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
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
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 >
Posted by darren in Comics
When you think about it, when you have one set of characters that mimic your main set of characters you can take that group that is not the main group and take risks with them. The characters can grow, evolve, even die without an impact to merchandising. At least in 1982 to think that one day they would kill off a character as main as Batman was impossible. But a copy of Batman on another earth? Well, that could be entirely plausible as we will see.
Tonight we examine the “new kids” of the JSA at least as of 1982.
Yes, Robin, but the Robin of Earth-Two. Dick Grayson has grown up, become a lawyer, district attorney, and ambassador to the United Nations. Having grown up in Batman’s shadow all his life, Dick needed to get out from underneath the shadow of the Bat. Eventually he would wear a costume combining both his Robin colors and the Batman’s motif. He also went by “the Ex-Boy Wonder” to further distance himself as a man, not a boy.
Batman of Earth-One, Robin of Earth-Two, and that is the original Batwoman, Kathy Kane in this issue of Brave and the Bold.
Sylvester Pemberton picks up the mantle of Starman More >
Posted by darren in Comics
We wrap up our JSA Golden Age roll call with six new members, though some seem like we have seen them before. Let’s also keep in mind the JSA had Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman on its rolls, however Supes and Bats were reservists and WW served as the secretary. Since there are no changes in those three characters, they aren’t going to receive separate entries here. The only difference in them at this point is the era that they are active which begins in the late 1930s onward. With that said, here we go.
Dr. Charles McNider is an accomplished surgeon which is amazing since he’s blind. Well, he wasn’t blind when he learned how to be a doctor, he was working on a gunshot victim when one of those wily ubiquitos mobsters lobbed a grenade in, killing the victim and permanently blinding Charles. One evening an owl crashed into Charles’ window at home (just like what happened to Bruce Wayne, isn’t it?) Charles discovered that while he was fairly blind in the light he could see perfectly in darkness. Charles’ “sidekick” is the owl Hooty, making him one of the few heroes to have an animal as a crime fighting partner. More >
Posted by darren in Comics
Okay, well in the second JLA story I ever read, it was a very simple done in one story which featured JLA members Superman, Flash, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, and Black Canary versus a misunderstood hero that has been around and been not an enemy of the JLA for the most part, but is a character that tends to let his naivety get in the way of his ability to do good things.
Ultraa is the hero in question, the man with the bright red hair and purple outfit.
And as you can tell, he packs quite a punch.
Now, this story is fairly simple, Ultraa duped by a con man named Joe Parry is tricked into helping Joe commit some robberies and the JLA gets involved as the police can’t handle Ultraa. Ultraa realizes at the end that even though Joe offered him friendship it was not worth his soul and recants. All is forgiven, for the most part.
Now, the REAL juicy part of this story is that Ultraa is not from the Earth that our heroes are from, but instead is from an Earth designated Earth-Prime.
Okay, here is where we get our first piece of DCU Cosmology.
There are multiple Earths in the DC Universe, all are vibrating at slightly 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 >
Posted by darren in Comics
VERSUS
This chapter starts out with a new character that we have not seen before, the Phantom Stranger, who breaks the “fourth wall” of the comic book and addresses the reader directly. The Phantom Stranger looks fairly well dressed for his name, fedora hat concealing his eyes In shadows, a long flowing blue cape, a black suit with a gold medallion. He sets the mood of the Indian Ocean and seems to already know that a battle is about to occur.
Aquaman begins his search for his asteroid only to be stopped in mid leap by the winds of the Red Tornado. Reddy tries to get the Sea King to listen to reason but Aquaman under the thrall of the Appellaxians assumes he is an unknown opponent and tackles Reddy sending him under the sea to a watery grave.
The Red Tornado recalls his loved ones and manages to get himself back in action and drives towards the surface. Aquaman retrieves the meteor and is going to be taking it back to the JLA Headquarters outside of Metropolis. Aquaman has no idea why he is doing what he is doing he just knows that he must do it. At this point the Phantom Stranger appears to More >
Posted by admin in Comics
Of course, after the Justice League of America (JLA) began back in 1960 times have changed and new characters were added to the mix of the original seven.
Green Arrow – The Emerald Archer. Oliver Queen was a millionaire who was on a yacht when he was tossed overboard (on purpose or accidentally) . Ollie landed on a deserted island where he taught himself archery in order to survive. Upon returning to the main land and civilization, Ollie kept using his unsurpassed archery skills to fight against injustice.
The Atom – The Mighty Mite. Physics Professor Ray Palmer discovered a chunk of white dwarf star matter that could shrink items for a time, unfortunately everything he shrank turned unstable and exploded. Forced to use this technology to save a group of college students, Ray discovered that for some reason his body did not turn unstable. Donning a size changing belt and gloves to control his size and weight Ray became The Atom. The Atom is married to a lawyer named Jean Loring.
Hawkman – The Winged Wonder. Katar Hol is a police officer from the planet Thanagar. He and his partner/wife, Shayera, came to Earth in pursuit of a shape changing criminal. Once on Earth More >
