By Grant Morrison, Howard Porter & John Dell (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-369-8
After the Silver Age’s greatest team-book died a slow, painful, wasting death, not once but twice, DC were taking no chances with their next revival of the Justice League of America and tapped Big Ideas wünderkind Grant Morrison to reconstruct the group and the franchise.
And the idea that clicked? Put everybody’s favourite Name superheroes in the team.
Of course it worked, but that’s only because as well as star quantity there was a huge input of creative quality. The stories were smart, compelling, challengingly large-scale and drawn with desperate vitality. With JLA one could see all the work undertaken to make it the best it could be.
This slim album collects the first four issues of the revival and covers a spectacular landmark tale that altered the continuity landscape of the DC Universe by introducing a family of alien superbeings called the Hyperclan whose arrival on Earth could have ushered in a new Golden Age – a least by their standards.
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman are the legends who see their methods and careers questioned only to uncover a deadly secret that threatens to doom the planet they’re pledged to protect in a splendid old-fashioned goodies ‘n’ baddies romp that re-sparked fan interest in the “World’s Greatest Superheroes”.
If you haven’t read this sparkling slice of fight ‘n’ tights wonderment then your fantastic life just isn’t complete yet…
By Gardner Fox, Denny O’Neil, Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-82856-188-5
By 1968 the new superhero boom looked to be dying just as its predecessor had at the end of the 1940s. Sales were down generally in the comics industry and costs were beginning to spiral, and more importantly “free” entertainment, in the form of television, was by now ensconced in even the poorest household. If you were a kid in the sixties, think on just how many brilliant cartoon shows were created in that decade, when artists like Alex Toth and Doug Wildey were working in West Coast animation studios. Moreover, comic-book heroes were now appearing on the small screen. Superman, Aquaman, Batman, the Marvel heroes and even the JLA were there every Saturday in your own living room…
It was a time of great political and social upheaval. Change was everywhere and unrest even reached the corridors of DC. When a number of creators agitated for increased work-benefits the request was not looked upon kindly. Many left the company for other outfits. Some quit the business altogether.
This fourth monochrome volume reflects the turmoil of the times as the writer and penciller who had created every single adventure of the World’s Greatest Superheroes since their inception gave way to a “new wave” writer and a fresh if not young artist. Collecting issues #61-83 (and re-presenting the stirring covers of #67 and 76: giant editions which reprinted issues #4, 14 & 31, and #7 &12, respectively), this tome covers a society in transition and a visible change in the way DC comics stories were told.
Kicking off the festivities is ‘Operation: Jail the Justice League!’, a sharp and witty action-mystery with an army of super-villains by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky and the superb Sid Greene wherein the team must read between the lines as Green Arrow announces that he’s quitting the team and super-hero-ing!
George Roussos replaced Greene as inker for ‘Panic from a Blackmail Box’, a taut thriller about redemption involving the time-delayed revelations of a different kind of villain, and ‘Time Signs a Death-Warrant for the Justice League’, where the villainous Key finally acts on a scheme he initiated way back in Justice League of America #41. This rowdy fist-fest was Sekowky’s last pencil job on the team (although he returned for a couple of covers). He was transferring his attentions to the revamping of Wonder Woman (for which see the marvellous Diana Prince: Wonder Woman volumes 1–4).
Fox ended his magnificent run on a high point with the two-part annual team-up of the League and the Justice Society of Earth-Two. Creative to the very end, his last story was yet another of the Golden-Age revivals which had resurrected the superhero genre. Issues #64 and 65 featured the ‘Stormy Return of the Red Tornado’ and ‘T.O. Morrow Kills the Justice League – Today!’ with a cyclonic super-android taking on the mantle of the comedic 1940s “Mystery Man” who appeared in the very first JSA adventure (if you’re interested, the original Red Tornado was a brawny washer-woman named Ma Hunkle).
