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JSA (1999)
JSA, Vol. 11: Mixed Signals
JSA ally Air Wave receives a mass of maydays from the far reaches of the galaxy. With the aid of two Green Lanterns, his investigation reveals that an intergalactic war has begun. Who will be drafted to help stop it?
Meanwhile, recent events have left all of the magic-based heroes vulnerable, and the ancient magician Mordru plans to take full advantage of the situation. The battle that ensues has lasting effects on JSA members Dr. Fate and Jakeem Thunder.
Also, the fate of Atom Smasher is decided, the OMACs attack... and Stargirl has a very bad day. Guest stars include Green Lantern-Hal Jordan, Donna Troy, Shazam and Golden Age legend Liberty Belle.
Collecting: JSA 76-81
Meanwhile, recent events have left all of the magic-based heroes vulnerable, and the ancient magician Mordru plans to take full advantage of the situation. The battle that ensues has lasting effects on JSA members Dr. Fate and Jakeem Thunder.
Also, the fate of Atom Smasher is decided, the OMACs attack... and Stargirl has a very bad day. Guest stars include Green Lantern-Hal Jordan, Donna Troy, Shazam and Golden Age legend Liberty Belle.
Collecting: JSA 76-81
144 pages, Paperback
First published September 20, 2006
3 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Geoff Johns
2,702 books2,410 followersGeoff 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 15, 2021
The artwork in this graphic novel is spectacular. The colors and richness of the images are something I haven't seen in ages. Some of the full spread pages took my breath away as I had to stop to really look at them. My rating of 4 stars goes 100% to the artwork, it really is something to be enjoyed.
Unfortunately (for me) the dialog was much too difficult to follow. Apparently the hero Airwave is picking up a single, a request for help while a battle is raging around him. At the same time there is a battle happening in another dimension and to be perfectly honest for me it was just too much happening chaotically.
Just the same the artwork is a marvel to behold, the kind of stuff that would be in a comic book art museum.
Unfortunately (for me) the dialog was much too difficult to follow. Apparently the hero Airwave is picking up a single, a request for help while a battle is raging around him. At the same time there is a battle happening in another dimension and to be perfectly honest for me it was just too much happening chaotically.
Just the same the artwork is a marvel to behold, the kind of stuff that would be in a comic book art museum.
August 4, 2023
3.5 ✨
March 6, 2019
I have no idea what's going on.
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August 2, 2023So here I am. Finally at the end of Geoff Johns' first tenure writing JSA. Although there are 6 issues left before JSA was cancelled, and then rebooted (under Johns) as Justice Society of America. I haven't really figured out where I'm going to go from here.
But I'll be honest... this ends with a whimper and not a bang, bogged down by a bunch of tie-ins and crossovers that frankly don't make a lot of sense to me. It starts with an OMAC Project tie-in (literally what is that?) that at least features Al Rothstein going to jail and Amanda Waller getting in touch with him (setting up... what? I'm not sure). Then ANOTHER Day of Vengeance tie-in (how is that event not over yet???) that at least gets me excited to read Johns' Green Lantern run someday. And then issues #78-80 are written by Keith Champagne and are purportedly part of Infinite Crisis... but I didn't really care for them very much. Jakeem is corrupted in the fifth (or sixth?) dimension and needs to be rescued, and meanwhile Mordru's doing Mordru things and Doctor Fate needs to intervene. Power Girl disappears to do her own thing and the Hawks are off fighting in the Rann-Thanagar war, apparently, so I'd have to hop over to other books to follow their stories.
Issue #81 finds Johns returning to tell another Stargirl story that's actually pretty good, but it's a strange place for him to step away from the series. I guess he was busy writing Infinite Crisis, which I now have to read to understand what happens next with both this run and the Justice Society of America run that follows. That's kind of frustrating but I can roll with it. I just think this kind of fell apart at the end, when the first 75 issues were so, so good - probably my favorite longform comics story I've ever read. Oh well. We can't have it all.
But I'll be honest... this ends with a whimper and not a bang, bogged down by a bunch of tie-ins and crossovers that frankly don't make a lot of sense to me. It starts with an OMAC Project tie-in (literally what is that?) that at least features Al Rothstein going to jail and Amanda Waller getting in touch with him (setting up... what? I'm not sure). Then ANOTHER Day of Vengeance tie-in (how is that event not over yet???) that at least gets me excited to read Johns' Green Lantern run someday. And then issues #78-80 are written by Keith Champagne and are purportedly part of Infinite Crisis... but I didn't really care for them very much. Jakeem is corrupted in the fifth (or sixth?) dimension and needs to be rescued, and meanwhile Mordru's doing Mordru things and Doctor Fate needs to intervene. Power Girl disappears to do her own thing and the Hawks are off fighting in the Rann-Thanagar war, apparently, so I'd have to hop over to other books to follow their stories.
Issue #81 finds Johns returning to tell another Stargirl story that's actually pretty good, but it's a strange place for him to step away from the series. I guess he was busy writing Infinite Crisis, which I now have to read to understand what happens next with both this run and the Justice Society of America run that follows. That's kind of frustrating but I can roll with it. I just think this kind of fell apart at the end, when the first 75 issues were so, so good - probably my favorite longform comics story I've ever read. Oh well. We can't have it all.
