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 at the end of our first ‘season’ of the Society Pages, which will be on hiatus until November while I bring back ‘the Chronicles of Shazam’ for our Summer Comics Binge in a few weeks. We close out on an absolutely fantastic arc, which brings together the two books we’ve spent the last month or so reading, “Hawkman” and “JSA.”
Penciled by Don Kramer, Rags Morales, and Leonard Kirk
Inked by Michael Blair, John Dell, Rodney Ramos, and Keith Champagne
Colored by John Kalisz and Hi-Fi
Lettered by Bill Oakley and Nick J. Napolitano
Aided by Atom-Smasher, Brainwave, and a few others, Black Adam attempts to overthrow the dictator of the country of Kahndaq, but Hawkman brings the JSA to intercede.
The story of ‘Black Reign’ has been building since the very beginning of Geoff Johns’s tenure on “JSA.” The reformation of Black Adam has been a major effort for Johns, and this story takes it to both of its logical conclusions. Black Adam truly becomes a hero to the people of Kahndaq and yet shows that he is not above doing villainous things in order to achieve his ‘heroic’ ideals. Under Johns, Adam has been one of the most nuanced characters that DC has, and this story shows just how nuanced he is.
Adam is willing to kill a dictator and his thugs not just by assembling a superhero team, but by putting Mr. Mind into the head of Brainwave Jr. He talks about how Brainwave’s power can’t be used to manipulate the brains of the heroes he recruited, yet he is willing to manipulate Brainwave through Mr. Mind to achieve his goals. He’s very comfortable being the bad guy if it means good things can happen.
I love the team that Adam puts together, as each character is plucked from the recesses of DC history. Brainwave Jr and Atom Smasher were members of Infinity Inc, Alexander Montez has connections to Wildcat and was a minor player earlier in “JSA,” as was Nemesis. Northwind is a tragic and oft-forgotten character from Hawkman’s past, and adds another personal connection for Carter. This is the ultimate Johns team, and I wish that we got more time with them.
This arc continues the theme in “Hakwman” of Carter losing his connection to his human side, both his friends and his humanity. There are a few moments where it is hard to recognize the Carter that was brought back to the team a few years earlier, and that’s purposeful. Rags Morales, in the “Hawkman” issues, really leans into this as well, showing a Carter that is almost always grimacing and seemingly flexing his biceps. He seems more animalistic with each passing page, until that all comes to a head in Kahndaq.
One of the best things that Johns does in these titles is give the impression that the DC Universe is a big one, and that people aren’t just sitting around waiting for Superman and Batman to do stuff. His JSA has a real mission to train the next generation, and that means that they are more tuned into the activities of the minor heroes and villains, and so the stories feel unique to them, and rarely verge on the ‘end of the world’ scenarios that Justice League titles tend to go after.
Don Kramer’s pencils give the battle over Kahndaq an epic and grandiose quality, equally as bombastic and tense as if the entire universe was under siege. This is Black Adam’s story, and to him, Kahndaq is the universe. There is nothing about this story that is anything less than life or death for Black Adam, even if his life is never really in question.
The other character that is at the heart of this arc is Atom Smasher, the former JSAer who has thrown in his lot with Black Adam. Albert is haunted over his actions, and sees his partnership with Adam as his only option, as he is both frustrated by the lack of action that the JSA takes, and unable to see himself as a true hero anymore. Johns really has established a great tone for Albert, and his story is a tragic one here.
Continued belowJohns also brings in Ray Palmer, the Atom, to help out his BFF Carter, and he winds up being both the lynchpin of the story and a somewhat silly element. I love those two things existing at once.
Overall, this story feels like the perfect place to pause for the summer and fall. I will be avoiding the large JSA stories that feature the Marvel family, leaving them for when the column returns, but I’m sure we’ll see some of these characters return in the Chronicles of Shazam. I hope you follow along with me on that journey.
Thanks for reading!
