Just forget the words and sing along

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

I've been wanting to rant about this since Monday night. Who else watched Justice League? Great episode!! Only a Dream followed the exploits of the League's battle against Dr. Destiny. This telepathic villain had the power to control dreams, and so he trapped Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl in their worst nightmares. Martian Manhunter used his telepathic powers to enter all of their dreams and try to help them snap out of the nightmares and take down Dr. Destiny. Meanwhile, in the waking world, Batman was fighting off three days of no sleep as he tried to find the doctor's stronghold. In case you're curious:

- Superman's nightmare was about him getting so powerful that he destroyed all he loved with a single touch. Martian Manhunter eventually found him curled up in the fetal position in the rocket that brought him to Earth. "This is the only place I can be now," lamented Superman. How's that for symbolism?

- Green Lantern's nightmare was about his experiences in the Green Lantern Corp making him so alien that no one on Earth would accept him anymore.

- The Flash's nightmare was about him getting so fast that the rest of the world slowed to a standstill, making him completely alone....

- I couldn't figure out Hawkgirl's greatest nightmare. It was either claustrophobia or death, because she was locked in a coffin and buried alive.

Great comic relief came from Batman's attempts to stay awake. Batman, smashing into Starbucks, charging to the front of the line and demanding a triple latte to go. Great stuff!

Since Dr. Destiny was borrowed to be the villain in Neil Gaiman's first storyline in The Sandman, I kept hoping that the episode would end with an appearance by Dreams. "You've desecrated my domain!" he could bellow to Dr. Destiny, and then he could forever banish Dr. Destiny from the dream world. Just my thoughts.

Anyway, this whole episode reminded me of an episode of G.I. Joe that I watched when I was a kid. Remember this episode? Cobra was using a special machine to trap the Joes in their nightmares, but the only one this had no effect on was the sniper Low-Light, because Low-Light had serious problems with nightmares when he was a kid and was the only one adept at fighting nightmares. Finally, a special machine was rigged up by Doc to bring all the Joes into one common dream world, where Low-Light rallied them together to fight their nightmares. I'll never forget the nightmare of computer expert Mainframe. He was literally replaced by machinery as he slowly turned into this freaky cyborg. Totally freaked me out!

Speaking of fears, I'm off to write my Law and Ethics midterm. I'm having flashbacks to Augustana. I got through Introduction to the Old Testament thanks to the fact that I saw The Ten Commandments a dozen times. Something tells me that I'll get through this class courtesy of Law & Order reruns. At least, that's what I told myself last night when I watched Law & Order: Special Victims Unit instead of studying.

Next Issue...In the Criminal Justice System....

No comments: