JSA: Black Vengeance

JSA: Black Vengeance 

By Geoff Johns, Don Kramer & Keith Champagne (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-256-8

The super-hero soap opera (originally published as issues #66-75 of the monthly magazine) steps into high gear as the younger stalwarts have to travel back in time to thwart a plot to prevent the Justice Society from ever coming out of retirement, after the House un-American Activities Commission and Senator Joe McCarthy forced them to disappear in the early 1950s.

This unassuming time-paradox romp serves to clear up a few long running plot-lines, as does the eponymous Black Vengeance sequence that follows when Atom Smasher and Black Adam debate the kind of heroics necessary in the modern world whilst the nigh-omnipotent Spectre attempts to destroy all magic (as seen in such Infinite Crisis series as Day of Vengeance) whilst asking a few questions about US imperialism as seen from the perspective of the citizens of fictional middle-Eastern nation Kahndaq, who are mere collateral damage statistics whenever super-powers come into play.

Despite the seemingly political overtones, this is still primarily a simple hero-fest for fans of that genre, and will deliver high quality escapism for the faithful, although the uninitiated might find the implied back-story a little hard to grasp.

© 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.