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The Unknown Soldier of Victory
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Well here we are, Justice League of America #100. One hundred years issues prior to the day when I would pick up JLA #200 in a local market and start my comic book reading hobby that has become a rather significant part of my life today.
This book is the beginning of an expansion of the JLA/JSA team-up stories that include a third team which will be the theme moving forward for the next few stories we talk about leading up to the big Crisis story coming soon, so let’s get to it and meet our first group of guest stars, the Seven Soldiers of Victory.
We open our story as an alarm is going off at the JLA’s satellite, but no one is there to answer the phone. The JLA has decided to hold an anniversary party at their original cave headquarters and as Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkman, and Aquaman are walking through musing about the old headquarters the phone rings in the abandoned headquarters and out pops the Atom.
The scene shifts rapidly to the remaining Justice Leaguers as Flash and his ally Elongated Man are wrapping up the Casino Gang. We see Martian Manhunter back on Mars rebuilding his home planet after a devastating war. Metamorpho flies away from the Stagg compound to be with his friends in the JLA while the recently duped Snapper Carr is unable to face the Leaguers following his unwitting betrayal. Adam Strange is on Rann and will be unable to join the JLA due to his Zeta beam radiation as Zatanna pops into the JLA headquarters to join the festivities. One by one the JLA show up with Batman and Diana Prince joining the group.
You’ll notice I said DIANA PRINCE there, not Wonder Woman…
Wonder Woman gets a new direction around this time and has since quit the Justice League prior to Black Canary’s entrance to the League as of JLA #75. Here, we see her billed as Diana Prince, not Wonder Woman and this change will be the catalyst for a lot of things coming down the pike very soon and we will deal with this change more in depth in a few postings.
When all the JLA and their allies have gathered they all get transported from Earth-One to Earth-Two by the mystic workings of Dr. Fate.
The assembled JSA members are Doctor Fate, Doctor Mid-Nite, Hourman, Johnny Thunder, Red Tornado, Sandman, Starman, Wonder Woman, and Wildcat.
The JSA explains that a gigantic hand is prepped to crush Earth-2 in it’s grip if the world does not surrender itself to it. The hand belongs to a villain called Iron Hand. In order to defeat the Iron Hand, the JSA attempted twice to defeat it being repelled both times. Dr. Fate then consulted his mystic crystal and it showed him a gravestone talking about the “Unknown Soldier of Victory who died so that his world would live.”
Dr. Fate was unable to divine the meaning behind the headstone but with the added might of Zatanna and Johnny Thunder’s Thunderbolt the three mystics work in tandem to achieve a greater working (this is something that will also become a recurring scenario much later in the Crisis stories).
The Oracle appears, apparently a cosmic creature that assists the heroes by telling them the tale of the Seven Soldiers of Victory.
The Seven Soldiers originated on Earth-2, but after fighting their last villain, the Nebula Man, were believed lost.
The Oracle reveals that the 7 Soldiers are lost in time in other dimensions and are no longer acting as themselves but as other entities and it is now the duty of the JLA and JSA to bring the 7 Soldiers back into this dimension to save Earth-2.
The teams are quickly picked in Justice League tradition the larger team breaks into smaller teams to solve the problem quicker. Diana Prince elects to stay behind to coordinate the effort at the JSA headquarters.
Team One: Atom, Doctor Fate, and Elongated Man
This team is taken to an existence where the Crimson Avenger has been transformed into the King of the Aztecs. While the heroes cautiously watch from a safe distance they sneak in and attempt to free the Crimson Avenger to find the Crimson Avenger is capable of zapping the heroes unconscious.
Doctor Fate and Elongated Man awaken to find themselves chained up, the Atom has managed to avoid this fate and once they are relatively alone with the Crimson Avenger the heroes free themselves with Atom and Dr. Fate taking on the Crimson Avenger and Elongated Man taking on the guards.
Elongated Man’s mystery sniffing nose keeps focusing on a glowing meteor that once Dr. Fate destroys the rock Crimson Avenger loses these new powers and comes to his senses and allies are joined.
In a small headquarters the Iron Hand, a villain of the Seven Soldiers of Victory waits as time ticks down to his deadline to take over the world.
