Category: JSA

By David S. Goyer, Geoff Johns & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84023-572-2

This third collection (reprinting issues 16-26 of the monthly comic and portions of JSA Secret Files #1) revived the greatest victim of DC’s perpetual massaging of their in-house continuity – an event considered impossible by many of the company’s top-guns – and accomplished it in a manner that is both impressive and enjoyable.

Hawkman was created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville for Flash Comics #1, released in 1940 and one of the most visually arresting characters of the early days of comics. He ran until the end of the Golden Age, led the Justice Society for nearly its entire history and even alternated cover slots with the eponymous Flash.

He vanished with so many others at the beginning of the 1950s, and was revived both as a new concept for the Silver Age, and in his original persona when the JSA met the Justice League of America. Although seemingly incapable of supporting a mass-market book for any sustained period, he is an icon of DC’s line and was savagely retconned many times. In the parlous times of the mid-1990s he seemingly vanished into Limbos both literal and literary.

With a timeline considered “toxic” by the DC powers-that-be he was left to languish until the incredibly audacious scribes Goyer and Johns decided to bring him back and do him right in his true home: the JSA comicbook. And although that’s what this collection reprints, the road took a few twists and turns before it got there…

Kicking off is a five part saga sub-titled ‘Injustice Be Done’ as the Faustian mastermind Johnny Sorrow gathers a team of super-villains and executes a strategic assault on the multi-generational group of heroes. As if it matters those reprobates are Count Vertigo, Killer Wasp, Rival, Blackbriar Thorn, Geomancer, the Icicle, Tigress, the Thinker, Shiv and Black Adam, but the unconfined joy of this fights ‘n’ tights romp is the return of the Spectre to this most influential of teams.

At the climax of the action extravaganza, the Flash is lost in time and the interlude tale ‘Guardian Angels’ details his meeting with the heroes of ancient Egypt – including the flying Warrior Prince Khufu, whose murder led to a cycle of heroic reincarnations that culminated in the birth of Hawkman.

The Big Show then follows with ‘The Return of Hawkman’ a four part spectacle that spans thousands of years and trillions of miles as Hawkgirl and a team of JSA-ers travel to the devastated planet Thanagar to resurrect the Winged Wonder from non-being and destroy a soul-eating demon who has turned the entire planet into a vast charnel house playground.

As well as reconciling the convoluted histories of Hawkman into a viable whole and kicking off a highly entertaining spin-off series this dramatic tale is pure superhero flash and dazzle – the kind of bravura fantasy that no other medium of expression has ever managed to match.

It’s not witty, it’s not significant and it’s not capital A “Art” – but it is spellbinding, breathtaking adventure. What more can a fan-boy want?

© 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Geoff Johns, Lee Moder, Scott Kolins, Dan Davis & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-734-1

Geoff Johns started his DC career by revamping the Star Spangled Kid for the 21st century. The original Kid and sidekick Stripesy fought crime in the 1940’s both as a duo and as part of the original Seven Soldiers of Victory. Their gimmick was that Stripesy was an adult whilst the Kid gave the orders. It seemed like a natural development to thrill the children who bought comics and that idea hasn’t been lost here.

Pat Dugan was Stripesy. He’s just remarried and his new wife has a teen-aged daughter, Courtney. She’s a little resentful that the family has moved out of Beverly Hills to Blue Valley, Nebraska. That attitude changes somewhat when she finds a belt and costume that give her superpowers. At first intending to tick off her new dad she soon discovers she enjoys being a hero, entering into a tenuous partnership with Dugan who has built a robotic battle suit to carry on crime-fighting.

A good thing too, as Blue Valley is literally infested with aliens, monsters and super-villains, most notably the insidious Dragon King who fought Pat in his WWII days. This second volume collects issues #9-14 plus an issue #0 and features the remaining bright, breezy, undemanding adventures with overtones of rebel-teen, coming-of-age family bonding from the regrettably short-lived comicbook (see JSA Presents Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.: vol. 1, ISBN: 1-84576-595-8).

It all kicks off with a behind the scenes tale depicting how the original Star Spangled Kid passed on the torch – and the super-belt, guest-starring the JSA and featuring sections drawn by the superb Chris Weston and inked by John Stokes. Scott Kolins pencils the next few tales as the 1940s The Seven Soldiers of Victory appear in a tale that reveals just how they all got lost in time. Moder returns as the craziness at Blue Valley High shifts into high gear with the reappearance of cybernetic-killer and Valley Girl Shiv, who is desperate to please her Super-Mastermind dad and eviscerate young Courtney.

Time-lost hero The Shining Knight joins the cast as the pace increases and the Dragon King’s evil plans near completion. When the mind-controlled populace goes on a rampage rebel Courtney finds herself fighting alongside some of the greatest – and oldest – heroes of all time to save the world!

Fast, frantic and funny, this is a delightfully easy book to like, that doesn’t take itself seriously and remembers what kids – as well as fanboys – want.

©1999-2000, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Paul Levitz & various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-441-2

With the cancellation of the monthly comic book an open secret, sentiment seemed to prevail in the DC offices and veteran Justice Society scribe Paul Levitz returned to write the “final” story-arc of the original super-team, before the company wide reboot of the DC universe took permanent hold (Permanent being defined as “until we decide to change our minds again”).

Ghost Stories is a simpler tale from a more traditional perspective, and I suspect, produced for a die-hard audience like myself. It begins with Power Girl learning of and experiencing a 1950’s exploit of Superman and Batman involving the mysterious ‘Gentleman Ghost’. Drawn by George Perez and inked by Bob Smith, ‘Ghosts in the House’ is as much pastiche as prologue, and leads into the next chapter which fell under the umbrella of DC’s One Year Later relaunch.

When the spirits of the dead start appearing to modern day JSA-ers and their families, the heroes mobilise and soon confront the Gentleman Ghost who wants not only revenge but also to live again, which he can only achieve by killing the team. ‘Who’s Afraid of Ghosts?’, ‘When the Dead Call…’ and ‘…The Living Must Answer!’ are illustrated by Rags Morales and Dave Meikis, with flashback sequences by Luke Ross.

Long-time fan and fan-favourite Jerry Ordway returns to draw the series to a close in ‘Where the Highwaymen Rode…’ and ‘Ghost in the Castle’, with the plain, honest indomitable good-defeating-overwhelming-evil plot coming triumphantly together to close the current series in a deeply satisfying manner. This tense, action-packed old-fashioned romp is a fitting close to a possibly over-extended chapter in the long history of this greatest of super-teams. Although possibly not to everyone’s taste, this is a series with more highs than lows for the fan of costumed do-gooding.

© 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Geoff Johns, Keith Champagne & Don Kramer (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-347-5

As the company readied itself for the massive shake-up generated by the Infinite Crisis crossover, some DC titles experienced an unfortunate decline in quality, and none more so than the once excellent JSA. Although initially a worthy continuation of that landmark concept which was the foundation of all superhero teams, by the time of this collection (reprinting issues #76-81 of the monthly comic) the glorious history and triumphs had been diluted by a kind of thematic “burn-out” as the original world-savers became over-mired in interpersonal dramas. But the real killer wasn’t a lack of story balance: It was that the threatened changes elsewhere seemed to leech the life out of this venerable superhero team by pulling the team in too many directions.

The legal fate of wayward member and accused international criminal Atom Smasher is finally resolved in the first tale, but that’s merely an excuse to introduce the cyborg Omacs (see also The Omac Project ISBN 1-84576-229-0) and the new Suicide Squad into this series, and when the energy based hero Airwave crashes into their HQ seeking reinforcements for a universe shaking catastrophe, the team are alerted to the cosmic component of the Infinite Crisis.

Meanwhile Earth’s magic users are under assault and a small team are dispatched to the Fifth Dimension to rescue Jakeem Thunder and his mystical Thunderbolt, only to become embroiled in a titanic civil war, whilst their own magic members face destruction from super-wizard Mordru in a prelude to Day of Vengeance (ISBN 1-84576-230-4).

This volume concludes with a small personal story of the type that so well counterpoints cosmic epics, as the teenaged Stargirl reconsiders her life with her semi-retired superhero stepfather Pat (Stripesy) Duggan as the Crisis builds around them all.

Despite feeling a bit rushed and convoluted, this is still credible and competent work from writers Geoff Johns and Keith Champagne, and artists Don Kramer, Dale Eaglesham, Jim Fern, David Lopez, Art Thibert, Mick Gray, and Fernando Blanco, although perhaps the piecemeal nature of this beast might deter all but the dedicated fan.

© 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Geoff Johns, Lee Moder & Dan Davis (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-84576-595-8

Before hitting it big Geoff Johns started his DC career by revamping the Star Spangled Kid for the 21st century. The original Kid and sidekick Stripesy (an adult) fought crime in the 1940’s, both as a duo and as part of the original Seven Soldiers of Victory. The gimmick was that the sidekick was an adult whilst the literal Kid was the boss and gave the orders. It seemed like a natural development to thrill the children who bought comics and that idea hasn’t been lost here.

Stripesy is Pat Dugan, that same stalwart who battled in the 1940s. He’s still the same guy, more or less (time travel paradox plot – don’t ask – just go with it) and has just remarried. His new wife has a teen-aged daughter, Courtney, who is something of a handful, and is resentful that the new family has upped sticks and moved out of Beverly Hills to relocate to Blue Valley, Nebraska.

