DC Finest: Justice Society of America: The Plunder of the Psycho-Pirate

DC Finest: Justice Society of America #1942–1945

by Gardner Francis Fox, Joe Gallagher (Illustrator), Stan Aschmeier (Illustrator)

A Golden Age classic starring the Justice Society of America, collected for today's readers! Experience a pivotal story arc in JSA history featuring the Psycho-Pirate!
DC Finest continues, a major publishing initiative presenting comprehensive collections of the most in-demand and celebrated periods in DC Comics history, spanning genres, characters, and eras!
Written by Golden Age all-star, Gardner Fox, the Justice Society encounters a powerful new foe with the ability to manipulate their emotions! Will the Psycho-Pirate prove too much for the team to handle?
This volume collects All-Star Comics #13-24.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics

608 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2025

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

[Matt Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some good stories in here especially since this covers the rest of WWII. Great time capsule for comics back then. The art might not be the best but there’s some creativity in this. Covers 1942-1945.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siempre resulta complicadísimo valorar estos cómics, con un valor histórico de diez, y un valor artístico de prácticamente cero. Y es que, aparte de que (salvo Sheldon Moldoff y unos jovencísimos Jack Kirby y Joe Kubert, que apenas ilustran unas cuantas páginas de este volumen), los dibujantes parecen auténticos amateurs, contratados por enchufe o por ser capaces de perpetrar un alto número de páginas al mes. En cuanto a los guiones, soy el primero en reconocer a Gardner Fox como uno de los grandes de la Silver Age (su trabajo en Hawkman junto a Joe Kubert, por ejemplo, habla por sí solo), pero aquí todavía es un novato, y vaya si se nota. Las historias son calcadas las unas de las otras, los súper villanos, escasos y poco consistentes entre una aparición y otra (Brainwave es capaz de proyectar ilusiones extremadamente realistas en el cómic en el que se presenta, y luego ya no), y la propaganda, omnipresente y machacona. Las historias de Hop Harrigan, por su parte, son simplemente ilegibles.

En fin, que al final me he decantado por las tres estrellitas (en realidad, un 6,5), únicamente por lo primero que he dicho, por su incalculable valor histórico. Si lo que importa es pasar un rato entretenido, no lo recomiendo en absoluto. Cualquier otro DC Finest es mejor, siento decirlo. En fin, es lo que hay... historias producto de su tiempo que no han envejecido nada bien.

[Jörg Schumacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second volume of DC Finest reprint of the early Justice Society adventures. As in the first volumne you can see, that the didn't know how to tell a team story. Every issue contains a solo adventure for every member off the society, that only cummulated on the last pages where the mastermind of the crimes was apprehanded.
This volumne needs a lot of trigger warnings, thanks to its age. The stories are racist, misogynist and
don't care for legal procedures, due process or any limitations of that kind. The mentioning of Wonder Woman as secretary on the first page of every issue, made me cringe.
The focus of the stories shift with the ongoing of the war. In the first volumne a lot of villians were axis spies and saboteurs. With the entry of the US in the war, the villians change to more common thugs and masterminds. But the footer of the page starts to ask for war contributions from the readers.
The last issue in this volumne is a "why we fight" kind of story. The focus is only on Germany and the shallow propaganda of it made me shift from laughing to anger. If you are a German you're very excused to skip this.
Do I recommend this volumne? Only out of historical curiosity, it's amazing where superheroes got from there.

[Churchbob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The golden age was a really weird time. Ya gotta love the speeches found in these pages. Messages like we're all Americans now! We are all in this together! Hate has no place in America! We should accept everyone! BUT, all the time I'm vibing on this, in the back of my mind I'm remembering Jim Crow, segregation and internment camps. Kinda like 'easy preaching, hard living.'

That aside, it was also really interesting to see so much creativity shoved into so few pages. Sure, mostly the world's most powerful people are fighting mobsters, but mixed in are so many unique stories that actually do mesh together well (for the most part).

Overall, I think this collection is worth a look just to get a glimpse of who we thought we were, and what we hoped to aspire to.

Thanks DC Comics for making this available!