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.
OK, so let’s get real: these books should’ve been paired with “Rann/Thanagar War” and “Infinite Crisis” last week instead of “JSA: Strange Adventures.” That’s my bad, and it made this reading experience feel a little off due to it. But, we start a new ongoing series with two very different arcs, as well as close the book on “Hawkman.” Let’s get to it.
Written by Geoff Johns and Jen Van MeterCover by Adam Hughes
Penciled by Amanda Conner and Patrick Oliffe
Inked by Jimmy Palmiotti and Ruy José
Colored by Paul Mounts and Nathan Eyring
Lettered by Rob Leigh, Nick J. Napolitano, and Jared K. FletcherReaders have long wondered about Power Girl’s origins. Is she a wizard’s lost granddaughter? A refugee from the future? An orphan of Krypton? Now learn the unexpected answers in an adventure penned by Geoff Johns (GREEN LANTERN) that acts as a prelude to INFINITE CRISIS!
Here begins “JSA Classified,” a sister series to “JSA” that looks to tell stories that focus more on one character or a set of a characters than the full team. It’s not the first book of its kind, but it is always welcome to give some of the less commonly spotlighted characters a chance to shine. The first arc of the book is a pretty important one, too, as it seeks to finally sort of the history of Power Girl and, in doing so, ties in strongly to “Infinite Crisis.”
Next to Hawkman, there may be no comics character with a more convoluted origin story than Power Girl. When Geoff Johns hears that, he hears a challenge, and here Johns attempts to draw a straight line through her many appearances to give readers a better sense of where she comes from. The good news for Johns is that, since “Infinite Crisis” addresses the multiverse, her origin becomes extremely simple: she’s Earth-2 Superman’s cousin. It’s what we all ‘knew’ anyway, but this allows that to become canon in a reasonably simple way.
Along the way, Johns gets to recount all the various fake-out origins, as well as some new, but similarly plausible ones: Kryptonian, Atlantean, Legion of Super-Heroes member. It is half celebration of the character’s past, half course-correction. It’s probably two issues worth of stories stretched into four, but it goes down smooth because of Amanda Conner’s artwork. Conner’s style is playful and fun, allowing for moments of dread and terror to pop up and feel much more serious than if the entirety of the issue was handled in a more ‘straight/serious’ tone.
Conner doesn’t shy away from Power Girl’s most, ahem, infamous feature either, drawing her as busty as humanly possible without requiring the reader to suspend disbelief even more than normal in a superhero comic book. The infamous ‘boob window’ is also explained here, in what feels like a classic Geoff Johns move. At this time, Johns couldn’t let any mystery go un-investigated and, more often than not, he did a good job with them. Here, he says that she left the space blank, waiting for a symbol like Superman’s to fill the space, but never found one. As far as Johns retcons go, that one lands about squarely in the middle.
If the first arc felt a little decompressed, the second arc feels totally bizarre. We get an Injustice Society story, but one that attempts to paint the characters as less villains and more scoundrels with loyalty and friendship at their backs. It’s not a terrible story, but it’s one that feels almost entirely disposable. For a series that is supposed to be telling stories that, ostensibly, there isn’t room for in the main “JSA” series, why would your second story be one about a group of villains that are, at best, nostalgic and without too much modern importance. And it would be one thing if the story attempted to give the characters some relevance to the current JSA, but all it does is show you why they care for one another. That’s fine, but why do we care?
Continued belowWritten by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin GrayCover by Adam Kubert
Penciled by Ron Randal, Art Thiebert and Chris Batista
Inked by Ron Randal and Walden Wong and Cam Smith
Colored by Sno-Cone Studios
Lettered by Travis Lanham and Rob LeighA prelude to RANN/THANAGAR WAR! Hawkman and Hawkgirl battle Satana’s animal men during a daring heist and Brother Eye unleashes an OMAC on St. Roch as they prepare to leave for deep space! Plus, Hawkman reflects on his last meeting with the Atom! Continues in RANN/THANAGAR WAR #1!
I honestly don’t know what happened to Palmiotti and Gray during the process of writing “Hawkman “#46, as almost all of their good qualities got totally sucked out of this issue. This is, perhaps, the worst issue I’ve read since “JSA” started. It’s cliched, lazy, and just generally unpleasant to read. It had me worried for what was left of “Hawkman,” but luckily, it was an outlier.
That said, this stuff isn’t exactly great. Gray and Palmiotti try to give Carter and Kendra some quality time together before ‘the end,’ which I totally get, but they do so in sloppy ways that seem to totally go against who each of them are as well-established characters. I know that Carter loves Kendra, but not enough to stand down from a battle. Here, he and Kendra sit out a night of fighting for a night of fucking, and it just reads so false.
It isn’t helped by the usually solid Chris Batista, whose art is stilted and uninspired throughout. Many of his characters seem to be frozen into mouth-agape stares for no reason, and there’s almost nothing that is super visually different or excited to be found here. That is compounded by all of this being “Infinite Crisis”-related, and yet feels absolutely superfluous to that event. The one part of these issues that feels earned is the confrontation with Golden Eagle, even if what makes it feel earned, again, somewhat undoes who the Carter we know is supposed to be.
If there was more work done here to show growth in Carter, as opposed to having a major shift in tone at the end of the series, it would’ve felt much, much more natural.
Next week, we check in with all the “One Year Later” status quos for “JSA,” “JSA Classified,” and “Hawkmangirl.” See ya then!
