Monday, May 19, 2008

Justice League of America #176 - March 1980

sgPart 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:
sg
...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.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I thought this cover was one of Ross Andru's best, and the story was actually pretty good in the Old Style way (JLA faces menace, breaks up into groups to stop menace, reconvenes to conclude mission). Still no Atom or Aquaman, though...since 161, right?

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