Monday, December 31, 2007

Justice League of America #55 - Aug. 1967

sgBehold--the single ugliest superhero costume of all time!

The Story: "The Super-Crisis That Struck Earth-Two!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Sid Greene. Ordinary citizens who absorb mysterious spheres end up with super powers that they use for evil!

The JSA is unable to stop them, so Johnny Thunder(who's like Snapper Carr but with super powers) unwittingly commands his T-Bolt who corral some Justice Leaguers to help out. Strangely, the same exact thing is happening on Earth-One!

Roll Call: Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow

Notable Moments: The JLA are barely in this issue; they only show up at the very end, and even then it's only a few of 'em.

While the move to have the now-adult Earth-Two Robin join the JSA is good, who the hell designed that suit? It's comically, tragically bad.

And for the first time in a dozen issues, Batman is not ridiculously overly cover-featured. The TV series craze had died down, so all other DC titles could go back to looking like they might feature other characters. Weird, though, Batman isn't even in this issue--you'd think teaming him with the newly-adult Robin might've afforded some fun story moments.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't be dissin' on my boy E2R!

Naw, that costume is hideous. Even worse, no one is sure how to draw it from panel to panel! Looks like Sekowsky orignally drew it like Robin's classic tunic, but the colorist thought it should look like Batman's suit. By next issue it kind of settles on the cover design, but it's still hideous. Earth Two Robin will make up for it when he gets his fly 70s costume though!

Chris

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I absolutely love stories where Robin grows up to be a well adjusted crime fighter, and not a bitter Nightwing, but that costume is terrible. Alex Ross's Red Robin look is perfect, but that 70's costume is pretty awesome too. If they had made the leggings green instead of yellow, it would have worked better, though.

Anonymous said...

I don't know....I kind of *liked* this costume. I guess I'm in the minority. (and I HATED the Neal Adams' design that E2 Robin got in the 70s, too!)

Unknown said...

Despite the coloring problems in this issue and Sekowsky's misunderstanding of the design, I loved this costume. And it should be noted that in later appearances Dick Dillin got it right.

Also I do have to admit a greater preference for the aforementioned Neal Adams (the Neal of Earth-Two, natch) design, I wish Dick had kept the glider-cape from the version he gave his Earth-One counterpart.

Earth-2 Rev. Nørb said...

I love this costume. It beats the red/yellow/green Neal Adams one, although that one is okay if you are Earth-1 Robin and your old uni got all slashed up by A-Rym or Teppy or whomever.

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