood sample?”
Roger hadn’t noticed Doctor Morecambe standing at the foot of Diana’s bed. He took him to one side.
“Diana thought injecting a blood sample taken at Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu would help retrigger her immune response.”
“That’s preposterous,” said the doctor. “The things these new-age thinkers believe never cease to amaze me.”
“It never happened anyway. Queen’s Medical Center didn’t retain any such sample. I said what I did hoping it might help her. You see, Doctor, I believe if Diana is going to get better it will be on her own steam…she’s a very special lady.”
“She’s young, she has a fighting chance,” the doctor added dispassionately.
Diana’s heart monitor bleeped once. Moments later, her alarm set off an emergency due to detecting a rapid heartbeat and oxygen dropping to dangerously low levels. Doctor Morecambe and his team rushed to her side.
“What’s happening?” Roger earnestly asked to no response.
“Get him out of here,” growled Morecambe.
“Hang in there, Diana!” Roger pleaded as the staff led him away…
Her doppelganger’s impenetrable chokehold wouldn’t budge. Diana felt herself lose consciousness. Her clenching thighs buckled. Her head started to list over to her left. Then a last spark of defiance permeated, from mind to body, all the way to the floorboards. Wonder Woman landed on her left shoulder with her doppelganger lying beside her. Only then did her former mirror image let go of the original’s neck.
The two identical twins rose to their feet. They studied one another carefully.
“I’ve had to face lookalikes before,” told Diana.
“I’m not just a lookalike,” her doppelganger replied. “I’m a physical manifestation of your psyche constructed by the Visitant. If you won’t let my master consume you, I’ll force your compliance.”
“Never ever,” Diana replied in a steely tone.
“We’ll see,” the manifestation said taking a familiar red-on-black half-mask from the light source. “Your car crash is where the Visitant first became aware of your superior presence. I wear this mask to signify your weakness at the hands of an inferior mortal on the cliffside. The Visitant can read your aura well. We know you don’t believe you can defeat us.”
“We’ll see,” echoed Wonder Woman with sassy spirit.
The masked manifestation leapt at the original. Wonder Woman batted her off in the opposite direction. Diana attempted to capitalise further, but the double repelled her back by booting her in the girdle. Wonder Woman narrowly swerved a strike to the face. She took the doppelganger by the arm and swung her against the wall.
Shaken. The masked imposter reached up to a flaming lantern. She attacked in psychotic stabbing motions. Wonder Woman decided to fight fire with fire – she extracted her own lantern. The wonder women exchanged blows with raging flames around the circumference of the room. The doppelganger swung low like a baseball bat. Wonder Woman slammed her rod on top and the imposter’s flame fell to the floor. Diana skipped over it. On second thoughts, she threw her rod down into the fire.
“A gallant gesture but one that will cost you,” said the doppelganger.
“I don’t think so,” Wonder Woman replied.
She marched forward. The masked manifestation threw a left haymaker. Diana ducked and the fist went through the wall. Bricks fell out the other side. The imposter’s arm was only wedged there for a fraction of a second, but long enough for Wonder Woman to form a chokehold around her neck. She ripped the mask off her double’s face.
“How do you like it?” Diana hollered into her ear.
The manifestation sprung back with all her might. They toppled over together. Diana’s back hit the wall. It knocked the stuffing out of her. She had to let go of her double. The wonder women rolled over one another fighting for supremacy.
They were perilously close to the burning lanterns that set alight the floorboards. A rumbling of a huge beast could be heard beneath. The entire floor rattled. A motion passed through the wall like a Mexican wave. The entire structure collapsed into the darkness.
Somehow the floorboards remained. Masked Wonder Woman lay on her back as her rival dragged her across the boards. Her head was over the side. She felt her hair dangling and the beast’s breath on her skin. She threw her lasso into the light source with some urgency, which dropped over the brick table.
“Time to meet the maker,” she said.
