In this issue we are introduced to the number one Wonder Woman enemy: The great Cheetah.
We begin with Wonder Woman doing a show, her strength demonstrations take away the spotlight from Priscilla, a socialite and actress who leads the Junior League Committee for War Work, she ends up being jealous of Diana and her ability to amaze audiences. Priscilla then sabotages Wonder Woman during an escape show but the heroine manages to come out alive.
When Priscilla looks at the mirror she sees her alter-ego, a cheetah-like creature who is a reflection of her envy. Soon she creates a plot involving framing Wonder Woman for a crime and trying to tarnish her reputation.
Cheetah´s plan is not successful as Diana and Trevor see through her plot. Cheetah presumably ends up dying after falling into the flames she created herself at the end of chapter one.
In the second story, Diana is called into a beauty salon by Priscilla, who uses a woman and with special equipment manages to enter Diana's mind and take the information she needs in order to send it to Cheetah, who turns out to be alive. Wonder Woman is smart enough to uncover the scam and interrogates the henchwoman. As it turns out, two girls were kidnapped by Cheetah and she forced them to work for her.
Next, Wonder Woman detours and goes against some Japanese soldiers and let me tell you, the racist caricatures didn't stop in the first few issues, they are still present here.
In the final chapter, Wonder Woman is underestimated by a sexist army man, who eventually realizes women are also strong and capable, so many women are tested and taken to Paradise Island in order to prove themselves to Wonder Woman and the amazons and perhaps train them. One of the girls is missing, this is because she is being kidnapped and impersonated by Cheetah.
The amazon girls prove to be vastly superior to the earth women and Cheetah gets even more jealous. So she plans a scheme involving stealing their special ornaments that give them powers. With that, she also kidnaps the queen and holds her captive as a way to get Diana's attention and fight her.
What follows is an intense woman-to-woman rumble. Ultimately, good triumphs, Wonder Woman defeats Cheetah and saves her mother.
Quite an awesome issue with interesting stories, a cool villainess that would become iconic and it's nice to see some female empowerment themes once more.
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