Wonder Woman: The 18th Letter: A Love Story by Christopher Priest, Karl Waller, Mark McKenna, et al.

I read this Wonder Woman story because it was the first appearance of the "original" "Golden Age" Fury, Helena Kosmatos, since The Young All-Stars, as well as her first-ever appearance in the present-day of the DC universe. It's a sort of complicated story: Wonder Woman is trying to put an end to a civil war in the Mediterranean(?) nation of New Vladonia, when she's attacked by Fury and given a proposal by Michael Lysander, leader of the East Vladonian Resistance.

Lysander turns out to be an ancient Greek demigod named Alcmaeon, who wants Wonder Woman to fall in love with him; if she'll sleep with him, he'll end the fighting. Much of the story alternates between Dinah going on dates with him, and Dinah wondering if this is the right way to bring peace to "man's world." For some reason, Superman turns up, as Clark is full of opinions on what Dinah can do with her body. It's like, dude, I think you are married to someone else! I found a lot of this hard to follow, actually, particularly bits that seemed to assume I knew more about Alcmaeon than I did. What actually was the 18th letter?

The Fury stuff isn't very well integrated into the rest. Partially this is because its stakes are kind of murky, as a lot of what is going on depends on backstory... backstory we have never actually seen, because since The Young All-Stars, the continuity terrain has shifted a lot. Roy Thomas created the original Fury to (partially) replace the Golden Age Wonder Woman's role in the post-Crisis DC universe. But later, John Byrne established that the Golden Age Wonder Woman's role in the Justice Society was actually taken by Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyta, travelling back in time and adopting the role of Wonder Woman. This comic establishes that while living in the 1940s, Hippolyta adopted a maternal role toward Helena, enough that Helena is jealous of Diana, Hippolyta's "real" daughter.

from Legends of the DC Universe #32
(art by Pablo Raimondi & Karl Waller and Mark McKenna)

Like, the emotional throughline of this story is all dependent on two retcons that I don't think were ever really intended to go together! We never saw the Helena/Hippolyta relationship, and I found it difficult to care about. Also, where has Helena been since World War II? Why did she give her daughter Lyta up for adoption? (For some reason, Helena says to Diana, "You've taken everything from me--my mother, my child..." Like, she's just living in LA, lady; go look her up in the phonebook.) Anyway, I think there's an attempt at some thematic overlap with the main story when it comes to love, violence, and redemption, but there's too much going on in this story's three issues, and so it's just not enough.

Both Helena and Lyta now exist in the present-day DC universe, but as far as I know, no writer ever connected the two Furies in any way; after this, Helena seems to have only appeared in some Themysciran crowd scenes in Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman: The 18th Letter: A Love Story originally appeared in issues #30-32 of Legends of the DC Universe (July-Sept. 2000). The story was written by Christopher Priest, pencilled by Karl Waller (#30-32) and Pablo Raimondi (#32), inked by Mark McKenna (#30-32) and Jason Baumgartner (#31), lettered by John Costanza, colored by Tom McCraw, and edited by Maureen McTigue.

 

This post is thirtieth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Two Thousand. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930) ["Man-God!" (1976)]
    
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)
21. Armageddon: Inferno (1992)
22. Justice Society of America vol. 2 (1992-93)
23. The Adventures of Alan Scott--Green Lantern (1992-93)
24. Damage (1994-96)
25. The Justice Society Returns! (1999-2001)
26. Chase (1998-2002)
27. Stargirl by Geoff Johns (1999-2003)
28. The Sandman Presents: The Furies (2002)
29. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book One (1999-2000)