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The JLA's very first Annual!
The Story: "If I Should Die Before I Wake..." by Paul Levitz, Len Wein, Rick Hoberg, and Dick Giordano. This very first JLA Annual opens with some robot lizard-type guys aboard the JLA satellite, knocking a few of our heroes around.
At a crucial moment, the Elongated Man is unable to stop one of the bad guys from punching a hole in the satellite's hull, sending them all hurtling into airless space!
As Elongated Man screams in terror, we realize--*whew!*--this is only a dream, or a nightmare, actually. As Sue Dibny tries to comfort her husband, Ralph is concerned about these nightmares he's been having, where he is the "weak leak in the chain."
This is all music to the ears of Doctor Destiny, one of the JLA's oldest foes. He is eavesdropping on Ralph, and considers him a fool. Unfortunately, he is no help to Destiny and his cursed affliction.
What affliction? Well, we get to see what Destiny is talking about: he is conducting research on dreams, under the guise of it being genuine medical research. Turns out those subjects who can dream are healthy, the one who can't are slowly suffering physical effects from it--their skin is turning white, their features skeletal. Sound familiar?
Destiny has a team of nurses helping him in his work, never realizing who he really is:
Destiny blames the JLA for his condition, and threatens to attack them in their dreams.
Cut to: the JLA satellite, where they are playing host to Commissioner James Gordon, who didn't know where to turn ever since Batman disappeared into Markovia (during the events of the first few issues of Batman and the Outsiders).
Turns out that Destiny, who they thought they had locked up in Arkham Asylum, has escaped, leaving a hologram in his place! The JLA takes the case and goes on a search for him.
The Hawks, the Atom, and Firestorm use a piece of Thanagarian technology to track Delta-Wave radiation, which they believe will lead them to him.
They follow the lead to the Atom's stomping grounds of Ivy University, where they are told nothing strange is going on, even with the dream research now being conducted.
Suddenly, wraith-like beings leap out of the the asleep subjects, and attack! The JLAers manage to stop them, and they fade back into nothingness, all the while Destiny watches...
Meanwhile, in Washington Square:
...I love Aquaman standing there, reading a pamphlet. It just cracks me up.
Something similar happens to them, with transparent beings emerging from monstrous stone sculptures and attacking, ending the same way--with the JLAers fighting them off.
It happens again when Wonder Woman, Flash, and the John Stewart Green Lantern find themselves fighting dreamlike versions of Amazo, Dr. Light, and the Tornado Tyrant!
The heroes stop them, and they think they have found Destiny himself, until he disappears right before their eyes, seemingly merging his being with his Dream Machine!
Zatanna uses her magic to transport herself, Red Tornado, and Elongated Man to another dimension--the dream dimension! Somebody call Neil Gaiman!
Zatanna determines its here where Destiny is hiding, so she calls in the rest of the troops:
...they arrive at the Dream Dome, where Destiny has imprisoned its heroic operator, the Sandman!
Destiny is able to call forth all sorts of horrible demons from people's nightmares, who attack the JLA.
As they fight, the Flash tries to attack Destiny straight on, but he throws some sort of dust at the Flash, knocking him out. He soon does it to the rest of the JLA!
Elongated Man is defeated last, being mocked by Destiny as it happens. Luckily, Ralph manages to hit a button on a control panel, freeing the Sandman into the Dream-Stream.
While Destiny imprisons the JLAers and plans to turn them into the skeletal husks he has become, the Sandman looks for help from the only person he thinks can. Destiny sends some of his dream-like goons to stop him.
They do, but not before the Sandman's target is awoken from his slumber--the Man of Steel, Superman!
Superman makes quick work of the demons, grabs Sandman, and heads for the Dream Dome. While the two of them fight more of Destiny's goons, he finds himself confronted by the rest of the JLA, now freed from their captivity! Destiny, being a bit of a puss, faints dead away.
Turns out why Destiny was busy watching Superman and Sandman, Elongated Man came up with the idea of Green Lantern and Zatanna focusing all their energies on Wonder Woman's glass prison tube, weakening it enough for her to shatter.
Sandman is impressed, and the JLA makes him an offer:
Green Lantern asks what was it about Superman's dreams that led him to the Man of Steel, and he reveals it was Superman's dream of a better world, a world finally at peace, where he is surrounded his super-powered friends...the Justice League.
Roll Call: Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Zatanna, Firestorm
Notable Moments: After 20+ years of continuous publication, the JLA finally get an annual!
A solid story, Dr. Destiny was always one of my favorites. Using Elongated Man's insecurities was a nice touch, too.
That scene with Firestorm asking Sandman to join makes me laugh, because it seems off-the-cuff. Like, did Firestorm check with the rest of the team before making the offer?
Part Two featuring the evil Dr. Destiny!
The Story: "The Dream Factories of Doctor Destiny!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Continued from last issue, the JLA tracks down their old foe, Dr. Destiny, to an abandoned movie studio.
