DC Finest: Justice League of America: The Bridge Between Earths

DC Finest: Justice League of America #2

by Gardner Francis Fox, Dennis O'Neil, Mike Sekowsky (Artist)

A major new line of DC collected editions begins with the earliest stories starring the Justice League!

Welcome to DC Finest, a major new publishing initiative presenting comprehensive collections of the most in-demand and celebrated periods in DC Comics history, spanning genres, characters, and eras!

DC Finest: Justice League of America: The Bridge Between Earths collects tales of the Justice Leage: the earth’s first line of defense against threats too large for humanity to face alone. And every time, they have overcome the odds and saved the human race.

Collects Justice League of America #45-72

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels

614 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2024

About the author

Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic book historians estimate that he wrote more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC Comics.
Fox is known as the co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story "Flash of Two Worlds!"

Pseudonyms: Gardner F. Fox, Jefferson Cooper, Bart Sommers, Paul Dean, Ray Gardner, Lynna Cooper, Rod Gray, Larry Dean, Robert Starr, Don Blake, Ed Blake, Warner Blake, Michael Blake, Tex Blane, Willis Blane, Ed Carlisle, Edgar Weston, Tex Slade, Eddie Duane, Simon Majors, James Kendricks, Troy Conway, Kevin Matthews, Glen Chase

Reviews

[S.E. Martens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Justice League stories from 1966-69. These are interesting to read, particularly as background for tackling Crisis on Infinite Earths, which I plan to read sometime this year. We see plenty of Earth 1/Earth 2 crossovers. I really like the idea of parallel Earths with different heroes, or different versions of heroes, but these stories just didn't do much for me.

I'm surprised because I genuinely love Superman and Batman stories from this time period - they tend to be very wacky and highly amusing. By comparison the Justice League stories feel more formulaic - the group responds to a call for help, split into pairs, tackles an enemy . . . often statues that come to life . . . seriously, that happens more than once.

I don't really think these heroes are that similar but you wouldn't know it from these stories, which paint everyone in a very bland, one-dimensional light. These stories also have an odd habit of bringing in additional characters as "guest stars" but then not really doing anything special with them.

For example: Zatanna appears in Justice League of America No. 51 but she summons magic duplicates of the regular league members to do everything. No. 55 poses the question "Will a grown-up Robin win where his fellow Justice Society members are losing?" and the answer is just "no." No. 60 features Batgirl but she doesn't get to do anything interesting.

There were a couple stories I genuinely enjoyed:

No. 59: The Justice League's Impossible Adventure feels kind of like a Star Tres: TOS episode. The Justice League is transported to an alien planet where mysterious aliens take away their powers.

No. 68 The Justice League of America Meets the Chaos Maker has a giant single-celled organism from prehistory, nicknamed the "Neverwas," stumble upon time-travel powers and "attack" (blunder into) the present. This one was told in an interesting way - from "Neverwas" viewpoint - and we see that he is actually afraid of the Justice League.

Some random funny moments:

(after the League gets trapped by glue)
Batman: What are you waiting for, Green Lantern?
Flash: Here's the chance you wanted!
Hawkman: Power-Ring us loose!
Green Lantern: You guys must be kidding! The glue that's holding us fastened to these metal streamers is yellow! It's smeared all over my ring! You know DARN WELL my power ring has no effect on yellow!
(p. 390)
It always kills me when Green Lantern's weakness to the color yellow comes up.

Also, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman being jerks while rejecting a letter requesting the JL's help:
Green Lantern: Our task is to fight real threats - not to act as costumed job counselors! We can't be bothered with capers that any bush-league private eye could handle without working up a sweat! I vote we forget the professor!
Wonder Woman: And I second that vote! Let's get to something important!
(p. 472)
Note: they did not have anything "important."

I wish there were more somewhat silly parts like this - I can enjoy the silliness. However, overall, I found the stories pretty bland.

[Phillip Cash · Rating 1 out of 5]

(DNF)

This was one of my first forays into Silver Age DC, and sheesh, are these stories ever rough. The cover blurb on JLA #45 ("the Justice Leaguers were warned there was no way to defeat 'Shaggy Man'--but they were willing to die trying!) says it all. Cheesy, poorly written, poorly drawn, and extremely wordy even by the standards of the time.