Fox’s departing thriller was the artistic debut of Blackhawk artist Dick Dillin, a prolific draughtsman who would draw all the JLA’s exploits for the next twelve years, as well as many other adventures of DC’s top characters like Superman and Batman. His first jobs were inked by the returning Sid Greene, a pairing that seemed vibrant and darkly realistic after the eccentrically stylish, almost abstract Sekowsky.
Not even the heroes themselves were immune to change. As the market contracted and shifted, so too did the team. With no fanfare the Martian Manhunter was dropped after #61. He just stopped appearing and the minor heroes (ones whose strips or comics had been cancelled) got less and less space in future tales.
Denny O’Neil took over the scripting with #66, a rather dated and heavy-handed satire entitled ‘Divided they Fall!’ wherein defrocked banana-republic dictator Generalissimo Demmy Gog (did I mention it was heavy-handed?) used a stolen morale-boosting ray to cause chaos on a college campus. O’Neil was more impressive with his second outing. ‘Neverwas – the Chaos Maker!’: a time-lost monster on a rampage, but the compassionate solution to his depredations better fitted the social climate and hinted at the joys to come when the author began his legendary run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow.
‘A Matter of Menace’ featured a plot to frame Green Arrow, but is most remarkable for the brief return of Diana Prince. Wonder Woman had silently vanished at the end of #66 and her cameo here is more a plug for her own adventure series than a regulation guest-shot. This is followed by a more traditional guest-appearance in #70’s ‘Versus the Creeper’ wherein the much diminished team of Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern and Atom battle misguided aliens inadvertently brought to Earth by the astoundingly naff Mind-Grabber Kid (most recently seen in Seven Soldiers and 52) with the eerie Steve Ditko-created anti-hero along for the ride if largely superfluous to the plot.
Eager to plug their radical new heroine, Diana Prince guested again in #71’s ‘And So My World Ends!’ a drastic reinvention of the history of The Martian Manhunter from O’Neil, Dillon and Greene which, by writing him out of the series, galvanised and reinvigorated the character for a new generation. The plot introduced the belligerent White Martians of today and revealed how a millennia long race war between the Whites and Greens devastated Mars forever.
‘Thirteen Days to Doom!’ was a moody gothic horror story in which Hawkman was turned into a pillar of salt by demons, precipitating a rare guest-shot for Hawkgirl, but excellent though it was the entire thing was but a prelude to O’Neil’s first shot at the annual JLA/JSA team-up in issues #73 and 74. ‘Star Light, Star Bright… Death Star I See Tonight!’ and ‘Where Death Fears to Tread!’ related the fearsome tale of Aquarius, a sentient but insane star, that magically destroyed Earth-Two until our heroes (with their surviving Golden Age counterparts) manage to restore it, but not without some personal tragedy.
As a result the Black Canary chose to emigrate to Earth-One, handily becoming the team’s resident Girl Superhero, and picking up a new if somewhat unreliable power in the process. The repercussions of her move and Green Arrow losing all his wealth made Justice League of America #75 one of O’Neil’s best. ‘In Each Man there is a Demon!’ (inked by new regular Joe Giella) found the team literally battling their own worst aspects and the heroes’ confidence was further rocked when the enigmatic Joe Dough compromised their beloved mascot in ‘Snapper Carr… Super-Traitor!’
The greater social awareness parading through comics at this time manifested in the next epic two-parter, which also revived another Golden Age Great (presumably to cash-in on the mini-boom in screen Westerns). The Vigilante – a cowboy-themed superhero who battled Bandits and Badmen in a passel of DC titles from 1941-1954 – alerted the team to ‘The Coming of the Doomsters!’, just in time to foil the alien invaders who used pollution as their secret weapon in ‘Come Slowly Death, Come Slyly!’ Another landmark of this still-impressive tale was the introduction of the JLA Satellite, as the team moved from a hole in a mountain to a high-tech orbiting fortress.
‘Night of the Soul-Stealer!’ saw an alien collecting heroic spirits in a magic box, but it was only a prelude to a greater threat as issue #81 revealed his good intentions as the ‘Plague of the Galactic Jest-Master’ threatened to inflict a greater horror upon our entire universe.
