JSA: All Stars

JSA (1999)

by Geoff Johns, Michael Chabon, Darwyn Cooke

Why did the heroes of the JSA choose the path of heroism? Can their legacies be exploited and corrupted? The strange new leader of the Injustice Society plans to find out — and the team is playing right into his hands!

JSA: ALL-STARS is a trade paperback collection of the 8-issue miniseries modeled after the classic Golden Age ALL STAR COMICS (starring the Justice Society of America). Bringing the new generation of JSAers into the spotlight is a star-studded array of talented creators led by writers Geoff Johns & David S. Goyer and artists Sal Velluto & Bob Almond with bookend chapters starring the entire team: Hawkgirl, Doctor Fate, Star-Spangled Kid, Hourman, Doctor Mid-Nite, and Mister Terrific!

The remaining chapters feature solo stories, with modern day tales featuring the newest members of the JSA and accompanying stories featuring their Golden Age counterparts. This highly acclaimed roster includes some of the biggest names in and out of the comics business, including Pulizer-award-winning novelist Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.):

* Golden Age Hawkman by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale
* Golden Age Doctor Fate by Darwyn Cooke
* Golden Age Starman by James Robinson & Tony Harris
* Golden Age Hourman by Howard Chaykin
* Golden Age Dr. Mid-Nite by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso
* Golden Age Mr. Terrific by Michael Chabon & Michael Lark

Don't pass up this fantastic collection of stories by an all-star lineup of talent!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book

210 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Geoff Johns originally hails from Detroit, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in Media Arts and Film. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s in search of work within the film industry. Through perseverance, Geoff ended up as the assistant to Richard Donner, working on Conspiracy Theory and Lethal Weapon 4. During that time, he also began his comics career writing Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA (co-written with David S. Goyer) for DC Comics. He worked with Richard Donner for four years, leaving the company to pursue writing full-time.

His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. Geoff received the Wizard Fan Award for Breakout Talent of 2002 and Writer of the Year for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as well as the CBG Writer of the Year 2003 thru 2005, 2007 and CBG Best Comic Book Series for JSA 2001 thru 2005. Geoff also developed BLADE: THE SERIES with David S. Goyer, as well as penned the acclaimed “Legion” episode of SMALLVILLE. He also served as staff writer for the fourth season of ROBOT CHICKEN.

Geoff recently became a New York Times Bestselling author with the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac with art by Gary Frank.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the format of this. Each issue featured a solo tale of a 2nd generation hero from the JSA. Then a backup tale about the original golden age hero written by some comic book heavyweights. Darwyn Cooke, Howard Chaykin, Michael Chabon, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, etc. My favorite was the 1941 story of Starman, Ted Knight, by the 90's Starman team of James Robinson and Tony Harris. If you were ever a fan of that book, this was like another one of their Times Past stories.

[Subham · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was trash.

JSA must fight a new villain named Legacy and the spectre is not exactly himself and well to fight him they must each rediscover what makes them their best selves and thus begines their quest to rediscover and affirm themselves. And each issue follows someone and the only ones I liked was whatever was going on with Stargirl and then the loss of his wife and how Mr Terrific deals with that and Dr Mid-nite was okay too helping a woman deliver her baby. Other stories were pure garbage, skip this one, its a chore to read through and the art and backups are horrible.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of Golden Age and Modern Age goodness here as only the JSA can deliver!

Legacy (who turns out to be a far more familiar villain) attempts to break the wills of both the original JSA'ers and the new guys. As we find out at the end, the villain has his own legacy or family issues where he failed completely.

My favorite tales here are the GA Hawkman and Dr. Mid-Nite stories. Carter Hall finds a little comedy in trying to balance the mask with his personal life while even Charles McNider finds himself in a situation that Bruce Wayne falls into on a regular basis with Selina Kyle. Both had me laughing.

There isn't a bad tale in the bunch, but a few of the modern stories got a bit maudlin. Even so ...

Find it! BUY IT! READ IT!

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of the JSA alone has hooked me since I first read them under Goyer and Johns. The legacy characters were always interesting and that's exactly what this trade deals with. All the writers here, especially Geoff Johns understands the team so well. I really love the passion and knowledge that he has for these characters. The art was almost amazing throughout with only a few lapses. The thing that holds this back is the overall plot that seems a little too goofy. Its hard to take a threat serious when the best idea to save your team is to take a time out. Overall, a good solid character driven piece with some action thrown in as long as you don't take the book too serious.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good action heroes win the day stuff; moral was a bit heavy-handed.