Next Up: The Hand That Shook The World
Only Someone Who is Unique To Both Earths
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Roll Call: JLA: Superman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Flash, Atom, Black Canary, and guest star Robin the Boy Wonder. JSA: Superman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Flash, Atom, and Robin.
Back when we left off the JLA and JSA were getting their collective butts handed to them by a newly reawakened Solomon Grundy. This Solomon Grundy decided that Superman would make a good bludgeoning tool and held Supes’ body up on high waiting to wail on Green Lantern.
Superman manages to break Solomon’s grip on him by giving him one of those patented super bitch slaps to the ear which causes the zombie to drop Superman. The rest of the JLA and JSA take this moment to recover and get a relatively safe distance away from Solomon Grundy and then move in swiftly to attack which is a job for The Flash, Jay Garrick. Meanwhile A-Rym, (remember him?) has seen how the Green Lantern can bring him and his lifelong pet Teppy back together and A-Rym also attacks Solomon in an attempt to get Solomon from harming the hero. A-Rym manages to get Alan Scott’s ring and he goes off with it in an attempt to try to find Teppy.
Back in the Earth-Two Batcave, the two Dick Graysons mull their postiions. One with the JSA and still treated as nothing more than a sidekick, the other new to college and beginning his path that will lead him to become leader of the Teen Titans and eventual independence as Nightwing. With Robin of Earth-One’s costume damaged, the Earth-Two Robin offers him a different outfit and the two set off in costumes that are hybrid bat/robin uniforms.
On the JLA satellite, Black Canary and Iris Allen watch over a feverish Barry Allen. On Earth-2, Hal Jordan makes Alan Scott a new temporary power ring and the two Green Lanterns recite the oath. The Lanterns go off and confront Solomon Grundy while the Hawkmen decide to take on the task of dealing with the alien youth.
The Hawkmen confront A-Rym as the Robins both show up and it becomes apparent that the youth is quite strong and is able to take care of the Hawks with ease. The finesse of the Robins however is more than a match for A-Rym as their superior teamwork and training manages to incapacitate A-Rym enough to overpower him. A-Rym also is suffering the pain of being separated from Teppy for so long that it is becoming increasingly more difficult for him to act rationally or to stave off the agony he is feeling.
The two Green Lanterns combine their might to stop Solomon Grundy as Hawkman returns Alan Scott’s ring which the heroes recovered from A-Rym, but it takes the two Robins to figure out that the JLA and JSA need to bring the two aliens together because they are dying. When they do a miraculous thing occurs and the two aliens recover instantly. Reunited with their family the aliens go back home wary of space joyriding. The Hawkmen apologize to the Robins for their arrogance and all is well with the world for a time.
Next Up: The Unknown Soldier of Victory
Earth – The Monster-Maker
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Roll Call: JLA: Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Atom, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Aquaman. With Special Guest Star: Robin, the Boy Wonder. For the JSA: Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Atom, Hawkman, and Robin.
Out in space, a group of aliens that appear to be symbiotically bonded with their pets is travelling through the dimension between the worlds. A juvenile of the crew finds an airlock and accidentally opens it sucking the alien and their pet into outer space. The alien is A-Rym and the pet is named Teppy. As fate would have it in these Crisis stories one gets sucked through a dimensional wormhole to Earth-One and the other gets sucked into the universe containing Earth-Two. The other aliens are distraught by this because the more the pair are separated the more they will individually act out more and more irrationally.
We pick up the action in the JLA Satellite where the Leaguers are meeting as Batman arrives with an apparent dead Flash in his arms.
The scene cuts to the JSA’s Earth-Two, where Green Lantern has summoned his fellow Society members as his green lantern ring has been taken from him by one of the two missing aliens. Hawkman begrudgingly allows Robin to come along on the mission, but Robin has to remind him that he was elected a member of the JSA a while ago. We begin to see some of the “generation gap” tensions reflected at the times in the comics now.