This book ends with another grand collaboration between JLA and JSA as property speculators from outer space sought to raze both Earths in ‘Peril of the Paired Planets’, and only the ultimate sacrifice of a true hero could avert trans-dimensional disaster in the concluding ‘Where Valor Fails… Will Magic Triumph?’
Although an era of greatness had ended, it ended at the right time and for sound reasons. These thoroughly wonderful thrillers mark an end and a beginning in comic-book storytelling as whimsical adventure was replaced by inclusivity, social awareness and a tacit acknowledgement that a smack in the mouth couldn’t solve all problems. The audience was changing and the industry was forced to change with them. But underneath it all the drive to entertain remained strong and effective. Charm’s loss is drama’s gain and today’s readers might be surprised to discover just how much punch these tales had – and still have.
By Bob Kane & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-963-5
This sixth volume of Batman, re-presented as per the original release schedule, encompasses Batman #10-11, Detective Comics #62-65 and World’s Finest Comics #5 and #6. America had entered World War II by this period and the stories – especially the patriotic covers – went all-out to capture the imagination, comfort the down-hearted and bolster the nation’s morale. One of the very best (and don’t just take my word for it – type “World’s Finest covers” into your search engine and see for yourselves – go on, I’ll wait) designed and executed by the astounding Jerry Robinson leads off this Bat-box of delights.
‘Crime takes a Holiday‘, (World’s Finest Comics #5, Spring, 1942) by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, is a canny mystery yarn as the criminal element of Gotham “down tools”. Naturally it’s all part of a devious master-plan and just as naturally our heroes soon get to the bottom of it. The same creative team also produced ‘Laugh, Town Laugh!’ (from Detective Comics #62 April 1942) wherein the diabolical Joker goes on a murder-spree to prove to the nation’s comedians and entertainers who actually is the “King of Jesters”.
Batman #10 (April-May 1942) follows with another four classics. ‘The Isle that Time Forgot’ written by Joseph Greene, finds the Dynamic Duo trapped in a land of dinosaurs and cavemen, whilst ‘Report Card Blues’ also with Greene scripting, has the heroes inspire a wayward kid to return to his studies by crushing the mobsters he’s ditched school for. Robinson soloed and Jack Schiff typed the words for the classy jewel caper (oh, for those heady days when Bats wasn’t too grim and important to stop the odd robbery or two!) ‘The Princess of Plunder’ starring everyone’s favourite Feline Femme Fatale Catwoman, and the boys headed way out West to meet ‘The Sheriff of Ghost Town!’
This highly impressive slice of contemporary Americana came courtesy of Finger, Kane and Robinson, who also produced ‘A Gentleman in Gotham‘ for Detective Comics #63, as the Caped Crusader had to confront tuxedoed International Man of Mystery Mr Baffle, and the Crime Clown again in ‘The Joker Walks the Last Mile’ (Detective Comics #64 June 1942).
Obviously he didn’t as he was cover-featured and lead story in Batman #11 (June-July 1942). Bill Finger is credited as writer for ‘The Joker’s Advertising Campaign’ as well as the other three stories. ‘Payment in Full’ is a touching melodrama about the District Attorney and the vicious criminal to whom he owes his life, ‘Bandits in Toyland’ explains why a gang of thugs is stealing dolls and train-sets and ‘Four Birds of a Feather!’ finds Batman in Miami to scotch the Penguin’s dreams of a crooked gambling empire.
This tremendously inviting series of Golden Age greats is one of my absolute favourite collected formats: paper that feels comfortingly like old newsprint, vivid colours applied with a gracious acknowledgement of the power and limitations of the original four-colour printing process and the riotous exploratory exuberance of an industry in the first flush of hyper-creativity.
If only other companies such as Marvel, Archie and the rest had as much confidence in their back-catalogue as to follow suit. Who could resist economical, chronologically true collected editions of Bill Everett’s Sub-Mariner, Airboy, Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein; even Bark’s Duck stories, EC editions or CC Beck’s original Captain Marvel?
