Wondra Fall Of A Heroine 〈Desktop INSTANT〉

Minuet doesn't wear armor. She carries a cup of coffee and the tattered teddy bear Wondra saved for that dying child years ago. "You used to ask what people needed. Now you only tell them what they deserve." Wondra, surrounded by orbital defense systems and an army of drones, looks at the bear. For the first time in 17 issues, she cries. There is no fight. She deactivates the systems, walks past Minuet, and throws her crown into the river.

For six years, readers worshipped her. The issue where she sat with a dying child for twelve hours, using her chrono-stasis field to prolong their final moments, is still considered a masterpiece of the medium. The "Fall" arc began insidiously in Wondra #47 , with a three-panel splash page of her missing a rescue. A train derailment caused by a new villain, Reverie . Wondra arrived thirty seconds too late. Thirty-seven people died. For a normal hero, this is a tragedy. For Wondra, who had never lost a civilian in her career, it was a psychic amputation. Wondra Fall Of A Heroine

By Elias Vance

The arc’s brilliance was in its pacing. Writer Elena Cross (who has stated this arc was her “love letter to Icarus”) didn't turn Wondra evil overnight. Instead, we watched her obsess. She stopped sleeping. She began stockpiling neuro-toxins "just in case." She secretly used her access to the Global Justice Network to spy on her own teammates, convinced one of them was a traitor. Minuet doesn't wear armor