As we covered in our last chapter, ZERO HOUR was a complete disaster. Not only did it fail to clear up any continuity issues as it was purported to do, but its continuation of the “Hal Jordan as supervillain” storyline only further alienated its longtime audience, and, I’d contend, held off many readers from accepting the excellent Kyle Rayner character just out of sheer resentment. And of course, its shameful discarding of the Justice Society characters didn’t win it any fans, either. ZERO HOUR also spawned a handful of new ongoing series, most of which are already long forgotten. However, (and this is the only time you’ll ever hear me say this, so pay attention), it was all worth it, because one of those new series was James Robinson and Tony Harris’ marvelous creation, STARMAN.

STARMAN revolved around Jack Knight, the heretofore unrevealed youngest son of Justice Society member Ted “Starman” Knight, and his struggle to adjust to being thrust into the family business after the death of his older brother David, who had briefly taken up the Starman mantle before his untimely murder. Moody, intelligent, emotional and real, Robinson and Harris’ STARMAN series is, at least from where I sit, the best comic-book series in the last 20 years, and the best book DC has published since restarting their universe in 1985. I could talk about STARMAN for pages (and believe me, I plan to; just not today), but for now we’ll focus just on the subject at hand: the Justice Society.

With Jack’s relationship with his retired father being such an integral part of the new book, discussion and reminiscence of the JSA played a big part in the series, as Jack slowly begins to admit his respect and admiration for his father’s past.

Also, in order to make Ted Knight a more vital character, Robinson undid some of the damage from ZERO HOUR, revealing that the battle with Extant didn’t affect all of the JSAers equally, and while members like Wesley “Sandman” Dodds and Johnny Thunder now showed their full 80-year-old-plus age, others, like Ted, Jay “Flash” Garrick, Green Lantern Alan Scott and Ted “Wildcat” Grant didn’t take quite so devastating a hit, now looking and feeling like men in their late 50s or early 60s.

Robinson also made use of the JSA in other ways, both in deftly told flashback stories that gave us a look at Jack Knight’s pops in his heyday, and in well-scripted guest-appearances of folks like Alan Scott and Wesley Dodds, who despite his age and infirmity went on one last adventure in the Eisner-winning “Sand and Stars.”

Mostly, whether it was through reference, flashback or guest-shot, Robinson just made the Justice Society vital, significant and powerful again, even if only in memory. Ironic that the JSA was better represented and respected as legends of the past than they had been in their last several series.

While James Robinson and Tony Harris were busy making the Justice Society cool again in the pages of STARMAN, other creators were doing their own work to slyly get around DC editorial’s seeming distaste for the JSA. GREEN LANTERN writer Ron Marz and FLASH writer Mark Waid were both keeping Alan Scott and Jay Garrick in the spotlight, using them in strong supporting roles as surrogate father figures for Kyle Rayner and Wally West. Meanwhile, in the pages of WONDER WOMAN, writer/artist John Byrne had figured out an elegant way to plug the biggest hole in the Justice Society’s history: the elimination of the 1940s Wonder Woman in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. Roy Thomas had earlier attempted to retroactively replace Wonder Woman in the JSA adventures with the Quailty heroine Miss America, but the idea had never really caught on. Miss America was too obscure perhaps, or too dull, or just not iconic enough. Regardless, no one was buying it. Byrne’s solution was far more appealing. Having already replaced Princess Diana as Wonder Woman in previous issues with her mother Queen Hippolyta (following Diana’s death and rebirth as the Goddess of Truth), Byrne then executes a neat little time-travel loop in WONDER WOMAN #130 (February 1998), as Hippolyta and the contemporary Jay Garrick travel back to the year 1942 to help his younger self out of a jam. (Sure, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, but every time-travel story needs a good paradox, right?) Having saved himself and solved the mystery of his own memories, Jay talks Hippolyta into a visit to the Justice Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. for nostalgia’s sake, where they accidentally run into his younger self once more, as well as the rest of the team, and soon become drawn into a battle with Dark Angel, a demonic sorceress type that Byrne was using to torment Donna Troy over the course of his run on the series, and who just happened to be working for Adolf Hitler in 1942.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that, while Jay Garrick returned to the ‘90s at adventure’s end, Hippolyta (affectionately nicknamed “Polly” by her teammates in the JSA) elected to stay and serve as a member of the Justice Society for another eight years, finally leaving in 1950 to return to the ‘90s, not more than a few hours after she left.. As a result, everyone in the DC Universe now remembers Wonder Woman serving as a member of the Justice Society during World War II, and Wonder Woman’s role in those stories from ALL-STAR COMICS is now restored. Well done, Mr. Byrne. Take a bow.