By Kieth Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, Al Gordon & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-886-7
The revised follow-up volume of the (then) All-New, All-Hilarious Justice League completes the year long story-arc that introduced businessman and 1980’s archetype Max Lord, who reshaped the World’s Greatest Super-team for his own mysterious purposes.
The stories themselves (issues #8-13 of the monthly comicbook and Justice League Annual #1, plus the corresponding issue #13 of Suicide Squad – another great series long overdue for a decent trade paperback series!) are taken from a period when the major comics publishers were first developing the marketing strategies of the “Braided Mega-Crossover Event.â€
This hard-on-the-pockets innovation basically crafts a really big story involving every publication in a company’s output, for a limited time period – so a compilation like this perforce includes adventures that seem confusing because there are “middles†with no beginnings or endings. In this case the problem is deftly solved by inserting (mercifully) brief text pages explaining what’s happened elsewhere. It also doesn’t hurt that being a comedy-adventure, plot isn’t as vital as character and dialogue in this instance.
The merriment begins with ‘A Moving Experience’, where the heroes take possession of their various new UN embassy buildings, a sly and cynical tale of institutionalized ineptitude which is possibly one of the funniest single stories in American comic book history. Most main episodes at the start were followed by a brief back-up vignette drawn by Keith Giffen. ‘Old News’ deals with the closure of previous UN super-hero resource the Dome – which was summarily axed when the League achieved its international charter status.
‘Seeing Red’ is the first of two episodes forming part of the Millennium crossover hinted at above. Broadly, the Guardians of the Universe were attempting to create the next stage of human evolution, and their robotic enemies the Manhunters wanted to stop them. The heroes of Earth were asked to protect the Chosen Ones, but the robots had sleeper agents hidden among the friends and acquaintances of every hero on the planet.
Millennium was DC’s first weekly mini-series, and the monthly schedule of the other titles meant that a huge amount happened in the four weeks between their own tied-in issues: for example…
The Rocket Red attached to the JLI is in fact a Manhunter, who first tries to co-opt then destroy the team with an oil refinery, but by the second part, ‘Soul of the Machine’, the team are jarringly in deep space attacking the Manhunter home planet as part of a Green Lantern strike force. Nevertheless, the story is surprising coherent, and the all-out action is still well-leavened with superbly banter and hilarity.
The back-ups follow the suddenly unemployed Dome hero Jack O’Lantern to the terrorist state Bialya in ‘Brief Encounter’ and show an unfortunate training exercise for Blue Beetle and Mister Miracle in ‘…Back at the Ranch…’
JLI #11 began resolving all the mysteries of the first year by exposing the secret mastermind behind the League’s reformation. With ‘Constructions!’ and ‘Who is Maxwell Lord?’ (in #12) the series came full circle, and the whacky humour proved to have been the veneer over a sharp and subtle conspiracy plot worthy of the classic team. The drama and action kicked into high gear and the characters were seen to have evolved from shallow, if competent buffoons into a tightly knit team of world-beating super-stars – but still pretty darned addicted to buffoonery.
These two full length yarns precluded back-up tales but Giffen illustrated all of #13, wherein the team ran afoul of America’s highly covert Suicide Squad (super-villains blackmailed by the government into becoming a tractable metahuman resource – and without the annoying morality of regular superheroes).
‘Collision Course’ found the US agent Nemesis imprisoned in a Soviet jail with the League forced into the uncomfortable position of having to – at least ostensibly – fight to keep him there. The concluding part ‘Battle Lines’ from Suicide Squad #13 (written by John Ostrander and illustrated by Luke McDonnell and Bob Lewis) is a grim and gritty essay in superpower Realpolitik and a still a powerful experience two decades later.
This volume ends with ‘Germ Warfare’ from the first JLI Annual, drawn by Bill Willingham and inked by Dennis Janke, P. Craig Russell, Bill Wray, R. Campanella, Bruce Patterson and Dick Giordano. It is an uncharacteristically grim horror tale involving inhuman sacrifice and sentient Germ-warfare.
This collection is a breath of fresh air in a time where too many comic-books are filled with over-long, convoluted epics that are strident and oppressively angst-ridden. Here is great art, superb action and the light touch which still mark this series as a lost classic. So read this book and eagerly wait for further compilations to be released.
By Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire & Joe Rubinstein (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0478-5
Proving that there’s always time for sly, knowing laughter in superhero comics, this sequel to the superb revival Formerly Known as the Justice League (ISBN: 978-1-4012-0305-4) originally appeared in the monthly JLA Classified #4-9 in 2005 and found Max Lord’s Store Front team, pitifully re-branded “The Super Buddiesâ€, cracking wise and trying to get rid of obnoxious new neighbour Guy Gardner, when professional lack-wit Booster Gold accidentally wishes the team into Hell.
Apparently the only thing worse than eternal damnation in the fiery pit is being rescued by Gardner and the pneumatic, sarcastic Power Girl, although a brief detour in a skanky dimension with sleazy counterparts of Captain and Mary Marvel, Metamorpho and other old friends does come quite close…
Packed with laughs and lots of action, this tale even finds time for some moments of genuine tenderness and tragedy, so it’s absolutely vital that you read and own this. Your emotional stability depends on it…
By Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire & Joe Rubinstein (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0305-4
There’s a little micro-resurgence these days for the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Justice League International incarnations (see our review in the archives section – ISBN: 978-1-84576-787-7) – so its no surprise that DC reassembled the creative team for one last hurrah (which typically turned into two) in 2003 with a surprisingly good mini-series that had the same tone and lots of those beloved old jokes.
Years after the JLI disbanded manipulative entrepreneur Maxwell Lord has a “Blues Brothers†moment and gets the band back together. He wants Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Ralph-Elongated Man-Dibny and his wife Sue, Fire, the Green Lantern dog G’nort and new addition Mary Marvel to become people’s heroes working out of a store-front deep in an inner city war-zone.
Obviously Max has an unscrupulous agenda and the menaces of Roulette’s superhero pit-fighting arena (serious), a bunch meta-powered gang-bangers (not so much) and Manga Khan (not at all) provide the action components but the real delight and raison d’être is the comedic interplay between the characters.
Giffen, DeMatteis, Maguire and Rubinstein are on top form in this fun and thrill stuffed reprise of lighter, brighter comic days that occurs just before the angsty traumas of Infinite Crisis and the interminable mega-epics that followed it. If you need a break from manic melodrama this is the one for you – and so is the sequel (I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Justice League ISBN: 978-1-4012-0478-5).
By Joe Kelly, Doug Mankhe & Tom Nguyen (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84023-609-5
Joe Kelly’s run on the World’s Greatest Superheroes has some notable highs and lows. This slim volume collecting issues # 61-65 of the monthly comicbook happily falls into the former category. The title comes from the three-part tale that forms the bulk of the book, but before that the wonderment kicks off with the stand-alone tale ‘Two-Minute Warning’, one of the best “day-in-the-life†type stories I’ve ever seen, with sharp dialogue, spectacular art and a novel format that elevates it beyond the many other attempts to show what everyday means for such god-like beings.
‘Golden Perfect’ is a tale which examines the nature of Truth itself. When Wonder Woman leads the team to the hidden kingdom of Jarhanpur to rescue a baby from a life of hereditary slavery she encounters a despot whose philosophy counters her belief in objective or absolute truth. The dispute shatters her magical golden lasso of Hestia…
Soon however this defeat has astounding repercussions for the entire universe. The broken lasso has destroyed objective truth completely. What people believe becomes the only arbiter of Reality. The moon is made of green cheese, the world is flat, Earth is the centre of the universe… As it all unravels a devastated Wonder Woman must find a way to reconcile her beliefs within the new Reality while the team battle desperately to keep the cosmos alive.
A dynamic end-of-everything tale that challenges the mind as well as stirring the blood, the patented Kelly one-liners, especially from Plastic Man, leaven the tension and heighten the enjoyment in this cracking little epic.
Ending the volume is ‘Bouncing Baby Boy’, a wistful and funny team-up of the mismatched Batman and Plastic Man. This small story looks at the sad side of the eternal clown, seen through the “cold and emotionless†eyes of the Dark Knight, and provides a welcome change from the Big Stories that are increasingly all Super-team books consist of.
Golden Perfect is well written and superbly illustrated, but not a typical JLA collection: It’s much, much better than that…
By Brad Meltzer, Geoff Johns & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-789-1
Once the publishers realised the sales potential of super-team crossovers it was a foregone conclusion that such collaborations would become a regular part of comicbook life. One of the most crammed of these was the JLA/JSA annual team up in Justice League of America #147-148 in 1977, which included the additional team of 30th century champions the Legion of Super Heroes.
Thirty years later the modern incarnations of those heroes did it again in ‘The Lightning Saga’, a crossover that progressed through the post-52Justice League # 8-10 and Justice Society #5-6.
When minor villain Trident is captured he is found to be under the mind-control of the alien Starro the Conqueror. Further examination reveals that he is also from the 30th century. In fact he is a hero known as Karate Kid, part of a team of teen-aged champions that Superman joined when he was just starting out. Revelations follow swiftly as JSA-er Star Man – a mysterious hero suffering from mental illness – reveals that he too is a time-lost member of the Legion of Super Heroes.
For an unspecified reason, seven members have travelled back in time, becoming lost and amnesiac. The combined 21st century teams must track them down and discover what mission could be so vital that it would be worth risking the entire future for?
As the lost Legionnaires are recovered old-time readers might well be fooled by a brilliant red herring newer fans won’t pick up on, but rest assured the conclusion isn’t one you’ll see coming.
Terse, far-reaching, tense and filled with humour and tragedy, this action-extravaganza continues the policy of reuniting all the disparate strands of DC continuity back together after the separations of the two decades following Crisis on Infinite Earths, and does it in a stylish and thrilling manner.
This volume also includes ‘Walls’ by Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha from Justice League #11: a gritty tale of survival as Red Arrow and Vixen are buried alive under a collapsing building and #12’s ‘Monitor duty’ by Meltzer, Ed Benes & Eric Wight, which depicts a typical but never normal day in the life of the team.
Intense and very high maintenance, the modern JLA is epic in every way but might not be to everyone’s taste. Still, if tense dramas and soap-opera ethics are your thing this is a very impressive read, ‘though not perhaps, one for the casual browser.
By David S. Goyer, Geoff Johns & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-937-X
Some books you can talk about, but with others it’s simply a waste of time. This is one of the latter. If you’re aware that the Justice Society of America was the industry’s first super-team formed to fight in World War II, and are now an organisation who regularly save the world whilst mentoring the next generation of superheroes, whilst the Justice League of America are the World’s Greatest Superheroes (and have all the characters who’ve appeared on TV and in movies) then you have all the background you need to read this wonderful example of fights ‘n’ tights fiction.
The JLA and JSA have gotten together to celebrate Thanksgiving when the alien conqueror Despero attacks them and the entire world by releasing the Seven Deadly Sins who promptly possess Batman, Power Girl, Mr. Terrific, Dr. Fate, Green Lantern, Plastic Man and Captain Marvel.
Can the remaining heroes defeat the sins without killing their friends, and save the world from total destruction? Of course they can, that’s the point. But seldom have they done it in such a spectacularly well written and beautifully illustrated manner.
This is a piece of pure, iconic genre narrative that hits every target and pushes every button it should. If you love superhero comics you should own this lovely book.
By Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-342-8
The third volume of these cheap ‘n’ cheerful black and white compendiums of past Justice League classics covers a period in DC’s history that still makes many a fan shudder with dread but I’m going to ask them to reconsider their aversion to the “Camp Craze†that saw America go superhero silly in the wake of the Batman TV show (and, to a lesser extent, the Green Hornet series that introduced Bruce Lee to the world). I should also mention that comics didn’t create the craze. Many popular media outlets felt the zeitgeist of a zanier, tongue-in-cheek, mock-heroic fashion: Just check out DVDS of Lost in Space or The Man from U.N.C.L.E if you doubt me…
The third annual JLA/JSA team-up starts the fun, a largely forgotten and rather experimental tale wherein the Johnny Thunder of Earth-1 wrested control of the genie-like Thunderbolt from his Justice Society counterpart and used its magic powers to change events that led to the creation of all Earth-1’s superheroes. It’s JSA to the rescue in a gripping battle of wits in #37’s ‘Earth – Without a Justice League’ and the concluding ‘Crisis on Earth-A!’
Issue #39 was an Eighty-Page Giant reprinting Brave and the Bold #28 and #30 and Justice League of America #5, so this volume makes do with just a cover reproduction before continuing with issue #40 and the ‘Indestructible Creatures of Nightmare Island’ a challenging conundrum wherein an astral scientist’s machine to suppress Man’s basest instincts almost causes the end of humanity, but also an action packed psycho-thriller stuffed with super-villainous guest-stars.
Issue #41 introduced a modern version of an old Justice Society villain. The Earth-1 mastermind called The Key is a diabolical scientist who used mild-altering psycho-chemicals to control the behaviour of our heroes in ‘The Key – Master of the World!’ He was followed by a guest-appearance from DC’s newest superhero sensation. Acquitting himself splendidly against the Cosmic Force named The Unimaginable, he was naturally offered membership in the team but astonishingly, he declined in the in the controversial ‘Metamorpho says – No!’
Justice League of America #43 was cover dated March 1966 and introduced a villainous team led by an old foe. ‘The Card Crimes of the Royal Flush Gang’ is a fine “Goodies and Baddies†romp and the first issue to feature the legendary DC “Go-Go checkerboard†banner at the top of the cover. This iconic cover-feature still generates a frisson of child-like anticipation in many older fans and is often used in pastiches and homage today to instantly create an evocative mood. It also marked the end of a brilliant career, as veteran inker Bernard Sachs put down his brushes for the final time and retired from the League and the comics field.
The next issue was inked by Frank Giacoia, a tense bio-thriller entitled ‘The Plague that Struck the Justice League!’, and he was joined by Joe Giella for the witty monster-menace double-feature ‘The Super-Struggle against Shaggy Man!’ in issue #45.
A wise-cracking campy tone was fully in play with the next issue, in acknowledgement of the changing audience profile. It was the opening part of the fourth annual crossover with the Justice Society of America. This time the stakes were raised to encompass the destruction of both planets in ‘Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth-Two’ and issue #47’s ‘The Bridge Between Earths’, wherein a bold – if rash – experiment pulls the two sidereal worlds into an inexorable hyper-space collision, whilst to make matters worse an anti-matter being uses the opportunity to explore our positive matter universe.
Peppered with wisecracks and “hip†dialogue, it’s sometimes difficult to discern what a cracking yarn this actually is, but if you’re able to forgive or swallow the dated patter, this is one of the best plotted and illustrated stories in the entire JLA/JSA canon. Furthermore, the vastly talented Sid Greene signed on as regular inker with this classic adventure, adding expressive subtlety, beguiling texture and whimsical humour to the pencils of Mike Sekowsky and the increasingly light, comedic scripts of Gardner Fox.
The next issue was another Eighty-Page Giant (reprinting Brave and the Bold #29 and #30 and Justice League of America #2 and 3, represented here by its stirring Sekowsky/Murphy Anderson cover, followed by the ‘Threat of the True-or-false Sorcerer’ in which a small team of the biggest guns (Batman, Superman, Flash and Green Lantern) must ferret out a doppelganger Felix Faust before he inadvertently dissolves all creation. There’s no excessive hoopla to celebrate the fiftieth issue but ‘The Lord of Time Attacks the 20th Century’ is another brilliantly told tale of heroism, action and sacrifice that, uncharacteristically for the company and the time, references and includes the ongoing Vietnam conflict. With “Batmania†in full swing editor Julie Schwartz also deemed it wise to include Robin, The Boy Wonder with regulars Aquaman, Flash, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Snapper Carr and Batman.
