Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "justice-society-of-america"

All Star Comics Archives, Vol. 2 by Gardner F. Fox

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The book begins with a rousing introduction from Jerry Bails, which really sets the stage for the book.

The Justice Society were the original large-scale Superhero team. This second volume collects All Star Comics Issues 7-10 with 4 adventures from the Justice Society. The society featured a team plus several honorary members. At the start of this book, the honorary members are Batman, Superman, and the Golden Age Flash.

Issue 7 was the first and only issue during the Green Lantern era as Chairman of the Society. The society sets out raise $1 million for humanitarian war relief. Usually, they don't accept rewards, but they've got the spirit of World War 2 and set out to help others in a fun and moving adventure. Grade: A-

Issue 8 begins the Hawkman era as Chairman as the Golden Age Green Lantern joins the honorary member list. The plot centers around several criminals going insane. With Green Lantern inactive and Hourman taking a leave of absence, that opens spots for Starman and Dr. Midnite who are introduced in this issue. Overall, this was an okay story with unsatisfactory ending. However, it's made better because All Star Comics #8 throws in the first Wonder Woman story at no additional cost. Grade: B+

Issue 9 features the JSA going after fifth columnists spread throughout Central America. and J. Edgar Hoover being made an honorary JSA member. I'm usually all in for World War 2 propaganda efforts, this one suffered. There was really no unified meeting or big goals the team was going for leading to an average series of solo stories. Grade: C

Issue 10 has the Justice Society Teaming up with scientists who are working on a system of bombing defense. No one has the exact way to do it, but one of them has invented a time machine and the JSA proposed to go forward in time to get the components. Yes, it's a time paradox, but I have to love the optimism about the future even in the midst of war. A hopeful and fun story. Grade: A-

The big plus in this issue besides Wonder Woman is Captain Midnite who could have been a basis for Daredevil. While the Golden Age Atom is a weak character, my least favorite character here is Johnny Thunder who remains the, "One of these things is not like the other" member of the JSA as his magic thunderbolt genie is the only ace he has. It's a good ace but functions as a deus ex machina for the clueless JSA member.

But even with Johnny Thunder, the book was still pretty fun reading.



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All Star Comics Archives, Vol. 1 by Gardner F. Fox

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book collects All Star Comics #3-6 the first appearances of the Justice Society of America in 1941.

Issue 3 is the official first appearance of the Justice Society but all the group actually does is meet and tell stories of their adventures making it an anthology story. Still, I appreciated how special it must have been for kids in 1941 to see the heroes all on the same place, and the interactions are fun.

Issue 4 sees the Justice Society getting to work on special assignment from the FBI rooting out fifth columnist activity. Some of this activity is sophistic, some isn't-such as when the Golden Age Atom who asks people, "You don't like America do you? Wouldn't you like a dictatorship better?" This issue follows the formula of almost all future issues as the JSA meet at the beginning, split up and individual take on the bad guys and then come back together at the end. In this case, they're led back towards that city of Nazi power-Toledo, Ohio.

Issue 5 is almost the reverse of a typical JSA story as a master criminal plans to take out the JSA and teams up crooks to go after them. The way this story plays out is a lot of fun with a great running gag.

After getting his own comic book, All-Flash Quarterly, the Flash was chosen as an honorary member and Johnny Thunder is to replace him on the active list. The JSA gives him an initiation of tracking down a criminal and they show him a series of headlines detailing the criminal's heinous crimes. After Johnny leaves, the JSA reveals the criminal is actually nut who prints these newspapers himself. However, despite this, Johnny Thunder manages to get into so much trouble that every single member of the Justice Society has to come to rescue him once. While I'm not a huge fan of Johnny Thunder in the JSA, this book on his initiation was just hilarious.

Overall, these are some of the most fun golden age comics I've read. The JSA is executed in a way that's fun and lighthearted, but with some decent adventures and with great variety. The solo adventures in the book which are part of every story include true Superpowered heroes (Flash, Green Lantern, and Hour Man), nonpowered Heroes (The Atom and the Sandman), and also supernatural heroes (The Spectre and Doctor Fate.)

Overall, this book is a highly recommended read for any superhero fan.





