Wonder Woman
Odyssey
Part 2 of Steve Trevor’s Odyssey
by Libbylawrence
After Wonder Woman’s death in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, her husband Steve Trevor boldly seeks a way to restore her to life! But is Princess Diana of Paradise Island truly gone? Can someone born in magic live once more through magic?
***
Continued from Mary Marvel: Times Past: 1980: Prelude to Odyssey
On August 5, 1985, the Crisis on Infinite Earths came to an end. While the world mourned recently fallen legends such as Supergirl and the Flash, one more legend was lost to the world.
In the last throes of life before his final destruction, the Anti-Monitor sent death-beams toward the heroes leaving the antimatter universe through a portal back to their own world. The Amazing Amazon known to the world as Wonder Woman alone took the full brunt of these death-beams. In moments, she was reduced from a Wonder Woman to a Wonder Girl, then to a Wonder Tot, and finally to the primordial clay from which she had been formed and given life. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Final Crisis,” Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (March, 1986) and “The Secret Origin of Wonder Woman,” DC Special Series #19 (Fall, 1979).]
Could she have somehow survived such an onslaught? It seemed impossible, but the answer to that question would remain a mystery, at least for now. One solitary man, however, refused to accept that she was truly gone. Colonel Steve Trevor had been Wonder Woman’s husband for only five days when she was killed.
Their wedding had been a private affair, taking place shortly after an epic battle of the gods. Zeus himself performed the wedding ceremony on fabled Mount Olympus, attended only by the Amazons and the gods themselves. (*) Wonder Woman’s friends and allies in the Justice League of America hadn’t even learned about her wedding until it was over, which was just as well. The last time the couple had held a wedding, it had been epic in scale, attended by the entire Justice League and many other heroes. Yet in the end, it had been canceled due to her secret identity, which she had kept from him at the time. (*) Now, however, all secrets between them were gone as they were united as one flesh.
[(*) Editor’s note: See “To Everything a Season,” Wonder Woman #329 (February, 1986) and “Beautiful Dreamer, Death Unto Thee,” Wonder Woman #300 (February, 1983).]
Their wedded bliss was cut short, however, because only three days into their honeymoon, Wonder Woman was called upon to help liberate Earth-S from the super-villains who had taken over that world. (*) After that, the universe was altered so that only one universe remained, one Earth, where before there had been five out of a seemingly infinite multiverse. The final epic battle in the Crisis left Wonder Woman as the last hero to fall in battle.
[(*) Editor’s note: See DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Villain War.]
Colonel Steve Trevor threw himself back into his work during the chaos of the Crisis as he waited for his wife to return home. Ultimately, he learned over a phone call that his wife had died, but now he hardly recalled it at all, except that it had been his sister-in-law who had called. He realized that Donna Troy, alias Wonder Girl, was as outwardly distraught as he was internally, but he couldn’t help her grieve her sister’s death. He had gone into shock, Steve now realized, and he was cut off from his own emotions for a time, even as the five remaining Earths after the Crisis were separated and cut off from each other by an impenetrable barrier. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See DC Universe: The Rock of Eternity.]
Steve took the news hard and was too distraught to attend Diana’s funeral on Paradise Island, even though he had been assured by Queen Hippolyta that the Amazons would take special precautions to allow him to attend without stepping foot on that magic isle and thus bringing a curse upon the Amazon race. He was forced to go on an extended leave after he refused to accept that his wife was dead, especially after learning of the circumstances of her death and reversion to mortal clay.
He was determined, in fact, that what had been born in magic could yet live once more through magic. Thus, Steve Trevor became obsessed with more than just grief. He could not even begin to allow himself that luxury. He was a man of action, clinging to the idea that his bride was still alive in some form, even as the days turned to weeks and then months.
She was born from Olympian magic, he reasoned again and again. She can’t truly be gone — not after I’ve come back, so to speak, twice. His memories matched those of the first Steve Trevor of this Earth, who had died at the hands of Doctor Cyber. (*) Then that dead man’s essence was merged with that of the god Eros for a time, and that man died as well, this time at the hands of Dark Commander. (*) Finally, this Steve Trevor had arrived by some fluke — or perhaps destiny — from another universe entirely, and was made to forget his life on Earth-S with its Marvel Family, believing he had always lived on Earth-One as the real Steve Trevor. (*) The goddess Aphrodite, perhaps amending for her son Eros’ actions, caused the entire world to forget that the original Steve Trevor had ever died or that Steve Howard was a separate identity. Wonder Woman thus had a second chance at a new beginning with the Earth-S counterpart of Steve Trevor, even if neither of them knew it at the time. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “A Death for Diana,” Wonder Woman #180 (January-February, 1969), “The Crypt of the Dark Commander,” Wonder Woman #248 (October, 1978), “Rebirth on Paradise Island,” Wonder Woman #270 (August, 1980), “Renewal on Paradise Island,” Wonder Woman #271 (September, 1980), and “The Man with All the Angles,” Wonder Woman #272 (October, 1980).]