Once the JLA gets there, they encounter a horde of nightmarish creatures, but soon realize they are just illusions created by Destiny, keeping them from finding him.
They head inside, where Zatanna casts a spell, revealing Destiny's presence. Superman destroys Destiny's "Dream Machine", but he informs them that they sealed their own doom:
...I love Destiny's Mr.Burns-esque "I wash my hands of the whole thing" response.
Turns out he set off something called The Omega Program ahead of time, which now can't be stopped because the JLA destoyed his machine.
Green Lantern's ring determines the only way to stop it is to shut down Destiny's three satellite machines, located in different spots on the globe, at the same time. So the JLA splits up and searches for them.
Superman and Hawkgirl find one in Denmark, Zatanna and Red Tornado do the same in India, and Wonder Woman and Green Lantern head to Philadelphia. They each face their own private nightmares via Destiny's machines, but overcome them to stop the Omega Program.
Roll Call: Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Zatanna
Notable Moments: Wonder Woman and Lantern were in Philadelphia around the end of 1979? I was living right across the river at the time, I don't remember reading that in the papers.
Hawkgirl got a chance to shine here, sans her husband, and she acquits herself well. Considering how many times she got gipped in the book (missing from a lot of JLA group shots, etc.), I'd say this was owed to her.
The return of the villainous Dr. Destiny!
The Story: "But Can An Android Dream?" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. We open with a bunch of JLAers begging someone not to resign from the JLA. But its no use...Red Tornado is leaving the JLA!
He tells his friends that he finds himself to be the least reliable member of the JLA, and he can risk his friends' lives no more. So matter how much they try to talk him out of it, he feels he has no choice to leave.
He beams himself back to Earth, landing in Central Park. Here he transforms himself back into his civilian identity of John Smith, where the male half of a couple on a picnic can't believe his eyes when he sees Reddy. The girl he's making out with thinks she's the cause of his hallucinations, so she takes it upon herself to ramp the picnic up a notch:
...now that's a fun date!
Anyway, Reddy goes to visit his orphan charge, Traya. Meanwhile, Dr. Destiny is safely tucked away in Arkham Asylum...or is he?
Turns out the Dr. Destiny the guards see is in fact a hallucination, and its actually his Arkham psychiatrist in there, but the guards think its Destiny in there. He is, of course, planning a scheme that involves a machine he's created that turns people's dreams into living nightmares.
Meanwhile, we find Red Tornado, as John Smith, revealing to his love Kathy Sutton that he is, in fact, the android The Red Tornado! Traya tells Kathy she loves him, flesh or no, and after a few moments, Kathy says she loves him, too.
They then attend Halloween Parade, where suddenly people are attacked by giant, nightmarish(!) monsters! He tries to stop them but is fought off by a dream-like duplicate of himself!
But Reddy finds the machine that these visions seem to be coming from, and destroys it, just as some of the JLA arrive to help. Red Tornado, now filled with confidence and love and support, is ready to come back to the JLA.
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Zatanna
Notable Moments: The opening splash page is filled with the JLA begging an as-yet-unknown person not to leave the team. Each member gets to say something, except for Batman, who remains stone-faced. Batman doesn't have time for this crap.
Red Tornado gets a nice chance to shine here, and Kathy deciding she loves this "man" is genuinely touching.
Even though the story seems to end here, it is in fact continued, as we'll see tomorrow:
Here's a rarity--a JLA cover drawn by Mike Kaluta!
The Story: "I'll Kill You In Your Dreams!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. The villainous, now-with-extra-creepy Dr. Destiny sets off a plan to kill the Justice League!
Meanwhile, we find some of our JLAers (in their civilian identities) checking out the new Gotham Starscraper Hotel, complete with TV coverage by anchorman Clark Kent.
Even though Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance are still having words over Queen's earlier chauvinist behavior (in JLA #151), they set aside their differences to have a nice "night off" at the new hotel.
This place has everything! Robot chambermaids, an artificial waterfall, even anti-gravity discs in the disco:
...wait, wait, wait--I call shenanigans. I know that Ollie and Dinah wouldn't think twice about this (hell, they'd probably go ahead and do it on one of them), but I'd say the average Gothamite would find trying to dance on a tiny disc, floating dozens of feet in the air a terrifying experience. Sometimes WayneTech R&D goes too far.
Ok, anyway, all the JLAers that night end up with horrifying nightmares, envisioning their deaths, their loss of abilities, or the deaths of their friends. Dr. Destiny watches this, amused.
Then all of those very things happen or almost happen! But the JLA figures out the only person who could do this to them is, of course, old Skeletor here. He explains his new horrifying visage, and what his plan was.
Unfortunately for him, the JLA was one step ahead of him. The Atom shrunk down and took control of the Materioptkion(whew!), and used it against Destiny, making him think he saw the JLA die! Without it, he's pretty helpess, and one good shot from Black Canary does the trick. Back to Arkham, buddy!
