WONDER WOMAN #17

“TRACES”
Script & Pencils : George Pérez | Finishes: Dick Giordano
Letters: John Costanza | Colors: Carl Gafford
Edits: Karen Berger

The Plot: A carrier pigeon arrives for Diana just as Steve and Etta are about to drive her and Vanessa to the airport for a trip to Greece. Diana reads the pigeon’s letter to her friends in the car, then writes a response to her mother and sends it off before boarding her plane.

In Greece, Diana is given a massive public welcome, then spends some time in Athens before touring the country with Vanessa, Julia, and their family friend, Stavros. Eventually she collapses while the group is aboard a boat.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Vanessa is still pining over Barry, and her friend Eileen continues to insist that he’s only using her to get close to Wonder Woman. Eileen is also concerned Vanessa will stop being her friend when they have a brief argument on this topic.

The letter from Hippolyte details the Amazons’ recent sense that something is amiss on Olympus, which Diana chalks up to the battle she and Superman had with Darkseid. Hippolyte also says that a faction of Amazons wants to isolate Paradise Island from the outside world.

SUPERMAN #18 & ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #441

“RETURN TO KRYPTON”
Story: John Byrne | Inks: Karl Kesel | Lettering: Bill Oakley
Coloring: Petra Scotese | Assistant Editing: Renee Witterstaetter
Editing: Michael Carlin | and Special Guest Penciller: Mike Mignola

The Plot: Hawkman and Hawkwoman fly Superman to the former location of Krypton. There, Superman gets into a lead-lined spacesuit and flies outside, where he relives some of Krypton’s past and then hallucinates an alternate timeline in which Jor-El saved the people of his world and brought them all to Earth, only to watch as they enslaved the planet. Ultimately, Jor-El kills nearly all the other Kryptonians with an engineered plague, before coming face-to-face with the final living members of his race: Lara, ruler of Metropolis, and her son by Jor-El, Kal-El. Superman then awakens and the Hawks fly him home, where the Kryptonite radiation has passed.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: During his hallucination, Superman sees Jor-El find a cure for Kryptonite poisoning. Remembering the formula, he attempts to duplicate it after returning to Earth, but finds the resultant mixture inert.

This issue is drawn by Mike Mignola, who had also illustrated the Byrne-scripted WORLD OF KRYPTON mini-series in late 1987.