Bouncing her opponent off her thighs, masked Wonder Woman backflipped over into the dark abyss. She momentarily watched the other Wonder Woman meet her end while she dangled on the lasso. The ugly contours of the beast showed under the glow of the fire. Masked Wonder Woman pulled herself up back onto the relative safety of the floorboards.
“You tricked me!” roared the Visitant. “I’ve consumed my creation.”
“It’s called a switcheroo,” Wonder Woman said removing the mask. “I suspected you needed your, err, creation to wear a mask so you could tell us apart.”
And then she heard a distant but familiar voice, above, saying: “Hang in there, Diana!”
“I shall consume you,” promised the Visitant.
“No one likes a greedy consumer,” Diana said, stepping onto the table and into the light source. “The trick is to know when it’s time to leave.”
Wonder Woman took one last glance at the floorboards being torn up, before thrusting aloft through the light source as far as her legs would carry her. She looked down upon the islet surrounded by the ocean from the pastel blue sky. She closed her eyes as she breathed in the rich clean air. When she opened them again, it was Roger who stared back at her from her hospital bedside.
“Welcome back,” he said.
“How’s Warren?” she asked suddenly.
“There’s good news. He’s out of intensive care and awake.”
Diana smiled broadly.
“How do you feel?” Roger said.
“I feel everything’s going to be fine,” she replied.
For Part 10: click here
In the first illustration, Ed depicts Roger placing Diana’s bracelets on her wrists while she is poorly in hospital. The second picture shows Wonder Woman traversing the islet in a sailboat. The third picture is of devious Cardinal Mendo greeting Wonder Woman. To find more of Ed’s fine artwork: click here.
Mercian Comics 
# 1 just swallowed it like a pill, still a bit under the weather to find time to comment it. Just to say: great !!! Mendo looks like being a beautiful insert. Thanks, a great Christmas present. Thanks !!!
Hi # 1, I didn’t realise you had health problems. I wish you well. Don’t worry about commenting. Thanks very much. Merry Christmas and I wish you a better 2024!!
# 1 thanks for the concern and the good wishes Author appreciated, it is not me but the recent loss of my father. 💖❤️
# 1, adjusting to the loss of a parent takes time and can be particularly difficult at this time of the year. Take care my friend. 🙏🏼
Dear Author
Happy holidays!
And another sensational chapter!
As the plot tickens, we see more and more layers of this very well
created adventure.
The difficulties and dangers that Diana has been facing give a new perspective on the nuances of emotions and adversities that a heroine can encounter throughout the adventures she takes part in, and the weight of past adventures in the current moment.
Gives us a vision of something that could have been… But we have you to recreate these adventures!
Congratulations on your creativity.
Seeing characters return, like Cardinal Mendo, gives a interesting continuity, and how their stories are interconnected, and thus, the emotions and memories that the character face and feel throughout these journeys.
Seeing Diana in this situation, and understanding the alternatives this creates, is very interesting.
The idea that the power of the gold belt comes from an energy
generated in themyscera, is at the same time faithful to the
mythology of the series, and at the same time, a well-created
explanation.
And this encounter between the world of dreams, and what seems
to me, the underworld of Hades, keeps mythology and history very
centered on the character’s history.
The possibility of this plot twist about the silver belt that visitor
created, the experience in Kay-I and the miscalculation of Jun and
Mei li promises us something interesting in the future.
What would a confrontation between Kai-i and Diana be like…
And what role would Roger Macintosh have, who for me, is the
best protagonist and partner for Diana, throughout all her
adventures!
Let’s wait for what’s to come!
Congratulations!
My condolences to #1!
And so far I have created two panels to contribute to this great history.
Thank you, my friend!
Ed
https://www.deviantart.com/edlochem/art/Diana-at-the-hospital-1005983532
https://www.deviantart.com/edlochem/art/Diana-WW-on-the-sailboat-1005983884
Hi Ed,
Happy holidays!
I was pleased to see my phone alerted me to your pending post for the first time. This was an ambitious chapter I needed to write in short space of time – for me, anyway. It does have a sense of past and present as we delve into Diana’s unconscious interaction with the Visitant in dream form.
