Challenge of the Gods

"Challenge of the Gods"
"Challenge of the Gods"
	Cover to trade paperback of Challenge of the Gods. Art by George Pérez.
Publisher	DC Comics
Publication date	September 1987 – March 1988
Genre	Superhero; Mythology;
Title(s)
	Wonder Woman vol. 2, #8-14
Main character(s)	Wonder Woman, Cheetah, Hercules
Creative team
Writer(s)	George Pérez, Len Wein
Artist(s)	George Pérez

"Challenge of the Gods" was a seven issue comic book story arc written and drawn by George Pérez, with co-writing by Len Wein. It is the second arc of the Wonder Woman (Vol. 2) title that was, at the time, recently relaunched.

This arc picks where

Gods and Mortals

left off, treating this as a part two to the previous arc.

Story

Time Passages

Narrated by

Julia Kapatelis, Etta Candy, Vanessa Kapatelis, and Myndi Mayer; Diana had been hard at work promoting her message of peace, but was sad that some countries won't even listen to the words of a woman, and even Russia protested her uniform and her mythological aspects. Diana met the other heroes (as seen in Legends) but didn't join the new Justice League

. The Pentagon, thanks to Diana, announced the Ares Assault was true and Diana talked to the widow to Colonel Michaelis where she learned loss of loved ones. Stores nationwide kept on getting sold out on merchandise of her with the profits going to the Wonder Woman Foundation. The end of every narration has the person saying that they will all miss her when she leaves to go back home.

Blood of the Cheetah

Gay Head Cliffs

, sobbing Julia and Vanessa say their goodbyes to Diana. Afterwards, Diana flies off out of sight.

Paradise Lost!

On Themyscira, the Amazons gather to discuss the gifts and records brought back from Man's World; the response is mixed. While she and her fellow Amazon and friend, Euboea are out horseback riding, Zeus calls for Diana from the skies overhead, and she goes to talk to him. Zeus tells her as a reward of defeating Ares, he will invite her to Mount Olympus to be among the gods in exchange of experiencing the ultimate sharing of flesh with him. When Diana tells Zeus that she won't surrender her virginity and pleads with him to understand her choice, Zeus gets angry at her defiance and unleashes his lightning on her. Hippolyta having heard Zeus' summons to Diana arrives on the scene and angrily demands Zeus release her daughter as her own virtue was taken by his son Hercules. Enraged, Zeus prepares to turn his wrath to Hippolyta and is about to fire a thunderbolt at her, but is forcibly returned to Mount Olympus by Hera, who acted on the request of her fellow goddesses who are furious at the King of the Gods for treating the Amazon colony as his personal harem. Later, Diana is summoned to Mount Olympus and a vengeful Zeus tells her that he has brought her to be judged; Diana must enter the gateway to the Demon lair beneath Themyscira to face several challenges. Diana clothes herself in armor and weapons inside the cavern. Suddenly, hands appear and grab Diana from every direction, revealing to be the last of the Hecatoncheires: Cottus. Pulled down, Diana uses her spear to kill the creature's heart. Regaining her feet, Diana comes face to face with a Seven Headed Hydra...

Fire and Torment

Protecting herself with her shield, the Hydra's engulfs Diana into a fireball, landing on volcanic ash to take out the fire. Diana then smashes one of the massive columns that supports the cavern's ceiling and it stucks the Hydra and Diana finally kills it. Worried, Hippolyta clothes herself in armor to help her daughter, and defeats General Philippus who stops her. Diana finds two patrols she must choose only to be attacked by Echidna, a She-Serpent. Diana frees herself before she is injected by venom and slams the serpent on a rock face. Diana heads towards a light and then sees a jet plane believed to be Steve Trevor’s, and then falls into the ocean and then appears on land with the crashed jet, learning it is not the same plane Steve used. Hearing a woman's voice, she looks up to see a woman wearing armor similar to hers speaking English. She says her name is Diana....

Echoes of the Past

In

Pan, that her next challenge relates to the Manhunter invasion (as chronicled in the concurrently-published "Millennium" crossover event) and she heads off. Elsewhere, Hippolyta faces similar challenges Diana had faced. Then, she finds herself seeing a man made of stone holding the cavern from below: Hercules

!

Demon Plague

Hippolyta wonders, even though she hates him, what Hercules must have done to become what he is. Zeus finds out that Pan is dead and was impersonated by an impostor, who made Zeus act the way he did toward Diana, and Diana was sent somewhere else.

Harmonia, daughter of Ares

, gives Diana the talisman from the previous arc as Diana and Hippolyta frees Hercules and every demon tries to escape. Diana then captures them with the Talisman, with Ares taking it as his new pets.

For the Glory of Gaea

Diana returns to find Heracles holding Themyscira on his shoulders with an unconscious Hippolyta below. Hercules tells Diana to leave with Hippolyta, but when she says her place is with her mother, Hercules realizes Diana is Hippolyta's daughter. Just then, Zeus appears with the gods and goddesses behind him, telling Hercules that he has awoken from his ignorance and to all of them that the ordeal is over as are Diana's challenges. Diana takes Hercules and her mother to the surface where the Amazons are shocked to see Hercules again. Hercules comes forth and addresses the Amazons; he tells them how much he betrayed their trust and did this under the idea that it made him a man, but now that he has changed, he begs for their forgiveness. Proven to them, the Amazons approve and they all forgive him. In Oklahoma, Etta reveals to Steve that she loves him, only to be shocked when Steve says the same thing and they embrace. After the Amazonian festivities, Hercules kisses Hippolyta before he departs. The Amazons discuss Man’s World; even though they are cautious, they see the outside world hopeful now than they thought before. They want to learn more and Hippolyta tells Diana to return as their Ambassador. Back in Man's World, Vanessa and Julia see Diana has come back and they run up and hug her. Julia say Welcome home, Diana. Welcome home!