[Eric Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each of the JSA are tasked by a mysterious villain to essentially come to peace in their personal lives in order to save their friends. (Magic, it's complicated)
Because of this, we get some excellent character moments with the whole team, really adding depth to each hero, as they all get their own issue to themselves. Plus, there are a bunch of flashbacks to the original JSA members, which were a lot of fun.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the start of his DC career, Geoff Johns was already known as a guy who knew his way around the company’s legacy, and where he might help take it next. He started out with an update of a character so antiquated they might have seemed quaint, but Johns simply turned limitations into possibilities, and thusly Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. not only helped Johns build his reputation, but set the groundwork for what was soon to become a lengthy and influential run with the Justice Society, DC’s oldest team, made up of the rest of the first generation, the Golden Age stars who didn’t prove as immediately enduring as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. A couple of them, Green Lantern and the Flash, were famously re-envisioned at the start of the Silver Age (Johns knows a thing or two about those characters). Johns’ idea for his JSA was to try and do that for the rest of the Justice Society. I mention all this in prelude because it’s at the very heart of the stories collected in JSA All Stars, and in summary is what you can expect when you read it: a loving tribute to the superhero tradition that is DC at its fundamental finest.

Besides Johns (who co-writes the bulk of the stories alongside screenwriter David S. Goyer), the collection features some heavy-hitters in short pieces: the team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (famous for work like Batman: The Long Halloween and Superman for All Seasons), the late Darwyn Cooke (DC: The New Frontier), James Robinson and Tony Harris (whose Starman served as a primary inspiration), Howard Chaykin (American Flagg), Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso (100 Bullets), and Michael Chabon (whose Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay had made it okay to like comics again).

While there’s an overarching narrative involving a fairly standard superhero plot, individual members of the Justice Society, the newer members and the original ones they’re replacing, have a chance to shine in stories that feature the human experience at the heart of this landscape, not just the typical troubled backgrounds but how they’re struggling to cope with the present, too, making peace with themselves. If you ever thought it would be difficult to relate to people running around in silly costumes, this collection would be a real eye-opener for you.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 2 out of 5]

No me molestó tanto que la mayoría de las historias fueran aburridas, que la mayoría de los dibujos fueran una porquería o que rompieran tanto las bolas con los "legados" que sabemos que en el Univeso DC al final terminan importando poco y nada. Lo que me molestó mucho fue el estupidísimo y cursi final.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the golden age superheroes from DC and the new JSA brings these original heroes back into the modern age along with their legacy namesakes. Well above average art and plot keep these 70 year old comic characters interesting and entertaining. Very recommended

[Jason Tanner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a soft spot for this iteration of the JSA, so I may be rating it artificially high, but I really did enjoy this story. JSA All-Stars came out at a time right before Geoff Johns became DC's golden boy, and he, along with David Goyer had made the JSA a fan and critical favorite. Goyer eventually moved on, and Johns continued writing JSA for a few more years solo, along with roughly half of DC's output. In all, I think that his work with Goyer was superior to his solo work. Johns has a lot of good ideas, but left to his own devices he is often overly grim and reductive (See: Blackest Night.) His collaborative works are often my favorites: early JSA, 52, Booster Gold.

As to the story itself, JSA All-Stars features solo stories of the team's legacy members bookended by super villain battles. In this case, the villain kidnapped the original members, and the legacy members were led to believe that they must confront their character flaws before they could rescue the senior members. Yeah, it's kind of dumb. But: comics. More importantly, it was an excuse to focus on the individual members of the JSA, and the focus on characterization is what made Johns and Goyer's JSA so strong in the first place, so these issues were all pretty good. As a bonus, every single-character issue featured a backup of the original JSA member whose identity they adopted, each by an all-star guest creative team.

As I said before, I enjoyed it a lot, and I would recommend it.

[Logan Harrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10:
This is a really interesting collection of stories, as it takes the time to understand the new members of the JSA, the mantles they’ve taken on, and the traumatic pasts they’ve all endured. At the same time, it reminds the JSA why the exist in the first place and do so through the narration of The Spectre.

We get nice stories with Hawkgirl, Doctor Fate, The Star Spangled Kid (finally creating the name Stargirl), Hourman, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Mr. Terrific, showing how insanely powerful and heroic each of these characters are on their own, and eventually reminding us of their immense strength when working together. To then showcase them going toe to toe with the ISA was absolutely brilliant, because it’s a truly unexpected turn.

I love the JSA a lot. Stargirl is a favorite of mine from DC, and I have a feeling I’ll be reading more of her stories soon. But not just her, the JSA too!

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthology series with a longer story about a modern JSA member and a shorter piece about their predecessor in each issue. The modern stories are all pretty character driven. The past tales are less consequential but are done by some good teams of writers and artists.

[Roberto Diaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of stories of members of the JSA, all intertwined by a new villain menacing the current team.

[The Fizza · Rating 4 out of 5]

1.5 STARS - The Johns & Goyer main plot is middling, like just about everything else they've done for the JSA. That really only deserves 2 Stars.

It's the back-up stories, short as they might be, which deserves the 4 Star Rating I gave this book. Each of these pieces remind fans just why they started reading these 'funny books' and why they continue to influence and inspire us, despite the characters featured here being more than 3 times the age of it's average reader.

