Comic Statues & Busts: Justice Society from DC Figures

A new era begins for the Justice Society of America as writers Bill Willingham (FABLES) and Matthew Sturges (BLUE BEETLE) take over the series with new artist Jesus Merino (SUPERMAN ANNUAL).

The JSA feels the strain when battling a monstrous collection of villains who've mounted an all-out war on the team to collect a bounty placed on the head of everyone in the group except Stargirl. The rift between members continues to deepen as suspicions of a traitor are revealed.

New writers Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges embark on what appears to be an extended sequence of which this book is only the first part. The plot is fairly engaging with three separate threads. The first involves a traitor in the JSA. The second has a new villain group paid by an as yet unrevealed person to destroy the JSA *except* for Stargirl. The third has another mysterious entity stealing Obsidian. Only the first is resolved in this book. During all the mayhem the team becomes badly fractured over philosophical differences about how the team is run.

It's a good example of what is now known as writing for the trade. The plot moves at a fairly leisurely pace but the reader stays engaged with lots of action, characterization, and gorgeous artwork by Jesus Merino. The story has just begun but already I'm liking it much better than Johns' Thy Kingdom Come mega arc. I fear the climax might not live up to the buildup but so far so good. The attention being heaped on Magog leads me to believe that he is being set up as one focus of a future mega crossover event.

Complaints are few. One thing I did miss was the thumbnail sketches of all the JSA members that appeared in previous collections. With the JSA rivaling the Legion in numbers of members it was certainly handy. At 128 pages this was a bit thin for the asking price but still a better deal than the individual issues.

In short, highly recommended for JSA fans. Newcomers might want to start earlier with either "The Next Age" or even "Justice Be Done".

With the coming of the new JSA spin-off title, JSA ALL-STARS, we all knew which way the wind was blowing. And I guess it was an obvious move, what with the JSA ranks having risen to such ridiculous numbers that even Legionnaires are now passing judgment. Factor in too that new scribes Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges want to make an instant mark, and so we get the splintering.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA: THE BAD SEED collects issues #29-33 of the series, and this is a run in which I choose to give Willingham and Sturges a pass while they get their feet wet. The Bad Seed arc starts out innocently enough as the JSAers learn that Obsidian, who handles security of the JSA's brownstone headquarters, has been compressed into this egg-shaped thing and thus nullified. Then the JSA-ers go out in the field on what they believe to be a routine mission. But they walk into an ambush and fall prey to a mass meta-villain attack. Things spiral way out of control from that point. Cue the betrayal from within and the vicious death of a Justice Society member.

It's a toss-up between Brian Michael Bendis's the Hood and Mark Waid's (as filtered thru Geoff Johns) Magog as to whom I despise more. It might be Magog, and it's killing me that this arrogant twerp has got his own series going. Magog's jarhead background asserts itself as Magog begins to hoo-ha about the JSA being more of a social club than it is a disciplined paramilitary unit. Too, he's never been shy about tossing around commands, even though he's still one of the new kids on the block. It turns out, though, that several other JSA-ers share his philosophy, and so what we get - and this so soon after the Kingdom Come debacle - is a team divided AGAIN. It's hard to believe I can loathe Magog even more. But the teamwide cracks surface out of his relentless criticisms.

There's something deliberate behind the mass attacks. Someone behind the scenes has put bounties on each of the JSA, and it's sort of neat that you can gauge the power level and street cred of a JSA-er simply by the amount of bounty placed on him or her. Green Lantern rewards the most. There is a whole mess of fighty fights in these issues, and new artist Jesus Merino handles the composition really well. All the characters, heroes and scums, look dynamic going into action.

