If there’s any book from the DC’s Bronze Age that could be called “underrated” at times, it has to be Wonder Woman. Yes, there’s certainly some goofiness in the title, but there is a stretch where the book is pretty solid, especially with Gene Colan and Frank McLaughlin on art. This issue, titled “Catacombs”, is the penultimate chapter in a storyline where Wonder Woman is fighting a villain named Aegus, who has mastered riding the mythical pegasus. In this particular issue, Steve Trevor has been abducted and has to fight the villain and his minions while Diana gets some background on the villain of the story. In fact, this is mostly a Steve Trevor story where Wonder Woman shows up for some exposition and to set up the cliffhanger (she might be dead).

The cover is what got me to grab this issue out of whatever bin I found it. It’s by Frank Miller and Dick Giordano and is one of those that jumps right off the newsstand. We see Steve Trevor holding a torch in some sort of … well, catacomb (hence the story’s title) … and he’s shocked by seeing Wonder Woman’s skeleton. She’s chained up with a sword through her torso and rats crawling around her. Even looking at it now, I’m struck by how cool the cover is.

But is it worth it beyond the cover? I’d say yes. Dan Mishkin does a good job of getting the reader acclimated to the story if they haven’t read any of the other parts, and Colan and McLaughlin’s art is phenomenal. In fact, I wish Colan had stayed on the title until the end. I don’t have anything against Don Heck’s artwork on the series’ final issue (which were Crisis crossovers), but to see Colan draw that would have been really cool.

Anyway, the cover does happen in the issue as Steve has a hallucination of Diana’s skeleton in those catacombs. And for an issue that clearly is meant to set up the finale, it’s intriguing.

And there’s also a Huntress backup in here with Joe Staton art that’s really good.

This issue is not available on DC Infinite and neither is the rest of the storyline, which is a bummer because I am curious to see how this plays out. So I’m going to hold onto this one and see if I can find the rest of it on the cheap.

Keep, Sell, Donate, or Trash?

Keep.