Welcome back to the Society Pages, a column that looks back at the ‘modern’ history of the Justice Society of America. The main thrust of this column is to look at “JSA” and “Justice Society of America,” two ongoing series, written for most of their runs by Geoff Johns.
This week, we’ll be looking at the collection known as “JSA: Mixed Signals,” plus the issue that directly follows it. This breaks up the final volume of “JSA” collections, but since #83 begins the ‘One Year Later’ storyline, it seemed silly to let the last “Infinite Crisis” tie-in linger until we get back to “JSA” in a few weeks. This is also the first collection of “JSA” since the first with folks other than Geoff Johns writing these issues. Johns writes three of these seven issues, and while Keith Champagne and Paul Levitz do fine jobs, this collection doesn’t quite hang together the way that others do.
Written by Geoff Johns, Keith Champagne, and Paul LevitzCover by Alex Ross
Penciled by Ken Lopez, Jim Fern, Don Kramer, Dale Eaglesham, and George Pérez
Inked by Fernando Blanco, Mick Gray, Keith Champagne, Art Thibert and Bob Wiacek
Colored by John Kalisz and Tom Smith
Lettered by Rob LeighFollowing the events of DAY OF VENGEANCE, the DCU’s magic-based heroes are vulnerable — and the ancient magician Mordru plans to take full advantage of the situation. Meanwhile, the fate of Atom Smasher is decided, the OMACs attack, and Green Lantern is drafted to help in an intergalactic war!
Super quick note: Hey, Fernando Blanco on inks for one issue!
This collection of issues are all, more or less, tied into “Infinite Crisis” and the miniseries events that led into it. However, Geoff Johns is pretty adept at making tie-ins not feel like they don’t belong in the main story, and so while there are some elements that feel a little intrusive, there’s nothing in this collection that isn’t recognizable as “JSA.” The issues that Johns doesn’t write, save one, are more insulated from the events of both the event and the book, and so they, again, don’t feel too out of place.
“JSA” #76 is an “OMAC Project” tie-in, and sees the JSA go toe to toe with an OMAC on the streets of New York City. I wish there was more to this story, but that’s essentially it, aside from putting a pin in the Atom Smasher story for now, and giving him a “Suicide Squad” tease. Ken Lopez does a nice job, but this is nearly the most disposable of the stories, and really has the feel of the title not being able to progress too much, as ‘One Year Later’ is looming on the horizon, and so there needed to be some stories that could just exist without too much trouble.
#77 isn’t all that different, but it has some really nice Jim Fern art, and it sets up a few characters – Alan Scott, Airwave, and Donna Troy – for what they will need to do in “Infinite Crisis.” This is theoretically a “Day of Vengeance” tie-in, although most of the tie-in stuff happens in the next issue, specifically some shenanigans with magic, specifically the Wizard Shazam and Mordru at the Rock of Eternity. Those events, along with the overall ‘magic is borked’ message, make up the meat of this collection, which is a three-part story written by Keith Champagne and illustrated by Don Kramer.
Having one of the definitive late-period “JSA” artists on this arc helps it feel a little more in line with the series as a whole, because the nature of this bottle story feels really outside the usual “JSA” tenor. With Jakeem Thunder and Dr. Fate missing, Mister Terrific, Hourman, and Stargirl enter the Fifth Dimension, the realm of the Thunderbolt, to try to save Jakeem. Wildcat, Doctor Mid-Nite, Sand, and the Flash encounter the helmet of Nabu, and join with it to attempt to stop Mordru, who is emboldened by the way that magic is misbehaving.
This story, overall, is absolutely fine. There’s nothing too poorly written, outside of some clunkier than usual dialogue and Wildcat being more stereotypically gruff and verbose, and the art from Kramer is about what you’d expect from him at this point in the series. There are a few fun/cool moments, but the story basically sets up everything you’d need and then closes up all the loose ends in just three issues, which is not at all what this series typically does. For a book as dense and interconnected as this, there are only a few strands that extend before or after this story.
Continued belowOne of which is the Jakeem story, which sees him, after having gone missing, seemingly turning evil and ruling over the Fifth Dimension. It’s clear from jump street that something is amiss here, and it takes 2 issues of farting around to get to the bottom of it, but it does so in some fun ways. Champagne gets what makes these characters tick, and so he can write his way through this with relative ease. I was specifically moved by Hourman’s devotion to Jakeem. Maybe it’s because he has been stuck in a terrible situation before (see his time loop exploits in prior installments from 2020), but his single mindedness in rescuing his teammate is a really nice bit of characterization. ‘
Also, Thunderbolt has a son named Shocko, lol.
The other tendril that looks relevant for the future is a bizarre sequence involving Hector and Lyta Hall. They are lost in some other dimension, affected by the ‘magic is broken’ stuff, and Lyta makes a deal with Dream – yes, the Sandman – that we don’t see the end results from. It looks like, perhaps, their bodies are left for dead, but it is left purposely ambiguous. I’m sure we’ll get answers to this eventually (or did in “Infinite Crisis” and I’ve already forgotten since the DC3cast episode on it from last year).
The penultimate issue here is a Stargirl-centered issue, illustrated by Dale Eaglesham. This, in many ways, is Johns catching up the reader to what’s been happening in Blue Valley after the end of “Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.” It also connects back to James Robinson’s “Starman” by including the Shade, and somewhat closes the loose end of Courtney’s father. This, again, feels very much like an issue that there was room for after all the major events pre-‘One Year Later’ were dealt with. Does the death of Courtney’s dad really impact the story? No, not at all, except that it further bonds her to Pat and the JSA. But it’s a well done story, drawn really beautifully by Eaglesham.
The final issue is a direct tie-in to “Infinite Crisis,” featuring Power Girl. This issue would exist in a “Power Girl” ongoing, but since there wasn’t one at this point, here we are. Paul Levitz and George Pérez know their way around an Earth-2 story, but this is almost totally irrelevant to “JSA.” It’s fine, but ended the “Infinite Crisis” era of “JSA” with a bit of thud.
Next week: a miniseries interlude with “JSA Strange Adventures” and “Rann/Thanagar War!”
