{"id":34384,"date":"2025-11-29T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34384"},"modified":"2025-11-28T19:07:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T19:07:46","slug":"justice-society-of-america-a-celebration-of-75-years-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/11\/29\/justice-society-of-america-a-celebration-of-75-years-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-bk-250x386.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"386\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-34385\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-bk-250x386.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-bk-150x232.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-bk-768x1187.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-bk-994x1536.jpg 994w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-bk.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-frt-250x387.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"387\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-34386\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-frt-250x387.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-frt-150x232.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-frt-768x1188.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-frt.jpg 992w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><br \/>\nBy <strong>Gardner Fox<\/strong>, <strong>Robert Kanigher<\/strong>, <strong>John Broome<\/strong>, <strong>Denny O\u2019Neil<\/strong>, <strong>Paul Levitz<\/strong>, <strong>Roy Thomas<\/strong>, <strong>Len Strazewski<\/strong>, <strong>James Robinson<\/strong>, <strong>David Goyer<\/strong>, <strong>Geoff Johns<\/strong>, <strong>Mike Sekowsky<\/strong>, <strong>Dick Dillin<\/strong>, <strong>Joe Staton<\/strong>, <strong>Rich Buckler<\/strong>, <strong>Jerry Ordway<\/strong>, <strong>Arvell Jones<\/strong>, <strong>Mike<\/strong> <strong>Parobeck<\/strong>, <strong>William Rosado<\/strong>, <strong>Stephen Sadowski<\/strong>, <strong>Alex Ross<\/strong>, <strong>Dale Eaglesham<\/strong> &amp; various (DC Comics)<br \/>\nISBN: 978-1-4012-5531-2 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n<p><em>This book includes <strong>Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless, Remorseless, Evergreen&#8230; 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After the actual invention of the comic book superhero &#8211; via the <strong>Action Comics<\/strong> debut of <strong>Superman<\/strong> in June 1938 &#8211; the most significant event in our industry\u2019s history was the combination of individual stars into a like-minded group. Thus, what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was proven: consumers couldn\u2019t get enough of garishly-hued mystery men, and combining a multitude of characters inevitably increases readership. Plus, of course, a mob of superheroes is just so much cooler than one&#8230; or one-and-a-half if there\u2019s a sidekick involved&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The creation of the <strong>Justice Society of America<\/strong> in 1940 utterly changed the shape of the budding industry. Following the runaway success of <strong>Superman<\/strong> and <strong>Batman <\/strong>(and other stars at other publishers!), both National Comics and its separate-but-equal publishing partner <em>All American Comics<\/em> went looking for the next big thing in funnybooks whilst frantically concentrating on getting anthology packages into the hands of a hungry readership. Thus <strong>All Star Comics<\/strong> was conceived as a joint venture affording characters already in their respective stables an extra push towards winning elusive but lucrative solo titles.<\/p>\n<p>Technically, <strong>All Star Comics<\/strong> #3 (cover-dated Winter 1940-1941 and released in November 1940) was the kick-off, but the mystery men featured merely had dinner and recounted recent cases and didn\u2019t actually go on a mission together until #4, which had an April 1941 cover-date and hit newsstands on February 7<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>Although itself a little bit vintage, this superb commemoration from 2015 cannily compiles significant exploits of the pioneering paragons: specifically <strong>All<\/strong>&#8211;<strong>Star<\/strong> <strong>Comics<\/strong> #4, 37, 55; <strong>Justice League of America<\/strong> #21, 22, 30, 47, 82, 83, 193; <strong>Adventure Comics<\/strong> #466; <strong>All-Star Squadron<\/strong> #67;<strong> Justice Society of America<\/strong> #10; <strong>JSA Returns<\/strong>: <strong>All<\/strong>&#8211;<strong>Star<\/strong> <strong>Comics<\/strong> #2; <strong>JSA<\/strong> #25; <strong>Justice Society of America<\/strong> vol. 2 #10 and <strong>Earth 2 <\/strong>#6, and &#8211; like all these generational tomes &#8211; follows a fixed pattern by dividing into chapters curated by contextual essays.