DC Database

"The Adventure of the Life Vitamin": During Thanksgiving leave, Diana returns to Paradise Island to celebrate the Amazons' own harvest festival. There, her mother uses the Magic Sphere to show he

If people only realized how today shapes tomorrow, they'd watch their step!
Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman #7 is an issue of the series Wonder Woman (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1943.

Synopsis for "The Adventure of the Life Vitamin"

During Thanksgiving leave, Diana returns to Paradise Island to celebrate the Amazons' own harvest festival. There, her mother uses the Magic Sphere to show her the America of 3000 A.D., which has fully adopted the Amazons' matriarchy. The state of this future America is thus:

  • Due to the "L-3" vitamin Etta Candy (now a respected academic) discovered in the 20th century, no American ages past their mid-thirties; thus, all of Diana's friends survive alongside her.
  • The nation has elected its first female President, Arda Moore, who has dismantled most government corruption and jailed top political boss Grafton Patronage.
  • Steve is now the President's military aide, and occasional bodyguard.
  • Col. Darnell is now Gen. Darnell, head of a nationwide police department.
  • Diana herself still serves as Darnell's secretary, changing into Wonder Woman whenever needed.

Though this woman-ruled America is technologically advanced and prosperous, it still finds opposition in the Man's World Party, a group of reactionaries led by the rogue Senator Heeman. Shortly after the election, the Senator confronts President Moore and demands she release Patronage, or else face mass breakouts and revolution. The President defies these threats, but nevertheless allows Steve and Diana to investigate.

Unfortunately, Diana and Steve arrive at the central prison too late; Patronage has already begun his breakout, and led all his fellow convicts into overpowering the soft-hearted guards. Unwilling to endanger the guards' lives, Diana and Steve allow themselves to be taken captive. Subsequently, Patronage forces the warden to summon the President, so he and his gang may assassinate her.

Once left unattended, Diana changes into Wonder Woman and foils the assassination, but fails to stop Patronage from capturing the President. With the President his hostage, Patronage is able to stall off any direct attacks from Washington; however, he fails to account for Wonder Woman and Etta, who slip an L-3 antidote into the prison's water main, then requests the military to set fires around the prison. The heat drives Patronage and his cronies to drink the spiked water, whereupon they quickly age to dust.

With Patronage's threat ended, the President is freed, the fires extinguished, and Wonder Woman taught that immortality cannot be given indiscriminately, lest it fall into evil hands.

Appearing in "The Adventure of the Life Vitamin"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Grafton Patronage (Possible future) (Dies)
  • Senator Heeman (Possible future) (Dies)

Other Characters:

  • Warden Dorothy Dear (Possible future)

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for "America's Wonder Women of Tomorrow!"

Queen Hippolyta fast-forwards the Magic Sphere to 3004 A.D., the time of President Moore's reelection campaign. The chief opponent of the incumbent "Women's Party" is now the renowned scientist Professor Manly, whose "Man's Party", and theories of masculine strength, have enticed many Americans, including Steve. The Man's Party soon nominates Steve its presidential candidate, with Professor Manly his running-mate.

Diana and Gen. Darnell remain wary of the Professor, whom they suspect of graft, arms-dealing, and even murder; when President Moore refuses to run again, Diana requests and attains the Women's Party nomination, with Etta as her running-mate. Both parties run highly successful campaigns, but on election night, Professor Manly's cronies invade the ballot offices across twenty different states, and forge results favoring the Man's Party. Thus Steve becomes the new President of the United States.

Almost immediately after the election, Steve realizes the depths of his running-mate's corruption; when he refuses to go along with it, he is "disappeared" by the Professor's cronies. Meanwhile, Diana redoubles her investigation of the Professor, who soon exercises his Acting President powers and jails her. Undeterred, Diana changes into Wonder Woman, breaks out of prison, and invades the secret headquarters of the Man's Party, where the Professor is threatening Steve with a chamber of subzero chemicals.

Heedless of her own safety, Wonder Woman breaks the chamber, freezing herself and Steve's captors in the chemicals but saving Steve's life. Upon escaping, Steve mourns the apparently-dead Wonder Woman, but rejoices when Etta and her sorority use advanced chemical methods to revive the Amazon. Soon after, Manly's crimes are exposed, Steve forgiven for his mistakes, and Diana sworn in as the rightful President of the United States.

