MvDC MVFBB - Wonder Woman vs. Power Princess

Backstage…

 D-Prince [staring at Z-Shelton in muted awe]: “…Great Hera, it really is almost like looking in a mirror.”

Z-Shelton [her expression mirroring D-Prince’s]: “Indeed—were it not for a few subtle differences between us, we could practically be twin sisters.”

D-Prince: “Believe it or not, I recall being nearly mistaken for you when I and my team, the Justice League, first encountered the Avengers some time ago*. One of their own, this archer with a purple cowl, referred to us as ‘Squadron Supreme wanna-bes’; until I met you, I had no idea what he’d meant back then.”

*See 2003’s JLA/Avengers for when this fateful meeting took place! —Archival Aron Orson.

Z-Shelton: “Makes one think how the multiverse works in mysterious ways yet manages to remain consistent in others.”

D-Prince [nodding]: “Such as each Earth having its own version of us—similar, yet different, some more distinct than others, for good…or ill. Have you ever met any evil versions of yourself?”

Z-Shelton: “A couple, at the most. You?”

D-Prince: “Just the one who calls herself ‘Superwoman’, a renegade Amazon from the Antimatter Universe—though I have seen glimpses of her counterpart from a positive-matter universe as well. What are yours like?”

Z-Shelton [a mildly grim look on her face]: “As far removed from me as can be. One of them, from Earth-31916, is supposedly an alien who believed herself to be a Greek goddess—no offense—”

D-Prince: “None taken.”

Z-Shelton: “Apparently, she was quite insane, with an utter disregard for human life and private property—I’d heard she even killed a woman and stole her identity to try and start anew, before she was conscripted into her world’s Squadron Supreme.”

D-Prince: “Surprisingly, that sounds almost like Superwoman’s background—when she arrived in what she’d dubbed ‘Patriarch’s World’, she took on the identity of the antimatter double of my teammate Superman’s wife, Lois Lane. During one League battle against her group, the Crime Syndicate, while we investigated their world, I heard rumors that she’d killed the real Lois before taking on her guise.”

Z-Shelton: “That is quite a coincidence.”

D-Prince: “And this other double of yourself?”

Z-Shelton: “I only learned of her recently from She-Hulk, as this one is from her Earth—she was a simulacrum created by our multiverse’s devil, Mephisto, along with other twisted versions of my fellow Squadron members, all as part of a ploy for this ‘Squadron Supreme of America’ to alter reality and have them supplant the Avengers. This Power Princess was…programmed to be a lustful ‘power woman’ whose secret identity was a professional boxer.” [Looks up at D-Prince.] “What is your ‘Superwoman’ like, compared to these doubles?”

D-Prince [briefly grimacing at the thought]: “…She is an utterly horrible, hateful woman. She killed all her fellow Amazons before leaving the island she was born on, and I have already mentioned her stealing of her Lois Lane’s identity. She wields a mystic lasso like me, but instead of compelling people to tell the truth, it releases their inhibitions. She’s also something of a dominatrix, from what we’ve gathered, and she is in a loveless marriage to Ultraman, Superman’s counterpart in the Crime Syndicate, to the point where she carries on a torrid affair with Batman’s counterpart, Owlman.”

Z-Shelton [a bit speechless]: “…There is no doubt, in terms of character, Superwoman and my Earth-31916 counterpart would be evenly matched.”

D-Prince: “But enough with dwelling on our negative similarities—I’m more curious about how alike, yet unalike we are on the positive side of things. I know we both left our island civilizations for similar reasons, as a start...”

Z-Shelton: “Yes—being that the conflicts of the rest of the world were inching ever-closer to our shores. In contrast to your origins, mine are not as divine—I and my fellow Utopians were the result of a group of early humans being experimented on by our universe’s Kree Empire; Ms. Marvel once remarked that in a sense, we Utopians are the counterparts to the Inhumans of her Earth. While the rest of early mankind was still making flint spearheads, we’d created an advanced, hidden civilization based upon the ideals of peace, fellowship, and learning or experience.”