With the readership clearly receptive to the idea of a JSA return, DC finally began warming to the idea officially in 1999, giving the team a test-shot in the company’s hottest-selling book at the time, Grant Morrison’s JLA. In an attempt to harken back to the days of the old JLA/JSA teamups (albeit in the seriously whacked manner that only Grant Morrison is capable of conceiving of ), readers were treated to “Crisis Times Five!” in JLA issues #28 – 31, which, in typical Morrison style, had enough ideas for 12 issues, all crammed at breakneck speed into a mere four comic books. With Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, Hippolyta and Wildcat (who had been recently seen in the pages of BATMAN and CATWOMAN) all active once more, the JSA was back in action again, albeit in significantly smaller numbers.

The story involved the JLA and a reunited JSA contending with an invasion from genies from the fifth dimension (home of longtime Superman foe Mr. Mxyzptlk), which, it turned out, was the actual home of Johnny Thunder’s magic Thunderbolt. The story itself is vintage Morrison, interweaving the JLA and JSA’s struggle to contain the genie war with Batman, Aquaman and Steel defending the JLA Watchtower from an invasion by former founding Justice Leaguer-gone-bad Triumph, all while Captain Marvel and Green Lantern plead for assistance from the fifth dimension, and Alan Scott and JLA member Zauriel struggle to free the Spectre from a micro-world that’s been grown within him, imprisoning him. It’s a heady mix of concepts and revelations, and Morrison handles it with his trademark wit and style. By the end of the story, the Thunderbolt has a new master in Jakeem “J.J.” Thunder (with the original Johnny Thunder now suffering from Alzheimer’s), who finds himself suddenly in control of unthinkable power, and in an uneasy partnership with the Justice Society. Morrison’s other clever contribution to JSA mythos was the revelation that Wildcat, seemingly struck dead, has somehow been granted “nine lives,” accounting for his youth and longevity, and has been keeping it a secret since 1945. As great a re-introduction as this was, it was only a taste of what would come in 1999 for Justice Society fans.

DC first set about reacquainting fans with the history of the team with the “Justice Society Returns!” event, a series of 9 comics featuring the JSA back in the 1940s, using the titles of their original magazines, such as ALL-STAR, SENSATION, SMASH, ALL-AMERICAN and others.

Particularly good here were James Robinson’s Atom/ Starman teamup in “Stars and Atoms,” Mark Waid’s Flash/ Mr. Terrific adventure in “Fair Play,” and Geoff Johns’ Sandman/ Star-Spangled Kid story, “…A Terrifying Hour!” Following that was the first story arc of their new series, JSA, written by James Robinson and David S. Goyer, and drawn by Scott Benefiel and Stephen Sadowski.

Things got off to a depressing start here, as the remains of the Justice Society and several of their children gathered for the funeral of Wesley Dodds, the original Sandman, who had died following a mysterious mountaineering accident in Tibet. Present are surviving and active JSAers Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, Wildcat and Hippolyta, retired members Ted “Starman” Knight and Johnny Thunder, and the next generation: new Starman Jack Knight, Black Canary (daughter of the original), the new Hourman (an android from the future imbued with the memories of Rex Tyler, the original Hourman), Atom Smasher (Al Pratt’s godson Nuklon from INFINITY, INC., now sporting a much-improved name and costume), the new Star-Spangled Kid Courtney Whitmore (stepdaughter of the original Kid’s sidekick Stripesy, who found her departed predecessor’s cosmic belt and took up a superhero career over her stepdad’s objections) and Sanderson Hawkins, the now-grown sidekick of the original Sandman, who fought alongside the JSA occasionally as “Sandy the Golden Boy.”