<\/p>\n<p>Here Roy Thomas\u2019s history-packed treatise describes how leading characters from National-DC\u2019s <strong>Adventure Comics<\/strong> and <strong>More Fun Comics<\/strong> and All-Star Publishing\u2019s <strong>Flash Comics<\/strong> and <strong>All-American Comics<\/strong> were first bundled together in an anthological quarterly. Back then <em>\u2018A Message from the Editors\u2019<\/em> asked readers to vote on the most popular&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The merits of the marketing project would never be proved: rather than a runaway favourite graduating to their own starring vehicle as a result of the poll, something radically different evolved. For the third issue, prolific scribe Gardner F. Fox apparently had the bright idea of linking all the solo stories by a framing device, with the heroes gathering to chat about their latest exploits. With that simple notion that mighty mystery men hung out together, history was made and it wasn\u2019t long before they started working collaboratively as well as collegiately&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The anniversary amazement opens with <strong>Part I 1941-1950: For America and Democracy <\/strong>honing in on those early moments, as <strong>All Star<\/strong> #4 eventually unites the costumed community <em>\u2018For America and Democracy\u2019<\/em> with Fox and artists EE Hibbard, Martin Nodell, Bernard Baily, Howard Sherman, Chad Grothkopf, Sheldon Moldoff &amp; Ben Flinton relating solo cases for <strong>Flash<\/strong>, <strong>Green Lantern<\/strong>, <strong>The Spectre<\/strong>, <strong>Hourman<\/strong>, <strong>Doctor<\/strong> <strong>Fate<\/strong>, <strong>The Sandman<\/strong>, <strong>The<\/strong> <strong>Atom<\/strong>, <strong>Hawkman<\/strong> and <strong>Johnny<\/strong> <strong>Thunder<\/strong> which coincide, converge and result in a concerted attack on Nazi espionage master <em>Fritz Klaver<\/em>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Pattern set, the heroes marched on against all foes from petty criminals to social injustice; aliens, mobsters and magical invaders until post-war tastes began shifting the formula&#8230;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1917\" height=\"1280\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-1.jpg 1917w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-1-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-1-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-1-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-1-1536x1026.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><br \/>\nWith post-war tensions abated <strong>All Star Comics<\/strong> #37 (1947) introduced <em>\u2018The Injustice Society of the World\u2019<\/em> (November 1947) in a yarn by Robert Kanigher, Irwin Hasen, Joe Kubert, Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino &amp; John Belfi. This sinister saga sees America almost conquered by a coalition of supervillains before our on-the-ropes mystery men counterattack and triumph.<\/p>\n<p>As superheroes plummeted in popularity, genre themes predominated and it was a stripped-down team (Flash, GL, <strong>Wonder Woman<\/strong>, <strong>Black Canary<\/strong>, Hawkman, Atom and <strong>Dr. Mid-Nite<\/strong>) who faced a flying saucer scare in #55: scouring outer space for <em>\u2018The Man Who Conquered the Solar System!\u2019<\/em> (October\/November 1955 by John Broome, Frank Giacoia, Arthur F. Peddy &amp; Bernard Sachs).<\/p>\n<p>Thomas then turns up again for another educational chat as <strong>Part II 1963-1970: The Silver Age of Crisis<\/strong> focuses on the era that changed comics forever.<\/p>\n<p>As I\u2019ve frequently stated, I was one of the lucky \u201cBaby Boomer\u201d crowd who grew up with Julie Schwartz, Fox &amp; Broome\u2019s tantalisingly slow reintroduction of Golden Age superheroes during the halcyon, eternally summery days of the early 1960s. To me those fascinating counterpart crusaders from Earth-Two weren\u2019t vague and distant memories rubber-stamped by parents or older brothers &#8211; they were cool, beguiling and enigmatically new. Moreover, for some reason the \u201cproper\u201d heroes of Earth-One held them in high regard and treated them with obvious deference&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>It all began, naturally enough, in <strong>The Flash<\/strong>: trailblazing trendsetter of the Silver Age Comics Revolution. After successfully ushering in the return of the superheroes, the Scarlet Speedster &#8211; with Fox &amp; Broome at the writing reins &#8211; set an unbelievably high standard for costumed adventure in sharp, witty tales of science and imagination, illustrated with captivating style and clean simplicity by Carmine Infantino.