Justice League Annual #1 (1983)--Chapter 3

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

JlA Annual #1 (1983): Plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg. 

Today, we get to Chapter 3, in which Aquaman, Black Canary and Green Arrow travel to New York to follow up a possible lead to Dr. Destiny.

That lead involves several missing artists who are noted for the vivid imaginations. There's a chance their disappearance might involve the villain. And, in fact, it does. Dr. Destiny, monitoring the heroes from his secret HQ, strikes out at them for getting too close to a real clue.

He causes creepy-looking creatures to come into existence over equally creepy-looking statues created by the missing artists.

What follows is a short but really fun fight scene. I actually like it a lot better that the abrupt fight scene from the previous chapter. This time, we get to see each of the three heroes involved have a Moment of Awesome.

Aquaman lures his opponent into the harbor, where he then summons up electric eels to "disrupt the creature's unliving substance." I'm not sure that electric eels (which I THINK are exclusively a South American creature) would be living in New York Harbor, but what the hey. It's still a cool tactic and perhaps the eco-system in the DC Universe works a little bit differently than it does here on Earth Prime.

Black Canary takes out her monster with her sonic cry. Green Arrow repeats this tactic against HIS monster with a sonic arrow, then realizes taking out the statues will prevent any more monsters from appearing.

As I said, it's a cool fight. Each hero uses his or her brains as well as individual powers/weapons to deal intelligently with the threat. That's how a battle in a comic book universe SHOULD play out.

The chapter ends with Dr. Destiny remarking that he's found something "drifting in the dreams of Wonder Woman" that will destroy the Justice League. We'll find out more about that when Wednesday posts resume after the holidays.