The same scene repeats itself in the JLA when the JLA are summoned off to help Aquaman it is Batman and Green Arrow who leave the satellite for that mission. Black Canary stays behind to watch over Flash and the rest of the JLA go to New Carthage where Dick Grayson is attending college and is already on this case dressed in his Robin garb. This Hawkman grabs Robin and says that Robin might be of some use to them since Batman is not around. Again we see Robin not getting any respect on this Earth either.
Green Lantern’s ring then begins to go a bit crazy and they realize that the JSA are contacting them and the two groups of heroes compare notes. The two teams find the alien child A-Rym and attempt to subdue him, but the Robins get “injured” or in the way. Green Lantern constructs a bubble and sends them both to the Batcave on Earth-One to get out of the heroes way. Meanwhile the alien child takes out the heroes.
On the other Earth the heroes have tracked down Teppy and when Teppy gets mad he gets huge. He manages to take out both Supermen, but the heroes manage to isolate Teppy and keep him at bay while they go back to help the other heroes track down A-Rym.
Back on Earth-One, A-Rym has made his way into Slaughter Swamp and reawakens the zombie known as Solomon Grundy. Solomon Grundy begins to tear into the heroes and decides they must all die. He grabs Superman and raises him over his head ready to strike an unconscious Green Lantern at his feet at the issue’s end.
Next Up: Solomon Grundy, the One and Only!
Where Valor Fails…Will Magic Triumph?
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Roll Call: JLA: Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Black Canary, Superman, Hawkman, Batman, and Flash JSA: Spectre, Dr. Fate, Wonder Woman, Red Tornado, Hourman, Starman, Hawkman, Johnny Thunder & Thunderbolt, Green Lantern, Superman, and Dr. Mid-Nite.
We pick up where we left off with Black Canary deciding that she must die to save the two universes from colliding and their demise.
The World Builders decide that the JSA has been enough trouble to them so far and have decided to go ahead and attack the Justice Society directly. On Earth-One, Green Lantern goes to investigate what might be causing the universes to merge and he discovers that Red Tornado is being held in stasis and that the android is the focus of the attack and not Black Canary. Green Lantern cannot resolve this as the Earth-Two Green Lantern falls to the traps of the World Builders, so too does the Green Lantern of Earth-One. The same effect occurs to Hawkman as well and so it goes.
Black Canary on the JLA Satellite is ready to set the transporter to scatter her atoms across the galaxy ending the threat to the universes.
Doctor Fate and Johnny Thunder & Thunderbolt are all that are left of the JSA and they teleport away to enlist the help of The Spectre. The spirit of vengeance used to be mostly man but seems to grow ever distant from mankind and more seeking revenge. Dr. Fate is able to persuade the Spectre to save the worlds with them and they do so, by using the Spectre to keep the worlds apart it appears that the heroes win the day, though Spectre may have perished in the act of saving the worlds.
Once the worlds are free Dr. Fate and Johnny Thunder & Thunderbolt go to take care of the World Builders. This frees Red Tornado, Green Lantern, and the previous heroes who were at death’s door, although it seems The Spectre may not have survived, how does one kill a ghost?
Next Up: Earth — The Monster Maker
Peril of the Paired Planets
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We open our tale with Superman flying through the clear skies of Metropolis and all seems well with the world until he plows into the Daily Planet building, goes through the building, and eventually falls into the subway system where he lies comatose. Hawkman and Flash come to his aid and get him to the new JLA Satellite Headquarters orbiting at 22,300 miles above the Earth in Geosynchronous orbit. Joined there by Batman and the Atom the Justice Leaguers begin to diagnose Superman’s condition with Batman deducing it must be magic that affected the Man of Steel with no Kryptonite or Red Sun radiation nearby. As Batman reveals this, he is attacked by an unknown force and rendered unconscious and dying. Hawkman goes and calls the rest of the Justice League: Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Black Canary to help the JLA out.
And where *ARE* those three heroes? Appearing as the “Hard Traveling Heroes” in the new Green Lantern/Green Arrow series of course:
Anyway, the scene shifts to Earth-Two, home of the Justice Society of America and the wayward android Red Tornado who is visiting outer space bemoaning his inability to fit in amongst humans due to his android body. He runs across a group of aliens and attempts to communicate with them and the aliens capture Red Tornado. The aliens are basically planet killers and then creators. In order to build a planet they must destroy two planets. Well, here are two planets separated by the vibrations that keep the universes of Earth-One and Earth-Two separated and Red Tornado who possesses the ability to go in-between the worlds is the perfect being to use to cause the destruction of both worlds.
