Retro Comics are Awesome

[Dominic]

Even as a back-write, the Spear of Destiny makes more sense than Captain America and Bucky comprehensively failing to even *try* to bring down Hitler and Goering.....despite being in the same room with them.

[andersonh1]

Even as a back-write, the Spear of Destiny makes more sense than Captain America and Bucky comprehensively failing to even *try* to bring down Hitler and Goering.....despite being in the same room with them.

I agree. Some explanation for why the JSA didn't just go and end the war in five minutes flat was needed, and the Spear works fine as that explanation.


So, back to retro comics, courtesy of Justice League of America archives, vol. 3

JLA #15, Challenge of the Untouchable Aliens
Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson

I've never read a single silver age issue of the JLA, so it's been fun to finally dive into that series and see what it was like. This isn't the post-Crisis revised membership, this is the original top tier of DC heroes. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Green Arrow and the Atom (Ray Palmer). Powerful weapons are being stolen from around the world, so the team breaks up into groups to go and investigate. They find aliens that look like giant stone statues who are trying to destroy three different cities around the world. The aliens can capture the JLA members, but are themselves intangible and cannot be fought. In each instance, they eventually fade away and the weapon they have stolen is destroyed, with their origin remaining a mystery. It's Hal Jordan who traces them by letting them steal his GL ring, then following them to where they live on an Earth in another dimension where he, the Flash and Batman end the threat.

It's the dreariness of the New 52 that sent me looking at the DC archives for versions of the characters that are more to my liking. And I have to admit that I vastly prefer these characters to the modern day equivalents, though with such a large cast, there's not a lot of room for characterization. Batman is, thankfully, not the undefeatable Bat-god who has a plan for everything and anticipates every eventuality. He's just one of the team who makes his moves and succeeds or fails like the others. The JLA members don't fight and bicker, they get along well and work together. That's apparently fairly typical for DC at the time, but it's very refreshing when I'm used to the modern day clash of egos and constant hero versus hero conflict. I'm sure there's a happy medium somewhere between the modern and Silver Age approach. I've only bought Golden Age archives up to this point and wasn't sure how I'd like the comics code dominated Silver Age, but this first story wasn't half bad.

And to address one of Dom's criticisms of comics from this time period, the story is light on the "caption describes the action taking place and the characters repeat what the caption says" obvious mode of storytelling. Yes, the writing is not terribly sophisticated, but neither does it beat the reader over the head with purple prose or repetitive descriptions of the obvious.

[138 Scourge]

Even as a back-write, the Spear of Destiny makes more sense than Captain America and Bucky comprehensively failing to even *try* to bring down Hitler and Goering.....despite being in the same room with them.

When Cap punched Hitler in the comics, America wasn't in the war. By the last days of the war, Cap and Bucky were both in their respective suspended animations. And while they didn't bring down Hitler, the Human Torch did set Hitler on fire and kill his ass. So, while Cap and Bucky didn't do it, at least the Invaders did? It's kind of ballsy for Marvel to say the Human Torch took out Hitler, but it's not like it's stealing the glory from Hitler's real assassin.

I dunno, even with their powers and all, I don't think it's too farfetched to think that the Invaders would have that much more luck going after the German higher-ups than anyone else. Cap and Bucky were a couple somewhat-normal badasses. The Torch and Submariner were about as powerful as a fighter jet each, but still, anti-aircraft fire would be bad news for those dudes. Who else was there? The Whizzer and Miss America? Maybe the Blazing Skull? I could see them still just not being able to pull it off single-handed.

The JSA, on the other hand, you got Flash, who can pretty much be everywhere. The Spectre, who is basically God's right hand, right? Green Lantern could pretty much do anything. I don't know if Starman was close to Green Lantern in terms of power at that point, but I'm assuming so. And then if we figure in the Freedom Fighters, too, there's no reason Uncle Sam and the Human Bomb could have ended the war in about a minute. So yeah, I think DC needed the Spear of Destiny back-write. Their heroes are so crazy powerful, it's hard to picture how they wouldn't have sorted things out in about ten minutes otherwise.