The funeral, as they tend to be in comics, is interrupted, first by the appearance of a dying Fate, the cheesy 1990s revamp of Dr. Fate, who claims that Sandman was murdered before dropping dead himself. Before the mourners can even process what’s happened, they’re swiftly attacked by undead Egyptian types, looking to collect Dr. Fate’s magic artifacts for themselves. As it turns out, Dr. Fate is about to be reincarnated once more into the body of a newborn child, and the team must split up to find the child before less beneficent babysitters beat them to it. After a couple of dead ends, the team finds the child, under the protection of the 19-year-old Kendra Saunders, the new Hawkgirl (great-niece of the original Hawkgirl, Shiera Saunders Hall). Before they can secure the infant, the heavy reveals himself: Mordru, the sorcerer enemy of the far-future Legion of Superheroes, appearing hundreds of years before his first reported sighting.

Mordru escapes with the child, but the JSA follows, and just as Mordru has the team on the ropes, the Star-Spangled Kid manages to trigger the infant Fate’s mystical rebirth, and a fully grown Dr. Fate appears, and despite having only minutes of experience, quickly overwhelms Mordru, imprisoning him inside Fate’s amulet. In another surprise, beneath the helm of Dr. Fate lies a familiar face: Hector Hall, son of the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl Carter and Shiera Hall, and formerly the Silver Scarab of INFINITY, INC. After his death at the hands of the Hawks’ immortal enemy Hath-Set, Hector’s consciousness had drifted, until being summoned by the spirit of the previous Dr. Fate. “After all,” says Hector, “reincarnation does run in my family.”

Hector Hall’s return to the living clinches a feeling that all have been experiencing, and the decision is made to officially reform the Justice Society of America. Wildcat, Jay Garrick and Alan Scott all agree to serve, while Hippolyta opts for reserve status, due to her responsibilities as Queen of Paradise Island. All eight of the younger members eagerly agree to join up, and Sand Hawkins is elected the JSA’s new chairman.

This was the magic element that the earlier 1992 JUSTICE SOCIETY series had lacked. Yes, the series should have a healthy respect for the team’s history, but there needs to be a balance struck between admiration for the past and merely dwelling on it. Robinson and Goyer understood this, and cleverly combined the team’s veterans with experienced but younger hands like Black Canary, Jack Knight and Atom Smasher, and neophytes still learning the ropes like Hawkgirl and Courtney. What this accomplished was to give JSA a mood separate from any other team book in comics: a feeling of legacy. The earlier series lacked this feeling of legacy, as there was no real interest in accepting new members to carry the torch. Here, while respect for the past was not only assumed, but required in order to secure a place on the roster, the team served a valuable purpose other than merely “beating the bad guys”: training tomorrow’s heroes and keeping the spirit of the Justice Society alive.

The next major story arc, one of two collected in the JSA trade paperback “Darkness Falls,” replaced James Robinson as Goyer’s co-writer with Geoff Johns, and introduced newest member Dr. Mid-Nite (an associate of original Dr. Mid-Nite Charles McNider), who drops by to assist the JSA when the city of Milwaukee is plunged into total darkness by Alan Scott’s insane son Obsidian, another former Infinity, Inc., member.

For most of the first several years of JSA, the art was handled by Stephen Sadowski, whose work combines a sleekness of character and line with a real facility for handling realistic likenesses and emotions. After a fun single-issue “Die Hard” riff with Wildcat defending JSA HQ by himself against an attack from the newest version of the Injustice Society, Johns and Goyer move to a much darker storyline, their most epic yet, about the nature of revenge and morality, in which Albert “Atom Smasher” Rothstein’s mother is killed in a plane crash engineered by the costumed terrorist leader Kobra.

Before they can go after Kobra, the return from the dead of the original Star-Spangled Kid leads them to discover the return of Extant, the time-controlling maniac who murdered the original Hourman, Atom and Doc Mid-Nite in ZERO HOUR. The team splits up to handle both threats, and when Atom Smasher gets ahold of Kobra, it takes the intervention of Jack Knight to keep him from crushing him like a paper cup.

The storyline also introduced the newest member of the team, the new Mr. Terrific, a.k.a. Michael Holt, a prodigy and scientific genius who was contemplating suicide after the death of his wife, until the Spectre inspired him to keep living with the life story of the original Mr. Terrific, Terry Sloane.

Jack’s team then joins up with the rest of the squad and confronts Extant, distracting him with his lost humanity (in the shape of his ex-partner, Dove, from his days as a superhero) before divesting him of much of his power. When Extant tries to escape, Atom Smasher comes up with a quick and merciless solution, assisted by the New God Metron, who’s able to traverse time and space:

Al plucks his mother from the airliner just before it crashes, replacing her with Extant, who has just seconds to realize where he’s at before the end comes. The single issue as it was published was accompanied by a touching text piece from writer Geoff Johns, who talked about the loss of his sister Courtney on the infamous Flight 800 which went down en route to Paris in 1996. It’s clear that the writing of the story was an attempt by Johns to try to work through some of the pain of that experience, and I can’t imagine the sequences could have been any fun to write. The storyline is brutally affecting and quite powerful, and the knowledge of Johns’ real-life parallel only adds a bittersweet, haunting quality to the work. Johns’ sister was the inspiration for the Star Spangled Kid Courtney Whitmore, and in a framing sequence around the beginning and end of the final issue of the story arc, we see a now-grown Courtney some years in the future, apparently long married to Albert looking back on this moment with both sadness and pride.

One can’t help but think of Johns attempting to write the happy ending for his sister that she was in reality so cruelly denied. If you’re looking to pick up a single JSA trade to try out the series, you can’t go wrong with “Darkness Falls.”

The next big storyline was “The Return of Hawkman,” which we covered in some detail some weeks back in our Hawkman series. Carter Hall’s return from the dead (or wherever he was) served as a the final piece in the JSA puzzle for many of us longtime fans, as the team just didn’t feel right without Hawkman. However, Hawkman wasn’t the only new member to come along, as in succeeding issues, Captain Marvel’s ancient foe Black Adam requested membership, a shaky alliance reluctantly agreed to by Hawkman and Sand Hawkins.

Also, Jakeem Thunder and his magic Thunderbolt made their return and began serving with the JSA on the occasional mission, usually butting heads with his fellow teen member Courtney. JSA #29 shined a solo spotlight on Courtney and Jakeem, left to handle the JSA’s old enemy Solomon Grundy by themselves, and finding themselves at odds in the process.

Soon Black Canary has decided to leave the team as well, arranging for her replacement: Power Girl, not seen in the Justice Society since the 1970s.

Another fun side-trip was the JSA’s involvement in DC’s gigantic “Our Worlds at War” storyline of 2001.

While the crossover story itself was bloated and a little unsatisfying, the JSA Special issue was excellent, featuring the JSA assembling for the first time the JSA Reserves, consisting of practically all of the survivors, children or legacies of the Justice Society and their WWII-era allies, creating an all-new All-Star Squadron given the task of destroying the enemy’s enormous starship that provides the power for their probes attacking Earth. When the mission, a complete success, is reported to President Luthor (yes, Luthor was President for awhile – a long story), he asks how many casualties the team suffered in the conflict. “None,” replies Sand to a surprised President Luthor. “You’re forgetting who you’re talking to.”:

Johns and Goyer amp up the storylines big-time in the next story arc,“Stealing Thunder,” in which Johnny Thunder, miraculously cured of Alzheimer’s, shows up at the JSA’s doorstep to reclaim his Thunderbolt from Jakeem. Unfortunately, in one of the better surprises of the entire series, Johnny’s not quite what he seems to be…

Yes, that brain-swapping fiend the Ultra-Humanite was back, and with the immeasurable power of the Thunderbolt under his control, he swiftly achieved his longtime goal of world conquest, and commanded an army of the world’s superheroes, all kept under his mental control. Only a group of super-types remained free, among them Sand, Captain Marvel, Power Girl, the now powerless Jakeem Thunder and two newcomers: a new Crimson Avenger, now cursed to avenged the murders of the innocent, and Rick Tyler, son of original JSAer Rex Tyler, now taking up his father’s role as Hourman.