On Earth-Two we see Superman and Doctor Mid-Nite attacked and subdued in ways that appear to be the same way that Superman and Batman were on Earth-One, except on Earth-Two we see the planet building aliens are responsible. The same fate befalls the Flash of both worlds when Jay Garrick confronts an alien he is captured by a constricting net, Barry Allen on Earth-One is attacked and bound by an unseen force mimicking the net on Earth-Two. The Atom and Hawkman of Earth-One have been running tests and they determine that there is some force ripping the two worlds asunder and it must have some sort of focus point that has vibrations on both earths. Black Canary comes to a bone chilling conclusion. She is the nexus point. She must die.
Next Up: Where Valor Fails, Will Magic Triumph?
Where Death Fears To Tread
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So, last time the JSA were basically being held prisoners by the banished evil star known as Aquarius and only the Red Tornado had escaped and traveled to Earth-One to enlist the help of the JLA to combat the menace.
Roll Call: JSA: Superman, Black Canary, Doctor Fate, Green Lantern, Doctor Mid-Nite, Wonder Woman, Red Tornado, and Larry Lance (Black Canary’s husband). JLA: Superman, Green Lantern, Batman, Hawkman, Atom, and Flash.
The JLA travels into the new limbo-like universe where Aquarius is holding the JSA hostage. Time is apparently moving quicker here than in the normal universe as a nearly exhausted Dr. Fate thinks to himself that he has been keeping himself and his teammates alive for two weeks but he is nearly at the edge of his stamina and cannot continue much longer.
We get an interesting piece of DC Cosmology from Green Lantern Hal Jordan who thinks to himself…
“Though I’ve made this trip so many times– it always awes me! We’re at the center of nothingness, midway between being and non-being… I’ve got to be very careful at this point! We’re approaching the entrance to the universe of negative matter. If we were to slip through that gap,, we’d probably be instantly annihilated. When positive matter from our universe as much as touches negative matter, it causes an explosion that makes an H-Bomb look like a firecracker!” – Green Lantern, Hal Jordan
The arrival of the JLA causes Aquarius pause as the star does not understand how more mortals could exist in this universe. Aquarius mentally commands the JSA members to defeat the JLA and a battle royale begins. Superman of the JSA takes on the Superman of the JLA. It is Doctor Mid-Nite who picks Batman as his foe, but Batman is ready and takes the good doctor by surprise. The Flash dodges mystic bolts from Doctor Fate while the Atom sneaks into Fate’s ear to cause him significant discomfort. Dr. Fate’s mystic bolt goes far off course and strikes the JSA’s Wonder Woman and her lasso ensnaring the heroine who loses her powers when she is bound by a man. Flash then knocks Doctor Fate out, and accidentally sends his cohort The Atom reeling as well. The two Green Lanterns are fairly evenly matched in battle as Green Arrow fires his “stickum shaft” at the Black Canary trapping her in some gluey goop leaving her unable to move. Larry Lance sneaks up on Green Arrow and knocks him out for having attacked his wife. However, the scene has now been set. With Black Canary trapped Aquarius begins sending out deadly balls of energy to kill those who threaten him and with the Canary unable to dodge the ball she is a goner. Larry leaps in the path of the ball and saves his wife, but the price is his life.
When Larry Lance sacrificed himself to save Black Canary that moment freed the JSA members of the mental commands of Aquarius. While life goes on in the worlds, Dinah Lance can only mourn the man she loved. The two Green Lanterns need to renew their strength to get everyone home and so they recite their oath together. The JSA and JLA leave the limbo land and go back to Earth-Two to bury the honored dead, only to have Aquarius show up mocking their grief. IT falls to the Green Lanterns to taunt Aquarius into that area of the limbo universe near the negative universe. Aquarius in a fitful rage does not realize what has happened until he is caught in the gravity well and is unable to break free.
Aquarius enters the negative universe and blows up ending his threat forever.