We all know what a spoiled brat can be like, but Courtney surprises everybody when her snooping uncovers Pat’s secret and, more importantly, his mementoes. When blackmailing him elicits no results, she steals the Star Spangled uniform to bait him at a party. The costume’s belt is a cosmic power source, which is fortunate, as Blue Valley is the secret base for an evil organisation bent on world conquest.

When the dance is attacked by masked terrorists Courtney manifests super powers and deals with them, but not before step-dad reveals a secret of his own – he’s built a robot battle suit to carry on crime-fighting. Forced to team-up, she learns to be less selfish and he finds that he’s destined to be the “and” part of any partnership.

A light-hearted romp, Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E (the first eight comicbook issues of which are collected here) has a lovely light touch and a terrific spin on the derring-duo theme. The character dynamic as over-protective adult and wilful child discover each other is very often as touching as it is funny and the angst-light action featuring such DC icons as Starman, Teen Titans/Young Justice, Captain Marvel and eventually the JLA and JSA plus a host of villains, aliens and the truly evil denizens of your average American High School make this a very youth friendly series.

© 1999-2000, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

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.

 

By Geoff Johns & various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-192-8

By the time of this collection of stories from the monthly comic featuring the Justice Society of America (issues #59-67) there have been six and a half years of continuous publication, including attendant Specials, miniseries, annuals and general cross-overage with the rest of the DC universe, plus whatever communal backstory the creators have chosen to access in their desperate strivings to bang out the next issue in the modern cut-throat comics marketplace. The advent of the trade paperback collection has given the periodical comic story another bite of the cherry, much as the rise of DVD sales has to cinema studios, but it’s still a tenuous existence for funnybook writers everywhere.

So this book is the result of one of those semi-regular clear-ups when a title attempts to pull together all the disparate strands that have sweetened the narrative pot in the never-ending struggle to keep the readers attention. The “Previously in JSA…” section is three dense pages of very small print. The stories themselves though, are a pleasant change of pace from recent efforts as they, by necessity, focus on the characters themselves rather than the ever-imminent destruction of the country, the planet and the universe.

Over the course of the series various characters have been lost to the vicissitudes of super-heroing and these stories concern the rescuing of some and the re-defining of others. First up is a tale which resolves a long-running grey area in the team’s morale. Stargirl is a fourteen year old girl and she’s been spending entirely too much time with the thirty-something Captain Marvel. Members are beginning to get a little worried. What they don’t know of course, is that the good Captain is also only a feeble teenager, albeit one who magically transforms into the hunky adult crime fighter. Geoff Johns writes and Sean Phillips illustrates a tale that really can’t have that happy an ever after.

A good old superhero punch up is the motivator of ‘Redemption Lost’ as a villain escapes from Hell, reanimating the dead in one last attempt to destroy the JSA. Credits are due to Johns as usual, with Don Kramer, Tom Mandrake and Keith Champagne making the pictures. ‘Insomnia’ clears up plot threads left hanging since the early days of the title and even as far back as the 1980s and 1990s as it attempts to reshuffle continuity regarding the various Sandmans (Sandmen?) as well as the amazonian Fury and the most recent incarnation of the magician-hero Dr. Fate, compliments of Jerry Ordway, Wayne Faucher and Prentis Rollins, over a jam-packed Johns script. ‘Out of Time’ features the final-ish fate of the three people who have been Hourman, and resolves a long, (long, long, long) storyline featuring the inevitable death of one of them at the end of Time, courtesy of artists Kramer and Champagne.

The volume concludes with a tie-in chapter of the braided mega-event Identity Crisis which impacted upon the entire DC continuity. If you followed the tale you know it all begins with the murder of a super-hero’s wife and consequently rewrote the ethical viewpoint of the superhuman community. If you didn’t I’m sure you couldn’t care less, but should at least be informed that this chapter features the JSA science types Mr. Terrific and Doctor Mid-Nite performing ‘The Autopsy’. Geoff Johns writes and Superstar Dave Gibbons draws with finishes by James Hodgkins.

I suppose any attempt to rationalise or simplify continuities is ultimately foredoomed (and yes, that is a shot at Marvel’s Ultimates line and publishing strategy), since once you are two or three graphic volumes into a new run the problems you’re attempting to address start accruing all over again. Even so, writers don’t just make this stuff up. There is planning and there is editorial consultation.

Maybe if creators and publishers acknowledge that the eventual destination of all their labours is a honking great book (as the Europeans do with their Bande Dessineé) in a bookshop or library rather than the airtight caress of a mylar snug in a bank vault or the back-issue bin in the four-colour ghettoes we comic fans build for ourselves, the proper considerations can be incorporated to make graphic novels a more inviting prospect for the casual reader. If not, we can expect to have the current comics publishing phenomenon end as just another closed book for the rest of the world.

© 2004, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.