Justice League of America #129

Title: Justice League of America
Issue: #129
Date: April 1976
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Martin Pasko
Art: Dick Dillin, Frank McLaughlin
Editor: Julius Schwartz

Nekron is an interdimensional monster who feeds on fear and is repelled by courage. In order to defeat the Justice League, he's dosed them with something that for lack of a better term I'm going to call "apathy gas". Basically all the heroes are now unwilling to risk their lives to save others. Which is inconvenient when Nekron is using various tactics to cause massive destruction on Earth so that he can feed on the resulting fear.

Fortunately, Wonder Woman was unaffected by the apathy gas. Actually, she was never dosed with the stuff. Why? Um, apparently she'd taken the day off on the day that Nekron chose to scout out Earth's superheroes. Well, I guess it advances the plot.

Anyway, non-apathetic Diana can use her magic-lass0-of-mind-control (it's in full-on mind control mode in this story) to get the guys to do their duties willing or not. Except that there could be some moral issues with compelling people to risk their lives. Even if they would have risked their lives normally. After teasing the moral dilemma in one scene, writer Martin Pasko then proceeds to ignore it for the rest of the book.

There's also a noble sacrifice! A Justice League member actually dies in this issue. I wonder how long that ended up lasting (I can assure you it was definitely not permanent; the character is still very much around).

The whole plot is more complicated and wordy than it needs to be, but it does end up telling a decent story when all is said and done.

Interestingly, the script has Oliver Queen delivering almost-swears ("when the spit starts hitting the fan" and "what the fudge just happened?"), perhaps in an attempt to distinguish him as the bad boy of the group?

I liked the classic King Kong tribute cover with Nekron's robot atop the Eiffel Tower fighting off the League while holding Diana in one hand.

Rating: 5.5/10