Only recently had the current Steve Trevor learned that he was not the same Steve Trevor or Steve Howard of this world. True peace of mind finally came when all the memories of his doubles merged into his own by Aphrodite, allowing him to recall all of their experiences as if they were his own. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: The secret of Steve Trevor’s resurrections was told in “Bid Time Return,” Wonder Woman #322 (December, 1984).]
He now called upon all that knowledge of his past adventures with Wonder Woman to confront his current problem. Zeus or Hippolyta or one of the other Amazons must be able to restore Diana, he told himself. I won’t rest until I find some way to get her back. That means I have to return to Paradise Island — or die trying!
Steve knew what he had to do, but he was at a loss as to how to go about it. He had a rough idea of the direction in which Paradise Island lay, so he could only pray that he would beat the odds and find that tranquil home of magic and wondrous science once more. In fact, he had no clue where in the Bermuda Triangle of sea and sky it lay precisely, but he had developed a plan.
One evening in October of 1985, two short months after her supposed death, Colonel Steve Trevor concentrated with all his energy as he reclined in an empty field outside of Washington, D.C.
“Robot plane — come to me! Robot plane — I command you to come here!” he mentally commanded, frantic with passion, loss, and need. Months earlier, Wonder Woman had ordered that amazing craft, the invisible robot plane, to obey Trevor’s mental commands. He prayed that this connection, however remote, would still work. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Escape,” Wonder Woman #312 (February, 1984).]
It took hours of trying, but he finally gasped as the robotic female voice echoed in his mind shortly before dawn.
“I await you above, Colonel Trevor.”
He risked much as he used a rope ladder to climb up high and inside the vehicle. “Whoo! Almost fell,” he sighed. “Robot plane — take me to Paradise Island!” he ordered.
The plane silently obeyed, and Steve Trevor soared toward an uncertain destiny. He felt the plane surge forward over the wine-dark sea and prayed anew that somehow the Amazons could restore his love.
“They brought me back from death, and they can do the same for Diana,” he vowed to himself.
The plane entered a huge cloud bank, and ancient columns along with the splendor of ancient Grecian civilization spread beneath him in its timeless manner.
“I did it!” he cried out triumphantly. “This is Paradise Island! Angel, I’m coming for you.”
Then he gasped at what came into sight, and Steve Trevor knew no more as the wild magic released by the War of Darkness and Light that followed in the wake of the Crisis briefly weakened the barriers, allowing the robot plane to escape the bounds of Earth-One to an unknown destination. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See The Night Force: The War of Darkness and Light.]
***
Months later, Nubia frowned in disgust as she spoke via mental radio with her mother. “The plane has been gone for four months now!” she said, fuming. The invisible robot plane had been one of the few things she had not inherited from Princess Diana, since it had gone missing from Paradise Island while Nubia was still preparing to debut as the new Wonder Woman in the wake of Diana’s death. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See Justice League of America: The Final Chapter, Chapter 4: The New Wonder Woman.]
It rankled the Warrior Princess that she had to use an Amazon swan ship for travel rather than the sleek robot plane with its stealth capabilities. “No trace of it can be found. Even J’onn cannot register its mental patterns.” She and J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, were kindred spirits who had become very close in the short time they had known each other. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See Justice League of America: Pyre, Chapter 2: Transformed.]
Queen Hippolyta said, “Nor can Paula’s science. My child, I fear the robot plane has been lost to us forever.”
But unknown to all, the plane had not been empty. It had vanished from mortal ken months ago, but it was not empty. Steve Trevor had disappeared, and his ultimate destiny would lie in another dimension altogether. However, he was right — someone born in magic could live once more through magic. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See Wonder Woman: Paradise Lost.]
Continued in Wonder Woman: It’s a Wonderful Life
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