DC Recap Summer Session, Week 3

13 Jul

Welcome back! Things have been a little busy on my end, hence the lateness here. However, we still got recaps of Wonder Woman, Constantine, and Swamp Thing to get to, so let’s go…

“Fausta: The Nazi Wonder Woman”

For obvious reasons, the Nazis are getting curious about this Wonder Woman who keeps foiling their plans, so they hatch a scheme to capture her and learn where she gets her power from. That scheme involves kidnapping Steve Trevor and watching Wonder Woman in action as she saves him. The spymaster Fausta plans to impersonate Wonder Woman to bring her prey into the open, and that is through a little public display for War Bonds. The Nazis capture Diana and then shuttle her off to Germany to be experimented on! As for Steve, he attempts to go on a rescue mission to save her, against orders.

While Steve tries to sneak into the Nazi stronghold Diana is being held in, Fausta and a Nazi colonel argue over how to interrogate their captive (surprise, the colonel doesn’t believe that whole “island of women” stuff, because he’s a jerk guy). Well, Diana manages to escape just as Steve is arriving to save her, and while she heads home, she’s unaware Steve has been captured (again!). Well whoops, because Diana has to go back to Germany to rescue Steve, and thanks to that bickering between jerkoff Nazi colonel and Fausta, our heroes escape, Fausta decides her Nazi superiors suck and joins the Resistance. The lesson here: guys, don’t belittle a woman’s accomplishments.

Well, can’t say this doesn’t nod its hat to its original creator here. Look it up, it makes sense.

–Almost forgot to mention last time we had Etta Candy’s first appearance.

–Jeez, the General is just all for giving his whole staff time off, huh?

–So, Steve basically had to parachute into enemy lines, deal with a spy in the Resistance, all to save Diana…which he didn’t have to do since she escaped on her own. Then she has to save him! Sigh, Steve…

–“I’ll take my first furlough behind Nazi lines.” “That doesn’t sound very relaxing to me.”

“The Devil’s Vinyl”

Constantine, Zed, and Chas take a trip to Chicago, when a colleague from John’s punk band past meets a bizarre end. We learn the man listened to a cursed acetate record, sung by a blues musician who sold their soul to the Devil. Unfortunately, that record was discovered by the backup singer of another musician, who made a deal with a demon to save her husband’s life, and wanted the vinyl in exchange for breaking the contract for her soul. And even worse, the person who wants the vinyl is the adversarial Papa Midnite, who wants it for his own personal collection.

As the vinyl has the voice of Satan compelling people to play it, it’s leaving a murder spree of people in its wake. John manages to destroy the vinyl as it’s about to be played on a local radio station, much to the irritation of Midnite. Constantine and friends manage to get the demon to destroy the contract, and that vinyl has been sent back to Hell, so great, right? Well, Midnite might be seeking payback against John and Zed’s background check by Chas is surprisingly lacking in…any information. Hmm.

What’s the safe word in a scenario like this?

–So Constantine’s home is basically the House of Mystery, a very mystical and constantly changing place in the DCU.

–John’s plan to blare music through his headphones to drown out the recording was a novel touch, even if it wasn’t completely successful by the end.

–Manny the angel reappears to help that suffering record label owner pass away gracefully, and of course, to taunt Constantine while he’s tied up and bleeding out.

–“Magic. And not the Copperfield kind.”

–“When you said ‘eat the contract’, you weren’t kidding.”

“He Speaks”

While Alec is adjusting to being a Swamp Thing, that bad guy he ripped to shreds last episode has come back to life, reformed and full of bugs. Abby is disturbed by news that Alec is this creature in the swamp, but finds other bad news, such as a new CDC doctor whose methods are actually making the swamp virus even worse. With her colleague now afflicted with the virus, she heads out into the swamp to find answers from Alec. She finds that reanimated bug guy, but Swampy arrives to save her, send bug guy to rest, and clue her in as to how to stop the virus…by not fighting it.

His idea is correct, as the virus vanishes from the infected with the lack of drugs to fight it. Meantime, Liz takes an interest in helping find out what happened to Alec and investigates the illegal goings on involving Avery Sunderland. That leads Avery to brutally murder his shady accountant before he can squeal to Liz. Also, Swampy might be jealous because of Deputy Matt Cable’s moves on Abby. Poor guy.

He looks pretty good for a reanimated corpse full of bugs.

–Ian Ziering here learns Abby might be the key to him getting out of town. Does he mean, literally leave? He can’t drive out or something?

–Maria is still seeing the ghost of her dead daughter, which is probably not good.

–The Sheriff (Matt’s mom) apparently had a thing with Avery, and boy, does that seem like a problem down the road.

–“What am I?”

NEXT TIME: Wonder Woman goes undercover at a beauty pageant, Constantine reunited with an old friend and a released demon, and Swamp Thing deals with a deadly curse!