The narrative devices applied here aren't new, of course - the team tearing itself apart, the shocking fatality, the traitor within - but the writers keep things suspenseful and gripping and kept me engaged throughout, which is all I ask, really. My two favorite members are showcased. Jay Garrick tells the tale and is in the middle of most of the action. And there's a mystery surrounding Star Girl, specifically why is it that the hired super-villains refuse to harm a hair on her head. We get three new recruits, the one I'm most intrigued about being the haughty, illusion-casting King Chimera. From the moment you set eyes on the All-American Kid, you can't help but see him as a Bucky clone. And there's a nice bit with the new but not-quite-as-powerful-as-people-think Dr. Fate who ends up having to bluff the bad guys with the magical might he's not sure he has. "What manner of foul thing shall I summon to conquer thee?" he threatens the mob of super-villains. "To what dimension of pure pain shall I banish thee?" he thunders. "How am I doing so far" he asks the Flash in his normal voice. He gets the okay sign.

We don't find out why Star Girl is left alone by the bounty hunters. We don't learn the identity of the mastermind. We do learn the identity of the traitor within. And we do get a clear running demonstration of how the JSA has gotten so large that there's hardly any time for individual character development. The side characters get pushed even more to the side. I don't give a bleep that Mr. America and Lightning are relegated to the background, but when promising, likable characters like Judomaster and Cyclone have scant time to be onscreen, I regard that as bad juju. At the end of this trade Liberty Belle utters the words we've been expecting and halfway dreading: "We need to split up." Now I have to pick up two JSA titles. I really hate Magog.

3.5 stars out of 5 for this one. I could've been talked into rating it 4 stars, because I truly love the JSA, but for Magog being such the center of attention (it's like the ghosts of Waid, Ross, and Johns have possessed our new writers). In future stories, I'm expecting bigger, better things from Willingham and from Sturges, who's just packed up his bags for the JSA ALL-STAR book.

This book collects some recent issues of the Justice Society of America. The writers recognized that the group had grown too large, too unwieldy and character development was suffering. While there is an interesting battle between the JSA and a host of villains, the main tension here is how the JSA shatters--with veteran leaders like Flash, Green Lantern and Wildcat pulling the group one way while Magog and Power Girl leading it another. There is also a traitor working inside the JSA in this story in a predictable subplot that makes no sense whatsoever since the JSA apparently does the most incompetent background screenings in human history when potential members apply. I was expecting the shattering of the JSA to be more emotional but the plot seems too rushed for the impact to be felt. Not a bad work by any means but it is not memorable.

The world's first team of super-heroes, the Justice Society of America, has stood for truth and justice since their founding during the Golden Age of comics.

This first volume in a series of trade paperbacks collecting their classic adventures from the 1970s reveals the JSA's origin and shows what happens when the veteran members of the team welcome a new generation of heroes into their ranks,including Robin, Star-Spangled Kid and Power Girl.

That's right, you can forget what the editorial review says about this collection. Contrary to that writer's opinions (and let's keep in mind they are just opinions) many comic book readers, especially those of the 70's when these stories were originally published, don't want to be empathetic with the characters and do want them to be super all of the time. That writer obsiously did not grow up in this time period when people read comics because they were fun, not because the characters had emotional depth because they were fighting drug addictions, sexual confusion, or childhood abuse issues while trying to be superheroes. Also, there were a lot of readers then, just as now, who got sick of DC's big name characters like Superman and Batman. They were both featutred in so many titles you couldn't swing a stick in a drug store (there were no comic shops back then) and not hit one of their books. Lots of readers loved titles like the revived All Star Comics that gave us less popular heroes. This book did feature the Golden Age Superman in several issues and Batman, now Police Commissioner Bruce Wayne. These stories were not great but for the most part they were a good read. They also offer important insight into the transition between the original Golden Age Justice Society of America and the team we have today that bears that name. Don't buy this collection if you are expecting stories written just like today's comics but if you want some solid tales from the 70's you will like these.

As most of us I read some of these stories like 30 years ago, but now I discovered some others I couldn't read then, and these ones are wonderfully written. You will not find the nonsense reach-as-large-a-market-as-you-can, which cuts any soul from today's graphic novels, but these stories have emotion and consistency, of course only inside the province of fantasy and imagination. The stories are really good, and you will love them, if you had the good luck to know those wonderful characters at least before the unfortunate event known as the crisis on infinite earths.

