Anxious Dreams
I biked into work again yesterday. Taking a day off on Tuesday helped, as I didn't feel nearly so wiped. However, it was very humid out, and I was very glad to shower when I got in. I'll do it again tomorrow.
The Nail, by artist extraordinaire Alan Davis, takes place in an alternate reality in which Jonathan and Martha Kent's tire gets a flat tire from running over a nail, and as a result they don't discover Kal-el's spacecraft when it lands on Earth, don't adopt him, and there never is a Clark Kent or a Superman. The comic focuses on the Justice League and the organized campaign to outlaw and/or eradicate "metahumans" (DC Comics' buzzword for superheroes and supervillains).
It's pretty grim. A supervillain named Amazo has killed Hawkman and crippled Green Arrow. Hawkwoman and Aquaman effectively withdraw from the affairs of the human race. An impenetrable force field has been erected around earth, killing Adam Strange and stymying Green Lantern. At the end of the first book, someone gives The Joker some incredibly powerful gauntlets, which he uses to enslave and kill the inmates at Arkham Asylum, captures Batman, and forces him to watch as he tortures and kills Batgirl and Robin. Batman breaks free and kills the Joker - in full view of the cameras, who are conveniently let in just in time to see the act, providing more fodder for the anti-metahuman campaign. Book two takes this a step further, as something or someone starts wiping out the supervillain community, and the remaining members of the Justice League investigate.
Book three will be the conclusion, presumably answering the questions, "Who's behind all this? What what exactly did happen to the man who could have been Superman?" It's strong stuff, and well-told. Probably Davis' best work since his excellent Captain Britain series of the 1980s.
Anyway, my dream: I was in the employ of some shady character who asked me to deliver to him some device I'd found. At the last minute I turned the device over instead to some woman in the shadows, who disappeared just as my boss' flunkies showed up and started pursuing me. I ended up in some sort of decrepit maze, being chased by these people who had no faces. It was eerie.
In another dream I had for some reason bought a very large pickup truck; solid and dark green. Understand, I have little interest in owning a pickup truck. For all its size, it lacked proper legroom in the driver's seat. Somehow I can become estranged from my home (which was not my current residence), and ended up living out of my truck and wishing I could go back. I spent a lot of time driving around at night in the rain. Eating donuts figured into it somehow, too.
I woke up a little shaken, but they seem to have had no lasting effects. I don't often have such powerful dreams, and generally don't remember my dreams. Strange.
Also finished all the comics I bought yesterday - mainly finished the second collection of the Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics from the 70s. Other than Adams' excellent artwork, this series was notable for being one of the first mainstream comics to deal with "real-life" issues like poverty, drug abuse (Green Arrow's sidekick becomes a druggie), environmental pollution, racism, and bigotry. It also introduced John Stewart - a black man - as Green Lantern's backup, in a story which was notable for not portraying him as a one-dimensional "race man". Good stuff, although it of course doesn't quite hold up 25 years later, but it does a better job than most.
Things have been pretty quiet otherwise. The humidity's died down and I've opened up my apartment. I prefer it this way.
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