There's no Justice...in this comic, appearances notwithstanding.

For "The End" week this year, one of the books I didn't get to in my pile of last issues was Justice #32, the last issue of the New Universe title. And spoiler alert, it's not very good: we've mentioned before how that title had been massively retconned midstream, but while there's a couple decent supporting character beats, Peter David gets really referencey-jokey, even for him, here; and Lee Weeks had moved on: the art was by Alan Kupperberg and feels rushed. Of course, I also say in that post, don't buy Justice out of the quarter bins, it will just hurt you; but of course I'm not one to take my own advice. That said, we've got something else today, but close: from 1987, Nightmask #8, "Transfer Point" Written by Archie Goodwin, pencils by Keith Giffen, inks by Rich Bryant. 

Nightmask was one of several New Universe books cancelled at the twelfth issue, and although Marvel has tried to bring a redesigned version back, I don't know much about the character, Keith Remsen, except that he could enter people's dreams. Which seems tapped into the zeitgeist, "Dream Warriors" would have been having their moment in 1987! The series didn't appear to have a consistent art team--which could lend itself to dream interpretation, or could make every issue feel like a fill-in--ah, there's a Kyle Baker issue in there! It also wasn't consistently written, either: this would be the last written by series creator Archie Goodwin, and it ties into another New Universe character he created: Justice. Who appears here, as an implacable serial killer with a laser hand. Even though Keith knows it's out-of-character for him, he sees Justice murder most of his supporting cast, while coming for him and his sister Teddy.

To try and pump himself up in a chase on a subway train, Keith manifests his Nightmask costume, while awake, which he hadn't been able to before. Because he was in a dream, duh: he had been trapped in the nightmare of a young thug, whose older brother had been a drug dealer killed by Justice in his first issue. The thug had seen the murder and understandably been a bit traumatized, but in trying to help him, Keith's own survivor's guilt over the deaths of his parents transferred "Justice" to him, and he has to work through that guilt and his fear to survive. Granted, "it was all a dream!" but it's still a much more solid comic than the New Universe rep would lead you to believe. We've actually seen Nightmask before on the blog, but in his own series, he appeared to need his sister as an anchor to reality; that was probably phased out after his title was cancelled, because we know it's traditional as hell to lose your supporting cast when that happens...!