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 is a weird, weird time for these books. Geoff Johns is off “JSA” as it winds down its run, “JSA Classified” continues to be a weird, weird title, and “Hawkgirl” gets insanely decompressed. Let’s dig into the “One Year Later” era of DC Comics.
Written by Paul LevitzCover by George Pérez
Penciled by Rags Morales, Luke Ross, and Jerry Ordway
Inked by Dave Meikis and Jerry Ordway
Colored by John Kalisz, Rob Schwager, Tanya Horie, and Richard Horie
Lettered by Rob LeighA new volume collecting the story arc written by Paul Levitz (LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES), presented in JSA #82-87! The JSA has been targeted by the Gentleman Ghost and his undead army. How will they end a supernatural slaughter when the only being who can stop it is the ghost of Batman?
There is nothing inherently wrong with a Gentleman Ghost arc of “JSA,” nor is there anything wrong with Paul Levitz, as old school a DC writer as has ever existed, having a turn on “JSA.” That said, this arc is boring and pointless, and absolutely wastes the ‘One Year Later’ concept. The whole idea of the ‘OYL’ era is that you can drop heroes into interesting status quos without doing the hard work of getting them there. Instead of giving the “JSA” some fun new members or circumstances, they simply had the team break up and not be a team anymore.
Cool.
Because of that, which seems like a clear excuse to just give the team a fresh coat of paint and a new #1 in a few months, this arc is mainly bringing together members piecemeal to fight off the Gentleman Ghost. Entirely too much time – nearly half the issues – are spent on a Gentleman Ghost origin story, which essentially could’ve been done in one slightly overstuffed double page spread, but instead lasts an entire arc in pages here and there. When the story picks up a little bit, those pages are unbearable speed bumps, but since the story rarely has a pace above ‘terminally ill tortoise,’ it isn’t super noticaeable.
The most egregious part of this is that Rags Morales, Luke Ross, and Jerry Ordway drew these issues, and they are still super boring and dull. I’m not the world’s biggest Ross fan, but Ordway and Morales are DC superstars, and their work here feels labored and uninspired, as does Levitz’s writing. Why DC felt the need to keep these issues coming instead of just ending the book five months earlier makes no sense at all to me.
Written by Peter Tomasi and Stuart MooreCover by Paul Gulacy
Penciled by Don Kramer and Paul Gulacy
Inked by Keith Champagne and Jimmy Palmiotti
Colored by John Kalisz and I.L.L.
Lettered by Rob LeighIt’s One Year Later…and a dying Vandal Savage has crash-landed on Earth after the worst twelve months of his life. His last order of business? Revenge on Green Lantern! Don’t miss the Part 1 of a 4-part story written by Stuart Moore (FIRESTORM) with; Art by Paul Gulacy and Jimmy Palmiotti (CATWOMAN, YEAR ONE: BATMAN/RA’S AL GHUL
I slightly mistimed this collection, as I got two issues of non-“One Year Later” stories in here, and they come in the form of a Peter Tomasi/Don Kramer Wildcat/Jay Garrick story. This story is fine, and has the somewhat fun angle of requiring Jay to ‘kill’ Wildcat in order to allow him to not have powers anymore, and therefore be able to defeat the holder of the Spear of Destiny. This sort of story shows why Tomasi was always a better editor than writer, as he crams too much information in here in an inelegant way, without bothering to really craft a story. It’s fine, but instantly forgettable, even when Jay Garrick punches Ted Grant to death in the story.
Continued belowBut if that story seemed a bit superfluous, a four part Vandal Savage story is here to say “hold my beer.” I suppose Savage is sort of a JSA villain, but the fact that half of these issues thus far have been villain-focused stories is an odd choice. It doesn’t help that Stuart Moore and Paul Gulacy tell a story that is supposed to be a ‘death of Vandal Savage’ type story that specifically doesn’t do that.
The story attempts to have some fun with history, like making Savage the credited inventor of the wheel, but is overall too dour to really land. Ostensibly, Alan Scott is the second lead in this story, but he has very little to do, and is just there to give the book a stronger tether to the JSA.
Written by Walter SimonsonCover by Howard Chaykin
Illustrated by Howard Chaykin
Colored by Michelle Madsen
Lettered by Rob LeighCollecting the ONE YEAR LATER arc by Walter Simonson and Howard Chaykin from HAWKGIRL #50-56! With Hawkman gone, Hawkgirl is on her own and trying to make a name for herself in St. Roch. But when strange things keep happening in her personal life, is it all a dream, or has she awakened an ancient horror deep beneath the walls of St. Roch Museum?
With ‘OYL,’ “Hawkman” transitions into “Hawkgirl,” which is a fantastic use of the missing year and establishing a new status quo. If only this story wasn’t 2 issues of content stretched over six. This story is crafted by two comics legends in Walter Simonson and Howard Chaykin, but both seem both out of place and off their game in these issues. Chaykin’s art is not a great fit for this character, and everyone looks lumpy and thick, making an incredibly unappealing visual story.
Simonson, on the other hand, makes everyone use thought bubbles to reveal their motivations, which is about as lazy as you can get. The story is so amazingly decompressed that, at best, one major event happens over the six issues, and that comes out of left field and seems rushed and bad, which is the death of Detective Grubs. While he was an obnoxious character, he was one of the few legitimate supporting characters this series had, and he’s taken out in a relatively unceremonious way.
We also get a bizarre scene of the new detective in town, clearly introduced as a Grubs replacement, going with Kendra to tell Grubs’s aunt that he cared for (?) that he died. The old lady tells Kendra to “kick ass and take names,” which is a truly bizarre thing for an octogenarian to say to a stranger.
Oh, and apparently everyone in town knows Kendra is Hawkgirl.
Next week: more “Classified” and more “Hawkgirl.”
