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scans_dailyWhen we last left our intrepid heroes, they were at Doomer Disneyworld, trying to figure out how theme park employees have outlived the rest of the population of this alternate Earth. As you may have deduced, they haven’t: the employees are all animatronic robots.
The JLE keeps trying to investigate in the face of the robots’ relentless cheer, but they can only hear “It’s a Mauled World After All” so many times before they snap.
“Woe to those who would not be entertained!” shout the denizens of Wacky World. “Woe to those who now must die!”
But as the JLE battle the Wacky Worlders, the Silver Sorceress reaches out to the “weakest mind” among the heroes (Wally, which isn’t the worst trolling Wally fans have had to cope with). Without knowing why, Wally now knows where they need to go, and Cap is happy to follow someone else’s directions for once.
The guy waking up is Mitch Wacky, this world’s answer to Walt Disney, cryogenically frozen just like Walt was rumored to be. He'd hoped that in the future, his world would have a cure for the illness that was killing him, and when he failed to build a time machine, freezing was his plan B. To his credit, he wastes little time bemoaning his fate or even the fate of his world, focusing on the good he can do with the time he has left. Right now, that means reviving the head of Carny the robot.
Mitch gives Carny a warm greeting and asks him to tell him everything that's happened since the missiles fell.
Nobody wins a nuclear holocaust. Anyone who thinks they will is kidding themselves. Like the original Extremists did. That’s why the robo-Extremists were scared when the nukes started falling in their last battle with the JLE: they knew “they” didn’t survive. However, sharp-eyed readers will notice one complication of that picture...
Back on “our” Earth, the Extremists have accepted Earth’s surrender and lowered the missiles, but they make it clear Doctor Diehard could still detonate the missiles in their silos. The JLE re-engage the Extremists, keeping Diehard and Dreamslayer distracted.
The Extremists act like they’re gonna blow up the world for real in retaliation. This raises the stakes, but it does conflict with their panicked behavior in the previous fight. Would they really be able to do it? Does their commitment to impersonating the “real” Extremists override their self-preservation when it’s THEIR fingers on the button, the way Asimov’s Second Law overrides the Third? If so, then Cap has figured out how to exploit their “First Law,” the one that overrides all the rest of their programming.
(Would've loved to see Bart Sears or inker Randy Elliott draw the page above--whoever decided it was a good idea to just go CRAZY with the compass. It was!)
Silver Sorceress was disguising herself to fool the robot she expected Dreamslayer to be--though she probably should’ve known Dreamslayer’s powers were more than even Wacky World animatronics could duplicate. Mitch will be okay with a lot of bed-rest and IV meds. The JLE’s popularity problems are over. And the Extremist robots end up in a museum, where I’m sure they’ll never bother anyone again.
The Silver Sorceress and Bluejay will sort of default to League membership after this. Given the hellish lives they’ve had in their world and in the gulag, I’m sure Cap is willing to waive the application forms. After a brief trip to Disney World, Mitch will disappear from the narrative a little while but return in a later giant-size story.
Covers (and original cover homage):
Saturday: The most quickly reversed funeral issue in comic-book history.
The JLE keeps trying to investigate in the face of the robots’ relentless cheer, but they can only hear “It’s a Mauled World After All” so many times before they snap.
“Woe to those who would not be entertained!” shout the denizens of Wacky World. “Woe to those who now must die!”
But as the JLE battle the Wacky Worlders, the Silver Sorceress reaches out to the “weakest mind” among the heroes (Wally, which isn’t the worst trolling Wally fans have had to cope with). Without knowing why, Wally now knows where they need to go, and Cap is happy to follow someone else’s directions for once.
The guy waking up is Mitch Wacky, this world’s answer to Walt Disney, cryogenically frozen just like Walt was rumored to be. He'd hoped that in the future, his world would have a cure for the illness that was killing him, and when he failed to build a time machine, freezing was his plan B. To his credit, he wastes little time bemoaning his fate or even the fate of his world, focusing on the good he can do with the time he has left. Right now, that means reviving the head of Carny the robot.
Mitch gives Carny a warm greeting and asks him to tell him everything that's happened since the missiles fell.
Nobody wins a nuclear holocaust. Anyone who thinks they will is kidding themselves. Like the original Extremists did. That’s why the robo-Extremists were scared when the nukes started falling in their last battle with the JLE: they knew “they” didn’t survive. However, sharp-eyed readers will notice one complication of that picture...
Back on “our” Earth, the Extremists have accepted Earth’s surrender and lowered the missiles, but they make it clear Doctor Diehard could still detonate the missiles in their silos. The JLE re-engage the Extremists, keeping Diehard and Dreamslayer distracted.
The Extremists act like they’re gonna blow up the world for real in retaliation. This raises the stakes, but it does conflict with their panicked behavior in the previous fight. Would they really be able to do it? Does their commitment to impersonating the “real” Extremists override their self-preservation when it’s THEIR fingers on the button, the way Asimov’s Second Law overrides the Third? If so, then Cap has figured out how to exploit their “First Law,” the one that overrides all the rest of their programming.
(Would've loved to see Bart Sears or inker Randy Elliott draw the page above--whoever decided it was a good idea to just go CRAZY with the compass. It was!)
Silver Sorceress was disguising herself to fool the robot she expected Dreamslayer to be--though she probably should’ve known Dreamslayer’s powers were more than even Wacky World animatronics could duplicate. Mitch will be okay with a lot of bed-rest and IV meds. The JLE’s popularity problems are over. And the Extremist robots end up in a museum, where I’m sure they’ll never bother anyone again.
The Silver Sorceress and Bluejay will sort of default to League membership after this. Given the hellish lives they’ve had in their world and in the gulag, I’m sure Cap is willing to waive the application forms. After a brief trip to Disney World, Mitch will disappear from the narrative a little while but return in a later giant-size story.
Covers (and original cover homage):
Saturday: The most quickly reversed funeral issue in comic-book history.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-12 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-02-12 04:50 am (UTC)Oddly, I thought it was that they really believed they were the original Extremists until they saw Mitch to remember the truth.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-12 06:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-02-12 11:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-02-12 04:12 pm (UTC)The villains who annihilated an entire world having been replaced by robots build by a Walt Disney knockoff who cryogenically froze himself because he had influenza is... well, kind of feels like the sort of thing you'd get from a comic from the 70s. Probably written by Steve Gerber.
For one bizarre, scary moment there, it looked like Crimson Fox was going to be useful.
Fortunately, there was a rational explanation.
So if Silver Sorceress disguised herself as Crimson Fox, would that make her a scarlet witch?
Eh? Eh?
...
sorry, it's been a long week.