Back on Earth-Two, the JLA ready to depart, but Black Canary asks that she take them with her as the pain of the loss of Larry is too great to stay on Earth-Two and that a new start is needed. Superman carries Black Canary through the barrier and we believe she joins the Justice League in the next issue…
But we know the real story now, don’t we?
Next Up: Peril of the Paired Planes!
Star Light, Star Bright — Death Star I See Tonight
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No, not THAT Death Star, another one.
With this story we get a bit of a tonal shift in our JLA/JSA cross-overs. Veteran author Gardner Fox has been replaced by up and coming Denny O’Neil and with Mr. O’Neil comes a bit more realism in his comics and a bit more pathos.
We open in the cosmos where the Council of Living Stars is passing judgment on the star Aquarius, who is apparently guilty of crimes that we are not informed of, but the council decides to rob Aquarius of all his powers except for those that sustain his life force. This now ex-cosmic force is sent fading to Earth where we pick up our story with our heroes.
ROLL CALL: JLA: Batman, Green Lantern, Atom, Hawkman, Superman. JSA: Red Tornado, Starman, Black Canary, Doctor Fate, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Doctor Mid-Nite, and Superman
Red Tornado has appeared in the JLA headquarters to inform them of a dire threat to the universe and the Justice League insists that he tells the tale to them.
The scene fades over to Earth-2 where the Starman has detected the matter floating to Earth that was once the powerful star Aquarius. Starman attempts to apprehend the strange creature, but winds up being caught himself and Aquarius steals the Cosmic Rod and causes Starman to fall to the Earth. Starman happens to land in the apartment of Dinah and Larry Lance. Dinah Lance who happens to be the Black Canary. Starman is still alive and Larry cares for him as Dinah dons her Blonde Bombshell gear and hits the door looking for whatever caused the Starman to fall out of the sky.
Coming up empty handed Black Canary comes back but finds Larry armed with an odd piece of wood as he attacks his wife. Black Canary subdues Larry and he snaps out of whatever was controlling him. Larry doesn’t remember a thing in the interim from helping Starman to waking up after Dinah threw him for a loop. Black Canary summons the rest of the JSA feeling that they are a bit out of their depth here.
Green Lantern Alan Scott is delayed by a billboard coming to life and attacking him. Dr. Mid-Nite is delayed by a young child who is a fan who has suddenly acquired super-strength and is having a really fantastic temper tantrum. Once the child hits Dr. Mid-Nite he snaps back to normal and has no idea what he has done. Doctor Fate was preoccupied by a demonic storm of dark energy that once dispelled turns into Aquarius. Aquarius has managed to pull himself together by holding onto the Cosmic Rod.
Aquarius reveals his mania and Dr. Mid-Nite quickly diagnoses him as a manic depressive with schizophrenia. In true hero style, Larry Lance gets the villain to start monologuing about his plans. It is at this point that Red Tornado, Superman, and Wonder Woman join the other heroes to sneak attack Aquarius. Superman is quickly downed by Aquarius’ magical attacks and Wonder Woman repelled by intense heat. Aquarius in an intense fit of anger destroys Earth-Two and only Doctor Fate’s shield saves the JSA members and Larry Lance.
However, they were not really destroyed. They are attached to Doctor Fate’s magic in another dimension. Once the JSA members die, so will their world. Aquarius is tired and must wait to kill the Justice Society members. This gives them one hope. Red Tornado. It is at this point that Red Tornado spins so fast to get to Earth One and this is where we leave Part One!
Next Up: Where Death Fears To Tread! And one death will change the JSA & JLA forever.
T.O. Morrow Kills The Justice League — Today!
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Good question T.O. Morrow, but let us not count our chickens before they have hatched, eh?
Lets remember that last issue T.O. Morrow basically pwned the Justice Society of America and left them all for dead and then discovered that in order to succeed in his evil plans he had to eliminate the Justice League as well. All caught up now? Good. Lets go.