January 4, 2026
1.5
Mixed bag. I didn’t like the Lost and Found arc, which might be partly my fault since I didn’t remember all of what had happened with Doctor Fate, but I just couldn’t connect to any of the three stories it’s trying to tell. It relied too heavily on action and the stories felt like they had no stakes. In particular, because the caption boxes didn’t sell me on how deep the Jakeem and the Thunderbolt relationship is. Then, the other half of the book were tie-ins which varied in quality. The first one was fine, but it just wrapped up the Al storyline, so nothing special. The second was very “go girl, give us nothing” since what happened had absolutely nothing to do with the book and can completely be skipped. The final one though was excellent. I understand and am happy that Geoff Johns would decide to end his time on this book with a Courtney-focused issue because, he really sold her character and her relationships with very limited time. The ending didn’t make me emotional, but the story was well-told. We’ll see how the next volume fares since none of the issues are written by Johns.
Mixed bag. I didn’t like the Lost and Found arc, which might be partly my fault since I didn’t remember all of what had happened with Doctor Fate, but I just couldn’t connect to any of the three stories it’s trying to tell. It relied too heavily on action and the stories felt like they had no stakes. In particular, because the caption boxes didn’t sell me on how deep the Jakeem and the Thunderbolt relationship is. Then, the other half of the book were tie-ins which varied in quality. The first one was fine, but it just wrapped up the Al storyline, so nothing special. The second was very “go girl, give us nothing” since what happened had absolutely nothing to do with the book and can completely be skipped. The final one though was excellent. I understand and am happy that Geoff Johns would decide to end his time on this book with a Courtney-focused issue because, he really sold her character and her relationships with very limited time. The ending didn’t make me emotional, but the story was well-told. We’ll see how the next volume fares since none of the issues are written by Johns.
May 13, 2022
The conclusion to Geoff John's initial run on JSA, "Mixed Signals" features solid characterization and strong art, but it's undermined by weak plotting.
Something is going on with magic in the D.C. universe, these stories suggest, but what it is isn't clear in this collected volume. I suspect some larger crossover was happening at the time, but I wasn't able to figure it out through context, and the editors didn't care to explain it.
The magic story has some fun beats for evil sorcerer Mordru, but it's weighed down by a second plot that sees the JSA intervening in some kind of genie war inside a pocket universe. It's about as silly as it sounds, and I was relieved to see it come to a close.
Something is going on with magic in the D.C. universe, these stories suggest, but what it is isn't clear in this collected volume. I suspect some larger crossover was happening at the time, but I wasn't able to figure it out through context, and the editors didn't care to explain it.
The magic story has some fun beats for evil sorcerer Mordru, but it's weighed down by a second plot that sees the JSA intervening in some kind of genie war inside a pocket universe. It's about as silly as it sounds, and I was relieved to see it come to a close.
March 4, 2021
This was my favorite book to reread in the 2000's.
March 6, 2024
Lackluster way for Geoff Johns to finish his run of JSA. It says online that Infinite Crisis occurs before this book, but I don't think that's accurate.
September 24, 2012
Reprints JSA #76-81 (October 1995-March 2006). The JSA finds their numbers diminished as strange events sweep the globe. Atom Smasher finds himself facing his fate after his actions in Kahndaq and a new direction. As the JSA seek out the missing Jakeem Thunder, they learn something has also happened to Fate and the magic of the world is changing. Plus Stargirl tries to deal with her past and finds she must grow up.
Written by Geoff Johns and Keith Champaign, JSA 11: Mixed Signals follows JSA 10: Black Vengeance. The story is heavily tied in to the series leading up to Infinite Crisis including The O. M. A. C. Project, Day of Vengeance, and The Rann-Thanagar War.
The JSA really feels like it winding down here. The once large team is being broken off into smaller teams and characters’ plotlines are being resolved. Atom-Smasher is set up to join Suicide Squad, Power Girl leaves to investigate Ted Kord’s death, Sentinel sets out with Donna Troy to look into the threat against the universe, and Fate finds there is danger for all reality. It also has a rather sad ending to Hector and Lyta Hall after years of problems for the couple, Dream takes them into the Dreaming to leave Earth forever.
The stories are ho-hum and the Courtney loses her real father storyline in JSA #81 feels like a fill-in issue that is mostly made of rehash and attempted sentimentally…it doesn’t work. I do like the whole Jakeem/Qwsp storyline but I wish that Fate’s battle with Mordru had not been intermixed with it. I didn't feel either story got the attention it should have.
JSA 11: Mixed Signals is for fans only and for completists. As the once proud and clever series winds down it just doesn’t have the punch that earlier issues and collections had. This book is average (and Alex Ross does continue his cool solo characters covers). JSA 11: Mixed Signals is followed by the final JSA collection JSA 12: Ghost Stories.
