Justice League Annual #1 – “Germ Warfare” – /Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis/Bill Willingham/Dennis Janke, P. Craig Russell, Bill Wray, R. Campanella, Bruce Patterson, Dick Giordano
This story takes place right after Justice League #4, which is why Guy Gardner is still an asshole and Dr. Fate is still on the team. It starts with a handful of Kord Industries employees flying to a remote island in the South Pacific. Ted Kord (aka Blue Beetle) bought the island sight-unseen, but there’s some kind of old compound there, so he sent some guys to check it out. The place looks deserted until a woman with red glowing eyes pops up out of nowhere. It isn’t long before everyone’s eyes are red and the Kord employees head back to civilization to carry the woman’s “message” to the rest of humanity. At Justice League headquarters, Guy is arguing with Batman (shocking, right?) while the others crack jokes (equally surprising). They get an
emergency signal on the monitor about people acting like zombies in four different places connected to Kord Industries around the world, so Batman does the classic JLA move of splitting the team into four pairs. He and Guy head for Tokyo, Booster Gold and Black Canary go to Paris, Blue Beetle and Mr. Miracle check out a Kord Industries facility in California, and J’onn J’onzz and Dr. Fate are assigned Sydney, Australia. In Paris, Booster and Black Canary go to a hospital to see some of the victims, but they find everyone in the building has been zombified and it turns into Night of the Living Dead. They 
can’t really fight back too hard (since the zombified people are innocent), so they barricade themselves in a room, but the patient is infected too and soon turns them into zombies. In Tokyo, Batman and Guy are met by almost-JLAer Kimiyo (Dr. Light) Hoshi, but she’s already zombified and the whole thing is a trap. Again, they’re forced to hold back and they end up getting infected themselves. It seems to be close proximity that triggers an infection (Dr. Light infects Batman by kissing him). In California, Blue Beetle and Mr. Miracle are attacked by Kord employees and soon turn into zombies too. In Sydney, Dr. Fate and J’onn find the whole city infected. Fate
figures his power will protect him, but whatever’s taking over humans attacks his host body, forcing him to remove the Helmet of Nabu. Once Kent Nelson is zombified, he tells J’onn that his Martian physiology makes him immune to becoming a zombie. Everyone ignores J’onn since they can’t infect him and he takes the Helmet back to JLA headquarters to do some research. By using the Helmet himself, J’onn figures out that Kord Industries accidentally created a sentient cell that takes over humans and spreads from person to person. J’onn finds where the cell originated and goes to the island to fight it. He ends up fighting his own teammates, as well as a giant 
conglomeration of zombified humans. He can sense the original sentient cell inside and tosses the Helmet of Nabu to connect with Dr. Fate. It works temporarily, but Fate says the only permanent solution is to imprison the sentient cell inside an alien cell structure. Since J’onn is the only alien around (I wonder where Superman is during all this?), he agrees to absorb the sentient cell into himself so his alien physiology can neutralize it and keep it contained. The effort knocks him out, but when he wakes up, everyone is back to normal and his teammates thank him for his sacrifice.
Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #3 – “There’s No Substitute for the Real Thing” – Paul Levitz/Greg LaRocque/Mike DeCarlo, Arne Starr
This one starts on Kathoon, Night Girl’s home planet, where she and Cosmic Boy are enjoying a nice vacation. She’s been trying to talk him into rejoining the Legion, but Cos isn’t interested, saying the Legion has plenty of members and the Legion Academy is full of young hopefuls too. Speaking of which, we see three Academy members (Visi-Lad, the new Karate Kid, and Comet Queen, who still talks like a 30th Century Valley Girl) on Earth with their instructor, Bouncing Boy. They’re helping sort out some
problems at an irrigation system on the Nile, but haven’t quite mastered the art of teamwork yet. Karate Kid finds the problem and fixes it, but they all suddenly get calls from HQ on their Flight Rings. On Kathoon, Cosmic Boy and Night Girl are called in to investigate a strange loss of power over the planetary grid. Someone’s siphoning the power secretly and when they track the source, they find a secret facility run by a Dominator. That prompts Cos to call for back-up. At Legion HQ, all the Legionnaires are out on assignment, many being sent to Weber’s World (the artificial planet where all the United 
Planets bureaucracy takes place) as an honour guard for the new treaty with the Dominators. When Cosmic Boy’s call for help comes in, Bouncing Boy and the three Academy kids are the only ones there to receive it. Bouncing Boy realizes Cos must need help, so he takes Karate Kid and Comet Queen (leaving Visi-Lad on monitor duty) and heads for Kathoon. The Dominators there have used the siphoned power to energize a strange fluid-based weapon that they plan to use to annihilate Weber’s World. They test the weapon on an asteroid first, which freaks out Cosmic Boy. He’s not thrilled at having cadets for back-up, but realizes they’re older (and better trained) than he was when he co-founded
the Legion. On Weber’s World, Ambassador Relnic is feeling stupid for being controlled by Universo, which led to hostility with the Dominators. Now that Universo’s influence is gone, they have to renegotiate the peace treaty with the Dominators. On Kathoon, Cosmic Boy and his team bust into the Dominator facility and start trashing the place. They’re doing pretty well until the last Dominator uses a strange whirlwind to suck them in and send them … somewhere else. The Dominator talks his superior on the home planet, telling him the weapon will have to be repaired before it can blow up Weber’s World. 
Apparently the head of this conspiracy doesn’t want peace between the Dominion and the United Planets and this is his way of starting a new war. Cosmic Boy and his team find themselves in a strange inter-dimensional place and he recalls the Dominators using an “underdimension” as a short cut between worlds. Karate kid is familiar with underdimensional travel from his home planet and quickly figures out where they are in relation to Earth and Kathoon. They decide to head to the Dominator’s homeworld, to stop the conspiracy at its source. They run across a dimensional control facility and almost get captured, but manage to free themselves and get directions
to their destination. They know the Dominators will be expecting them, so they send a fake ship built from scrap through the warp first. The Dominators blast the ship, but are surprised when the Legionnaires burst in and start pounding them. Bouncing Boy captures the head Dominator, but he’s already launched a warship to attack Earth. Cosmic Boy uses his magnetic powers to pull the warship apart, but the Dominator signals his minions on Kathoon to blast Weber’s World. He thinks he’s won, but it turns out Bouncing Boy sent a message to his 
wife Duo Damsel and she (well, half of her anyway) took a team of cadets and other friends of the Legion to Kathoon to take care of the Dominators there. In an epilogue, we learn that the peace treaty with the Dominators went ahead and, although Cosmic Boy still doesn’t want to rejoin the Legion, he has agreed to join another team … a revamped version of the Substitute Legion that can act as back-up for the regular team when needed. The new Subs include Cosmic Boy, Night Girl, Bouncing Boy, Duo Damsel, Karate Kid, and Comet Queen.
New Teen Titans Annual #3 – “The Lady’s Name is Godiva” – Marv Wolfman/Mike Collins/Romeo Tanghal
This annual introduces a new villain (Godiva, who’s so self-absorbed she likes to videotape her crimes) and Danny Chase, one of the most vilified characters in DC history. The story starts in Tokyo, with Godiva and her minions kidnapping Danny’s parents but leaving him behind. He trails them to their hideout (a pagoda) and decides to call in some help. There’s a jump in time and location and we see Godiva attacked a ship in New York and tangling with the Titans. Cyborg tries to stop her, but she
uses her powers to control his mind and (after making out with him) gets away. Meanwhile, Danny goes to see King Faraday and we learn that his parents (and Danny himself) are government agents. Faraday refuses to attempt a rescue, so Danny uses his computer to set up a meeting with the Titans, making it seem like Faraday wants them to rescue his two captured agents. They’re not happy when their “contact” turns out to be a fourteen-year-old kid, but Danny begs them to save his parents. Godiva is trying to get info from the Chases, but she shows off her crazy side when she makes them fight each other for her 
amusement (and when she shoots one of her guards for smoking … apparently she’s a health nut, “nut” being the operative word). The Titans head for Switzerland to look for Danny’s parents, but won’t allow him to come along (since they don’t believe he’s really a government agent). He seems to have some kind of super-powers (telekinesis definitely), so they finally agree to bring him along. Danny’s father has broken and told Godiva where to find a defense satellite that she’s been hired to destroy (although she actually plans to steal it and auction it to the highest bidder). When the Titans attack her hideout later, they make short work of the guards and learn where Godiva went. They catch up with her at an army base in Cruseilles and she uses her
mind-control powers to make them fight each other (and to make out with Cyborg again). She also slaps Danny down before taking off in a shuttle. Danny uses is powers to keep the Titans from being roasted and finally tells them the truth … basically, his grandpa worked on the Manhattan Project and the radiation mutated his genes enough that Danny ended up with powers. He talks the Titans into bringing him along when they go after Godiva. They contact Slade (Deathstroke) Wilson, who lets them know where and when Godiva’s auctioning the satellite. In Tahiti, Godiva has gathered a bunch of dictators 
(or wannabe dictators) to bid for the stolen satellite, but she decides to just take their money and kill them instead. The Titans show up and start pounding Godiva’s goons. She triggers the shuttle to explode and Danny uses his telekinesis to hold it together, but Godiva escapes. Wonder Girl and Starfire rescue Danny just before the shuttle blows up. In a couple of epilogues, we see Godiva is planning her next scheme and the Titans invite Danny to join them for some unfathomable reason.