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Arrow, Atom, Black Canary
Notable Moments: The new look for Dr. Destiny was way cool, much more visually dynamic.
As far as I know, the Gotham Starscraper was never shown again. I wonder if Wayne Enterprises took a bath on it, after the pile of lawsuits no doubt generated by the anti-gravity dancing discs...
A very fun issue, one of my all-time favorites. I first discovered via the Super Friends treasury comic, that probably had a lot to do with it!
The Story: "Operation: Jail the Justice League" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Sid Greene. Green Arrow arrives at a JLA meeting to tell them he is quitting the JLA! (While Wonder Woman protests "No one's ever resigned from the JLA!", Flash quietly thinks to himself "Now's the time to call Adam Strange.")
He warns them that some disastrous fate awaits them, and they should all quit superheroing. Surprisingly, the JLA doesn't listen and they all decide to pose as the Emerald Archer to find out just what's going on. While they each fight their respective villains as Green Arrow, they are all defeated and mysteriously change bodies with their foes! Then the "bad guys" are jailed while the real bad guys get to go out and commit crimes.
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman
Notable Moments: This is an extraordinairily fun story--goofy but without the (at times) lugubrious plotting that Fox stories sometimes had.
As the JLAers dress up as Green Arrow, Fox decided to have little ironic distance and just be up front with the readers that Wonder Woman couldn't quite pull it off.
...this is probably the very first time any sort of irony appared in the JLA, after sixty plus issues. Kind of remarkable, really, since comics now are almost all irony.
At the end, all the JLAers and all the bad guys end up in the same place, so of course they decide to beat the crap out of each other. Sekowksky gives us a classic two-page donnybrook:
...Superman really took the easy way out, didn't he? And how humiliating was it for The Tattooed Man that he's taken out by Snapper Carr?
You generally didn't--and still don't--see a lot of white on comic covers, and I always thought it frequently made for a nice cover.
The story: "Deadly Dreams of Doctor Destiny!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. Several JLAers have strange dreams where they are stuck with odd accessories, like a metal face mask or a mysterious ring--and then they are defeated by some of their foes. I wonder if this is a plot by the nefarious Dr.Destiny?
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Atom, Hawkman
Notable Moments: The first time the Joker showed up in the pages of the JLA; Sekowsky makes him look paunchy and old--not exactly terrifying.
I always liked Dr.Destiny; he seemed like a great villain for the all-powerful JLA, even if he still is just a regular guy in prison greys.
Classic cover by Murphy Anderson; the kind of set-up that just made you buy the comic.
The story: "The Super-Exiles of Earth!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. Evil duplicates of the JLA start a crime wave, ending with the real JLA being exiled from Earth(c'mon, won't France take them?)!
Turns out its all a plan of the nefarious Dr. Destiny, who has invaded the JLAer's dreams. They concoct a plan to return to Earth icognito, as their civilian identities--except for Aquaman, who has none. Feh.
Roll Call: Superman, Batman Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, The Atom
Notable Moments: Why Aquaman couldn't go back to Earth as Arthur Curry always bothered me--its not like there's some big Ellis Island in the sky, checking the I.D.s of people coming in from outer space(although this is the DC Universe...)! He could've put on a suit and said "I'm the son of a lighthouse keeper" and participated.
The JLA decides to expose themselves to some "Amnesium" that Supes has back in the Fortress, so they can erase their memories of each other's secret identities. Where was this during Identity Crisis?
Most of the time, when collecting all the issues of JLA as a teenager, the only way I was ever going to get the first dozen or so issues was to settle for really beat-up copies. Looking back over this one, I'm amazed I was able to afford a copy in this good shape--the pages are still pretty white and there's really very little sign of wear. Cool.
The story: "When Gravity Went Wild!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. Green Arrow is accused the JLA for betraying them, by helping some super-villains get away! "I knew we should've picked Adam Strange!", said The Flash at the time.
This is the first issue of the book featuring the individual heroes' established bad guys, instead of some intergalactic menace. In this issue we have appearances by Captain Cold, King Clock, Electric Man, Puppet Master(on loan from Marvel?) and the diabolical Monty Moran!
It turns out to be a plot from the new bad guy Doctor Destiny, who had managed to impersonate Green Lantern and the villains were robot duplicates! Green Arrow learned of the plot and tried to get to the bottom of it without tipping his hand.
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow
Notable Moments: A fun sequence where Aquaman rescues an unconcious Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter, where he swims upstream in a waterfall. He exhausts himself before he gets all the way, but let me type that again--he swims upstream in a waterfall.
This is also the debut of Doctor Destiny, who looks like an ordinary guy but would soon be revamped into one of the more creepy, powerful villains of the JLA.
In addition to letters from readers, the JLA Mail Room prints an article that ran in the Jackson, Missouri High School newspaper entitled "What's Wrong with Comics?", a pro and con article. The conclusion? "[i]t only takes ten or fifteen minutes to read a comic. So why not take a breather and read one? I find them mentally refreshing and you might find them the same."