<\/p>\n<p>The epochal epic that forever changed the scope of American comics was Fox\u2019s <em>\u2018Flash of Two Worlds\u2019<\/em> (<strong>Flash <\/strong>#123 September 1961 and not included here), establishing the existence of Infinite alternate Earths, multiple versions of costumed crusaders, and &#8211; by extension &#8211; the multiversal structure of the DCU. Every succeeding, cosmos-shaking annual summer \u201cCrisis\u201d saga grew from it. Fan pressure almost instantly agitated for the return of more \u201cGolden Age Greats\u201d but Editorial bigwigs were hesitant, fearing too many heroes would be silly and unmanageable, or worse yet, put readers off. If they could see us now&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>These innovative crossover yarns generated an avalanche of popular and critical approval (big sales figures, too) so inevitably the trans-dimensional tests led to the ultimate team-up in the summer of 1963. A gloriously enthralling string of <strong>JLA\/JSA <\/strong>convocations and stunning superhero wonderments begin with landmark opening salvoes <em>\u2018Crisis on Earth-One\u2019 <\/em>and<em> \u2018Crisis on Earth-Two\u2019<\/em> (<strong>Justice League of America<\/strong> #21-22, August to September). In combination they comprise one of the most important stories in DC history and arguably one of the most crucial tales in American comics.<\/p>\n<p>Written by Fox and compellingly illustrated by Mike Sekowsky &amp; Bernard Sachs, the yarn sees a team of villains from each Earth plundering at will; meeting and defeating the mighty Justice League before imprisoning them in their own secret mountain HQ. Temporarily helpless \u201cour\u201d heroes contrive a desperate plan to combine forces with champions of another Earth to save the world &#8211; both of them &#8211; and the result is pure comic book majesty. It\u2019s impossible for me to be totally objective about this saga. I was a drooling kid in short trousers when I first read it and the thrills haven\u2019t diminished with this umpty-first re-reading.<\/p>\n<p>This is what superhero comics are all about!<\/p>\n<p>The second team-up is only represented by the concluding chapter <em>\u2018The Most Dangerous Earth of All!\u2019<\/em> <strong>Justice League of America<\/strong> #30 (September 1964) reprised the team-up of League and Society, after (evil) versions of our heroic champions, and crucially beings from a third alternate Earth, discover the secret of trans-universal travel. Unfortunately, <em>Ultraman<\/em>, <em>Owlman<\/em>, <em>Superwoman<\/em>, <em>Johnny Quick<\/em> &amp; <em>Power Ring<\/em> come from a world without heroes and only see the crimebusting JLA and JSA as living practice dummies to sharpen their evil skills upon&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>With this cracking thriller the annual summer get-together became entrenched in heroic lore, giving fans endless entertainment for years to come and making the approaching end of school holidays less gloomy than they could have been.<\/p>\n<p>The fourth annual event was a touch different: flavoured by self-indulgent humour as a TV show drove the wider world bats. Veteran inker Bernard Sachs retired before the fourth team-up, leaving the superb Sid Greene to embellish a gloriously whacky saga springing out of the global \u201cBatmania\u201d craze engendered by the twice-weekly <strong>Batman <\/strong>series&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>A wisecracking campy tone was fully in play, acknowledging the changing audience profile and this time stakes were raised to encompass destruction of both planets in <em>\u2018Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth-Two\u2019<\/em> (not reprinted here) and <em>\u2018The Bridge Between Earths\u2019 <\/em>(<strong>Justice League of America<\/strong> #47, September 1966), wherein a bold but poorly judged continuum-warping experiment drags two Earths towards inexorable hyper-space collision. Meanwhile, making matters worse, an awesome anti-matter entity uses the opportunity to break into and explore our positive matter universe whilst two worlds\u2019 heroes are distracted by destructive rampages of monster-men <em>Blockbuster<\/em> and <em>Solomon Grundy<\/em>.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1930\" height=\"1387\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-2.jpg 1930w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-2-150x108.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-2-250x180.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-2-768x552.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-2-1536x1104.