After two interminable ssues of having our characters sit around and talk (there were, what, three bits of action waaay back in number thirteen?) we are *finally* going to have something akin to rip-roaring super-hero action! This issue features each of the Justice Leaguers living and re-living their worst nightmares...for example, we start off with Batman dreaming that his close friends Robin and Batgirl are murdered, and his on-again/off-again companion Catwoman is a demonic monster. Yikes! Heady stuff. The idea was to give the readers a better understanding of what made these super-heroes "tick." We can discuss whether I managed to succeed at that endeavor or not...after you read it. haha!
The villain this time was one of my favorites from "the Silver Age of Comics" (circa 1958-1968), Dr. Destiny. He first appeared in JUSTICE LEAGUE #4 (Spring, 1961) and came back several times after that. In one appearance in particular he had the Justice Leaguers dream about fighting various menaces (JLA #35, March 1965) and then when they actually appeared to exist, the JLAers were confused and defeated. This is the basic idea I borrowed, even though the execution (no pun intended) is totally different. I did steal the title, as well...."The Deadly Dreams of Dr. Destiny" by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. One more side note about Dr. Destiny: I could not find that he had any first name established in the comics, so I gave him one: "Julius," after long-time JLA editor, Julius Schwartz.
This time I used my friend Shoko-san to help me translate. She had a wonderful interest in the English language, which was great, but she had a habit of asking all sorts of questions about why I would phrase something one way or what I was trying to say if I used a specific Japanese phrase. It made the process longer, but it was also helping her learn English (nominally) and me learn Japanese (I never made the same mistake twice). However, it was a process that neither of us really liked...
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