D-Prince: “Just as my Amazons formed theirs on Themyscria along similar lines of thinking—though we embraced a sort of frugal militarism, inspired by the teachings of the goddess Athena; as such, we only fight defensive battles.”

Z-Shelton: “I like the sound of that, and I believe the council of elders who ruled my society would feel the same. What pushed you to venture into the outside world?”

D-Prince [a brief, wistful look on her face]: “It was when a man washed upon our shores for the first time in ages—a fighter pilot by the name of Steve Trevor. In spite of my mother, Queen Hippolyta, forbidding me, I entered a contest she held to determine who would be the Amazons’ champion and emissary to ‘Man’s World’, as well as escort Steve home; I won the tournament and was given the title of the Wonder Woman. Steve and I bonded over time, falling in love in the process.”

Z-Shelton: “Sounds more romantic than my circumstances—when those of the outside world were on the brink of our universe’s World War II, those among the Utopian high leadership feared that our way of life was doomed. My people subsequently constructed a starship that carried most of us off Earth to find a new home; I chose to stay behind, acting as the sole Utopian emissary to Earth, hoping to spread our teachings to the rest of mankind, while assuming the guise of the Power Princess. When I arrived during the beginnings of the conflict, I ended up joining a team of like-minded heroes called the Golden Agency and settled in Capitol City as part of my civilian guise. It was during the war where I also met my own first love, a sailor named Howard Shelton, who I saved from a sinking ship; he was the first outsider I had met since venturing away from Utopia Island. By the War’s end, we’d entered into something of a common-law marriage.”

D-Prince: “I’ll give you this, that is one thing you have over me—Steve and I have been together for a while, but neither of us have brought up even the thought of marriage.”

Z-Shelton: “Then permit me to advise you, don’t wait any longer. If you both want it, take it, but do be aware of at least one major complication.”

D-Prince: “I have a feeling I know what it is.”

Z-Shelton: “You would be right—I barely aged, but Howard aged normally, being into his early eighties by the time I had helped form the Squadron Supreme. Though it pains me to admit it, I…did become bothered by this. For a good number of years, I and the Squadron did well as our Earth’s champions, though it seemed we also developed a tendency to become pawns of others’ evil schemes, ones that usually pitted us against the Avengers or other heroes from their Earth—the worst being our time in the thrall of the Over-Mind and his master, Null the Living Darkness. Though we were eventually freed by the heroes known as the Defenders, it was that incident that left the greatest impact on our world…one that, unfortunately, puts me nearly on the same level as my alternate universe selves.”

D-Prince [curious]: “…What happened?”

Z-Shelton: “Our world was left in a somewhat post-apocalyptic state. We in the Squadron did all we could to help rebuild, but it was becoming too much of a strain, even for us. One day, we met and, inspired by some of the tenets of my society, Hyperion—our version of your Superman—proposed that we directly intervene in the world’s affairs, and turn the whole planet into a utopia. We voted to implement this ‘Utopia Program’, with the only dissenting vote being from Nighthawk, our equivalent of your Batman; he left the Squadron in protest, unable to agree with our choice in clear conscience. From there, the remainder of us all revealed our identities to the public and assumed overall control of the United States government. Once we took charge, we instituted a series of sweeping changes throughout society—establishing ‘behavior modification’ programs in prisons, enforcing a strict gun control policy, even developing medical technology to cryogenically preserve the terminally ill.”

D-Prince [astonished]: “That’s—that’s so far-reaching…”

Z-Shelton: “It was—in our zeal, we had essentially done what we’d prevented our various adversaries from doing all this time: taken over the world. Yet, because we were so preoccupied with the advances we’d introduced to the world at large, we experienced a few significant setbacks on a personal level. One of our members, Golden Archer, misused the ‘b-mod’ technology to force another, Lady Lark, to love him, which led to us expelling him from the team; Amphibian, our answer to your Aquaman, became so disgusted with our methodology that he abandoned the surface world altogether; Nuke, our youngest member, went on a grief-filled rampage after accidentally killing his parents with uncontrolled, unnoticed release of the radiation he was powered by, only to fall in battle with my fellow founding member, Doctor Spectrum; and Tom Thumb, the most intelligent among us, kept us in the dark about his own cancer diagnosis as he immersed himself further in his work, eventually succumbing to it by the time we found out.”