Wonder Woman fighting her double was an obvious homage to the TV show. The double represented how Diana fought Visitant’s desire to control (or consume) her.
Regarding the belt, I’m trying to achieve two things. I want the belt to be this mysterious object, which is the key to Wonder Woman’s immense power, but also make it clear that Diana is special in her own right (regardless of what Jun and Mei Li said in this chapter).
You’re right. It’s a distorted underworld interpreted by Diana. Mendo, who as you know is a demon, explains his fear of Visitant in both realms.
The next chapter will belong to Roger who is a strong character. There’s been a question mark over Kay-I from the beginning. Some of these questions should get answered.
Your first pic is a tender depiction of Roger placing the bracelets on Diana. I see the in the second captures my description of the environment Wonder Woman finds herself in on the boat in her cape with the pink sunset. I find it very gratifying to see an artist’s interpretations of my descriptions. I have really started to look forward to them. Thanks, Ed.
Thank you for your kind words and support.
So much deep stuff going on in this chapter! With the holidays, I’ve barely had time to sit in front of a screen, but I made an exception for this, and have been meaning to pop back and leave some detailed thoughts. Those thoughts will have to wait for now, but I really enjoyed where this chapter went with some unique ideas, and a blast from the past. And poor Kay-I . . .
That’s okay, CJ, I undestand. I hope you’re having a good holiday. I appreciate you telling me you liked the chapter. And, yeah, those scopozas aren’t pleasent!
# 1 Happy new year to everyone starting from the Author, Ed and CJ followed by all the other readers!
Happy New Year to you, # 1, and all readers! All the best for 2024!
A few random thoughts:
– I like that we’re learning more and more about the Visitant. I was a little confused earlier in the story, but it is starting to come together.
– the comment about the Visitant collecting minds reminded me of the Mind Stealers episodes of the TV show
– It was good the nurse didn’t recognize the bracelets when Roger brought them to the hospital.
– Diana showed her nature when, upon awakening on two different occasions, her first instinct was to ask about Warren
– I have to admit, coming relatively late to these wonderful stories, and generally having a memory that is good in my career but bad in leisure pastimes, my grasp on some of the past characters isn’t great. I remember Mendo as being a demon who inhabits a cardinal’s body, but I don’t recall a whole lot about him.
– The whole dealing with Mendo, and his use of “only your enemies speak the truth,” also made me think of the quote, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” since Diana and Mendo seem to have a joint interest here.
– The Visitant telling Wonder Woman that he (it?) has traveled the stars and has never experienced an aura like hers made me think of a paradox, in a sense, that heroes like Wonder Woman face. It’s an observation I may have mentioned here before, as I’ve thought of it often. Specifically, the more a hero acts for good and changes the world for the better, and the more foes a hero vanquishes, the greater the hero herself/himself becomes the target. Kind of like football teams circling the game against the championship team on their calendar. Everybody guns for the winner. This isn’t exactly the same thing, but it sounds like the Visitant, while maybe not coming to earth solely because of Wonder Woman, has certainly taken a special interest in her because of who and what she is.
– “I found her totally unremarkable” was Mei Li’s quote, and then she was reminded that Wonder Woman had already been weakened. It reminded me of the Lost Siren and Wonder Woman being poisoned, which I mentioned in a comment to a previous chapter. Again, my memory isn’t great, but I don’t recall anyone being able to boast that they beat Wonder Woman with Wonder Woman at full strength. Mei Li showed her cautious side in passing up a chance at bragging rights and not taking the pill in advance of any rematch if there ever is one in this story or a future story (unless Mei Li thinks she can win in a rematch even if Wonder Woman is restored. Depending on Mei Li’s ego, she might want a chance with Wonder Woman at her full strength, and herself (Mei Li) not “artificially” enhanced)
– I really like the idea of the magic belt being like a conduit of sorts, and it being locked into her molecular structure.
– the fight with the doppelgänger reminded me, of course, of the Christmas episode of the TV show with the fight against the Wonder Woman “toy”
Hi CJ,
It’s all very well having a mysterious enemy, but it shouldn’t go continuously.