And now I'm all thinking about how much I loved the old JSA again. Those guys were the tops.

Hey anderson, if you don't like the dreary DCU, did you watch Batman: Brave and the Bold? That is seriously my platonic ideal of the DCU. Got my wife into that show and we've just been burning through it.

[andersonh1]

Hey anderson, if you don't like the dreary DCU, did you watch Batman: Brave and the Bold? That is seriously my platonic ideal of the DCU. Got my wife into that show and we've just been burning through it.

I love that show. I didn't pay it any attention for the longest time (but then I don't have cable, so I'm always late to the party on tv shows), but I checked a disc out of the local library once and loved it. Since then I've got the first two seasons on DVD, though I still haven't bought the third yet. I need to stop being slack and do that. My girls love it too. Around our house, they refer to it as "The Silly Batman".

I love that the JSA got an episode of the Brave and the Bold, and Jay Garrick turned up at least twice in other episodes. So did Wildcat. Jay got a few appearances on Young Justice too, which was nice.

I love that Ted Kord got a few appearances on The Brave and the Bold, even if he did die. At least he got a better death than having his head blown off by Max Lord. Thanks, Geoff Johns.

[andersonh1]

An ad for war bonds, featuring Jay Garrick taking out Hitler, Mussolini and HIrohito. Of course, it turns out to be a dream his girlfriend had rather than something he actually did. But I'm sure it would have been just this easy for him.

[138 Scourge]

Oh dang. So, my wife and I have been watching the last season of BatB lately, and sonofagun if it didn't just have a full JSA team appearance. JSA vs JLI, man. Everyone's there except the original Atom, I think. Hourman, Dr. Midnite, Alan, Jay, Ted Knight, Ted Grant, Wesley Dodds, everybody.

[andersonh1]

Oh dang. So, my wife and I have been watching the last season of BatB lately, and sonofagun if it didn't just have a full JSA team appearance. JSA vs JLI, man. Everyone's there except the original Atom, I think. Hourman, Dr. Midnite, Alan, Jay, Ted Knight, Ted Grant, Wesley Dodds, everybody.

Nice!





Justice League of America Archives vol. 3

Reprints JLA #s 15-22, 1962-63

Apart from a reprint of the team’s origin story, these are the first JLA stories from the 60s that I’ve ever read. Characterization is obviously light. The cast is large, and I’m sure it was difficult to give a lot of depth to so many characters while at the same time trying to find a suitable challenge for the team and work all the characters into the plot. Not to mention that DC wasn’t going for down to earth characterization at that point in its history. On the other hand, all the characters are heroic and likeable and actually spend their time working together rather than fighting each other, in marked contrast to many modern depictions of the team, so that was refreshing to read.

#15 – Challenge of the Untouchable Aliens
An alien invasion with a twist – the aliens are from another Earth in another dimension. And while they can physically interact with the JLA and their Earth, they are intangible and eventually fade away. There are a couple of nice touches, with Hal Jordan allowing them to steal his ring (which they can’t actually make use of) so they can be tracked back to their point of origin, and the fact that the aliens are not acting out of malice, but simply trying to protect their Earth.

#16 – The Cavern of Deadly Spheres
“It was all a dream!” Okay, not exactly, but the twist two thirds of the way into the story does feel like a cheat. The villain of the story tailors a trap for each member of the JLA and succeeds in defeating them by being aware of each member’s vulnerabilities and out-thinking them. But it turns out that the whole scenario is a story that a fan sent to Snapper Carr, and Snapper has been reading it to the team, making this a hypothetical scenario. It is nice to see the team go back and think things out to determine where they might have figured out the trap ahead of time. The League’s use of past experiences to solve current problems is a nice touch that crops up several times in these stories. There is continuity from story to story, even if it isn’t as involved as modern comics.

