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All Star Comics Archives #7

All Star Comics Archives, Vol. 7

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A collection of the adventures of the Justice Society of America, which at various times includes Wonder Woman, the Flash, the Green Lantern, Dr. Midnite, Wildcat, and Hawkman.

216 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2001

66 people want to read

About the author

Gardner Francis Fox

1,193 books89 followers
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

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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Profile Image for Dimitris Papastergiou.
2,527 reviews87 followers
January 13, 2021
Gonna say it was ok just for the paintings sequence story plot. It was interesting in general and actually gonna go ahead and say half of Fox's ideas were pretty decent. Especially since it was the 40s. The execution on the other hand and the dialogue is corny to say the least and silly overall.

Still wouldn't recommend this unless you're time traveling from the 40s and you're missing the comics of your time.
Profile Image for Skjam!.
1,642 reviews52 followers
August 15, 2024
From All Star Comics #3 (Summer 1940) to All Star Comics #57 (March 1951), that comic book series was the home of the Justice Society of America, DC Comics’ first superhero team. This volume covers #29 (June 1946) to #33 (February 1947).

As discussed by Roy Thomas in his introduction, the membership of the JSA had stabilized for a while at seven members: Hawkman, Flash, Atom, Green Lantern, Dr. Mid-Nite, Johnny Thunder and Wonder Woman (secretary.) But due to publishing shenanigans, stories came up out of order, and this sometimes required rewrites and redraws. All the stories here are by Gardner Fox. Let’s take a look at what this volume has to offer!

#29 “The Man Who Knows Too Much” pits the Justice Society against Landor. Landor’s from the year 2445 where war, crime, poverty and other social ills have finally been licked. Life in this utopia would seem perfect, but Landor is a throwback who craves action and adventure. Having seen films of the JSA in action, he romanticizes the mid-20th Century and longs to live in that exciting time.

Landor filches some period clothing and a mothballed time machine from the local museum, ignoring the boxes of antique money just lying around (there are no guards because no one bothers to steal anymore.) He also doesn’t bring any of his 25th Century technology with him. (He reminds me of the Time Traveler from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine for lack of forethought.)

The time machine hasn’t been maintained, and disintegrates on arrival. While Landor is pretty up on his science and technology skills, he never learned how to build a time machine. So he’s stuck in 1946, and quickly learns that you need money to get anywhere legally in America. He also doesn’t know how to access charity, so spends a couple days on the streets getting hungrier, more ragged and less able to think.

Johnny Thunder runs into Landor, and being a soft touch, treats the “homeless lunatic” to dinner. Landor explains his deal to the disbelieving Johnny. He turns an ordinary cigarette lighter into a glass-melting green flamethrower, but Johnny is distracted by a pretty waitress and doesn’t notice. Landor announces that the Sapphire State Building will vanish at two o’ clock today, but Johnny’s lost patience and ambles off.

Sure enough, the Sapphire State Building vanishes at two o’ clock in the afternoon. Landor issues a challenge to the Justice Society over an electric fan he’s turned into a radio transmitter. He’s going to do fantastic things at six sites, and dares the JSA to try to stop him. The six male members of the team each choose a location while Wonder Woman stays at their HQ to coordinate. (Sadly, none of the stories in this volume give WW more to do than this.)

Landor’s gimmick is that he has such a thorough understanding of future scientific and technological advances that he can kit-bash working super science gadget out of ordinary Twentieth Century items. A flashlight becomes a disintegrator, a washing machine becomes a force field generator, and so forth. He also cows a local criminal gang into working with him on the premise that he’s going to share some of the loot he’s gathering so his life of adventure can be lived in fun conditions.

Naturally, the heroes thwart each of his schemes, and at the end gather together to give him a proper thrashing. Landor is returned to the future (taking several hours of concentration by Green Lantern) a chastened man, ready to embrace a peaceful life where all have what they need.

#30 “The Dreams of Madness” had been written and drawn back when Starman and the Spectre had been on the team, while Green Lantern and Flash had not. So some quick rewriting and drawing was necessary to adapt it to the current cast, which can be spotted by a sharp eye. The Justice Society is contacted by Forest Malone, a scientist who has invented a dream recorder. He wants to record the JSA’s dreams for the advancement of science. Naturally, our heroes agree.

But as soon as the heroes are asleep in the machine, Malone reveals himself to actually be Henry King, the Brain Wave! The psychic villain had not in fact perished the last time they defeated him. The so-called “dream recorder” is actually a dream inducer. Each of the Justice Society members will be subjected to a customized nonsensical nightmare that will drive him mad!