The follow up stories in #46-47 make up the duology that the title of the collection comes from, and I had to push myself to get through them. It manages to be convoluted and childish (yes, childish even by the standards of superhero comics of the time) at the same time.

Following those first three issues, I decided to give the book up, but sampled a couple of issues from later in the collection just for the hell of it. The Zatanna appearance in #51 caught my attention but the story was subpar. I then tried out #71 since it's part of a new run (by Dennis O'Neil), and while it's better than the Fox stuff that most of the collection is made up of, it's nothing special.

[Mariano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gardner Fox starts off funny, then gets silly, then gets repetitive, and ends up pretty cool once Denny O'neil takes over. It's an interesting read, although it requires taking your time, this is not a binge read.

I feel things improve a lot once Dick Dillin takes over the art. I'm not a Mike Sekowsky fan and reading so many issues by him solidified that. He has some good moments, but mostly I find him uninspired. It like Dillin a lot better, you can tell we are entering the post Adams/Giordano world.

The most interesting part is that, contrary to what is usually said, there was a continuity back then. Not super strong like we have in the O'neil issues, but there are a lot of references to past issues. And the relationship between Earth 1 and 2 works great.

The edition of the book is amazing, this is going to be a great collection. Some extras like house ads from that time would have been cool, but we are getting +600 pages for 40 bucks, we are cool.

[Doug Duncan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very slow read for me, as while I appreciate this era and type of comic I didn't enjoy it either. I found it hard to want to read this, and there were few stories that I particularly enjoyed. I did think the last few issues with a new writer were a huge step up for me.

[Beastyos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peak?

This is once again proof that Stan Lee and other Marvel writers of the Silver Age can't write for shit.
Proof: this book is readable, not that sexist, not a slog to get through, actually fun, an actual story instead of build up that leads to an anticlimatic ending, making me want to read more, making me want to learn more about these characters, doesn't switch the names of their characters around, etc..
Really the only thing they equally are is racist, and that's just because of one issue

I'm actually really glad I read the Justice Society for America and Democracy before this, it was great to see my boys again, this time working together and not punching the Japanese. I was actually very surprised to learn that time had actually passed for them, I thought t hey would also have a moving timeline but no, Batman is retired, Robin is an adult and the Flash is going grey, and in that time some have even gotten new costumes, for the better or the worse. Great to see Sandman in his original costume again, but Hawkman's new costume is horrible, I wasn't a fan of his Golden Age design, getting rid of the whole beak tongue included was a good call, but getting rid of the hawk head entirely was stupid. The JLA and JCA are big teams so I'm actually glad not all members are in every issue, that would've been way to chaotic and most of the time it got explained why they weren't there in a later issue or in the issue itself but, it was annoying none of the Earth 1 JLA got to meet there Earth 2 counter part. They probably had in some issue, but here they just seemed to ignore duplicates which kinda bugged me, and what bugged me even more is when one of the teams need help, they don't think "Oh maybe let's call up other superheroes from our earth to help, you know the rest of our team, or other superheroes not in our team" but they think "oh yes, let's call the people from another universe to go and help us, that'd be great". To give an example, if I remember correctly there was an issue where the JCA needed Superman for something, and instead of calling over their own Superman, they wanted the Earth 1 Superman. I don't know what's going on in that universe, and I know Batman is retired, so Superman as well be, but they don't even mention him. Again, last time I heard anything from this universe was 25 years or so before this comic, so I don't know what's going on in the universe, there could be a valid explenation, but I just think it's kinda weird.

Anyway, I really like what they did with Johnny Thunder because he's actually a likeable character now, but what I like even more is what they did with Red Tornado. I honestly kind of forgot she appeared in the Justice Society, even though I read that issue, but I like that she got brought back in some capicity, if only by name sake. And it turns out, he is now one of my favourite heroes, don't ask me why, I've only seen him in the 3 issues he appeared in in this collection, but I really fuck with him.