#17 – Triumph of the Tornado Tyrant
I found this story a little confusing, honestly. The Tornado Tyrant, a creature from a distant planet, has a split personality that he’s not aware of at first. This evil side of his nature fights the duplicates of the JLA that the Tornado Tyrant had created because he wanted to be good rather than evil, so he travels to Earth to figure out what the real League would do. I don’t know, this one just didn’t quite work for me. Too many duplicates, not enough of the real characters.

#18 – Journey to the Micro-World
The JLA are reduced in size to try and defeat three invincible opponents who are draining all the energy out of the micro-world they exist in. All three prove invincible and able to counter everything the League members throw at them, until Batman works out just what is going on so the team can finally win. By the way, the fact that Batman is on the team but doesn’t dominate it is much appreciated. He gets his scenes and moments to shine, but so does everyone else.

#19 – The Super-Exiles of Earth
My second-favorite story of the collection. Each JLA member is attacked and defeated by what appears to be a stronger version of themselves. If I were more familiar with villains from this era I might have guessed what was going on, but I didn’t. The revelation of the villains’ origin is super-strange: they are dreams made real by Dr. Destiny, who (amusingly) spends the whole issue in prison, dependent on news reports to know whether his plan to destroy the JLA worked or not. I’ll give him credit for planning ahead in other areas though: the evil League will simply cease to exist if he turns off the machine that created them, so he’s not going to have to deal with an ultra-powerful evil JLA in future. These evil creations are always turning on their creators, so kudos to Dr. Destiny for building a solution to that problem into his plan.

Also, none of the JLA members know each others’ secret ID at this point, and they’re forced to reveal those as they return from exile in disguise to try and defeat the evil JLA. Of course, Superman has some convenient memory-erasing substance in the Fortress of Solitude, so the status quo is maintained in the end.

#20 – The Mystery of Spaceman X
A giant spaceman lands on Earth and goes around doing good deeds. This is related to a plot where three different planets need help freeing themselves from a machine that’s done something bad to the population. Teams of Leaguers go to each planet to destroy the machines, but find to their surprise that once the machine is switched off that the inhabitants of the planet are still frozen or whatever. The clever villain has put a machine to affect one planet on one of the other two planets you see, so the teams don’t know that they’ve succeeded. The whole thing is a delaying tactic while his giant absorbs energy on Earth.

#21 – Crisis on Earth-One
#22 – Crisis on Earth-Two

This is the famous first team-up of the Justice League with the Justice Society, and it was a delight to finally read it. Villains from Earth-1 and Earth-2 commit crimes and then escape to the Earth in the other dimension to enjoy their stolen wealth. Earth-2 villains end up on Earth-1 and vice versa. Only the Flashes know how to get back and forth at this point, and they’re captured by the villains and imprisoned between dimensions. A story so big it took two issues to tell, we get to see the two teams meet and help each other out in defeating their respective opponents. The fun is in the reading, not the describing, so I won’t describe the plot in detail. The only disappointment is that the normal plotting problems with such a large cast are doubled here, with two super-teams and six super-villains to juggle.

But it’s still great to see the genuine first meeting between the teams, rather than the post-Crisis revisions, even if genuine character interaction is in short supply. This story lays the groundwork for future reappearances, and presumably solidifies DC’s multiverse that was first shown in Flash of Two Worlds. And as a fan of the JSA that first discovered them in the early 90s, I have to be grateful for the fact that this story brought them back in the first place. I think that may be one reason I’ve come to appreciate the Silver Age: it expanded DC’s universe rather than contracting it as later ages and events have done.

So, nice archive collection, and better than I expected for my first major foray into the Silver Age. I’d been reading Golden Age collections up to this point. The writing and art are less sophisticated in many ways than modern comics, but who cares? I enjoyed the stories and enjoyed seeing the characters actually act like heroes. And it’s fun to see how the writers of the time solved the problem of challenging such an overwhelmingly powerful collection of characters. Some solutions work better than others, but that’s only to be expected.