D-Prince: “I…in all my years with the Justice League, we never experienced anything like that…”

Z-Shelton: “And be grateful you haven’t, or what came afterwards—Nighthawk eventually returned, backed by a team of his own he called the Redeemers, whose ranks included both former villains and several previously-unknown superhumans, ones who had infiltrated our group as new recruits for the Squadron. Both sides fought a brutal battle, one that cost the lives of several from each camp—including Nighthawk’s. His death was enough to shock Hyperion into realizing he’d been right all along; despite our good intentions, we of the Squadron had accidentally turned our world into a totalitarian state. Because of an injury he’d suffered earlier, Hyperion had appointed me the new leader of the Squadron, and as my first and last official act in that capacity…I had us surrender, both the fight and control of the U.S. government, and then disbanded the Squadron.”

D-Prince: “…What did you all do from there?”

Z-Shelton: “Most of us went our separate ways, for a time. I entered a relationship with Hyperion; during our time running the Utopia Program, Howard passed on, at the hands of Hyperion’s evil double from the Squadron Sinister. (That in and of itself is a long story.) In a way, he succeeded in his trying to win me over—only it was my Hyperion I fell for. We barely kept in touch with the other members of the Squadron, until our world being threatened by a being called the Nth Man caused us to reunite. While we succeeded in defeating them, in the process, Hyperion and myself, along with six of our own, found ourselves trapped on the Avengers’ Earth for some time. Later on, the Avengers themselves helped us return home, where we had to fight to free it from the grip of a group of mega-corporations who had used our own Utopia Program technologies to take control in our absence. For a time, I worked with a team of dimension-traversing heroes called the Exiles before settling down with Hyperion.” [A brief somber look appears on her face.] “Even though it’s been so long since those days, I still think of what went wrong with the Utopia Program, as does Hyperion. It’s why we and the rest of the Squadron are doing our best to keep our distance, to let society progress on its own. It’s all we can do to remind ourselves of the damage we nearly inflicted.”

D-Prince: “…In a way, I can see where you’re coming from. I and the League have our own reminder of keeping a healthy distance as far as mankind’s affairs goes.”

Z-Shelton [curious]: “How so?”

D-Prince [a bit reluctant]: “…Some time ago, the League and I encountered an alternate version of our world where our counterparts did something akin to what you and your team attempted. On that Earth, as with ours, Superman’s longtime foe, Lex Luthor, was elected President of the United States. During his term, he killed that world’s version of the Flash—our Whizzer, you can say—and instituted a series of policies that put the planet on the brink of nuclear conflict. My counterpart, along with her Superman and Batman, confronted him at the White House to get him to back down; Luthor responded by telling him in no uncertain terms that, no matter how many times he would be imprisoned, he would regain power. Combined with the lingering grief over the Flash’s death, Superman, in a rage, killed Luthor with his heat vision.

You and the Squadron, despite how far your Program’s reach extended, still had faith in humanity; that Superman, and the rest of his League, lost theirs that day. They renamed themselves the ‘Justice Lords’, and in two years, seized control of the world’s governments, ruling the planet with an iron fist and turning it into a surveillance state. They banned free speech, limited elections, and eliminated crime…via Superman using his heat vision to lobotomize criminal and supervillain alike. They all justified their actions as being ‘temporary measures’, claiming it was for the people’s own good.”