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><br \/>\nPeppered with wisecracking \u201chip\u201d dialogue, it\u2019s sometimes difficult to discern what a superb yarn this actually is, but if you can forgive or swallow the dated patter, this is one of the best plotted and illustrated stories in the entire canon. Furthermore, the vastly talented Greene\u2019s expressive subtlety, beguiling texture and whimsical humour add unheard-of depth to Sekowsky\u2019s pencils and Fox\u2019s light &amp; frothy comedic scripts.<\/p>\n<p>The exercise in fantastic nostalgia continues with both chapters of a saga wherein alien property speculators seek to simultaneously raze Earths One and Two in <em>\u2018Peril of the Paired Planets\u2019<\/em> (#82 August 1970 by O\u2019Neil, Dillin &amp; Joe Giella) and only the ultimate sacrifice by a true hero averts transdimensional disaster in <em>\u2018Where Valor Fails&#8230; Will Magic Triumph?\u2019<\/em> (#83 September)&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Part III: Bronze Age and Beyond 1971-1986<\/strong> returns to independent status and stories as &#8211; following another pertinent briefing from Thomas &#8211; we focus on a time when the team was on its second career after decades in retirement. Set on parallel world Earth-2, the veterans are leavened with teen heroes, combined into a contentious, generation-gap fuelled \u201cSuper Squad\u201d. Those youngsters included grown up <strong>Robin<\/strong>, <em>Sylvester Pemberton<\/em> &#8211; <strong>The Star-Spangled Kid<\/strong> (a 1940s teen superhero lost in time for decades) and a busty young thing who quickly became the feisty favourite of a generation of growing boys: <em>Kara Zor-L<\/em> &#8211; AKA <strong>Power Girl<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It starts with a little history lesson as Paul Levitz &amp; Joe Staton reveal how and why the JSA went away. In <em>\u2018The Defeat of the Justice Society\u2019<\/em> (from <strong>Adventure Comics<\/strong> #466 December, 1979) they expose the reason why the team vanished at the beginning of the 1950s as the US government cravenly betrays its greatest champions during <em>Joe McCarthy<\/em>\u2019s witch-hunts: provoking mystery men into voluntarily withdrawing from public heroic life for over a decade&#8230; until the costumed stalwarts of Earth-One started the whole Fights \u2018n\u2019 Tights scene all over again.<\/p>\n<p>When Roy Thomas left Marvel for DC, he made a lifetime wish come true by writing his dream team&#8230; sort of.<strong> Justice League of America <\/strong>#193 (August 1981) featured a \u201cPrevue\u201d insert minicomic featuring the <em>\u2018All-Star Squadron\u2019<\/em>. Thomas, Rich Buckler &amp; Jerry Ordway launched a series of new stories set in the immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, told in real time and integrating previously published Golden Age tales into an overarching continuity. Here the JSA were augmented by contemporaries from other companies acquired by DC over the years &#8211; like <strong>Plastic Man<\/strong>, <strong>Firebrand <\/strong>and <strong>Uncle Sam<\/strong> &#8211; with minor DC stalwarts like <em>Liberty Belle<\/em>, <em>Johnny Quick <\/em>and <em>Robot Man<\/em>. The prequel tells of December 6<sup>th<\/sup> 1941 and how JSA heroes are attacked by villains from their own future as a mastermind seeks to alter history, leaving President <em>Franklin Delano Roosevelt<\/em> to issue a clarion call to all of Democracy\u2019s other champions.<\/p>\n<p>After an impressive and entertaining 5 year run that skilfully negotiated rewriting much continuity during <strong>Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/strong>, the series ended with <strong>All-Star Squadron<\/strong> #67 (March 1987) as Thomas, Arvell Jones &amp; Tony DeZu\u00f1iga recondition <em>\u2018The First Case of the Justice Society of America\u2019<\/em> (from <strong>All Star<\/strong> #4) revealing how Nazi <em>Fritz Klaver<\/em> met justice&#8230;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2025\" height=\"1432\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-3.jpg 2025w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-3-150x106.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-3-250x177.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-3-768x543.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-3-1536x1086.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><br \/>\nIndustry insider Ivan Cohen then explains how things changed after the Crisis as a taster for <strong>Part IV: The JSA Returns 1992-2007<\/strong>. We open with the last issue of <strong>Justice Society of America<\/strong> volume 1 (#10, May 1993) &#8211; a series that concentrated on adventures of the aging heroes in modern times. <em>\u2018J.S.A. No More?\u2019<\/em> by Len Strazewski, Mike Parobeck &amp; Mike Machlan closed a superb, joyously fun run with geriatric wonders polishing off ancient mage <em>Kulak<\/em> to save humanity from an army of unquiet ghosts and zombies&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The heroes were re-rebooted six years later via a series of one-shots bracketed by a 2-issue miniseries. Here James Robinson, David Goyer, William Rosado, John Dell &amp; Ray Kryssing conclude a WWII-set campaign against mystic marauder <em>Stalker<\/em> with <em>\u2018The JSA Returns, Conclusion: Time\u2019s Arrow\u2019<\/em> from <strong>JSA Returns:<\/strong> <strong>All-Star Comics<\/strong> #2 (Late May 1999).<\/p>\n<p>All that attention led to a spectacular new series, winning new fans for the old soldiers by turning the team into a mentoring service for young superheroes. It must have been hard to select a sample from that era, but here its <em>\u2018The Return of Hawkman: Seven Devils\u2019<\/em> (<strong>JSA<\/strong> #25, August 2001 by Goyer, Geoff Johns, Stephen Sadowski, Michael Bair, Dave Meikis, Paul Neary &amp; Rob Leigh).<\/p>\n<p>But first, a slight digression&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hawkman<\/strong> is one of the oldest, most revered heroes ever published, premiering in <strong>Flash Comics<\/strong> #1 (January 1940). Although created by Fox &amp; Dennis Neville, the most celebrated artists to have drawn the Winged Wonder are Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Kubert, whilst a young Robert Kanigher was justly proud of his later run as writer. <em>Carter Hall<\/em> was a playboy archaeologist until he uncovered a crystal knife that unlocked submerged memories. He realised that once he had been <em>Prince Khufu<\/em> of ancient Egypt, and that he and his lover <em>Shiera<\/em> had been murdered by High Priest <em>Hath-Set<\/em>. Moreover, with his returned memories came knowledge that his love and his killer were also nearby. Using past life knowledge, Hall fashioned a costume and flying harness, hunting his killer as <strong>The Hawkman<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Once his aim was achieved, he and Shiera maintained their Mystery-Man roles to fight modern crime and tyranny with weapons of the past. Disappearing as the Golden Age ended, they were revived by Julie Schwartz\u2019s crack creative team in the 1960s, but after a long career involving numerous revamps and retcons, the Pinioned Paladin \u201cdied\u201d in the <strong>Zero Hour<\/strong> crisis.<\/p>\n<p>The interconnection between all those iterations is resolved after time-lost <em>Jay <\/em><strong>The Flash<\/strong> <em>Garrick<\/em> awakens in ancient Egypt, and learns from <em>Nabu<\/em> (the Lord of Order who created <strong>Doctor Fate<\/strong>, <strong>Black Adam<\/strong> and Khufu himself) the true origins of Hawkman. Meanwhile in the 21<sup>st\u00a0<\/sup>century, the modern Hawkgirl discovers connections to alien cop <em>Katar Hol<\/em>, the <strong>Hawkworld<\/strong> of Thanagar and true power of empowering <em>Nth Metal<\/em>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>When Hawkgirl is abducted to aforementioned Thanagar by its last survivors, desperate to thwart the schemes of insane death-demon <em>Onimar Synn<\/em>, the JSA frantically follow and Carter Hall makes his dramatic return from beyond to save the day in typical fashion: leading the team to magnificent victory in this concluding chapter&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>There had been many attempts to formally revive the team\u2019s fortunes but it wasn\u2019t until 1999, on the back of both a highly successful rebooting of the <strong>JLA<\/strong> by Grant Morrison &amp; Howard Porter and James Robinson\u2019s seminal but critically favoured modern <strong>Starman<\/strong>, that the multi-generational team found a new mission and fan-base big enough to support them. As the century ended the original superteam returned and have been with us in one form or another ever since.<\/p>\n<p>Called to order after <strong>Infinite Crisis<\/strong> and <strong>Identity Crisis<\/strong>, this JSA saw surviving heroes from WWII as teachers for the latest generation of champions and metahuman \u201clegacy-heroes\u201d: a large, cumbersome but nevertheless captivating assembly of raw talent, uneasy exuberance and weary hard-earned experience. Taken from truly epic storyline <em>\u2018Thy Kingdom Come\u2019<\/em>, Geoff Johns, Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham, Ruy Jose &amp; Drew Geraci\u2019s<em> \u2018What a Wonderful World\u2019<\/em> comes from <strong>Justice Society of America<\/strong> (vol. 2 #10; November 2007). It expands clarifies and builds on heroes introduced in the landmark 1996 Mark Waid &amp; Alex Ross miniseries <strong>Kingdom Come<\/strong>, and belated sequel <strong>The Kingdom<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1990\" height=\"1525\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-4.jpg 1990w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-4-150x115.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-4-250x192.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-4-768x589.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Justice-Society-of-America-a-celebration-of-75-years-illo-4-1536x1177.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><br \/>\nThe elder <em>Kal-El<\/em> from that tragic future dystopia has crossed time and dimensions to stop his world ever forming, and not even awakened god <em>Gog<\/em> or his new allies will stop him. <em>\u2018What a Wonderful World\u2019<\/em> sees Tomorrow\u2019s Man of Steel disclose how heroes and their successors almost destroyed the planet (with flashback sequences painted by Ross) before (another) <em>Starman<\/em> explains his own connection to all the realms of the multiverse. Initially suspicious, the JLA come to accept the elder Man of Steel, but elsewhere, a deadly predator begins eradicating demi-gods and pretenders to divinity throughout the globe&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Having grown too large and unwieldy again, DC\u2019s continuity was again pruned and repatterned in 2011, founding a <strong>New 52<\/strong> as sampled here in concluding segment <strong>Part IV: Revamp 2012<\/strong>. Accompanied by another Cohen text briefing, <em>\u2018End Times\u2019<\/em> (Robinson, Nicola Scott &amp; Trevor Scott) comes from <strong>Earth 2 <\/strong>#6 (January 2012) with a recreated JSA operating on a restored alternate Earth, but one where an attack from <em>Apokolips<\/em> has created a living hell for the survivors of humanity. Only a small group of metahumans such as Flash, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern are keeping humanity alive and free&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>With covers by Hibbard, Irwin Hasen, Arthur F. Peddy &amp; Bernard Sachs, Sekowsky, Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella, Neal Adams, Dick Dillin, George P\u00e9rez, Tom Grindberg &amp; Tony DeZu\u00f1iga, Mike Parobeck, Dave Johnson, Andrew Robinson, Alex Ross, Ivan Reis &amp; Joe Prado, this magnificent celebration of the premiere super-team is a glorious march down memory lane no fan can be without. If you cherish tradition, this titanic tome must be yours&#8230;<br \/>\n\u00a9 1941, 1947, 1950, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1979, 1981, 1986, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2012, 2015, DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n<p>Today in 1919, Golden Age art star <strong>Gill Fox<\/strong> was born, whilst in 1953 strip paragon <strong>Milt<\/strong> (<em>Count Screwloose of Tooloose<\/em>) <strong>Gross<\/strong> passed on. You can see his whacky wonderment by checking out <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/02\/04\/he-done-her-wrong-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">He Done Her Wrong<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Scribe supreme <strong>Greg Rucka<\/strong> was born in 1969 and this week we love his <em>Stumptown<\/em> stuff most. Go find <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/06\/25\/stumptown-volume-1-the-case-of-the-girl-who-took-her-shampoo-but-left-her-mini\/\" target=\"_blank\">Stumptown volume 1: The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo (But Left her Mini)<\/a><\/strong> to see why. Lastly, the astounding <strong>Fran Hopper<\/strong> died today in 2017, She mostly drew for Fiction House from the industry\u2019s earliest days and cleared a path for so many other women in what so wanted to be a white-boys-only club&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Gardner Fox, Robert Kanigher, John Broome, Denny O\u2019Neil, Paul Levitz, Roy Thomas, Len Strazewski, James Robinson, David Goyer, Geoff Johns, Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin, Joe Staton, Rich Buckler, Jerry Ordway, Arvell Jones, Mike Parobeck, William Rosado, Stephen Sadowski, Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham &amp; various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-5531-2 (HB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/11\/29\/justice-society-of-america-a-celebration-of-75-years-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 Years&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,76,16,28,127,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-dc-superhero","category-jla","category-jsa","category-nostalgia","category-superman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8WA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34384"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34393,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34384\/revisions\/34393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}