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.
“Justice Society of America,” unlikes “JSA All-Stars,” doesn’t need to take too much of its initial post-split run establishing the team or their reason for being; it’s the JSA, same as it ever was.
Written by Bill WillinghamCover by Jesus Merino
Penciled by Travis Moore and Jesus Merino
Inked by Dan Green and Jesse Delperdang
Colored by Allen Passalaqua
Lettered by Rob LeighIt’s all-out war as the leaner, meaner Justice Society of America confronts another intruder in their midst! But this time it’s bad news for their enemy, as he’s facing a team that has learned from its past mistakes in these stories from issues #34-40.
The first two issues of this arc are a simple enough Mordru story, building off of both the new Doctor Fate’s inexperience and also continuing the story of Kid Karnevil from the prior arc, though his import would really ramp up with the ‘Fatherland’ arc in a couple of issues.
Mordru creates a challenge for each member of the JSA to overcome, and while a lot of these are fun, none of them are all that difficult or surprising to handle. There’s a cool visual of a gigantic hand rescuing the heroes, each in their own ‘box’ dimension, but it is really just the already-escaped members pulling them out.
The best part of this mini arc is just letting Bill Willingham craft a story that has nothing to do with intra-team fighting, instead letting the team just be a team. Willingham does a nice job establishing familiar tones with these characters that allow them to appear, essentially, as the ‘good ol’ JSA,’ without making them seem hokey or corny.
But the ‘Fatherland’ arc, which runs through the bulk of these issues, is really the first ‘test’ of Willingham’s solo run. The arc does a couple of classic JSA things: it brings in Nazi villains and sets the group into a seemingly insurmountable mission that seems to trap them forever. While this is a little different than being trapped in limbo, fighting Ragnarok forever, there’s a sense of finality to this arc that permeates it despite it being abundantly clear that this story cannot stick.
Why can’t it stick? Well, all of the DCU is depowered and most are killed, as the world slinks around in a ‘Fourth Reich.’ While there was never any doubt that the JSA would overcome this, it seemed like, perhaps, a team member would have to make a sacrifice or undo something that would leave them changed, or dead, in order to save the world. That doesn’t really happen, but Willingham manages to make a compelling story regardless.
A lot of that has to do with Jesus Merino, who channels his inner Golden Ager and goes all in on these designs and characters. We get a bunch of classic villains, like Captain Nazi, Kid Karnevil, and Baroness Blitzkrieg, but there are a fair amount of new Nazi villains too, and Merino designs them all to fit in with their gaudy and old fashioned companions. Merino draws them fully, cartoonishly evil, and does all he can to remind you, at all times, that these people are fucked. There’s no sympathy for these folks, save one.
So in this alternate future, the heroes are plotting a way out of Nazi captivity, and part of that involves one of them posing as a stooge. And so, Mister Terrific goes Nazi sympathizer, and most of the story is told through his confessions that he is giving to someone named Karla Lander. She is ‘just doing her job,’ but is clearly working for the Nazis. She shows just the minimal kindness to Michael, and that must stick with him. After the timeline is reset, Michael finds her, presents her with a college scholarship courtesy of Wayne Enterprises and, if the subtext is to be believed, starts fucking her mother. I’m not kidding.
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But before then, I’ve saved the most important news for last. It is now canon that Alan Scott is a Mets fan.
Much like Thor, I knew it.