[Sparky Prime]

Green Lantern #150
Beginning's End
Cover Date: July 2002

I found this issue while at a used book store a few days ago. Feel a bit odd calling a 2002 comic book "retro", but being two reboots ago, it's a bit dated and I thought it'd be interesting to look at it seeing what changes have occurred since then as it pertains to this issue.
--

Opening up, the book recaps the origins of Allen Scott and quickly goes through the history of Hal, John and Guy before we see Kyle is actually in the past watching these events unfold. The Spectre shows up asking what Kyle's intentions are for observing these events. Kyle explains to Hal he's considering changing history, now that he has the Ion powers, he can alter events without unraveling everything. Hal explains while Kyle does have great power, he is still human, and doesn't know what the outcome of his actions would result in, but offers that the choice is his to make.

Back on Earth, Kyle still hasn't decided and looks up his father. Turns out he tried finding him with the JLA computers but even that couldn't find him. It was only with his Ion abilities he was able to find his father by looking for any close matches to his own DNA (couldn't his Green Lantern ring have done that as well?). Turns out his father had been in the CIA and his real name is actually Gabriel Vasquez (establishing Kyle to have Hispanic heritage). He tells Kyle a story about why he left him and his mother, but Kyle reads his mind to find out he's lying and to see the truth, that they'd been on the run from his former life and his mother wanted a better life than always hiding and running for Kyle. We also find out, after Kyle leaves, his father has been keeping tabs on him, and knows he's Green Lantern.

Returning to Oa, Kyle explains to Ganthet he has decided what to use his Ion powers for. Diving into the Central Battery, he reignites it and restores the Guardians of the Universe as children. Kyle asks that Ganthet raises them, and teach them to be more than pure cold logic and order. Returning home, Kyle shows Jade some modifications he made to his ring, and comes up with a new uniform for himself.

--
So this issue covers a great deal of ground...
It's interesting seeing Kyle telling Hal about his idea to alter history for Hal, considering Hal did exactly that as Parallax (and still failed to undo the destruction of Coast City). Being before the establishment of the Emotional Embodiments, Ion and Parallax pretty much were supposed to have the same powers here, being an abundance of Willpower. Although Kyle seems to have better control over the power if he could alter what he wanted in history without the universe altering ramifications like Parallax caused. But of course Kyle ultimately decides against it.

We have seen Kyle's dad during the New 52. Kyle calls him an old deadbeat that quit on his family rather than a former CIA agent who was trying to keep his family safe while the First Lantern says he hasn't seen his dad since he was six, rather than as a baby shown in this issue. He's also being pushed around by a local sheriff, something I think a former CIA agent could handle. However, that was during the manipulations of the First Lantern, so it's hard to say if anything has actually been changed here or not...

One of the biggest developments in this issue is Kyle reigniting the Central Battery and restoring the Guardians, ultimately serving to restore the Green Lantern Corps after Parallax had destroyed them. Of course it wouldn't be long before the Guardians returned to their old, logic and order selves. One thing that stuck however is that the Guardians were no longer portrayed as all male. The changes Kyle makes to his ring (such as having a return feature and reserve charge) were forgotten, but the new look would prove to be one of his more popular uniforms.

[andersonh1]

Thanks for posting that, Sparky. You've filled in some GL history for me. I like that there was an in-story reason for having Guardians of both genders when it had been all-male before, and I like the idea of a parallel between Hal and Kyle having the power to rewrite history. Sounds like a good issue.


All-Star archives vol. 8

Reprints All-Star Comics #s 34-38, 1947

#34 – The Wiles of the Wizard

This story has a fun “hook”. The villain, The Wizard, cannot believe that the JSA are genuinely honest and altruistic. He’s convinced that they are running a scam, and he wants in. He tries to buy them off at first, and when that doesn’t work, he challenges them to stop some crimes that will be committed, giving them the time and place of each crime. Despite the fact that the various individual heroes show up and foil his crimes, he stubbornly refuses to accept that they’re honest until the last few panels of the story, where he apparently commits suicide. The JSA aren’t buying it, and are sure he will be back. It’s worth noting that the JSA never defeat the Wizard, either individually or as a group. They figure out how to counter his illusions, but he escapes in the end of his own volition.