The Justice Society has always been a favorit of mine and when All-Star was revived in the 70's I relished every issue. Although I enjoy this collection, I wish DC would have just published them as part of the All-Star Archives line, if only so that the books would look uniform on my bookcase.

If you're a fan of DC's JSA, you owe it to yourself to read THE JUSTICE SOCIETY VOLUME 1 trade paperback. Collecting ALL-STAR COMICS #58-67, plus the origin of the JSA from DC SPECIAL #29, this book presents the "modern" pre-Crisis adventures of the Earth-2 Justice Society, with the original members (Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Wildcat, Batman, and Superman) growing old and gray, and new heroes (Star-Spangled Kid and Power Girl) joining the team. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting much in terms of the writing, but Paul Levitz and Gerry Conway crafted some amazingly tight, fast-paced stories, and the narration is excellent. It's interesting to see how these heroes developed in "real-time" on Earth-2, with Clark Kent becoming editor of the Daily Star, and Bruce Wayne becoming police commissioner of Gotham City, and Dick Grayson now the US ambassador to a more politically-representative 1970s South Africa. These classic characters deal with threats to their personal lives, as well as threats from Brainwave, the Injustice Gang, Vandal Savage, Vulcan, and others.

As for the art... wow! This is a Wally Wood extravaganza. Actually, pencils are primarily provided by Ric Estrada and Keith Giffen, but Wood inks all of the All-Star Comics stories, and his style really comes through. It's amazingly consistent between the different pencilers and looks beautiful. As for the cover by Brian Bolland, well, what more needs to be said? I'm happy to see that DC has a second volume in the works that will collect the rest of the issues in the series. That, along with a reprint of INFINITY INCORPORATED (please, DC?), would be a heaping helping of Earth-2 goodness!

(One more thing: All-Star Comics #58 contains one of the most unintentionally humorous panels I have ever seen, as the Star-Spangled Kid attacks a criminal in his own inimitable fashion. "Chomp", indeed!)

I've always been a fan of the JLA and JSA.The 70's stories are the ones I like the best bacause the plots were written so you could read an entire storyline in 2-3 issues instead of today where it seems you have to wait for an entire storyto be published as graphic novels thanks dc for publishin these books

Geoff Johns, the critically acclaimed writer of INFINITE CRISIS ushers in the next generation of the world's first super-team that inspired all of the others.

Determined to rebuild the Justice Society, founding members Green Lantern, Flash and Wildcat initiate an unprecedented recruitment program, tracking the bloodlines of heroes across the world to bring in new members. Just as the Society welcomes the rookie heroes into their ranks, an evil force sets out to destroy them. Discover new legacies, solve a mystery stretching into the far future, witness the return of the world's greatest hero, and watch the fall of another!

Seriously, the story reads so smoothly you'll zip right through it, even though plenty of ground is covered. I picked up my copy and headed for the Porcelain Reading room as soon as I saw an episode of "According to Jim" flatulate it way across my TV screen. I emerged from the john triply satisfied, by missing Belushi's joke of a show, from attending to the actual "business at hand", and from reading this great story. Total reading time= 27 minutes.

If I'd have taken the proper amount of time that I should have to absorb the artwork I could have spent closer to an hour on this book. Dale Eaglesham does top notch work. Figures are rendered heroically yet realistically and he gives plenty of attention to detail. There are several 2nd and 3rd generation Society Members whose costumes are unique and original looking but also are evocative of the original members whose name they carry. I especially like Sandman's new design, which coupled with his prophetic dreams make him a more mysterious and interesting character.

The book starts out with two storylines which eventually dovetail nicely. The Society is reforming after the events of the latest Crisis-du-jour. Their mission is to help up and coming superheroes not only learn to use their powers, but to also develop a moral compass. As Superman puts it, "We need better good guys."

No sooner have they started orientation for the new membership than the body of the mystery man known as Mr. America crashes through a skylight and onto the JSA conference table. Quickly we learn that someone is murdering not only all the patriot-themed heroes in the DCU, but all their families as well. Someone is systematically wiping out the heroes' bloodlines!