I thought about the Mindstealers afterwards. You’ll see later there is a stark difference though.
Roger made this observation about irony of the bracelets. Although I think it’s conceivable that to the medical staff see a very sick lady with bracelets of personal significance to her life. Sydney doesn’t see much of Wonder Woman ordinarily.
Thanks for compliment. My memory isn’t even great for my own stories. This is something which plagues my mind a bit. I don’t expect the reader to go and read the older stories unless they feel inclined to. In the more recent stories. I try to give just enough information, so the reader doesn’t have to go delving into achieves.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend is exactly what it is. I think Mendo would be less inclined to say that!
You’re right, taking a renowned superhero’s scalp is always a much-touted prize. It can be compared to a top team or athlete in a sport. This is certainly what Mei Li and the Lost Siren were doing in their fights with Wonder Woman. The Visitant might have meant something different…
There is some overlap between the Lost Siren and Mei Li – not all of it intentional! Luicana from Rio de Janeiro was another. I’m pretty sure no human has matched Wonder Woman in my stories without some advantage.
Thanks. I thought explaining how the belt worked might be controversial for some readers. I like the convergence of suggesting what makes Wonder Woman powerful is the belt but also her unique herself.
Wonder Woman’s doppelganger was my little homage to The Deadly Toys. It even has borrowed the plot twist.
The pressure was on to get this longer chapter finished for Christmas Eve. I’m not sure the doppelganger read as well as I wanted it to. Nevertheless, I feel it’s okay.
Thank you for taking to time to write these thoughts, CJ. They were well timed – I haven’t been feeling too good this evening, therefore, it was nice to receive such a considered post.
Regarding your comment on the doppelgänger, I thought that read very well, actually. That was such a great fight sequence, with something deeper.
“My memory isn’t even great for my own stories. This is something which plagues my mind a bit.” I’m glad I’m not alone! When I write, I often leave placeholders (to go back and check past stories later) or add little reminders for myself.
And nobody matching Wonder Woman without an advantage matches the TV show quite well (which, as I’ve said before, I think missed out using that to its advantage by having a blockbuster episode or arc where somebody did match or exceed her, which would have put the viewer on pins and needles, like Reign in Supergirl or Bane in Batman. But those were different times.). Your amazing ability to capture the spirit and feel of the show and its characters is one of the draws (among several) that keeps bringing us back.
Sorry to hear you aren’t feeling well. I hope it passes quickly.
Thanks, CJ, for reassuring me on the doppelganger fight. My doubts weren’t with what happened in the fight but the passive tone for a major confrontation. I’m glad to hear you say it reads well, especially as I know you’re a writer.
I’ve started using placeholders when writing chapters, which I never used to do. I’m sure they would be useful for remembering the key developments in past stories. My problem is – as you might gather from my first paragraph – I don’t like rereading my stories as I get very self-critical.
I must admit that I do like the idea of Wonder Woman facing someone more powerful than her. I liked Reign in the TV show. Bane is now a classic villain. This story was originally meant to be more male villain orientated, but it hasn’t worked out like that. If I remember, I’ll explain what happened in my notes to this story after I’ve finished it. It’s good to hear I remain faithful to the show – thank you for saying so.
Thanks for your well wishes. I’m so bad tonight.
# 1 good vibes to the Author !
Thanks # 1.
My author friend
I hope you are well!
And to contribute a little more to your work, I leave a new panel, which also served to cheer me up a little in these somewhat difficult times.
have great days!
https://www.deviantart.com/edlochem/art/WW-Cardinal-1010503552
Hi Ed,
What a lovely surprise! Something I often think about is how my descriptions translates to the reader. Your art, such as in the picture featuring Cardinal Mendo, shows you get what I’m writing about. The doubt is in my mind as a slightly neurotic writer rather than any fault of the reader. It’s good to see the cardinal finally in illustrated form. He is one of my favourite characters in these stories. I like the little demonic touches you’ve add to his features. Thank you very much.
I wish you well.