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.
I had fully intended today to be the final installment until the end of May, but there is so much to discuss in the “JSA Classified” issues, that I felt the “Hawkgirl” finale had to wait another week. Without further ado, let’s dig in.
Written by JT Krul, Tony Bedard, Frank Tieri, Fabian Nicieza, Arvid Nelson, Junior Thompson, James Peaty, B. Clay Moore, and Mike W. Barr
Penciled by Alex Sanchez, Dennis Calero, Matt Haley, Steve Uy, Staz Johnson, Freddie Williams II, Ramon Perez, and Shawn Martinboriugh
Inked by Jack Purcell, Dennis Calero, Jerome Moore, Steve Uy, Rodny Ramos, Jack Purcell, Freddie Williams II, Ramon Perez, and Shawn Martinborough
Colored by Pete Pentazis, Dennis Calero, Dave Baron, I.L.L., Steve Uy, Allen Passalaqua, and Dave McCaig
Lettered by Ken Lopez, Travis Lanham, Pat Brosseau, Rob Leigh, John J. Hill and Sal Cirpiano
Over the final 17 issues, there are 9 stories told, from one-shots to a few three-parters. It’s interesting that Wildcat gets, by far, the most focus here, being the lead in seven of the 17 issues. Green Lantern gets three spotlight issues, as does Mister Terrific, but no one else gets more than two. There’s a two-part Doctor Mid-Nite story and Jakeem Thunder and Hourman one-shots that round out the final issues of the series.
One pattern in these issues is that the artwork, with a few clear exceptions, is far more stylized and less ‘DC house style’ than what we’ve come to expect in DC books of this era. Alex Sanchez handles five issues – specifically the Doctor Mid-Nite and Mister Terrific stories – and his artwork, more than any of the others featured here, leans into a more horror-inspired landscape. His characters rarely look as they do in other titles, but his work has an internal consistency that allows the issues to work on as complete stories.
The Doctor Mid-Nite story (#23-24) draws both from the prior Doctor Mid-Nite story from “JSA Classified,” but also from the initial “Doctor Mid-Nite” miniseries that introduced Pieter Cross to the DC Universe. JT Krul scripts these issues and, aside from an overabundance of exposition, does a nice job. The story involves some faux-vampires killing folks in Portsmouth City, and how Pieter is able to solve the crime by connecting the main villain, Mircea, to his own overdose experience, which gave him his seeing in the dark abilities.
The Mister Terrific arc (#29-31) is one that touches the most on the Golden Age, as it involves Werner von Braun and the brain of Heinrich Himmler being alive on the moon. Arvid Nelson crafts a story that manages to have an emotional center but not get tied down in it. What that means, essentially, is that we can have some space Nazi fun without worrying about the little girl who trusts Mister Terrific, until we need to care about her again. This story doesn’t fit Sanchez’s art as well as the Mid-Nite story does, but it’s not so disconnected that it draws you out of the story.
Ironically, the story with the art that most pulls you out of the story is the most conventional art of the bunch. The second Green Lantern tale (#32-33) has Staz Johnson on art, and it is the only story here where the art seems more suited to the Golden Age than the 2000s. That’s not to say that it is bad, it just falls in between hyper-stylized arcs from Sanchez and Ramon Perez, and seems too bright and clean for the series. That said, due to the episodic nature of the book, it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb or anything, but it just feels different than the other stories in this run.
The story itself, scripted by Junior Thomas, is one of the sillier of the bunch, too, where Thomas goes to absurd lengths to bring both Jade and Vandal Savage into the story. The Savage stuff especially feels really contrived, as does the idea of the Starheart going into a bystanding child. The Jade element has the emotion to make it feel a little less absurd, but it gets into some pretty hokey territory when Alan has to admit that the green construct of his daughter isn’t really his daughter to gain control of her.
Continued belowThe other Green Lantern story (#25) is one that connects Alan’s role with Checkmate into the JSA, involves the H-Dial, and the idea of whether or not heroes need to work with the government. It’s one of the more interesting issues in this entire series, as it explores Alan’s desire to do ‘what is right’ and how, for many, including him at on point, that means doing what the government asks him to do. Dennis Calero illustrates this issue beautifully, and writer Tony Bedard manages to walk the tightrope between flat out saying “governments can’t be trusted” and walking the DC/superheroes/JSA line of ‘the American Way.’ This story, despite being only a one shot, has the most to say of any of the issues in this run.
The story that attempts to tell as big of a story, and features Alan Scott as a secondary lead, is the Jakeem Thunder story (#28). In the story, Jakeem finds himself asking a really important question: why aren’t I doing more to help? Jakeem realizes that the Thunderbolt can solve everyone’s problems for them, and so instead of just rescuing folks from a destroyed building, Jakeem rebuilds the building. He then goes on a tour of the five boroughs of New York City to help people solve their problems.
I love this question, and I think it’s an incredibly valid one to ask. However, the punchline of the story is that “heroes can’t help too much because karma will kill others if they do.”
Yes, you read that right.
Basically, Alan tells Jakeem, that there’s a balance that he cannot disrupt. It’s depressing it is poor writing and/or a poor editorial decision dropped into the writer’s lap. There are plenty of ways to tell a “you can only do what you can” story without turning it into a corny karma morality play. By blaming ‘the new laws of magic’ on it, it takes any agency away from the characters, making all the death and destruction both totally random and also calculated by some unseen force. It sucks, bad. That least the Steve Uy art looks really nice, if a little too clean/digital for my tastes.
Issue #34 is an Hourman one-shot that is nowhere near as fun as the Bane story from last week, but the James Peaty/Freddie Williams II joint is fun enough, especially as it involves his marriage to Liberty Belle, which we will get to when we get to “Justice Society of America” in a month or so. I felt it was more important to finish off this series before we got into the second ongoing.
That leaves just the Wildcat stories. The first Wildcat (#26-27) story takes a somewhat shitty view of gambling addiction, using words like ‘weak’ too often and ‘disease’ not enough. It does have a relatively fun concept of a superhero off-track-betting location and sees the Sportsmaster treated like more than a punchline. But c’mon Frank Tieri, lay off people with addictions.
The second story (#35-37) is my personal favorite of the Wildcat trilogy, in part because of the phenomenal Ramon Perez art and Dave McCaig colors. The story has a really sleek, cool look that fits in well with the Catwoman feature and the story is just enough ‘holy shit, this old man can still fight!’
That is in stark contrast to the final two issue arc by Mike W. Barr and Shawn Martinborough, which basically just posits that Ted Grant is the best fighter of all time and cannot be stopped, even by 15 boxers who are genetically enhanced to have the best attributes of all living fighters. It’s fun, but it is a bit too silly to really stick.
Next week: the finale to “Hawkgirl!”
