There’s something about oddball heroes.
Keep your Supermen and your Thors.
Give me the heroes who have no great gifts – or worse – just weird gifts – and throw themselves into battle with the same determination and fervor as the gods of justice.
It took almost 40 years, but the Justice Society of America, DC Comics’ premier super-hero team, finally got an origin story.
Which begs the question:
What took so long?
Even the good folks at DC Comics had to be scratching their heads.
When the team debuted in “All Star Comics” No. 3 in 1940, the band was fully formed, sort of. They might as well have been drinking buddies gathering to swap stories – which is just what our heroes did.
Continue reading “Buy War Bonds – and the Untold Origin of the Justice Society!”
Len Wein had a problem: He was too good.
The writer for “Justice League of America” had marked the 100th issue of DC’s premier team book in 1972 with a rousing, riveting three-part JLA/JSA team-up that brought together 33 heroes to save Earth 2. It was a time-spanning epic that re-introduced the Golden Age heroes the Seven Soldiers of Victory and an old-school story so much fun, it sent a generation of comic book lovers into orbit.
A year later, Wein was ordered to do come up with something even better.
Continue reading “The JLA/JSA Nightmare: When Nazis Rule an Earth”
The Big Two in comics – DC and Marvel – use the summer to declare war and blow up universes.
Just a way to help readers pass school vacation.
While DC’s “Convergence” and Marvel’s “Secret Wars” are currently laying waste to continuity and wallets through their multiple, mediocre tie-ins, the summer comics event isn’t a new thing – but conversely, it was far more enjoyable and less painful to the wallet.
Continue reading “The Iron Hand That Shook the World: The Summer Comics Event of ’72”
This is the one.
This is the comic book that ruined my life.
“Justice League of America” No. 82, cover dated August 1970.
It changed who I am forever.
It wasn’t my first comic book.
It wasn’t even my first issue of DC’s premier super-team.
Now look at that cover:
Neal Adams’ gorgeous piece of artwork depicts the top members of the Justice League of America – Superman, Batman and the Flash – and their Justice Society of America counterparts.
In case you can’t tell from the visual cues, Superman exclaims in a terrific info dump: “Whatever’s crushing the Justice Society on their Earth — is doing it to us on our world!”
Come on.
How can you not be curious?
Mark Perigard 