JSA All-Stars 8 Featured Columns 

The Society Pages: A Justice Society of America Retrospective – “JSA All-Stars” #8-11

By | September 24th, 2021
Posted in Columns | % Comments

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.

The second arc of “JSA All-Stars” acts as a mini-reunion for the members of Infinity, Inc, and deals with their history in a really interesting way.

Cover by Freddie E. Williams II
Written by Lilah Sturges and Jen Van Meter
Penciled by Freddie E. Williams II and Travis Moore
Inked by Freddie E. Williams II and Dan Green
Colored by Richard Horie, Tanya Horie, Chis Sotomayor, David Baron, and Allan Passalaqua
Lettered by Pat Brousseau

The Justice Society of America spinoff group barely survived their first mission alone! Luckily, their no-nonsense stance on justice carried them through, and now they’re investigating a bizarre drug cartel consisting of genetically altered jungle animals that’ll lead the All-Stars into a confrontation with actual gods and goddesses.

The introduction of the splinter JSA teams were colored by warring philosophies about reactive versus proactive approaches to justice. By the time the second arc came around, and with Magog pounding sand (actual sand, not Sandy Hawkins) elsewhere, that is almost totally gone, and we are simply left with two different JSA books. I’m fine with this distinction, as the more militarized approach never really sat all that well with me as a JSA tactic.

This arc sees Lilah Sturges and Freddie Williams take the team to Los Angeles, which seems like, perhaps, a good spot for this team to reside going forward, especially because of the Infinity, Inc history in the city. The team currently has three Infinity, Inc members in Hourman, Atom Smasher, and Power Girl, and for Albert (Atom Smasher) in particular, that is an era of his life that he thinks of with great fondness. There’s a real ‘peaked in high school’ vibe from how he talks about that period of his life, but that makes sense. For Power Girl and Hourman, their lives since have been far more stable and rewarding than Al’s has been. Well, at least Rick’s has.

But this arc introduces another former Infinity, Inc member in Henry King, aka Hank, aka Brainwave (Jr.). We last saw him as part of Black Adam’s Kandaq-based team in “JSA” during ‘Black Reign.’ He has been in Parador, another made up DC nation, where he’s been helping tend to children with telepathic abilities. This causes a rift with some of the JSA because Paradorians are dealing dangerous drugs in LA, and they see Hank’s activities as aiding/abetting the drug war. It’s a bit of a simplistic take on both sides, but it creates some good drama in the build up to the big conflict, which happens when the telepathic kids are revealed to be Panadorian gods reborn.

This leads to a big brawl over Los Angeles which, as discussed in past installments of this column, are far too big and bombastic. The gods use skyscrapers as weapons, for goodness sake. But hey, it leads to a few fun moments. But the major points of interest here are the life-threatening injury to Cyclone and the solution that Brainwave comes up with to stop the gods and their telepathic powers. Because of [insert comic book reasoning here], Hank suggests that they all must ‘give up’ something from their past in order to stop the gods. And, aside from Cyclone, who feels she’s all good, everyone does: Al gives up the intensity of his Infinity, Inc feelings, King Chimera gives up the connection to his lost love, Power Girl gives up her clinging to the memory of ‘her’ Superman, etc.

Now don’t get me wrong: this is super cheesy and makes very little sense. But it’s a nice way to allow these characters to move forward without ‘wasting’ too much time on non-action stories. It’s coincidental that this happens less than a year before more than half of these characters would disappear for a decade, but that’s neither here nor there.

Freddie E. Williams II illustrates the entirety of this arc, and his work continues to impress through the sheer comic book-ness of it all. His Citizen Steel remains grossly ripped, his Power Girl ripples with power, and his Cyclone is a mess of wind and energy. But he takes a totally different path with the Panadorian gods, who have none of that bombast to them, but rather simple, elegant designs that bely power without needing bulging muscles or external symbols of their power.

Continued below

These issues also tie-up the ‘Liberty Belle and Hourman’ backups, which is funny because Liberty Belle has changed her name to Jesse Quick and left the JSA before issue #10 came out. That said, these backups by Jen Van Meter and Travis Moore are a ton of fun, and give Icicle and Tigress a lot more humanity and depth than you’d expect. They almost feel like Flash rogues in how, while they’re ‘bad,’ they aren’t mustache-twirlingly evil.

The strip ends with a really nice moment between the four of them, where everyone goes outside of their standard roles to help one another out. I wish we got more with these four but, alas, eleven years on, we’re not even close to getting more stories like this.

Next week: back to the ‘main’ team!


//TAGS | The Society Pages

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

EMAIL | ARTICLES



  • -->