#35 – The Day that Dropped out of Time

Curious about a “missing day”, the JSA investigate with the help of Wonder Woman, and find that they did indeed forget some events that “never” happened. This story introduces Per Degaton, time-manipulating foe of the JSA. He alters an event in history so that the technological progress of society is greatly reduced, while he manages to shield his own high tech equipment and weapons from the ongoing changes to history so that he’ll have advanced weapons when no one else does. Said changes don’t happen all at once, but a bit at a time, and people are aware that it’s happening. In a nice touch, the Flash is said to have lost his speed due to technology being responsible for his powers. In another nice touch, the Green Lantern’s chapter takes place 10 years in the future when Degaton has won and the JSA are fugitives. In the end, history is set right and everyone forgets what happened, because it never did. Time paradoxes are fun.

#36 – Five Drowned Men

The story opens with a group of six men on a camping trip out west. The host is Calvin Stymes who tells his five friends the Indian legend of the Koehaha, a once in a century stream that causes those who drown in it to return as evil undead, essentially. This happens to the five men, while Stymes avoids it by being on higher ground. The crime wave which follows is investigated by various JSA members. Turns out it was all a revenge plot by Stymes for the way the five men hazed him in college. The water doesn’t actually drown anyone due to all the free oxygen in it (comic book science?), but a chemical also present in the water is what drives the men to lose their moral scruples and go on crime sprees. Jay Garrick gets to use his chemistry skills, first by analysing the water and then with the help of Dr. Mid-Nite, concocting an antidote for the five men.

The individual chapters are fairly standard crime sprees for the JSA members to fight, but the whole idea of the “stream of ruthlessness” has a fun urban legend quality to it that elevates the story as a whole. And if nothing else, this story is notable for being the only time Superman and Batman take part in a full length Justice Society adventure. They’re listed as honorary members back in All-Star #3, but apart from cameos never participated until this story. And apparently, never turn up again.

#37 – The Injustice Society of the World

If this story were written and published today, it would be a seven issue mini-series with 20 gazillion tie-ins. Thankfully it’s self-contained, and not dragged out for months, and is all the better for it. The Injustice Society takes on the Justice Society, with armies of escaped convicts and automaton duplicates of government officials in key positions. It’s an ambitious plan by the villains, and it very nearly succeeds. In the end the Injustice Society capture everyone except Green Lantern, who they (and the Flash!) believe has fallen to his death. However, as they should have guessed, GL’s ring was able to keep him alive, and he manages to turn the tables, allowing the Justice Society to capture the villains. Who, it must be noted, are fairly successful when planning and using surrogates to fight the JSA, but who are no match for them face to face in a fair fight.

#38 – History’s Crime Wave

One of the first things to note about this story is that the format has changed. Previous issues of All-Star follow the formula of opening and closing chapters with the group, while the middle chapters feature individual characters. “History’s Crime Wave” dispenses with that in favor of a story structure where all the JSA members are attacked one by one and apparently killed by figures from history. Black Canary is able to tell Wonder Woman what happened, and she in turn rescues and revives everyone. Once the team figure out what’s going on, at least partially, they set traps for their attackers. It turns out that it was all the work of a crazy security guard at the wax museum, bent on destroying the JSA. How was he able to make automatons that looked like famous villains in history? The story never makes that clear. I’d say he found some leftovers from the Injustice Society’s plot of the previous issue, but that’s just me trying to make sense of a fun but crazy plot.

[Sparky Prime]

Thanks for posting that, Sparky. You've filled in some GL history for me. I like that there was an in-story reason for having Guardians of both genders when it had been all-male before, and I like the idea of a parallel between Hal and Kyle having the power to rewrite history. Sounds like a good issue.

Yeah, it was a good read. I was hoping that they'd have a few more issues but their selection was pretty hit or miss.