Twice-Told-Tales: Wonder Woman vs Flying Fighters

Princess Diana of Paradise Island, also known to the world at large as Wonder Woman, faced several foes throughout the years. Both women with that name, the Wonder Women of Earths One and Two, at times fought side-by-side together, either with team ups just between the two of them or larger Crisis-level events alongside their teammates of the Justice League and Justice Society. 

On one occasion, the legendary ladies were confronted with five “Heroes of History” of Earth-One, empowered by the temporal megalomaniac known as the Lord of Time who sent them against the League and Society to render the majority of those teams comatose. These five champions of the past consisted of three individuals with identical doppelgänger’s of Earth-Two, those being Viking Prince, Black Pirate and Miss Liberty. A fourth member of this informal group, cowboy bounty hunter Jonah Hex, had a counterpart known as Jeff Graham aka the Roving Ranger of Earth-Two. The final person in their midst was known as an Enemy Ace to the American’s flying over Europe during the mid to late 1910’s.

Enemy Ace was Rittsmeister (Captain) Hans Von Hammer of the German Air Force during World War I, a reluctant warrior and expert fighter pilot also known as the Hammer of Hell. His doppelgänger of Earth-Two was the American World War I fighter pilot Captain Thomas Cole aka Captain Desmo, later known as the Bombardier during the early days of World War II. Just as Von Hammer was employed as a pawn by the Lord of Time, Cole was likewise manipulated into service by the Lord of Mars. 

While the Hammer of Hell was empowered by his benefactor granting him superhuman abilities, Bombardier was likewise empowered with identical abilities. Both men could fly while projecting devastation energy bolts, which disabled the Wonder Woman of their respective Earths. Von Hammer’s four allies were also similarly empowered, while their counterparts experiencing something similar when they were drawn to 1985 of Earth-Two by Harbinger to battle Ultra-Humanite.

Interestingly, it was the Wonder Woman of Earth-Two who shortly thereafter stuck back at both men, first Captain Cole in 1942 on Earth-Two, then decades later against Captain Von Hammer in 1978. Despite this initial animosity, the pilots worked with the Wonder Women to defeat Lords of Time and Mars, along with their reality shattering schemes unleashed upon both Earths known as the Eternity Brain and the Disc of Mars. Following this, Von Hammer* as the Enemy Ace resumed his duties in Germany, while Cole officially retired following this and his lengthy career as Captain Desmo. 

* Along with the Earth-One Viking Prince, Black Pirate, Miss Liberty and Jonah Hex each of whom returned to their native time periods, just as had the Earth-Two Viking Prince, Black Pirate, MissAmerica and Roving Ranger following the Crisis event.