In this instance, the dragon needs to be rescued from the princess.
Ancient serpent brought to bay, Dies upon a golden spear.
Brave hearts riding unto death to save the living world from fear.
In victory the heroes fall. Dragon slaying as she's slain.
Good and evil, joined in death. Hades' Gates admit the twain.
Diana hears the prophecy that sets her on her destiny.
JLA: A League of One is a one-shot graphic novel, first published in 2000, both written and painted by Christopher Moeller. In the time of the Middle Ages, the dragon Drakul Karfang finds herself hunted and besieged by Crusaders. Managing to escape deep into the mountains of Switzerland, she falls into slumber for centuries and is gradually forgotten as time moves on. In the modern age, when Wonder Woman learns from the Oracle the coming return of this ancient and evil dragon will bring about the death of the Justice League, Diana sets herself on a collision course with the coming dragon and her friends on the League.
Notable for being one of the few Wonder Woman-centered Justice League stories, Moeller would return years later to pen another Justice League tale; JLA: Cold Steel.
This Storyline provide these examples:
- Bad Boss: Drakul treats her gnome servants like crap, having no regard whatsoever for their well being.
- Batman Gambit: Diana's way of removing Superman from the table is, as she admits to him she can't beat him in a straight-up fight. She tells him Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern are on escape pods destined for the asteroid belt, along with only around 20 hours of oxygen left, because she knows he wouldn't knowingly let his unconscious friends die like that.
- Breath Weapon: Drakul, obviously, has the standard fire but it comes in three different ones. Fire, magic Mook Maker fire, and poison gas.
- Consummate Liar: Drakul knows of the prophecy, and temporarily convinces Diana that she misinterpreted it. She didn't.
- Cool vs. Awesome: Wonder Woman vs. a Dragon
- Also Wonder Woman vs. The Justice League.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Well, "cutie" is pushing it, but according to one gnome the main reason Darkul is so evil is that the gold she ate to become strong was tainted with the essence of its wicked former owners.
- One of Drakul's fire breath variants can turn people into her demonic servants and she attempts this on Diana as a last-ditch effort. It doesn't work
- Divide and Conquer: Diana's strategy on incapacitating her League colleagues revolves around this. Taking them out one at a time before most realize what's going on.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: Diana states to Drakul she would prefer not to kill her and offers her at chance to surrender and live in peace during an interval in their battle.
- Draconic Abomination: Drakul has consumed so much wicked gold over her long lifespan that she's stated to have essentially become an embodiment of hatred and lies.
- Draconic Humanoid: The climax involved Wonder Woman getting hit by the Mook Maker flame which turns her into one of these. Luckily No Ontological Inertia is in play so once Karfang dies WW shifts back.
- Dragons Are Demonic: Drakul. See Draconic Abomination below.
- Dragons Versus Knights: The opening prologue features Drakul up against an army of European Knights.
- The Dreaded: Drakul is this. Feared by all who know of her, and for good reason.
- End of an Era: The opening prologue posits the defeat of Drakul Karfang as this with Europe coming out of the Middle Ages and into a new era.
- Establishing Character Moment: Drakul's first action upon waking up is to kill one of the Gnomes singing her praises simply because it amused her.
- Fatal Flaw: What ultimately undoes Drakul as she sees everyone as beneath her, and thus fatally underestimates Diana.
- For the Evulz: One of Drakul's more notable acts during her rampage upon her awakening is to burn a church down full of village people despite earlier promising anyone in the church would be safe so long as they offered up a human sacrifice for her. Ironically, the young women offered up as sacrifices manage to get away.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Drakul is stated to be The Queen of the Dragons and is evil to the core.
- Hate Plague: Drakul's mere presence instills paranoia and hatred within people.
- Human Sacrifice: A small town is informed if they don't want to all be burned down they'll let leave a group of young women out to be killed by Drakul.
- I Know Your True Name: If Drakul knows a person's real name, she can push their mind into believing lies. Works both ways as if her own full name is revealed, she becomes weakened.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Diana is usually depicted as this in most stories, and she is shown enforcing it through a regular ritual where she binds herself in her own lasso. Here it becomes a plot point as Drakul's hate flames are shown to have no effect on her because of this.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Drakul offers to allow Wonder Woman to keep her heart for insurance that she will no longer cause trouble. It's a ploy of course, and leads directly to Karfang's death.
- Last of Her Kind: Drakul is this stated to be this in the prologue of the story.
- Loophole Abuse: This is Diana's means of ensuring the prophecy still goes through but so as none of her friends will be killed is this. [By incapacitating them long enough, she'll be the only member of the League left to go face Drakul and thus the only one fated to die.
- Zoe the Nereid, not wanting to see Diana die, also suggested a version of this by saying she would resign from the League so she won't be obligated to go face Drakul.
- Magic Fire: Drakul has a special green fire that forcibly transforms gnomes into Drakugnome minions.
- Money Spider: When Wonder Woman shatters Karfang's heart the dragon explodes into a pile of old gold coinage that she had eaten previously.
- Mook Maker: One of Drakul's types of fire breath turn gnomes into monstrous Drakugnomes.
- Morality-Guided Attack: Drakul's fire is said to burn someone with the intensity of their own lies. While they singe Wonder Woman, because nobody is perfect, they otherwise leave her unharmed. It's this that gives further justification for her fighting Drakul alone, as she believes her teammates would have fared far worse.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: The main thing Diana takes umbrage, twice, with when arguing over her actions with Batman is him calling her a coward.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Drakul; a classic western style six-limbed dragon. Breathes two kinds of fire, one semi-normal flame, and a magic green flame that creates monsters. Collects gold to use as a bed, and also consumes it to strengthen outer armor, but this gold is tainted by the spirit of its owners, influencing the dragon in question.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Zoe, a water nymph who lives in the waters around Themyscira, uses her power to turn Diana into a mermaid for a brief bit.
- Our Nymphs Are Different: Two of Diana's assistants throughout the story are Zoe, a water nymph, and Athlea, a wood nymph. Both are portrayed as looking like little girls who have been Diana's friends since childhood as well as with powers associated with their respective elements/domains.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Diana does this the closer her encounter with Drakul approaches.Wonder Woman: "Hera! Athena! Is this the end you dreamt of when you made me? To be a failure? Your mission of peace left undone?"
- The Power of Hate: Drakul's flames are instilled with the power of pure hatred, which takes the fear and hatred within a person's soul and uses it to burn them from within. This is how Diana is ultimately able to defeat her. Wonder Woman has no hatred to speak of.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Drakul was first defeated and buried in the mountains of Switzerland in 1348 A.D. A little under 700 years before the story takes place.
- Sickly Green Glow: One of Drakul fire breath variants is this.
- Smug Snake: Drakul is this in spades.
- Soul Jar: Drakul, and dragons by extension, are stated to be invincible unless their heart is destroyed.
- Stronger with Age: Drakul was already old before her imprisonment in the 1300s and there's no implication she's gotten any weaker upon waking up after centuries of slumber.
- Title Drop: Come ups in the form of response during Diana's fight with Batman saying he won't let Diana face Drakul alone.Wonder Woman: "A league of one. It will be enough."
- Technicolor Fire: Drakul has a special green fire which forcibly transforms gnomes into Drakugnome minions.
- This Looks Like a Job For Wonder Woman: It is stated the reason Diana is the most suited to face Drakul is because of her Incorruptible Pure Pureness in comparison to the rest of her team members.
- Use Your Head: Diana's means of defeating Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) is to headbutt him once she is able to remove his ring from his hand.