Appearing in "America's Wonder Women of Tomorrow!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Professor Manly, 3004 AD (Possible future)
    • "Purple Shirts", 3004 AD

Other Characters:

  • Operative X-7, 3004 AD (Possible future) (Dies)

Locations:

Items:

Synopsis for Wonder Women of History: "Joan of Arc"


Appearing in Wonder Women of History: "Joan of Arc"

Featured Characters:

Synopsis for "The Secret Weapon"

In present day 1943, Paula von Gunther returns to Paradise Island to join her fellow Amazons' celebration. Seeing Wonder Woman marveling at Paula's newly-invented airship, Queen Hippolyta explains that such ships will be the worldwide travel standard by 3700 A.D. - a time when all the world's nations have been joined into the United States of Earth, overseen by the Council of Presidents.

At the Queen's direction, the Magic Sphere displays this future, where Paula has become the Council's chief executive. At the moment, Paula's main concern is Primal Island, a small republic being threatened with revolution by Andra Moteeva, one of its most brilliant citizens. As Primal Island falls within American jurisdiction, Paula dispatches Diana (still the American President) and Steve (still Diana's aide) to investigate.

Before the pair have even reached Primal Island, however, Andra has already completed her coup and declared herself Queen. At her command, coast patrols gun down the investigators' airship, almost instantly knocking Steve unconscious; Diana, kept awake by her Amazon stamina, quickly changes into Wonder Woman and attempts to tow Steve to safety, but is felled by the electrified nets surrounding the island's coast.

Wonder Woman and Steve are taken to the island dungeons, where sit thousands of political prisoners that Queen Andra plans to execute in coming days. While the Queen gloats of her plans for world domination, Wonder Woman surreptitiously escapes and warns the Council of Presidents. With help from Wonder Woman and Paula, the Council prepares for its first war in centuries - not with lethal firepower (forbidden by Aphrodite's Law), but with rings designed to spray muscle relaxant.

In three days' time, the Council raises a proper army, which promptly surrenders to Queen Andra. Only when the overconfident Queen relaxes her guard does the army strike, swiftly paralyzing all the Queen's forces with their rings. Now left without an army, Andra tries to escape, only to be captured by Wonder Woman; once the island's legitimate government has been restored, the ex-tyrant is remanded to its justice, and sentenced to work as a prison nurse.

Appearing in "The Secret Weapon"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Andra Moteeva

Other Characters:

  • President Serva Faith

Locations:

  • Paradise Island
  • United States of Earth (Possible future)
    • Harmonia
    • Primal Island

Items:

  • Aerial Detectograph (Possible future)
  • Lasso of Truth
  • Magic Sphere
  • Electric Shackles (Possible future)
  • Mus-Relaxo (Possible future)

Vehicles:

  • Airglobe

Synopsis for "Demon of the Depths"

In present day 1943, the harvest celebrations are disrupted by Paula's daughter Gerta, whose sharp temper runs amok despite her Amazon lessons. After calming Gerta's tantrum, a concerned Wonder Woman asks to see Gerta's future on the Magic Sphere. Queen Hippolyta obliges, displaying a grim future where Gerta has become a ruthless criminal who ultimately dies at a mistreated subordinate's hands.

Horrified at the vision, Wonder Woman swears to teach Gerta the value of love and submission. Her chance comes at the Harvest of the Children, a series of athletic games where Amazon children compete with one another; when Gerta finds herself evenly matched with another child, she refuses to share the first prize, and attempts a forbidden dive into a grotto inhabited by a vicious octopus.

Wonder Woman unhesitatingly follows Gerta and holds the octopus at bay, but Gerta is too proud to swim to safety. Only when Paula calls does Gerta finally obey, subsuming her pride for her mother's love. Once Gerta is safe, Wonder Woman makes short work of the octopus, then she joins the Von Gunthers on the shore, and cautions Paula to maintain lessons in loving submission.

As the harvest festival ends, Wonder Woman and her mother re-activate the Magic Sphere, and are heartened to see a new, happier future for Gerta.

Appearing in "Demon of the Depths"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Madame Aterg (Possible future) (Dies)

Other Characters:

  • Don Alvardo (Possible future)
  • Rena (Possible future)

Animals:

  • Octopus

Locations:

Items:

Notes

Trivia

  • Arda Moore is noted to be thirty-five years old, the exact minimum age required to be president by the Constitution of the United States (assuming it has not been amended by 3000 A.D.).
  • Though it is only a prospective future, "The Adventure of the Life Vitamin" marks the first time the Earth-Two Wonder Woman deliberately kills any opponents.
  • Professor Manly's "Purple Shirts" are an obvious pastiche of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's Blackshirts.


See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References