Comic Book Review: DC Special No. 3: Justice Society edited by Paul Levitz
As discussed in previous reviews, the Justice Society of America was DC Comics’ first superhero team, designed to showcase their characters that didn’t have their own individual titles. Thus Superman and Batman weren’t members, but were “honorary”, and Green Lantern and the Flash resigned for a while when they got their own books. When Wonder Woman came along, she was made “secretary” so not technically a full member, and later the rules were relaxed to allow Jay Garrick and Alan Scott to return.
The team’s original run in All-Star Comics ended in 1951, and the magazine became All-Star Western as superheroes were out of favor. (Reasons for the team’s retirement were later retconned in.) In 1961, DC’s Golden Age superheroes were reintroduced starting with the Flash, as it was established that they lived on “Earth-Two”, a parallel universe with a very similar history but where superheroes officially began appearing much sooner. The Justice Society came out of retirement for annual crossovers with the Justice League of America, and appearances in other series or as backup stories. By 1976 the fandom for the Justice Society had grown enough that it was considered possible for them to have their own series again.
And thus, All-Star Comics #58-59 reintroduced the team with some new members, so that’s the first story in this volume.
“All-Star Super Squad” and “Brainwave Blows Up!” written by Gerry Conway, art by Ric Estrada and Wally Wood, starts with the current JSA lineup of Flash, Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Wildcat, Green Lantern & Dr. Fate learning that three disasters were about to strike simultaneously around the world, and that this would trigger the destruction of Earth. Naturally, they split into teams of two to investigate.
In Seattle, Washington, we meet Sylvester Pemberton, the Star-Spangled Kid. He and his adult sidekick Stripesy had been members of DC’s second superhero team, the Seven Soldiers of Victory, which had been lost in time from the early 1950s until recently. Stripesy has retired, and SSK has been loaned Starman’s Cosmic Rod (so he’s explicitly replacing Starman in the lineup) but currently is suffering a Captain America-esque “man out of his time” funk. There’s an earthquake, and Sylvester works to mitigate the effects. Dr. Mid-Nite and Hawkman arrive, but knowing that SSK is feeling down, decide to let him take the lead in solving the crisis.
In Capetown, South Africa, ambassadorial envoy Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Robin, is working on dismantling apartheid. Poison gas starts spewing from the ground. Doctor Fate and Green Lantern rescue Robin from an initial dose of the gas, but are knocked out when they try to seal the fissure.
And finally in Peking, China (we know it as Beijing these days), the Flash and Wildcat are dealing with a volcanic eruption. They’re surprised when a buxom young woman in a white costume with red cape shows up and seals the volcano single-handedly. She introduces herself as Power Girl, cousin to Superman, but there’s no time for explaining where she came from.
The villain is revealed to be Brainwave, birth name Henry King. He’s a mutant with the ability to project powerful mental images, and on the side a genius mad scientist. He’s somehow become much taller and more muscular, and has hair now. He arranged for the Justice Society to be present at the disasters as part of his master plan.
His plan also involves his old colleague from the Injustice Society, Per Degaton. Degaton is completely reimagined for this story. In almost all his other appearances, Per Degaton is a fascist (*not* a Nazi until a few retcons later) who keeps trying to use time travel technology to make it easier for him to become world dictator. In this story, he’s a super-gadgeteer who can create weapons almost instantaneously from random parts. Also, for some reason his red hair with curved bangs is replaced by a black buzzcut.
Once our heroes compare notes, it’s off to defeat Brainwave and Degaton!
It’s an okay story, but of personal great impact to me, as back when I originally read it, Power Girl as drawn by Wally Wood was the moment I realized why it was important that girls had a different body shape than boys.
“5 Drowned Men!” written by Gardner Fox, art by various, is a Golden Age reprint. Six men (detective, archaeologist, law clerk, scientist, architect and reporter) are apparently drowned on a camping trip. Shortly thereafter, bizarre crimes strike five cities across the nation. The Justice Society is alerted of the names of the criminals responsible by an anonymous note. However, the Atom was injured in a basketball game and Johnny Thunder has a cold, so they’re not available.
Instead, Batman and Superman join Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, the Flash and Dr. Mid-Nite for this adventure. The heroes split up, five to the afflicted cities, one to check up on the sixth man, and Wonder Woman holds down the fort.
The gimmick here is that the men were exposed to the water of Koehaha, the Stream of Ruthlessness. Any man “drowned” in Koehaha appears dead for a short while, but then revives without any conscience or respect for conventional morality. This usually results in them becoming remorseless criminals. (Though it’s notable that the villain of the story primes the men to think of what kind of crimes they’d commit.)
Each of the heroes in the five afflicted cities is initially at a disadvantage against their target criminal, but a mysterious stuttering person helps them out. It turns out this is the sixth man (not a spoiler, since we saw him set up the whole thing at the beginning) who killed a dog in the backstory, his fraternity brothers retaliated in such a way as to give him a permanent stutter, and this elaborate setup is his revenge. No one sheds a tear when he apparently is destroyed at the end.
Koehaha, though, would reappear in a particularly effective Roy Thomas Justice Society-related story.
This one was the only Golden Age Justice Society story where Batman and Superman were active participants instead of cameos, so it was high on the list of fan-requested reprints.
“Dr. Fate” written by Martin Pasko with art by Walt Simonson is a reprint from 1st Issue Special #9 in 1975. It depicts the mystic hero’s personality as a blend between Kent Nelson and the spirit of Nabu with Kent suffering clouded memories of his time wearing the helmet. As a result, Kent’s having marital problems with his wife Inza, who’s feeling increasingly alienated and neglected.
In the main plot, the ancient Egyptian priest-mummy Khalis arises from his long sleep. He’d tried to make the worship of the god of darkness, Anubis (nerd alert! this is not a fair description of Anubis’ place in Egyptian mythology) dominant in the Two Kingdoms, until defeated by Nabu. The oppressed locals mummified Khalis alive, and Nabu took his Amulet of Anubis as a trophy.
Khalis steals back his amulet from Dr. Fate, weakening the hero as well as empowering himself. After a recap of Kent Nelson’s backstory, Inza returns with the item the hero needs to reseal Khalis and the couple reconcile.
Some nifty art and effects here, but interest was not sparked enough for an ongoing series, so this is a relatively rare reprint.
The final feature in this 1980 digest is a three-page explanation of the Earth-Two concept for new readers.
This is one of the better DC digests, and worth seeking out, especially if you are a Doctor Fate fan.