At the same time Wildcat is learning that he has a son he never knew existed. It's a good story, which serves not only a counterpoint to all the action and mayhem in the first storyline, but also underscores the theme of family which runs through the book. And as I've said, both storylines do eventually merge quite neatly.

It's exciting, intense, fast-paced and also has just the right amount of heart. Geoff Johns is writing at the top of his game. His characterizations are strong yet succinct and the new additions to the team are interesting and show plenty of potential.

It all winds up with a proper cliff-hanger.

The Next Age might just be the start of the Next golden Age for the Justice Society of America.

I haven't read much of JSA before this book. I met some of the characters on the different Crisis and it seemed a pretty cool group of old mens fighting with way more maturity that the JLA.

This book is after Infinite Crisis and they are rebuilding the group using some of the sons and grandsons of old heroes.

What really love about the book is the importance they give to the JSA. They are here to give the world "Better Heroes". Sounds cool to me. Is well written, doesn't have hoodles of action, but is pretty much a nice re-introduction.

Worth the money.

"The Next Age" serves as the start of a relaunch for the Justice Society of America. While not as well known as the Justice League or as star studded, the JSA possesses a venerable heritage and a wonderful history. As Batman admits in "The Next Age", the JLA is a strike force, the JSA has other ties that bind its members together. This proves true in this work as the DC team of writers and artists present an intriguing plot with wonderful characters. There is a good deal of action in this work and it often proves to be violent, often crossing the line into being gruesome. The reader can not help be drawn into the story since the JSA consists of well defined characters: an overly talkative theater major who gets on peoples' nerves; a rugged loner connecting with his son; a brash young man haunted by mental and physical scars; a brilliant schizophrenic; a marriage of opposite personalities and the imperfect ties that bind them; a depressed former college athlete trying to find meaning in his life while trying to preserve what's left of his family. Most superhero teams with a lot of members have a few characters who seem to only take up space; one of the more impressive parts of "Next Age" is how the authors are able to pull the strings on so many puppets without making them mere background characters. The JSA is a collection of imperfect heroes who do their best to rise above their various flaws. They may be superhuman but, more importantly, they are human. With its intriguing plot and terrific cast of characters, "The Next Age" is one of the finest collection of comics that I have ever come across.

The new character lineup, the legacy tie-in, the writing and the art are ALL top notch. So why did I only give four stars? It felt truncated - like there should have been more story for a book. The artwork and covers at the end are nice, but another issue or two of story included in the collection would have been nicer. I suppose it is the dividing line between story arcs that caused the split.

Being mostly a Marvel Zombie, I usually only dabble in the DC Universe. That being said, Kingdom Come is among my top 3 comic stories of all time. Naturally, when I found out that the Kingdom Come story was going to continue in this new JSA series I dove right in to this first issue.
While Justice Society of America Vol. 2: Thy Kingdom Come, Part 1 contains the begining the Kingdom Come story I wanted to start with vol. 1 to get familiar with the characters in the Justice Society.

This volume is a good jump-in point for those of us with less then average exposure to the DC universe. Characters are introduced with small bios and Geoff Johns' plot line doesn't take too long to figure out. The artwork by Dale Eaglesham is great. All in all, a quick read with some nice story points.

The new Justice Society regroups just in time to face one of their greatest and most personal enemies - Black Adam! The sorcerer Felix Faust has imprisoned the soul of Isis, Black Adam's deceased wife. But the Black Marvel just figured that out, and nothing will save Faust from his wrath -- nothing except maybe the Justice Society of America. And in Geoff Johns' farewell story, the team celebrates the birthday of one of their own - Stargirl! That all leads to an all-new two-parter by classic creator Jerry Ordway as a villain from the JSA's WWII days returns!

The Black adam arc was pretty good. At the end of it the Marvel Family and the Black Marvel Family changed forever. Things will never bee the same and the JSA is increasing numbers too.