Ofcourse there is still a lot of Silver Age silliness (which I personally don't mind, I love silliness in my media), but these stories are genuinely great, I wouldn't say a must read, but definitly a pleasent surprise. For me the biggest surprise besides this being genuinely a really enjoyable read, is that you can kinda tell this is the end of the Silver Age, there are a surprising amount of meta jokes about the silliness of these plots, and not in the annoying "Eurhm this just happened" way, but in a genuinely funny and entertaining way.

I love this collection, if Red Tornado and Anti-Matter man don't have a major role in Crisis on Infinite Earths, I'm ending it.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decente colección de historias de la Liga de la Justicia de finales de los 60. Un tanto formulaicas, superficiales y tontorronas, eso sí, aunque en las últimas, Denny O'Neill trata de imprimir una personalidad diferenciada a cada miembro del grupo, e incluso inicia tímidos intentos de profundizar en la psicología de algunos de ellos. Pero lo cierto es que la parte del león del volumen se la lleva el equipo formado por Gardner Fox al guion y Mike Sekowsky a los lápices y, aunque son dos venerables y respetables veteranos, sus relatos no pasan de ser más o menos entretenidos y dotados de una correcta narrativa. El traspaso de la parte artística a Dick Dillin resulta todo un acierto, pues este dibujante eleva la calidad gráfica de los tebeos varios enteros, rozando en ocasiones la excelencia. Como prácticamente coincide con el relevo de O'Neill a los guiones, podemos decir que, con este nuevo equipo creativo, nos adentramos en una nueva era en la historia del equipo por excelencia de DC. Esperemos que la línea Finest siga viento en popa, y se edite en breve un nuevo volumen en el que se recopilen más tebeos correspondientes a esta etapa, que aquí solo ocupa unas 150 páginas de las más de 600 que componen este voluminoso tomo.

Por cierto, aunque soy un firme defensor del papel poroso, ideal para disfrutar de estos cómics tal y como fueron originalmente concebidos, me empieza a molestar la ínfima calidad del utilizado en esta línea. Resulta incluso aconsejable leerlos con guantes de estos de goma finitos, tipo quirúrgicos o de limpieza, porque la más mínima suciedad, restos de grasa en los dedos, o lo que sea, se traspasa a la página con una facilidad pasmosa. En fin, por el precio que tienen estos cómics, tampoco se puede pedir más...

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently, DC Finest is a misnomer because most of this is just awful. I know Gardner Fox was a popular writer at DC but these are terrible and formulaic. Each issue has some Justice League members show up, there's a threat and they all split into small teams so Fox can divvy the story up into 3 chapters. They are all dumb as hell and filled with leaps of logic. There are 3 crossovers with Earth-2's Justice Society but those stories aren't any better.

Denny O'Neil takes over for the last 6 issues and saves this. His stories don't always work but at least he is trying. There's some good stuff in there too, like the creature Neverwas which has a nice little twist at the end. The end of the book starts falling in line with the other DC books of the time with Wonder Woman leaving because she lost her powers.

[Shawn Gallagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the format. That's a plus. I just forgot how silly these stories are compared to what Marvel was producing at the same time. Only the last few issues start to develop subplots and continuity. Maybe it's only me, but Marvel was light years ahead of the Distinguished Competition at this point.

[Matt Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting early run of stories early in the Justice League this has a lot of crossovers with parallel earths. Though some stories are fun the characters were one dimensional. The art saves this. Covers 1966-1969.

[Frank Jarome · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kinda rough. Some real fun ones, and some real stinkers. Definitely inconsistent overall.

[Del · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent run of silver age DC stories. All great fun.

[Russell Moffett · Rating 2 out of 5]

60s Justice League is a bit of a slog but a few fun issues.

[Tommy Pett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a mixed bag but there are some really enjoyable stories like "The Bridge Between Earths", "Z is for Zatanna", the negative crisis, the impossibles/contra-earth story, the return of the red tornado, and the "neverwas" storyline. The art is mostly typical for this time period, but I was surprised to really enjoy the art once Dick Dillon took over on pencilling with issue #64.