Issue #51 concluded a long-running experiment in continuity with ‘Z – As in Zatanna – and Zero Hour!’ in which a comely young sorceress concluded the search for her long-missing father with the assistance of a small group of Leaguers and guest-star Ralph “Elongated Man†Dibny.
Zatarra was a magician-hero in the Mandrake mould who had fought evil in the pages of Action Comics for over a decade beginning with the very first issue. During the Silver Age Gardner Fox had Zatarra’s young and equally gifted daughter, Zatanna, go searching for him by guest-teaming with a selection of superheroes Fox was currently scripting (if you’re counting, these tales appeared in Hawkman #4, Atom #19, Green Lantern #42, and the Elongated Man back-up strip in Detective Comics #355 as well as a very slick piece of back writing to include the high-profile Caped Crusader via Detective #336 – ‘Batman’s Bewitched Nightmare’).
Experimentation was also the basis of #52’s ‘Missing in Action – 5 Justice Leaguers!’, a portmanteau tale that showed what happened to those members who didn’t show up for issue #50. Hawkman – plus wife and partner Hawkgirl – Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Superman reported their solo yet ultimately linked adventures, whilst the Atom referred them to his time-travelling escapade with Benjamin Franklin from the pages of his own comic (The Atom #27 ‘Stowaway on a Hot Air Balloon!’). Batman still managed to make an appearance through the magic of a lengthy flash-back, showing again just how ubiquitous the TV series had made him. No editor in his right mind would ignore a legitimate (or even not-so) chance to feature such a perfect guarantee of increased sales.
‘Secret Behind the Stolen Super-Weapons’ found Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and Hawkman – again with Hawkgirl guest-starring – deprived of their esoteric armaments and in desperate need of the Atom, Flash, Aquaman and Superman. Card-carrying criminals returned in ‘The History-Making Costumes of the Royal Flush Gang’, a taut mystery-thriller with plenty of action to balance the suspense. This fed perfectly into another summer-spectacular team-up with the JSA.
Boasting a radical change, the Earth-2 team now starred an adult Robin instead of Batman, but Hourman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Wildcat, Johnny Thunder and Mr. Terrific still needed the help of Earth-1’s Superman, Flash, Green Lantern and Green Arrow to cope with ‘The Super-Crisis that Struck Earth-Two’ and ‘The Negative-Crisis on Earths One-Two!’
This cosmic threat from a dying universe was in stark contrast to the overly-worthy but well intentioned ‘Man – Thy Name is Brother!’ in issue #57, where Flash, Green Arrow and Hawkman joined Snapper Carr in defending human rights and equality via three cases involving ethnic teenagers; a black, a native American/Apache (and if that modern phrase doesn’t indicate the necessity and efficacy of such stories in the 1960’s then what does?) and an aid-worker in India. Beautifully drawn and obviously heartfelt, I still ponder on the fact that all the characters are male… but eventually comics would confront even that last bastion of institutionalised prejudice.
There’s one last Eighty-Page Giant cover in this gloriously cost-effective monochrome compendium (issue # 58 reprinted Justice League of America #1, 6 and 8), and it was produced by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. That’s followed by the extremely odd conceptual puzzler ‘The Justice Leaguer’s Impossible Adventure’ before the volume closes with the return of an old adversary and another “hot†guest-star. Issue #60 featured ‘Winged Warriors of the Immortal Queen!’ and pitted the enslaved and transformed team against DC’s newest sensation – Batgirl.
These phonebook-like collections – each in excess of 500 pages – are an absolute gift for modern fans with a desperate need to catch up without going bankrupt. They’re also the perfect gift for youngsters needing an introduction to a fabulous world of adventure and magic. Of all the various reprint editions and formats available for classic material, these monochrome tomes are my absolute favourites.
