Posted by Darren in Comics
Lets do a little examination of the romances of the Justice League.
Superman has Lois Lane.
Wonder Woman has Steve Trevor.
Aquaman has Mera.
Batman has.. well..
Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, bad example.
Lets talk about the lady loves of the JLA.
Flash’s first wife Iris West is a reporter in the vein of Lois Lane and Flash is always there to help get her out of trouble in the nick of time. Iris is also the aunt of Wally West, who would become Kid Flash and the Flash’s sidekick.
Iris and Barry married, but one of Barry’s villains, Professor Zoom killed Iris leaving Barry to mourn his love. While brief romantic flings occured with Fiona Webb and a near disastrous pairing with Zatanna, Barry’s heart remained with Iris, who was revealed as not having been killed, but living in the future. At the end of The Trial of the Flash, where Barry was put on trial for killing Professor Zoom, Barry was exonerated and went into the future to live with Iris.. for a time.
For Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, love never seemed to be in the cards. He worked many jobs over the years but his most stable was as a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft and was instantly under More >
Posted by Darren in Comics
That title looks pretty ominous doesn’t it? Well, it is.
The Justice League of America as a title had been struggling in sales, with other group books becoming more popular year after year like Marvel’s X-Men franchise and DC’s New Teen Titans and the Legion of Super-Heroes. The JLA formula had pretty much consisted of a formula where a bad thing would happen + one or more members would discover the problem independently + hero(es) realize they need help + call in the JLA + problem solved.
While this formula works for a 30 minute episode of Super Friends, as the comics audience matured, so did their need for more interaction in plots. However the writers of JLA have a unique problem, they cannot really do much to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc.., as those heroes are appearing in their own books where they have major changes originate.
This leaves the JLA writer able to change those characters not appearing regularly or the “B characters” Green Arrow, Black Canary, Atom, Hawkman, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, and Zatanna. (Firestorm was still appearing in his own title while he was in JLA).
DC saw what comics readers were attracted to, a group of characters that were more intensely intertwined More >
Posted by Darren in Comics
The Justice League marches on from the shock of Black Canary’s new heritage and into a story that serves a few interesting purposes.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl, now Hawkwoman had been the stable married couple in the DCU prior to the Elongated Man and Sue Dibny on the scene, but a story in World’s Finest Comics which was an anthology at the time broke the couple up for a trial separation for a time with Hawkwoman leaving Earth and Hawkman staying behind.
While Hawkwoman was off taking some “me time”, Hawkman grew rather lonely and despondent. This JLA story reunites the two of them into the team again and resolves Hawkwoman’s feelings for Hawkman.
Firestorm also has a love subplot for he falls for one of the enemies who is a reluctant participant in the goings on, but mayhaps I am skipping ahead.
I’m sorry Reena, the role of Catwoman has already been taken in this Universe.
There is an arena where only the rich of the rich go for entertainment. Inside this arena, it smells heavy of animals and blood. Here men geared up like gladiators are forced to fight strange beasts. All under the guise of Rex Maximus.
Rex and his gang are the Animen. A group More >
Posted by Darren in Comics
In the history of the Justice League of America, since issue #21, the JLA has teamed up with the JSA for a team-up which would usually involve a “Crisis” (there’s that word again) and that Crisis would frequently involve one world’s issues bleeding into another.
However, DC also has a practical problem, one that plagues them today as well. Characters from the Golden Age of Heroism are still wandering around in your 1984 comics as if they are still 40 years old. Even if the original Flash or Green Lantern was 18 when they started their careers as heroes earlier in 1941, that would mean that they were born in 1923. It is now 1984. These characters are now 61 years old and still are functioning as heroes, which is fine on Earth-Two.
They had another problem too, only Wonder Woman was a popular female character and due to story reasons she has exited the Justice League. The League had become a “boys only” club, and there were no good female candidates to take Wonder Woman’s place who did not already duplicate other characters like Supergirl or Batgirl.
There was this ONE character though from the 1940s, the Black Canary, a beautiful judo expert who might fit in More >
Posted by Darren in Comics
In the struggle of good versus evil, its mostly considered “man’s work”, so its always refreshing to have more women show up to kick some butt.
Enter the Black Orchid…who takes her prey by surprise. Susan Linden usually works undercover as she is very gifted in the art of disguise by infiltrating criminal organizations, getting the evidence needed, busting the criminals, and leaving only a black orchid flower in her wake. One of those surprise heroines with a cult following Black Orchid’s strange costume works. She has the ability to fly, super strength, and invulnerability… though oddly her Kryptonite is herbicides.
Dolphin in her trademark Daisy Dukes…not much is known about Dolphin except that she is a mysterious dweller of the deep and apparently not Atlantean. She acts very much like her namesake and has a bit of a problem with attention span, but her hearts in the right place. Eventually she will take her place as a member of the Forgotten Heroes and be folded into Aquaman’s supporting cast.
Firehawk makes things hot for Firestorm…on a regular basis. Originally duped into fighting Firestorm in her first appearance, Senator Reilly’s daughter Lorraine was kidnapped by figures in hopes to pressure the Senator to vote More >
Posted by Darren in Comics
Ahh, it’s good to be back home. I had a great time on vacation and now it’s time to dig into some plot points regarding our heroes in the Justice League of America.