The second part of the book I found refreshing. No Black Adam but the story "Black Adam ruin my birthday" was a breath on fresh air. It made me laugh a lot. Was a really cool short story were you remember that some times the dark sotries (while good) need a little contrast. Thats what it was, a great contrast. A little joy story after all the blackness.

In short, I'm happy to get all the Geoff Jones JSA books, and this last one was pretty good too.

The last few pages, which contains some Blackest Night prologe are quite good too.

It worth it!.

After just finishing 52, I was all like "hell yeah I want to read more shenanigans of Black Adam!" Unfortunately, this book contains about 10% black adam stuff while the rest is random adventures not at all tied together much like a 1940's JSA issue would be. Also in that caliber is the writing that ensues- most characters only speak in catch phrases and few of them actually have any insightful dialogue.

Worse, though, for me, is the art. While in itself it's not bad, it is just so incredibly static. There is no sense of action in the pages, it's like everyone poses to get heir pictures taken, and there is hardly any use of dramatic angles or perspective. the pacing is also very random, often leaving you looking at two panels over and over again trying to find out how we are going from A to B. You do not get the sense of a film camera moving through a set that really helps a comic to flow in an easy to read form. The only exception is the second issue, which has more dynamic movement and clothing. You feel like the characters are actually moving as they speak, not just frozen in suspended animation with their mouth agape. Plus, the POV pans and tilts from eye level, making the scene much more identifiable.

Overall, this was a misleading title and misleading cover and I wish I had not bought it.

Disappointed with the lack of team cohesion during the went-on-forever Gog/Magog/Kingdom Come snoozefest, the core members of the JSA are deliberating whether the roster should be downsized. Meanwhile, we catch up with what's going on with young Billy Batson (who is now the guardian wizard-in-residence on the Rock of Eternity) and also with Black Adam and his efforts to rescue his resurrected wife Isis from the sicko hands of Felix Faust. Faust gets what's coming to him, and Black Adam and Isis reunite and turn their attention to amassing their power base. They start out by attempting to steal the Rock of Eternity's mystical mojo. Isis inadvertently teleports Billy Batson to Fawcett City and, with the writers recalling whose series this is, the JSA swoops in to help the now powerless Billy.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA: BLACK ADAM AND ISIS collects issues #23-28 as the ongoing series goes thru its changing of the guard. Geoff Johns hangs around long enough to collaborate with Jerry Ordway in the Black Adam and Isis arc, although, much like Johns seemed to have been indulging Alex Ross in the Thy Kingdom Come arc, here he seems to be humoring Jerry Ordway. The Black Adam & Isis plot, as other folks have already mentioned, feels like a pick up of plot threads from 52 and the BLACK ADAM: THE DARK AGE mini-series, from COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS to FINAL CRISIS, and even from Ordway's POWER OF SHAZAM! Many pages go by in which the JSA is pretty much relegated to supporting role status.

The now embittered Isis longs to recreate a Black Marvel family which will "destroy the modern worlds and all the sins it festers with." Not too surprisingly, Mary Marvel - plumb loca, pink-haired and gigged out in a black-leather dominatrix outfit - is recruited and the corrosion of her character can't help but still creep me out. A fourth member soon joins the Black Marvels, and the JSAers soon have more than they can handle. Until the inevitable deus ex machina appears, which, by the way, feels rather contrived and threatens to undermine the latest changes in the Marvel family mythos (I'm looking at you, Freddy Freeman).

I don't know that I can pinpoint it all that well, but this arc falls a bit flat for me. I think partly it's because this feels more like a Black Marvels story more so than a JSA story. Also, I wasn't ever down with poor Billy Batson losing his Captain Marvel gig and getting "promoted" as the new wizard languishing on the Rock of Eternity. And I guess I also don't like Isis having become this hardcore scourge of humanity. And, with Atom-Smasher officially regaining membership status, it leaves even less time to focus on the new recruits, who barely get face time in this arc. On the good side, Stargirl is featured a bit and shares a nice moment with Billy Batson, hearkening to their innocent "romance" back in the day when Captain Marvel was a JSAer.