So we get six imaginative scenarios which induce delusions in their target, for example making Dr. Mid-Nite think he’s a walking plague. Except that goofball Johnny Thunder is actually driven sensible. With the aid of his Thunderbolt and Brain Wave’s hubris, he’s able to capture the villain and restore his friends’ sanity. But in the aftermath Johnny takes a bump to the head and returns to goofball.

#31 “The Workshop of Willie Wonder” has the title toymaker possessed by a globe-shaped energy being named Zor of the Duna. He makes contact with the underworld and starts making them wonderful toys to commit crime with, verging on the magical.

The Justice Society is contacted by other members of the Duna. They’re worried that Zor will step up to ruling or even destroying the Earth once he gets bored with crime. These beings feel that directly controlling or harming sentient beings is wrong, so they need the JSA to fight the criminals and track down the current location of Zor. They follow the heroes invisibly.

My favorite chapter of this one is Green Lantern having to fight statues of Thor, Samson and Achilles that have the mythical powers of those individuals. It turns out at the end that Zor is a mental defective of the Duna species, their sane minds are far more powerful.

#32 “The Return of the Psycho-Pirate” brings back the original Psycho-Pirate, a small, meek-looking man with white hair and a droopy mustache. He has no actual powers but is a master of emotional manipulation. (This was the twist reveal at the end of his first appearance.) He was supposed to be in a story between his first and this one titled “The Will of William Wilson”, but that story was shelved for unknown reasons, and only partial art is still in existence.

This story starts some months ago, with the Psycho-Pirate sharing a cell with gang boss Big Mike. Big Mike expresses skepticism about the Pirate’s ability to commit crimes just by playing on people’s emotions, but the old man demonstrates by manipulating a guard to allow the prisoners to escape. Big Mike is impressed, and agrees to work for the Psycho-Pirate along with his gang.

Over the next little while, there are a number of crimes committed which play up various emotions, so the Justice Society is pretty sure the Psycho-Pirate is behind them, but can’t get enough evidence to trace his hiding place.

Big Mike, who wants to get revenge on the JSA for putting him away last time, gets impatient. He arranges for Johnny Thunder to stumble across a wallet containing partial plans for the gang’s next six plans. Then he tells the Psycho-Pirate this was accidentally leaked, and sells the leader on modifying the plans to also kill any hero that shows up.

This is my favorite of the stories in this volume. While the usual bad emotions like Pride and Anger are covered, there’s also crimes based on Curiosity and Humility, and focus not just on stopping the criminals but repairing the lives of those targeted. Plus the Psycho-Pirate runs the gamut of the emotional spectrum himself.

Amusingly, Johnny Thunder is the star of the Humility chapter, having been chastened enough to go about his investigation the correct way. He returns to his foolish ways by the end of the final chapter, though.

#32 “The Revenge of Solomon Grundy!” brings back one of the Green Lantern’s most dangerous foes. He’d once been miser Cyrus Gold, who was murdered in Slaughter Swamp outside Gotham City. Some strange chemical reaction turned his corpse into a zombie-ish creature with no conscious memory of who he’d been. Born on Monday, he’d named himself after the old nursery rhyme. Grundy is hostile to most humans, but especially to Alan Scott, the Green Lantern. Solomon Grundy is partially plant-based, so the power ring’s flame does not work well on him.

At the end of their last battle, Green Lantern had been able to trap Solomon Grundy in a near-indestructible force sphere. So now, it gets hit by lightning powerful enough to break the containment.

The Justice Society members enter their headquarters to find the place wrecked and Green Lantern missing. A huge muddy footprint matches Solomon Grundy’s, so he’s the obvious suspect. The team (except Wonder Woman) splits up to investigate towns he’s been rumored to appear in. Johnny Thunder gets to defeat a fake Grundy.

Eventually it turns out that Green Lantern escaped just before Solomon Grundy arrived, the swamp monster wrecked the place out of frustration, and Alan’s been in hiding ever since to guide the Society and Grundy to the right location. The whole team gangs up on Grundy to finally subdue him. Then Green Lantern puts him in another force sphere…on the moon. It would take a while for Solomon Grundy to get out of that fix.

There’s also the standard text stories in each issue. They’re very skippable.

This is a rather weak volume of the series. Gardner Fox seems to be phoning it in a few times, he barely acknowledges Wonder Woman is on the team, and other than Johnny, the main characters have no depth of personality. The first three stories also show the limits of having to split the team up for separate adventures each time which requires a different plot for each.

But the Psycho-Pirate story shows a lot more effort being put in, which helps immensely, and the Grundy story has some atmospheric moments. Oh, and Joe Kubert on Hawkman is good even in the early days.

