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.
Due to the need to publish comics in trade paperback, this column, which was supposed to be focused on part one of ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ has two issues (well, sort of three) tacked onto the front of it that aren’t really connected to anything. That said, they are good issues that help establish some of the newer members of the team, so let’s dig into the whole lot of them.
Written by Geoff JohnsCover by Alex Ross
Plotted by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross
Penciled by Dale Eaglesham and Fernando Pasarin
Inked by Ruy José, Rodney Ramos, and Drew Geraci
Colored by Jeromy Cox, Hi-Fi Design, John Kalisz, and Alex Sinclair
Painted by Alex Ross
Lettered by Rob LeighA stunning new volume collecting JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #7-12, featuring the prelude to and the first three parts of “Thy Kingdom Come,” the sequel to the classic KINGDOM COME! Welcome the newest member to the Justice Society of America: the Kingdom Come Superman! Coming from an Earth plagued by heroes-gone-extreme, how will this Superman react to an incarnation of the Justice Society he never knew?
The Justice Society of America, in this current run, has a large team, but chooses to spotlight certain characters each issue. This is far better than trying to cram every character into every issue. But because of that, some characters can feel like background players instead of true parts of the team. These first few issues spend time teaching us more about some of the newer players, giving the readers a chance to develop an affinity for them, or fill in their gaps of knowledge.
Issue #7 is a Citizen Steel story, picking up on the slaughter of the Heywood family from the first issues of this run. Nate got some Reichsmark on him in that battle, turning him into solid steel and regrowing his amputated leg. This issue shows the best of the Justice Society; they see a family member of a former JSAer in trouble, and stop at nothing to get him into his best state. He works with the team to develop a suit that allows him to interact normally and not have such brute strength that he’d crush his nieces and nephews or destroy doors and chairs.
This also shows the worst of the JSA, as they essentially cajole Nate into becoming a superhero, despite him having no interest in it. Sometimes, the JSA can pull the ‘we know best’ card a little too frequently, but if Nate really hated it, he wouldn’t have stuck around, right?
The eighth issue looks at one of the new family units forming within the Justice Society, made up of Liberty Belle, Hourman, and Damage. When ‘One Year Later’ happened, we emerged with Liberty Belle and Hourman happily married, but didn’t get too much context on their relationship. This issue doesn’t exactly give us their entire courtship, but it gives the reader a sense of who they are as a couple, and how they click. Jesse and Rick decide to take Damage under their wing and help him adjust to life in the JSA. Johns does a nice job reminding us that Jesse and Grant were teammates in the Titans briefly in the late 90s, but the relationships are pretty much built from scratch in this one issue.
The issue also manages to pack all of the post-“Damage” ongoing character traits into one compressed package and, hopefully, come out the other side. In the original series, he was not as miserable and devoid of joy as he was in subsequent settings, most of which were written by Johns. Now granted, his life continued to get worse, but by this issue, he more or less seems like he’s on a better path. When we see him next issue, he has a much better disposition, and hopefully he begins to see the JSA as a family for him.
Continued belowSide note: one of my future read-throughs will be of all the Grant Emerson appearances. It’s not the next one I’ll do, but it’s there someplace.
So that brings us into the ‘prologue’ issue of ‘Thy Kingdom Come,’ #9. This isn’t quite as bad as many comic events, which promise a prologue and then deliver a panel or two of tease, but it is a bit of a stretch to call this part of the event. While, yes, the Kingdom Come Superman does arrive in this issue, he is a last page arrival, though it is set up by Starman making a black hole to deal with the fiery tempest that was pouring out of Goth’s body. There’s a charity boxing match between the Wildcats at a firehouse that takes up a good chunk of the issue aside from the eventual Goth death/fire stuff.
Issue #10 really kicks the event off well, and instantly sets a tone that I was not expecting. While I didn’t necessarily expect the KC Superman (to be presented as KCS henceforth) to come out guns blazing, it was surprising to me to see him, essentially, falling in love with this Earth. He’s calm, collected, and generally happy to be here. He is marveling at the Justice Society and their commitment to helping the younger heroes and to maintain responsibility with compassion in the cape community.
Not to toot my own horn, but last week I said that if there was a Justice Society active at the time, Magog couldn’t have changed the heroic world as much as he did. KCS says the same thing, essentially, this week. It’s nice to think like Superman now and then!
It is sort of incredibly how little actually happens that involves KCS after that first issue. He has a really nice moment with Power Girl, who is an important piece of this story. She is upset that her world died which others, including Earth-22 where KC Supes is from, seemingly survived. KCS attempts to forge a bond with Power Girl, allowing them a ‘cousin’ who is also a survivor of a lost world.
I was not aware, though it makes perfect sense, of how much of a follow up to “Infinite Crisis” this would be, but the Power Girl stuff is essentially a direct sequel to that event. While, obviously, KCS is a direction connection to “Kingdom Come” and “The Kingdom,” this feels far more like “Infinite Crisis” than anything else.
Dale Eaglesham is the main penciler on this series and for this event, and he does a good job of drawing KCS differently than Superman, but in a way that is still instantly recognizable. Thankfully, Eaglesham is not attempting to put an Alex Ross twist on his art. That’s not disrespectful to Ross, but it is better if Eaglesham is his own man throughout this, especially as Ross gets pages of his own throughout. Eaglesham’s work falls somewhere between ‘classic’ DC and the early-00s, stylistically, so he’s a really fine choice to tell this story.
The final few issues here are all about recruiting even more heroes. We meet ‘new’ incarnations of Mr. America, Judomaster, and Amazing Man, as well as Lightning (Black Lightning’s daughter) and David Reid, who is the great-grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Jakeem Thunder and Thunderbolt also return to the team at this time, giving the crew an even bigger cast than we’re used to seeing. Mr. America showed up earlier in the run, but, much like his deceased counterpart, here he shows up bloodied in the brownstone.
It is nice to see the JSA diversifying further, and not just focused on white heroes. While Mister Terrific has been on the team for a few years at this point, along with Jakeem, the team has been fairly lily-white thus far. Only Reid and Mr. America are white in this batch of new recruits, and it’s nice to see the team more reflect the population of the nation in their name, though it still feels a little disingenuous without any latinx members and only one Asian member.
This expansion fits in well with KCS’s comments about the team, and sets a tone for the series that would’ve been a fun status quo; what if every year, there’s a new class of recruits? Eventually, they’d ‘graduate’ to reserve roles, or form their own teams spinning out of the larger JSA. I doubt we ever get that, but it’s a fun concept, not unlike what Tim Sheridan is doing over in “Teen Titans Academy” at the moment.
The issue ends with a tease of Gog, the character from “The Kingdom,” showing up in our world somehow. I’m sure this will be delved into deeper in Vol. 2 of ‘Thy Kingdom Come,’ which we will get to next week.