Tyler had attempted the superhero life years earlier and was rewarded with an addiction to Miraclo (Rex Tyler’s strength-inducing drug) and a case of leukemia. The android Hourman, before leaving this time period, had cured him of the leukemia and left Rick two gifts: an hourglass that occasionally provides visions of the future, one hour ahead, and a visit with his father, plucked from the timestream moments before his death. Rick can enter limbo whenever he wants and speak with Rex, but they only have an hour total, and when that hour is up, Rex will be sent back to his ultimate fate.

By adventure’s end, both Captain Marvel and Hourman had accepted full membership in the Justice Society, by now led by Mr. Terrific. Captain Marvel’s membership has made for some interesting tensions within the team, as he enters into a tenuous relationship with Courtney (once she discovers that he’s really a teenaged Billy Batson), all under the disapproving eye of Jay Garrick, who’s rightfully concerned about what looks to be a fully grown man paying a little too much attention to 16-year-old Courtney.

JSA opponents Obsidian and Mordru made a return engagement in last year’s epic storyline “Princes of Darkness,” in which the two joined forces with Silver Age DC baddie Eclipso, forcing the Justice Society to once more call in the JSA reserves, all while Black Adam quietly goes about recruiting his own team of JSA associates for his own unknown agenda, which would come to light over the course of the next year.

Writer Geoff Johns served up several holiday treats just last year, with sweet back-to-back Thanksgiving and Christmas stories. JSA #54 shows us the Justice Society’s version of a family dinner, as the full memberships of both the Justice Society and the Justice League gather for a Thanksgiving banquet. Mostly a character-focused light comedy, the story has a lot of fun with exchanges between Mr. Terrific and Batman, who glumly predicts disaster, as well as Courtney’s bitterness at being relegated to the kids’ table with Jakeem Thunder and Impulse.

Naturally, like any other superhero social gathering, it gets interrupted by intruding supervillains, who begin to realize that their timing might have been better…

The next month featured the return of, of all people, Ma Hunkel, the original Red Tornado, whom the JSA ran into while she was working as a department-store Santa. It turns out Ma had to go into the witness protection program to protect her family from mobsters, thus ending the career of the Red Tornado. Now that all of those imprisoned have died of old age, Ma is free to come out of hiding, and the Justice Society offers her a role as curator of the JSA museum (based in the ground floor of their brownstone headquarters).

All this frivolity was a necessary breather, as things got much darker with the most recent story arc, “Black Reign,” which pitted the JSA against their own, namely Black Adam and his new team of JSA associates, who have assassinated the dictator of Adam’s ancestral homeland Kahndaq, and seized control in a coup.

When an enraged Hawkman assumes leadership of the JSA and leads them into all-out war, nobody wins, with losses on both sides, and little real resolution. Kind of like real wars, in fact…

There you have it. After many a death and rebirth, and a few years of fairly horrible mistreatment, the Justice Society of America is back and bigger than ever, with no signs of slowing down now. At 62 issues plus and still going strong, JSA succeeds primarily due to the gifts of its primary writer and caretaker Geoff Johns, who shares with Mark Waid the ability to combine proper doses of comic-book nostalgia and history with tightly plotted epics and strong characterization. Currently one of DC’s top-selling books, it doesn’t look as if we have to worry about the JSA slipping back into obscurity anytime soon. Heck, sharp-eyed viewers might have spotted more than a few JSA members on the premiere episode of Cartoon Network’s JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED.

So three cheers for the good ol’ JSA. Here’s hoping for another 63 years.

Whew. Scott Tipton thinks it’s time to discuss a team with less of a history. Maybe the Champions. If you have questions about the JSA, comics, or even the Champions, send them here.

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