Z-Shelton [shocked]: “I…the Squadron and I may have been strict with our Utopia Program, but we were never that brutal towards the people…”

D-Prince: “The circumstances greatly differed. Where I and my League came in was when we were alerted to this Earth’s presence by our dimension-hopping allies, the Linear Men. The Justice Lords had discovered our world through an experiment, and having grown bored with their own, decided to ‘assist’ us by bringing their form of tyranny to ours. Their Martian Manhunter fooled us into venturing to their Earth and imprisoned us there, with Lord Batman remaining behind to keep watch over us. While we were gone, they even managed to bring down Doomsday, the monster who once killed Superman. We were only able to escape thanks to our Flash tricking Lord Batman. My Batman was able to convince Lord Batman of the error in his and the rest of the Justice Lords’ methods, and he in turn sent us back to our world, where reluctantly, we asked our Luthor for help. None of us overlooked the irony in all this—a Luthor brought about the rise of the Justice Lords on one world, yet it was a Luthor who brought about their downfall on another.”

Z-Shelton: “Indeed—already, this Luthor reminds me of a longtime foe of Hyperion’s, Master Menace. Fittingly, he aided Nighthawk when he led his Redeemers against us.”

D-Prince: “That incident with the Justice Lords, along with glimpses into two other, similar parallel worlds, has kept us on-guard against the temptation of simply stepping in to right all the world’s wrongs. It may be taxing at times, but at the end of the day, we all agreed that our world would be better for it.” [Shows Z-Shelton a small, appreciative smile.] “It’s an approach I applaud you and your Squadron for, in spite of the tragedies you all endured to get there.”

Z-Shelton [returning the gesture]: “Thank you, I…it helps to hear that, especially from an outside perspective—one further outside my multiverse, at that.” [Briefly glances at their surroundings.] “If and when we manage to throw off the ‘shackles’ our ‘hosts’ placed on us, I extend an invitation to your Justice League to visit our world. I’m certain the rest of the Squadron would be glad to meet you all.” [Holds out her hand for D-Prince to shake.]

D-Prince [accepting and shaking the proffered hand]: “I extend the same to you and the rest of the Squadron. I’ve a feeling there’s a lot our two different, yet strongly similar groups can learn from one another.”

Z-Shelton: “My sentiments, exactly.”

--X--

Main stage…

Promoter: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is it—the last pairing of the Bodybuilder Division! And this is a highly anticipated matchup, considering who one half of the two contestants happens to be! Speaking of, from Multiverse-A, not only is she our third Amazon, and our second from Themyscria, in the whole event, this competitor is arguably seen as the greatest superheroine on her Earth! Champion of the Amazons, founding member of the Justice League, award-winning author, and even the one-time Goddess of Truth among the Olympian pantheon, this warrior is known as much for both her skill and ferocity on the battlefield as she is for her seemingly overflowing kindness and compassion towards all people! She sees herself as a diplomat first and a fighter second, but she is seen as both by women, men, and those in between all around the world, all on the same level as even Superman! You wanted her? You’ve got her now—so please, make some noise for the lady who is always a wonder…WONDER WOMAN!”

[Needle-drop: the Wonder Woman television series theme song by Norman Gimbel and Charles Foxthe Wonder Woman television series theme song by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox.]

--X--

Promoter: “The real, honest-to-Aphrodite Wonder Woman, everyone! And now, her opponent in this last matchup, from Multiverse-B…Folks, you may think you’re seeing double, and she may be her world’s answer to Wonder Woman, but there’s plenty that distinguishes this legendary woman warrior from Earth-712! She’s living proof that utopias do exist, since she herself is the champion of the hidden Utopia Island! Add in founding member to two of her world’s mightiest teams of heroes, as well as part-time member of the dimension-hopping Exiles, and you have a woman who’s nearly seen and done it all with the best of them, while continuing to spread her peoples’ literal Utopian ideals! She’s definitely not going to be mistaken for her two alternate-universe selves anytime soon, so let’s give a loud welcome to the first lady of the Squadron Supreme—POWER PRINCESS!”

[Needle-drop: ”Never” by Heart.]