Written by Geoff Johns and Keith Champaign, JSA 11: Mixed Signals follows JSA 10: Black Vengeance. The story is heavily tied in to the series leading up to Infinite Crisis including The O. M. A. C. Project, Day of Vengeance, and The Rann-Thanagar War.
The JSA really feels like it winding down here. The once large team is being broken off into smaller teams and characters’ plotlines are being resolved. Atom-Smasher is set up to join Suicide Squad, Power Girl leaves to investigate Ted Kord’s death, Sentinel sets out with Donna Troy to look into the threat against the universe, and Fate finds there is danger for all reality. It also has a rather sad ending to Hector and Lyta Hall after years of problems for the couple, Dream takes them into the Dreaming to leave Earth forever.
The stories are ho-hum and the Courtney loses her real father storyline in JSA #81 feels like a fill-in issue that is mostly made of rehash and attempted sentimentally…it doesn’t work. I do like the whole Jakeem/Qwsp storyline but I wish that Fate’s battle with Mordru had not been intermixed with it. I didn't feel either story got the attention it should have.
JSA 11: Mixed Signals is for fans only and for completists. As the once proud and clever series winds down it just doesn’t have the punch that earlier issues and collections had. This book is average (and Alex Ross does continue his cool solo characters covers). JSA 11: Mixed Signals is followed by the final JSA collection JSA 12: Ghost Stories.
December 30, 2024
Contains JSA 76-81
This volume ends the original JSA series (though isn’t the end of Johns’ run, which continues into “Justice Society of America”. A lot of it ties into the lead up to Infinite Crisis, and we also see the trial of Atom Smasher for his involvement in Black Adam’s Khandaq takeover. Mordru is back to exploit the chaos, and in the process pulls on Jakeem Thunder and Dr Fate as pawns. The series ends with a touching focus on Stargirl, a character close to Johns’ own heart, since she is based on his sister.
While this volume is fine, I’m glad it’s not the end of Johns writing the series, since it’s not terribly climactic. We will see the real climax in Thy Kingdom Come, which unfolds in the aforementioned Justice Society of America series.
So by itself this is one of the weakest volumes of JSA, but at this point you care so much about the characters that it’s still well worth reading.
This volume ends the original JSA series (though isn’t the end of Johns’ run, which continues into “Justice Society of America”. A lot of it ties into the lead up to Infinite Crisis, and we also see the trial of Atom Smasher for his involvement in Black Adam’s Khandaq takeover. Mordru is back to exploit the chaos, and in the process pulls on Jakeem Thunder and Dr Fate as pawns. The series ends with a touching focus on Stargirl, a character close to Johns’ own heart, since she is based on his sister.
While this volume is fine, I’m glad it’s not the end of Johns writing the series, since it’s not terribly climactic. We will see the real climax in Thy Kingdom Come, which unfolds in the aforementioned Justice Society of America series.
So by itself this is one of the weakest volumes of JSA, but at this point you care so much about the characters that it’s still well worth reading.
November 5, 2011
A good set of short tales, but with too many unfilled links to other series.
On the good side, Al Rothstein searches for justice and the JSA joins the OMAC battle. Hector and Lyta Hall are powerless on a frozne mouontainside, while the remaining heros battle Mordru on one front, and Jakeem Thunderon the sixth dimension.
On the less-good side, Power Girl disappears and no one seems concerned, the Hawks are on planet Rann, and the GLs leave with Airwave for some intergalactic battle.
On the good side, Al Rothstein searches for justice and the JSA joins the OMAC battle. Hector and Lyta Hall are powerless on a frozne mouontainside, while the remaining heros battle Mordru on one front, and Jakeem Thunderon the sixth dimension.
On the less-good side, Power Girl disappears and no one seems concerned, the Hawks are on planet Rann, and the GLs leave with Airwave for some intergalactic battle.
May 30, 2016
"Mixed Signals" collects a few shorter stories including a family interaction with Airwave, devastation in the dimensions of genies, another encounter with the monstrous Mordru, and my personal favorite from this collection, a learning moment for Stargirl. The art in this one is good and the short stories are too. I can definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a graphic novel with some family values.
April 23, 2013
Johns’ last volume of his first JSA run is unfortunately weak, primarily due this volume’s heavy dependence on plots from Infinite Crisis. However, even in the genie story at the center, which has more of its focus, it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of heart here. Still, an OK volume with some fun adventure.
January 9, 2010
Nice mix of several smaller JSA stories, and a couple solo adventures.
The story set in ancient Egypt was fun, and I liked the Dr, Mid-nite story with the emphasis on him being a doctor first and a super hero second.
Good mix of adventure and character driven sub-plots and story threads.
The story set in ancient Egypt was fun, and I liked the Dr, Mid-nite story with the emphasis on him being a doctor first and a super hero second.
Good mix of adventure and character driven sub-plots and story threads.
February 10, 2016
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
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November 25, 2009OMAC Project / Villains United / Day of Vengeance
September 14, 2015
The dangers of crossover-itis are obvious here, as for the first time the book stumbles, dragged into story lines it shouldn't be. The last story is a keeper, but there's too much that isn't.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews