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.
“JSA All-Stars” begins here, as the last major era of JSA stories kicks off. This book is an odd duck for a few reasons, which we’ll get to shortly.
Written by Lilah Sturges and Jen Van MeterCover by Freddie E. Williams II
Penciled by Freddie E. Williams II and Travis Moore
Inked by Freddie E. Williams II and Dan Green
Colored by Richard Horie, Tanya Horie, and David Baron
Lettered by Pat BrousseauThe Justice Society spin off group struggles to pull itself toward some semblance of order after the JSA’s devastating split! New home base, new training methods, new villains – all bringing the JSA All-Stars face-to-“face” with one of their greatest villains again – for the first time! Join writer Matthew Sturges (JUSTICE SOCIETY, JACK OF FABLES) and artist Freddie Williams II (ROBIN) for a new chapter in the JSA legacy. The All-Stars survive their first major battle, but in the aftermath, one team member is missing without a trace. The mysterious Strike Force has that member captive, but there’s someone else who wants the missing All-Star even worse than Strike Force does. Plus, the rift between Power Girl and Magog widens.
The idea of a more militarized Justice Society sort of goes against everything that the original JSA stood for, but Lilah Sturges does a pretty good job establishing why Power Girl, Magog, and the rest of the All-Stars feels it is important. What I like about this run, from the start, is that there isn’t a unified ‘oorah’ attitude among all the members. Hourman is a liaison between the two teams, and Stargirl has no idea why she’s there. Power Girl eventually reveals to her that she fought hard for her to be on the team, as she felt that the others would listen to her, as she’s one of the most respected members, and one who isn’t so stereotypically violent the way, say, Magog is.
Speaking of Magog, he’s insufferable throughout the book. I think Sturges missed an opportunity here to make Magog a little more three-dimensional, as there’s almost nothing likable about him here. Sure, he seems to be a good tactical field leader, but he’s terrible at managing the team and has serious problems discussing any divergence of opinion. This is especially troublesome when he just wants to kill folks all the time. Power Girl basically gives him the ‘we’re heroes’ pep talk, but he’ll hear nothing of it.
This attitude was established in the last combined team arc of “Justice Society of America,” and it still doesn’t exactly track with the character Johns introduced earlier. Sturges writes Magog like the worst of macho, military, tough guy culture, but also places him in charge of the team. That winds up being short lived, but just a little more nuance would’ve gone a long way here.
Freddie Williams II is the artist on this first arc, and his work is bonkers. Citizen Steel looks like someone was messing around in photoshop to take a normal superhero illustration and make it as lumpy and grotesque as possible. Every detail is exaggerated to the nth degree, and there’s no subtlety to his work here at all. That said, the art sort of works, in part because of the more action-focused book, and in part because it instantly gives the book a flavor that isn’t found in the main JSA title. Williams’s art helps to give the book identity and a cohesive appearance.
As the arc progresses, Magog bails to go be emo, and we see the return of Sand for the first time in awhile. Sure, he’s popped up here or there, but this is the most integrated we’ve seen him in a couple of years. Sand, Stargirl, and Power Girl, make up the core of this team by the end of the arc, and that is a much better pillar to build around than Magog, as it is much easier now to see how these teams can co-exist without incident, whereas with Magog, it seemed like they were eventually going to come to blows.
Continued belowIn a way, Sturges got all the most difficult characters to write on this team, minus the core listed above. Judomaster is essentially a silent character, Damage and Cyclone can be obnoxious, Magog is a hawk, Hourman works better when paired up with his wife, King Chimera is an asshole, and Wildcat and Citizen Steel don’t have real strong personalities yet. The introduction of Anna Fortune and the return of Atom Smasher help give the team a little more characterization to play with, but with the events of “JSA Blackest Night” around the corner, the team formation will change a bit, tragically.
Speaking of Atom Smasher, he plays a big, and creepy, role in this title. The Albert/Courtney romance has been commented upon here before, and continues to be gross, but this takes it to another level. Essentially, Johnny Sorrow wants to become human, and he has a spell that requires the ‘kiss of true love from an innocent.’ I presume this is sort of like how they need a virgin to read the incantation in The Monster Squad, but with less slut-shaming. Anyway, Sorrow disguises himself as Atom Smasher, and makes Stargirl ‘fall in love’ with him again in order to get that kiss. This is why in the prior installment, none of the villains are allowed to touch Stargirl, as she was being ‘saved’ for Johnny Sorrow.
Is this to imply that, in the entire DC Universe, there are no virgins who he can trick into love, and therefore Johnny Sorrow has to launch this elaborate plan to let the one unsullied person in all of Earth-0 fall in love via incredible subterfuge?
I guess it does.
There are also backups in this title, featuring Liberty Belle and Hourman in The Thin Man style adventures by Jan Van Meter and Travis Moore. These are fun backups, especially as our favorite JSA couple has to team up with the ISA’s resident love birds Icicle and Tigress. There’s not a ton of depth here, but there’s some fun swashbuckling mixed with romance, and what more could you want from a backup?