So the Justice League is having a meeting in their Mountain Cave headquarters and the entire membership is there: Superman, Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Hawkman, Green Arrow, Snapper Carr, and the Atom. Down below the main meeting room is the Souvenir Room where we see five of the Leaguers significant others waiting to surprise their lovers: Steve Trevor, Jean Loring, Hawkgirl, Midge (Snapper Carr’s Girlfriend), and Mera. During the meeting the five lovers burst into the room and plant the “kiss of death” on their targets: Wonder Woman, the Atom, Hawkman, Snapper Carr, and Aquaman. The Justice Leaguers attacked fall to the ground lifeless and their lovers turn into dust.
It is at this point that the Justice League receives a challenge to go fight some beasts that are coming to the planet now. In typical Justice League form one of the creatures is completely golden to keep Green Lantern busy while another has Kryptonite teeth caps..
Lets just ponder a second to figure out who would take the time to put kryptonite veneers on a space dragon……
Yeah, I don’t think even Lex Luthor would bother with that, but apparently T.O. Morrow had the time to perform some space dragon dentistry.. This leaves our three non-flyers (Flash, Batman, and Green Arrow) to deal with the last remaining flying beast while they are all trying to devise ways to stay in the air and nnot fall to their deaths.
The Justice Leaguers defeat the strange space beasts and head back to the Souvenir Room where T.O. Morrow reveals himself and turns the JLA’s souvenirs against them. Amazo’s body awakens, Starro animates, the Crystal Creature from Appellax reanimates and strikes the Green Bell, Dr. Light attacks with a laser gun, and the weird Super-Duper (a mix of the heroes’ DNA) attacks as well.
With the Justice League defeated, T.O., Morrow remains confident that he will triumph although he is warned that there is no way he will win if the Red Tornado opposes him.
Back on Earth-Two, the Red Tornado stirs and realizes the Justice Society members are lifeless, but could be revived with the correct energy from one of T.O. Morrow’s machines. Red Tornado then spins with enough force to get through the barrier from Earth-Two to Earth-One and discovers how T.O. Morrow took out the Justice League.
Red Tornado then summons the five real significant others: Jean Loring, Mera, Steve Trevor, Midge,, and Hawkgirl to revive their loved ones with a positive energy kiss. This leaves Red Tornado to wonder about the concept of love. With these five Justice Leaguers revived: Atom, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, and Snapper Carr to go fight and defeat T.O. Morrow with the assistance of the Red Tornado.
In short order, Wonder Woman wrecks Morrow’s machines while the men defeat T.O. Morrow’s hired goons, but the task of defeating T.O. Morrow falls to Red Tornado who does so quite efficiently leaving the would be conqueror to revive the remaining Leaguers and then Red Tornado does the same for the JSA members. Another Crisis averted.
Next Up: Star Light, Star Bright– Death Star I See Tonight
The Stormy Return of the Red Tornado
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Another Crisis opens on Earth-2 as the Justice Society are conducting a meeting where they are bemoaning the fact that there is no criminal activity requiring their attention at this current moment, which of course jinxes the JSAers as Hourman’s new “Crimecaster” promises to forecast where the next criminal activity will turn up the JSA are interrupted by a thunderous boom as the Red Tornado makes an appearance.
Red Tornado claims he wants his membership back, but wait, Doctor Fate conjures up an image of the real Red Tornado, Ma Hunkel and that image and the new visitor to the JSA Headquarters do not match up. Well, then the new Red Tornado informs the JSAers all about their personal lives, and how could that happen if there was not some intimate knowledge of their activities? The JSA unmask the Red Tornado and discover that there is no face under the mask. But before that mystery can be solved the Crimecaster has completed its calculations and the JSA take off to fight these soon to be performed crimes.
The Red Tornado joins the JSA and the group comes across a group of androids that are stealing a museum and they have no faces, just like Red Tornado. While the JSA attempt to defeat the villains, the Red Tornado manages through his well meaning actions get the other JSAers killed with only Doctor Fate and the Red Tornado surviving it seems. Red Tornado is strangely called off and seems to be following a signal to a man in a lab, a man we will come to know as one of the greatest villains of the JLA, T.O. Morrow.