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Showcase Presents: All Star Comics by Paul Levitz

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The original run of the Justice Society of America ended with All Star Comics #57 in 1951. The JSA were retired with sales of Superhero comics lagging and a new group of heroes emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s but with the brilliance of "The Flash of Two Worlds," it was established the Golden Age heroes existed on Earth Two while our Silver Age friends existed on Earth One and the old JSA got together with the Justice League of America every year and finally got their own title back with the return of All Star Comics.

While in modern day Superhero comics, no one needs much of an excuse to create a whole new Issue 1, despite a lapse of twenty-five years in All-Star Comics, the Justice Society's Adventures try to pick where they left off in All Star Comics #58 and continue on through Issue 74 before having a run as one of several features in Adventure Comics #461-466 and DC Special #29. Unfortunately, the JSA couldn't just go back.

There's a lot of interesting features in this book. It includes the first appearance of Powergirl, aging of Superman and Batman into middle age with Bruce Wayne (as Gotham City Police Commissioner) declaring war on the JSA in the best storyline of the book. DC Special #29 offers in untold JSA origin story with an absolutely stunning full page picture of Superman punching through a squadron of Nazi planes. Indeed, even when the storylines let you down (as they often do) the artwork remains very good throughout the entire book. We also have the Huntress taking a big role as a bit of a Batman surrogate for the new generation, and the Psycho-Pirate is a solid villain in several stories. Also being set on Earth 2 allowed DC to play around with the universe and kill off a famous hero who they never would in main continuity.

However, the book is one of the weaker Showcase Presents collections I've read. Due to success at Marvel with characters who bickered rather than being "Super Friends," many Superhero books were being written with heroes who didn't get along and weren't always the best people to be around. However, trying this tact on the first Superhero team from a company known for iconic role model heroes, it doesn't feel right and it's hard to like most of these characters. The Flash abandons his team in the midst of a battle, Powergirl begins as a hypersensitive 1970s Comic Book feminist who takes everything as a sexist slight and thinks that the less men who are on the team the better as there will be less men to compete with her. She does mellow out later on but it takes a while. Wildcat is constantly facing mortal injury. No one on this team is all that likable which makes the stories a challenge. This isn't help by a 17 page book length and a roster that just kept changing. You also do see the book blame the end of the Justice Society in the 1950s on the Red Scare (despite any real foundation in this story) which is certainly a lot better tale than "low post-war Circulation."

Overall, this book has some charms but it also has plenty of reminders of why the Justice Society's 1950s revival was so short lived.



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All Star Comics Archives, Volume 4 by Gardner F. Fox

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects four issues of All Star Comics from 1943 in Issues 15-18. This volume sees the Justice Society back off a bit from the war. While Americans were all for our War Efforts, they didn't want to hear about war in every book, movie, radio program, and certainly not every comic book. However, Issue 16 would be an exception to this.

Each issue told one over-arching story with the Justice Society together at the end and the beginning of the story while each hero had his own six page mini-adventure.

First off, Issue 15 has every member of the Justice Society so busy they can't attend the meeting but not too busy to send their secretary Wonder Woman their excuses. Wonder Woman's biggest role in this book is getting her and all the girlfriends of the heroes captures. (Wonder Woman couldn't take part in battles because she was only the secretary.) The story itself introduces a great supervillain for the Justice Society in Brain Wave. Still, his plot using mirror images does get a little old plus the nonsensical girlfriend plot weighs this down. Grade: B-

Issue 16 has the Justice Society taking on a series of Nazi spies trying to pit Americans against one another. It's a beautiful patriotic story. For those of us who admire the greatest generation's sense of unity and purpose, this is a gorgeous illustration of that, particularly the last couple pages. Grade: A-

Issue 17 marks the return of Brain Wave and this time he's shrunk the Justice Society. The story is better than the last time though there are a few sore points. It doesn't even make sense to shrink the Spectre given his powers, the Thunderbolt has to appear in all the stories to bail Johnny out. Grade: B+

Issue 18 sees the Justice Society battling King Bee who has turned men into human bug creatures with the powers of Insects. It's a fun concept and a b it educational too. Overall, a decent final story. Grade: B

The book has a warm and nostalgic introduction by James Robinson who wrote the modern day Starman revival. Overall, this is an enjoyable installment and a step up in quality from Volume 3 and a very enjoyable chapter in the career of the Justice Society.



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