Here we go continuing our look at the JSA.

Carter Hall, same name as our Silver Age version is NOT a Thanagarian, but rather the reincarnation of an Egyptian Pharaoh named Khufu. Khufu and his bride Chay-ara were murdered back in ancient Egyptian days and cursed so that they would live life after life after life. Doomed to find each other and fall in love all over again, however at some point when their love was at its zenith, they would each be murdered again to be reincarnated once again and the cycle repeats itself. In this time Carter and Shiera Hall married and had children and carried on crime fighting careers as Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

Gee, that’s funny. You would think if there is a Golden Age version of Hawkgirl, there would be a Silver Age one..? There is a Silver Age version, we’ll get to her shortly.

Hourman is Rex Tyler and he is a renowned chemist and has invented a drug called Miraclo. Miraclo will give Rex increased strength, speed, and stamina for.. (wait for it).. one hour. Eventually, Rex develops a dependency upon Miraclo and he becomes one of the first comic characters with a drug dependency issue, though not the most famous one.

He sure does look happy for an addict, doesn’t he?

Wesley Dodds is the enigmatic Sandman. One of the Mystery Men who truly did strike fear into people with his gas mask evoking imagery of WWI and II. His gas gun would mostly put his quarry to sleep, but sometimes they would be compelled to tell the truth in a lucid dream/almost awake state.

The Sandman is unique in that his sidekick isn’t really a sidekick at all but rather Dian Belmont is portrayed as an equal foil to Wesley and unlike Lois is aware of Wesley’s masked identity.

Eventually Wesley would ditch the scary pulp detective look for a more traditional super-hero costume and would take on a sidekick in the form of Sandy Hawkins taking the role of Sandy the Golden Boy. Wesley at some point in his career develops precognition as another power further tying him to his nom-de-guerre.

The Golden Age Atom is Al Pratt who is a boxer of great spunk and at a diminutive height being called The Atom seems like an easy pitch. At 5′1″ it could hardly be said that The Atom was someone to be reckoned with, that is until Al’s fist hit someone’s jaw. The Atom was the epitome of the little guy can win the fight and size doesn’t matter. Eventually The Atom does gain some measure of super-strength due to fighting an atomic powered villain during WWII.

The Atom’s 2 costumes, on the left the non-powered version, on the right, the atomic powered version.

Originally, Johnny Thunder was the team’s mascot character. A good hearted fellow with plenty of spunk to want to fight the bad guys. Then Johnny went and found himself a genie that was contained in a fountain pen. Johnny could call upon the genie, named Thunderbolt, when he said the magic word “Cei-U!” or “Say You!” It sounds pretty cool right? Well, Johnny while well meaning, had difficulty controlling the Thunderbolt, who took things literally and would sometimes complain in battle “well, maybe I wasn’t told the right thing to do.”

Next Time: The remaining Golden Age JSAers and McCarthyism.