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.
We are now officially past the Geoff Johns era of “Justice Society of America,” but not quite at the Bill Willingham/Lilah Sturges era, so let’s focus this week on the two-parter that bridged those two periods, as well as close the book on Hawkman’s solo adventures in this column.
Written and Penciled by Jerry OrdwayCover by Jerry Ordway
Inked by Bob Wiacek
Colored by Hi-Fi Design
Lettered by Rob LeighThe younger JSA team members find their headquarters in total lockdown–with The Flash, Green Lantern and Wildcat trapped inside! Can the junior JSA-ers break into their own home base? And what secret from the Atomic Age seeks retribution from the three founding members?
This small, two-issue story really doesn’t add to much to the overall Justice Society story, though it doesn’t feel out of line with what Johns was doing with his tenure. The big difference is that Jerry Ordway, a writer who has done great work in his career, is clunkier than he should be with this story. Part of that is due to the type of story that this is, and part of it is his predilection for telling instead of showing, especially in regards to revealing the inner desires/monologues of his characters.
To the first point, this is a story about the JSA being ‘responsible’ for the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, due to their not being able to get the Emperor of Japan to agree to a surrender early enough to avoid that destruction. Now, while it is never a good idea to blame fictional characters for real world tragedy, with a little perspective, you can see what Ordway is going for here. He’s trying to discuss the role that superheroes should have on world events; if a man can make anything with his ring, how can he not stop the death of hundreds of thousands, regardless of which government is ordering it?
Unfortunately, the story never really moves beyond that idea; it turns out that the ‘villain’ of the story is more concerned with his own fate than seeing justice done for the end of the war. Two issues of this series are not enough time to dig into these questions, but that idea is far more palatable and intriguing than the sort of half measures that this arc resorts to throughout. Ordway’s art gives the book a classic look that works well with the World War II imagery, but it doesn’t quite fit as well as his prior work with the Marvel Family did.
One final note here is that Ordway has the older members of the JSA ask Atom Smasher to essentially stop flirting with/having feelings for Stargirl. Now, comic book ages are always tricky, but Albert seems at least ten years older than Courtney, and we know she’s 16. So, he shouldn’t have to be told to stop sniffing around her. He should be less of a creep.
Written by Jim StarlinCover by Jim Starlin
Penciled by Ron Lim, Jim Starlin, Al Milgrim, and Rick Leonardi
Inked by Rob Hunter, Scott Koblish, Al Milgrim, and Dan Green
Colored by John Kalisz, Jeromy Cox, and Tom S. Chu
Lettered by Pat Brousseau, Travis Lanham, John J. Hill, and Steve WandsThe star-spanning adventure features Adam Strange, Hawkman, Captain Comet and more. Can our heroes stop the nefarious Lady Styx from turning the entire universe into her own congregation?
Truth be told, the only reason I am including this in this column is that we did “Rann-Thanagar War” earlier in this time, but that was when Hawkman was still spinning out of Johns’s clutches. Here, there is nothing, and I truly mean nothing connecting this story to what is happening in “Justice Society of America.” And so, I don’t have too much to say about this event, aside from some general comments.
Continued belowThe most important piece, to me, is that this is the culmination of a few years of Jim Starlin being given the reins of Cosmic DC. It is also the last time that the Cosmic side of the DC Universe mattered at all.
It is sort of remarkable how much Starlin is pulling from here. He’s not content to just deal with the “Rann-Thanagar War” stuff, nor the long history of Adam Strange/Rann and Hawkman/Thanagar. No, he’s working in his “Mystery in Space” Vol 2 with both the Weird and Captain Comet, Adam Beechen’s “Countdown to Adventure,” which itself is following up on “52.” He also dusts off characters that had gone somewhat ignored, like the Prince Gavyn Starman and Bizarro, and whips them all up into one big, cosmic gumbo.
Now, to be fair, a lot of this works well, but a sizable chunk doesn’t. The issue where Synnar gos through his entire history is impossibly boring and adds nothing. Putting characters like Tiggor here check a nice box in the cosmic queue, but he adds almost nothing to the story. Hell, even Hawkman is barely a thing here! His biggest moment comes from almost being killed.
As a Hawkman story, this is a dud, but as a capstone on this era of Cosmic DC, it works nicely.
Next week: the beginning of the ‘real’ second half of “Justice Society of America.”
