A nifty Day of the Triffids-esque cover by Nick Cardy!The Story: "Seeds of Destruction!" by Mike Friedrich, Dick Dillin, and Joe Giella. An alien named Ker Sed arrives on Earth and tells them that he and his father are here to help restore the ecological balance that earthlings have so carelessly destroyed.
Problem is, the two aliens planets they have brought with them seem pretty malevolent, as they attack both Green Lantern and Black Canary for just getting near them. The Flash and the Atom arrive to help, but they are helpless against these powerful alien lifeforms!
Meanwhile, Aquaman is facing a strange ecological phenomenon under the sea, and contacts the JLA to help investigate. They all arrive there together, to share individual stories of what's been happening around the globe. Batman figures out a plan, and they use their super-powers to go on a mass seed planting operation.
Everyone figures out this has all been a big misunderstanding--the aliens are trying to help, but didn't bother to check with the citizens of the Earth first, and the JLA came in swinging first, asking questions on page nineteen. The aliens decide to return home, with the JLA saying Earth will take care of itself...or will it?
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary
Notable Moments: It is mentioned that, between issues 98 and 99, Sargon was granted honorary membership in the JLA for his help against Starbreaker. I could make a joke about how much a step up the list of JLA Honorary Members took, going from Snapper Carr to Sargon the Sorcerer, but why kick a man when he's down?
This issue also comes with a Sandman reprint from Adventure Comics #51, and a solo Golden Age Atom tale from Flash Comics #98.
This was Mike Friedrich's last issue as JLA writer; for the most part I'd say his run was pretty successful--and I'm of course personally glad he brought Aquaman back into the book so forcefully, after his total absence from Denny O'Neil's run on the book.
This was also the last of the giant-sized DC issues. After this DC's books would go back to being 20 cents, long after Marvel had done so. During this time the relative upstart Marvel took the lead in sales from the legendary DC, a position they would hold for approximately the next decade and a half.
Tomorrow @ midnight is the deadline for our JLA Membership/New Frontier Contest. But if you have a candidate in mind and just need more time, please just let me know! Thanks!
4 comments:
That cover is by Nick Cardy, not Morrow.
oops, don't know why i said that--it looks a little like Morrow to me, but it is clearly Cardy.
duly corrected, robby, thanks!
This was the first JLA I ever got. I wasn't so much impressed by the JLA story as I was by the Golden Age back-up stories. I was disappointed when DC reduced the price and the page count the next month because I wanted to see more Golden Age stuff. Of course, those 100 page books were soon to follow.
That's funny you should say that, because i was just thinking that the 25-cent format might have worked better had they reprinted Silver rather than Golden Age material. I *liked* the Golden Age stories, but i think i much rather would have read stories from the late 50's or early 60's in those books. All the same, the short-lived 25-cent era was very important in that it gave people of my age group an insight into the Golden Age -- Sandman, Manhunter, Boy Commandos, the Newsboy Legion, Starman, Hourman, Wildcat, etc...
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