When you regard continuity in a comic book universe, there are several ways to stage a story that does not fall chronologically into the greater continuity. The first is the “flashback” often referred to as the “untold” story or tale. Then there is the “What if?” genre, where you can tell stories about these characters, but that these particular stories are separate from the regular continuity of the characters…such as Clark Kent landing in Russia vs. the U.S.A., interesting concept, but it’s not the way the origin plays out for the “real” version of the character.
When juggling the myriad characters in a team book, it is important to keep in mind that your “A” tier characters are going to bring in the money, but really the main changes to those characters should take place in their own books and let those changes later be reflected in the team book. For the “B” characters, changes can occur in the team book as there is no regular place that they appear outside of a More >
It’s an ordinary day for the JLA and the JSA in 1982 as each group preps to enjoy their annual get together which is typically set for Thanksgiving. When you know nothing has gone wrong yet, that other shoe is about to fall.
The other shoe is time travel. So far we’ve dealt with stories that are fairly lineal with only the Legion of Super-Heroes going to Smallville to pick up Superboy and go to the 30th Century and back. Consider those your training wheel for time travel that I am now forced to take off the bike to see if you can keep your bike out of the ditch.
As our heroes (Aquaman, Firestorm, Hawkman, Superman, and Zatanna) await their guests the Justice Society of America, the Justice Society on Earth-Two (Doctor Fate, Green Lantern, Huntress, Power Girl, and Starman) enter the Transmatter Cube which transports people from one Earth to another. Unfortunately deviltry is afoot! Instead of the JSA, the Crime Syndicate appears and makes quick work of the JLA. The Crime Syndicate then leave the JLA’s satellite for Earth-One to start to take over this planet, and they do not seem to fond of a gentleman named Per Degaton.
The JSA members meanwhile have materialized in 1982, but not More >
Okay, we’ve eased into the idea of alternate earths correct?
Previously there was Earth-One, the earth where all our characters exist and…
Earth-Prime, the earth where all of us gentle readers live in a non-super powered world.
Well HANG ON FOLKS! We’re about to blow that idea up to the ceiling.
Just take a look at this cover.
Here are the keys I would like to point out:
- The 20th Annual team-up of the Justice Society of America and the Justice League of America.
- Guest starring the All-Star Squadron
- And who are those quasi familiar villains coming out of that cube?
All good questions… now, just park it for a second.
The Justice Society is the precursor of the Justice League. Originally published back in the 1940s primarily for kids and to be shipped overseas for the boys far from home. The Justice Society fought all sorts of Nazi saboteurs and their own super-criminals.
In the 40s most heroes veered on the “pulp” style of masked mystery men. The only main DC characters published at the time who did not appear in the JSA were those with their own adventures like Superman and Batman as those characters were “too busy” in their own books.
After the world had vanquished the Axis threat, superheroes waned in popularity More >
Posted by Darren in Comics
So.. you’re thinking to yourself.
“The Royal Flush Gang? You have GOT to be kidding me.”
Nope. The Royal Flush Gang. Interesting premise and over the years the writers tend to get more inventive with them and because they are villains, they are more changeable than our heroes. They are a natural team in a world populated with Brainiac, Cheetahs, and Jokers.. well, could this card themed group really have been far behind?
The Royal Flush Gang employ weapons based on their card motifs. Spade shaped grenades, illusion scepters, lasers, hypnosis, and they ride flying cards. Come on, Flying Cards! It’s like surfing!
Aquaman and Firestorm open up our adventure on the open seas, where Aquaman is giving Firestorm a test. While Firestorm is a JLAer, he’s still the rookie and so the other Leaguers try to help him along a bit with his training. Unfortunately, the two JLAers are ambushed by people wearing outfits that look like playing cards and they are riding playing cards. Weird, huh?
Before long, many JLAers fall to the Royal Flush Gang. Superman. Wonder Woman. Green Arrow. All the JLAers who are zapped by the Royal Flush Gang’s weapons go into a sort of debilitating coma.
We eventually get to More >
Posted by Darren in Comics
Well, the JLA is reunited and they break off into teams to go beat the bad alien conquerors into submission, so let’s get to it, shall we?
Team One: Batman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Zatanna take off to fight the Crystal Creature, the Wood King, and the Mercury Monster in the woods of the Vermont forest.
The Appellaxians are already battling each other as Superman and Hawkman swoop in to break it up. The Wood King sticks his roots into it again and manages to grow an offshoot that catches Hawkman. Superman avoids the sneak attack and collides with the Wood King and smashes him into so many splinters. Unfortunately Superman failed to think ahead and the Wood King’s sap was full of Green Kryptonite.. (when will he learn?) Wonder Woman uses her golden lasso to pull Superman out of harms way of the other aliens while Green Arrow uses a saw arrow to trim the root still choking Hawkman.
While this drama is going on, Zatanna has encased the Mercury Monster in a bubble of super heated oil causing the monster to evaporate. Mercury boils at 357 degrees Celsius, so make a mental note, do not tick Zatanna off. More >