The flashback tales are brought to us by excellent creative teams, just looking over the list of writers you'll see they're all award winners:

* Pulizer winner Michael Chabon [writing a tale of the Golden Age Mr. Terrific] - 4 STARS
* Shuster winner Darwyn Cooke [writing & drawing a Golden Age Doctor Fate story] - 4.5 STARS
* Eagle winner Howard Chaykin [writing & drawing a Golden Age Hourman tale] - 2.5 STARS
* Eisner winner Brian Azzarello [writing a story for Golden Age Dr. Mid-Nite] - 4 STARS
* The multiple Eisner winning team of Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale [bringing us a Golden Age Hawkman story] -3 STARS
* And Robinson & Harris [the Eisner winning team of "Sand & Stars"] reunite for a Golden Age Starman piece remit of their well liked Starman tales of timespast - 5 STARS

While past performances can't guarantee present quality, it does a lot for the odds. The chance I took on this book turned out a jackpot for each of these spotlight stories are fun, if not deeply interesting, and well worth muddling through the middle-of-the-road framing sequence that binds this book together.

As always Johns & Goyer aren't terrible but their unremarkability does become glaring when interspersed by quality writing.

I've mentioned before Johns & Goyer's success can, more than likely, be traced back to their ability to produce large amounts of work in a short amount of time that remain fun to most while causing few schisms in the fan base. This inoffensiveness can be just as important as good story-telling in a genre who's characters need constant updating to stay relevant and who's base of fans can range from 90 to 9 in age.

Their JSA work was largely successful in trying to hold onto fans that have spend most of their lives reading these same characters as well as attracting new fans. That being said, in my estimation, none of it was really very memorable.

Why did I read so much of then?

To be honest it was really because my friend owned them and I hadn't much money at the time to buy books. Like any lover of books (comic or not) I'm addicted and these were the only fix at hand.

However I will admit that I did purchase this book when I was able.

[Amber DiTullio · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting graphic novel. The Injustice Society attacks the JSA, but they are under the control of a demon called Legacy. The original members of the team - Hawkman, Flash, Wildcat and Green Lantern (or Sentinel) - are taken my the IJS while those that are left, all of whom are legacies to the names they hold, need to figure out how to stop them. Oh... except for Sand. His silicone body has actually been fused into glass. The Spectre appears, telling them that this demon feeds on their psychic pain so they need to go confront the pains of their past.

So far, pretty standard graphic novel set-up. It's when we get to see the characters face their issues that the real brilliance of the graphic novel comes to the fore. For each character, there is color spread taking up 3/4s of the page. The bottom quarter has two paragraphs of information. The first is for the new version of the character and the second is for the originator of the name. Then we see a story about the new character confronting their past in their own way and it is followed by a story involving the old character.

I thought it was very clever of them to set it up in this way. It gave those younger readers (or newer to comics such as myself) a better sense of those that passed the torch. I now had a glimpse of Terry Slone, the original Mr Terrific, where I'd never before known he existed. I got to see the original Hourman bring a murdered in the armed forces to justice and realize that his true power doesn't come from the Miraclo that gives him his strength but from himself. For these glimpses alone, I'd have to say that this is probably my favorite new-read comic this year.

I was also impressed with the artwork. The drawings for the legacies were modern. They fit well with the current timeline that they were exploring. But the drawings for the older comics... it wasn't 100% like the older comics from the 40's and 50's, but it evoked that feeling in me. I felt like I was actually reading two different comic books - one from now and one from my father's childhood. It really kept me in the moment.

The end of the story went back to the traditional pattern of good guys together beating the bad guy and rescuing their friends. It took some special insight to do it (and I don't want to share too much because of spoilers, sweetie), but it felt believable. It's one that I probably wouldn't mind owning. And it makes me want to see if I can get my hands on some of the original JSA stories so I can read a bit more about these originals.

[Marshall Pickens · Rating 3 out of 5]

My six year old picked this out for me as a Christmas present because he knows I like books, and he thought I would like one with cool pictures and superheroes. Thankfully I do love comic books too. This one was all right. I loved how they would take a modern day hero and also do a classic version so you could see how they have changed or remained the same over all these years. Good stuff and a great Christmas present.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cute, fun and a little nostalgic.
I really like the JSA. [I wish it were a big crowd pleaser.]
This way I would be sure of more editions going.

Any issue that takes us into the past is a good one for me.

[Mike McDevitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good solid anthology.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short pieces about the original JSA members and their modern counterparts. The story quality varies - I like the Dr. Midnite stories - but the "frame" story is pretty weak.

[Lavell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of short stories. Some were good and some were so-so ,but none were bad.I enjoyed the JSA series.

[Jeff Schmitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved the JSA, and the concept of the original, Golden Age, heroes for as long as I can remember. Was expecting this to be another long, connected, story of the super-team, in whichever incarnation, defeating one of their traditional foes. Was pleasantly surprised to find that I was mistaken! The first and last issues told were that expected story, but the bulk of the material in between...now THAT was the "meat"! Shorter solo stories, of either the newer versions of the heroes or the original mystery men (and women), gave each character their own moment in the sun. It was nice to see the originals in era-appropriate tales, and the newer stories helped educate me on the personalities that took up the mantle of the golden age greats. Loved it!