If this had been Geoff Johns' farewell story, I don't know that I would've called it going out on a high. But his swan song, issue #26, turns out to be a terrific little story featuring Stargirl, a character for whom Johns clearly has great affection. No super-villains in this one or world-ending catastrophes, although teenager Courtney Whitmore (a.k.a. Stargirl) does start the story off by wailing: "Black Adam Ruined My Birthday!" This is Geoff Johns' coda and, as the JSA and friends celebrate Courtney's surprise birthday party, we're treated to a series of wonderful little character moments, and we're left with that warm, feel-good sensation. And *that* is going out on a high. My favorite moments have to do with Starman's hilarious concept of "birthday presents" and Courtney's hugging it out with her step-dad - and if you're aware of Courtney and Stripesy's sometimes adversarial relationship, then this is an absolutely emotional scene. Alex Ross's evocative cover also doesn't hurt. Dale Eaglesham's interior art for this issue definitely doesn't hurt. Starman gets in the last word, and it is perfect.

Fully written and pencilled by Jerry Ordway, the two-part ghost story in issues #27 and 28 isn't bad, but it feels like a filler. The JSA confronts the vengeful spirit of a World War 2 supervillain, and, as usual with supernatural activities, the Spectre pokes his pasty white nose in. Trust issues resurface when the JSA's brownstone headquarters in Battery Park is at first alarmingly sealed off by Obsidian and then attacked by a ghost. This is followed by time travel as select members of the JSA are snatched back to 1945 Japan to face retribution. There's a nice twist at the end which almost makes up for the hohumness of the story.

Capping things off is the six-paged backup feature "Origins & Omens," as Scar, the messed-up Guardian of the Universe, casts a dark eye on the JSA and predicts doom and gloom for the team's future. And, apparently suffering from Legion-envy, the JSA decides to expand its roster even more.

I can't wait until Bill Willingham takes over the series. If anyone can revitalize the JSA, it's that dude. Concerning this one, I think that the Black Adam & Isis arc and the WW2 ghost story merit a rating of 3 out of 5 stars, but the inclusion of the Stargirl birthday bash kicks it up to an overall rating of 3.5 stars. Because you can never ever go wrong with having more of Stargirl.

This issue collects Geoff Johns' last 4 issues on the Justice Society of America before moving on to new projects. The last story arc is an interesting effort, mining the Marvel Family mythos. It can be read alone but unfortunately it does have some ties to the latest DC mega crossover (Infinite Crisis? Countdown? Final Crisis? Who really knows?). Johns' deft scripting papers over the seams nicely though. There is also a nice subplot involving the JSA veterans' relations with all the newcomers. I personally don't like this Legion-sized JSA but Johns' handled it well. The final Johns' issue is a very nice but not overly sentimental finale.

The Ordway issues were okay but two issues is not enough to get a feel for how good a JSA writer he will be. The book finishes out with an "Origins and Omens" preview which is no doubt setting up either another mega crossover or a major JSA story arc. Let's hope for the latter.

The art is outstanding as always. If you've never read JSA before don't start with this one. Start with "The Next Age" book which starts the current series or better yet "JSA: Justice Be Done" which started Johns' run in the previous series.

Being a transitional book of sorts I can't give this 5 stars but I still highly recommend it.

When the Black Marvels are written well they are an enthralling group of characters. Teth Adam in particular is very complex under Johns and the return of Isis adds more interesting depth to his outcome. I really enjoyed this collection and would recommend it if you liked any of his previous JSA volumes or the Black Adam solo mini-series. There are a lot of players involved here so that can make you lost -- it's best if this volume is where you end instead of where you start. The plot will also have a great deal more impact if you are familiar with and attached to these people. While not a must, it helps if you have also read Infinite Crises and 52, since this kind of builds on some events that happened there. Even having read all those, I have not read Captain Marvel, so I was a little confused with some of the recent changes in that mythos. But overall it was well worth the purchase. I am pleased that rather than break up the collections between the end of Geoff Johns' run and the start of Jerry Ordway's, DC included the first few issues of the next storyline here so that you can get a taste of the new creative team. Excellent idea!