Check out library loan to read the entire series! Recommended to Justice Society fans.

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Profile Image for Rich Meyer.
Author 50 books57 followers
November 26, 2014
Another great volume in this series, though naturally modern fans might find the art a bit below their standards. Joe Kubert and Irwin Hasen do their usual great jobs, but John Chester Kozlak really shines on his Atom chapters - usually they're the low points of these collections but Kozlak rose to the occasion on the ones reprinted here.

This volume features the second appearances of Solomon Grundy and the original Psycho-Pirate, and is full of the usual post-war golden age madness when it comes to the stories themselves. Crazy but fun reads!
Profile Image for Adam Graham.
Author 63 books69 followers
June 27, 2018
The Golden Age Justice Society team of Hawkman, the Flash, Green Lanter, Doctor Midntite, the Atom, Johnny Thunder, and Wonder Woman as Secretary return for five post-War adventures in Issues 29-33

Issue 29: The Man Who Knew Much: Landor, a man bored with a Utopian future returns to the 1940s only to discover it takes money to live so he sets out to commit some daring crimes to capture the attention of the Justice Society. Really fun. Grade: B+

Issue 30: Dreams of Madness: An old JSA villain Brainwave tricks the JSA into going under so that he can use their dreams to drive the mad. Can anyone save the JSA? This is the best story for Johnny Thunder I've ever read. A very fun ending. Grade: B+

Issue 31: The Workship of Willie Wonder: A toymaker is turned evil by a mini-red evil alien sun creature and designs stuff for criminal. A bit meh for me on this one. Grade: C

Issue 32: The Return of Psycho Pirate: Psycho Pirate returns in a story that serves to teach kids the dangers of letting various emotions get out of control. Not sure the writer understands humility, but anyway not a bad story. Grade: B

Issue 33: The Revenge of Solomon Grundy: JSA Headquarters has been trashed, Green Lantern's disappeared and his old enemy Solomon Grundy is on the loose. It's easily one of the best JSA tales I've ever read. Very tense ending. Grade: A

Overall, this is a strong volume. The worst story is only mediocre. I actually found myself enjoying the Johnny Thunder chapters, and everything else is as good or better than previous volumes. One big bonus of this book is Roy Thomas' loving introduction. His passion and enthusiasm for the series shows and is quite contagious. A very solid read.
Profile Image for Stephen Bedard.
593 reviews6 followers
July 16, 2022
I love this era of comics and these characters are classic. These specific issues include the important villains Brain Wave, Psycho Pirate, and Solomon Grundy. Loved them!
Author 27 books37 followers
July 25, 2015
Now, this is referred to as the volume before the good stuff happens, the precursor for the 'golden age' of JSA story telling, but I got to say, it's pretty good stuff on it's own.

Post-WW2 the JSA is fighting fewer nazis, gangsters and spies and instead we have a time traveler, an evil alien, two super villains and Solomon Grundy.
Not bad for being considered 'the stuff before the good stuff'.

The formula is the same: bad thing happens JSA splits into six solo investigations, Wonder Woman hangs around JSA HQ while the guys with no super powers take on a killer robot and then big team up to wrap up the story.

Fox does a nice job of adding lots of imaginative bits to that formula, giving the bad guys funky sci-fi weapons or strange plots, as well as a sly sense of humor.
The dream story is surreal and entertaining, the Grundy story has some omens of genuine creepy menace and the Johnny Thunder segments have a nice mix of humor and adventure.
The art ranges from cartoony to crude to really nice, but never feels bad or ugly.

I personally found the war years to be a bit bland and formulaic, but all the post-war stories feel like Fox saying 'Okay, we best Hitler, now let's have some fun!'
Profile Image for The other John.
699 reviews14 followers
May 5, 2008
In his introduction, Roy Thomas said that the last story in this collection, "The Revenge of Solomon Grundy", was the beginning of the peak of All-Star Comics. I remember reading through this volume and grumbling that I had just bought a bunch of mediocre stories and had to wait a whole year for the "good stuff" to be published. The tales in this volume are a bit better than those in Volume Six, but still are a far cry from the tales from the early forties. In this collection the JSA go up against Landor, the man from the future; the Brain Wave; Zor, the alien Duna who possesses a humble toymaker; the original Psycho Pirate and the aforementioned Solomon Grundy. Most of the tales are standard mid-40s fare, though I have to admit that the Grundy story is the best of the lot. In a lot of these tales, the members JSA merely plow through the bad guys in their individual segments and then neatly wrap things up at the end. Solomon Grundy made the boys sweat a bit, making the inevitable victory that much more satisfying.
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