Every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer while still acknowledging that the abandoned story DID still happen. Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of Abandoned Love. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

This time around, we'll look at Wonder Woman's bizarrely short-lived stint as a member of Justice League Europe...

Okay, so after Crisis, Wonder Woman's history of the Justice League was erased (Black Canary was now a founding member of the League instead of Wonder Woman. Batman and Superman also never officially joined the original League, but just helped them out on occasion - that change in continuity sort of tracks the way that the original Justice League of America stories read, as Batman and Superman rarely played big roles in those stories, as the editors of their titles didn't like giving other editors access to their characters, so Batman and Superman basically WERE just occasional helpers in the early days of the JLofA).

So Invasion! was one of the first times that Wonder Woman was directly involved with working with other superheroes...

After Invasion!, Maxwell Lord invited a bunch of superheroes to a party in Justice League International #24 that he used as an attempt to recruit superheroes to a newly formed spinoff Justice League team based in Europe...

At the end of the party, Lord gets a commitment from six new heroes, including Wonder Woman, who only agrees to be a part-time member, but that's better than nothing...

At this point in time, Wonder Woman's lasso of truth had been stolen and she was searching for it around the world.

Okay, so Justice League Europe #1 (by Keith Giffen, J.M. Dematteis, Bart Sears and Pablo Marcos) comes out, and Wonder Woman shows up late for the first meeting (which is interrupted by a dying man barging into and dropping dead in front of the League)...

Then a bunch of Parisian attack the embassy (an operative of the Queen Bee has controlled their minds), and Wonder Woman helps corral them...

In Wonder Woman's own comic, #28 (by George Perez, Chris Marrinan and Will Blyberg), her visit in Justice League Europe #1 is referenced...

In the 1989 New Titans Annual #5 (by Marv Wolfman, Chris Wozniak and Carlos Marzon), Justice League Europe is briefly shown, and she is with them...

And that's it. She's never shown as a member of Justice League Europe again. Now Animal Man ALSO had a short stint (although far longer than Wonder Woman), leaving after JLE #12 (due to the events of his regular series), but his absence was explained...

Nothing was ever said about Wonder Woman. Eventually, in Justice League Europe #21 (by Keith Giffen, Gerard Jones, Marshall Rogers and Joe Rubinstein), they finally address her leaving, only to say that she, well, never addressed her leaving...

To this day, I don't know precisely what happened. No one ever spoke about it. You have to figure it was an editorial disagreement between Karen Berger (Wonder Woman's editor) and Andy Helfer (Justice League Europe's editor) but I have never seen anyone speak about it. If anyone has any ideas what went down, feel free to drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com. I bet it'd make a good future Comic Book Legends Revealed story!

Roughly four years later, Wonder Woman ultimately DID join the Justice League, in the wake of Superman's death...

And she has been a mainstay of the League ever since.

If YOU have a notable comic book plot that you'd like to see discussed here, just drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!