This is not the first time any of our heroes have heard of Thomas Oscar Morrow, who by trade is a “mad scientist” sort of character, but without a lot of the overt insanity that comes with such a title. Taking the obvious cue from his name, T.O. Morrow believes that he is destined to be a scientific futurist, but he has an issue with ethics and hates to wait for the proper channels to clear before doing some testing. T.O. Morrow’s specialty is in robotics, specifically artificial intelligence. T.O. Morrow was reviewing how he was going to be able to conquer the world and in order to do so he has to get the JSA out of his way. He does this how? By using a crimecaster similar to the one that Hourman invented earlier to predict how to defeat the JSA. This series of questions is what had caused T.O. to invent the Red Tornado.
Red Tornado is lying on the floor able to think but unable to act. He deduces that the same energy used on him is what the androids were using at the theft and that the JSA members are not dead after all, just paralyzed.
Meanwhile back at JSA Headquarters we are joined by other members of the JSA: Atom, Green Lantern, Sandman, Doctor Mid-Nite, Hawkman, and Mister Terrific have joined Doctor Fate to try to find a cure for their fallen comrades. Red Tornado has managed to overpower T.O. Morrow and has brought with him the weapon that will reverse the “futur-radiation” that the fallen JSAers have fallen victim to. However, as Red Tornado presses the button the android and the assembled heroes all pass out, victims of that same radiation.
T.O. Morrow shouts out triumphantly, but now he has bigger fish to fry. He has to kill the Justice League of America.
Next Up: T.O. Morrow Kills the Justice League — Today!
One Red Tornado arrives, he sees that T.O. Morrow knows far more about him than he does and begins to question the lab coated clad criminal. However, T.O. is able to do some damage to the Red Tornado and is able to flee the scene.
The Bridge Between Earths
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Roll Call: Black Canary, Sandman, Wildcat, Doctor Mid-Nite, Spectre, and Doctor Fate from the Earth-Two JSA and Hawkman, Green Lantern, Flash, Batman, and the Atom of the Earth-One JLA.
We open up our story on Earth-One in the lab of Ray Palmer, the Atom who is helping a lab assistant with an experiment when his size controls start reacting to the energy in the room. On Earth-Two, the heroes who have captured Blockbuster are taken by surprise when Blockbuster fades away and is replaced by Solomon Grundy who immediately attacks. The heroes on Earth-One are having the same issue as Solomon Grundy fades from the inside of the mountain to be replaced by Blockbuster who blasts out of the mountain and lunges at the heroes who have never seen this villain before.
During the fights Doctor Fate is alerted to something stirring in the ether more important than the battle with the unstoppable villain he currently faces. When he gazes into his seeing crystal he sees that The Spectre is trying to keep both Earth-One and Earth-Two separate and notices the Anti-Matter Man slowly making his way towards the worlds. Doctor Fate summons the heroes in both teams upward to fight the Anti-Matter Man in space while taking the time to protect his cohorts from the ravages of space and the Anti-Matter Man’s touch.
The assembled heroes begin their assault on the Anti-Matter Man only to find that the energies of the Anti-Matter cause bizarre reactions to them despite Doctor Fate’s protective magic spell. Our heroes are not so easily deterred and even with bizarre things happening to them they manage to wage a battle on the back of The Spectre and bind the Anti-Matter Man and drag him off into space away from the Earths where the battle begins anew.
Back at Ivy University, the Atom is working with the machine that his assistant was working on and manages to tune in and see The Spectre separating both Earths. Between the two of them Atom has a plan to inflate the Spectre and then explode him so that the two Earths drift apart again. The Spectre agrees and the plan is successful even though it appears that The Spectre may not have survived it, but it is very difficult to kill a ghost and The Spectre reappears but perhaps he has lost a little bit more of his humanity.
The explosion that Atom and Spectre set off sent the Anti-Matter Man back into his own universe. Which leaves us only with the question of what to do with the two bruisers that Doctor Fate set upon each other in order to keep them occupied. The heroes arrive shortly after Blockbuster and Solomon Grundy knock each other unconscious with simultaneous blows to the chin. When the villains wake up they begin to laugh and hug each other, it turns out that the villains have managed to knock the hate out of each other. For now, these two get a happy ending.
Next Up: The Super-Crisis That Struck Earth-Two!