Justice League of America #212 - March 1983

The conclusion of the JLA's desperate attempt to save Earth from self-destruction!

The Story: Untitled by Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, Paris Cullins, and Romeo Tanghal. Picking up from last issue, the JLA tries to take on the War-Kohns who have invaded Earth.

The Flash is zapped by some sort of energy beam, Wonder Woman is pummeled by the biggest of the War-Kohns, and even the Phantom Stranger's mystical powers only seem to barely work against them.

The War-Kohns start rounding up humans, and we get to see some of the other races these conquerors have ground under their boot. It ain't pretty.

Meanwhile, in the Treasurers' ship, Superman and the others are barely holding their own. Luckily the Atom has sneaked off, and frees all the other aliens the Treasurers have been holding captive. These aliens help turn the tide, and the War-Kohns aboard the Treasurers' ship are defeated.

Back on Earth, Elongated Man has deduced that the War-Kohns ships seem to be purposely avoiding any contact with water:

This seems to work, and the JLAers on Earth start spraying the War-Kohns ships with water, evening the battle.

Back in space, Superman and the others find George Stuart, and they find out why he's so special. While the JLA is shocked, he tells them they are more needed on Earth. They beam down to the different trouble spots to help out their fellow JLAers and start taking out the trash:

The JLA, having defeated the War-Kohns on Earth, then regroup, head back into space, and defeat the War-Kohns leaders. The head War-Kohn gets hit simultaneously by Superman and Wonder Woman, something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Turns out that George Stuart--and he alone--carries in his genes the genetic pattern of the entire human race! Only he could combat the mutated X-Element, which is why the War-Kohns wanted him off Earth!

The Atom designs a huge machine that uses Stuart to convert all the affected humans back to normal, while we also see that our brave human David has found his beloved Olivia.

The JLA is satisfied with a job well done, but the Atom has to rain on their parade a little bit by telling them that the Treasurers don't create the X-Element problem, they just find a world and exploit it. So what happens if the X-Element loaned to them by the Treasurers starts to decay? What will any of them do then?

Gee, thanks Ray...

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl

Notable Moments: A great wrap-up to the story, I like particularly that Aquaman got a lot to do. I still chuckle at the top of that third panel above, where Aquaman in on top of one of the War-Kohns ship, single handedly Bringing the Pain to several alien baddies all at once.

A superb cover by George Perez. How many times have I said that?

This story is untitled, which most likely had to do with the fact that this was originally one story, titled "When A World Dies Screaming!" They remembered to give last issue's chapter a separate title, but somebody forgot about it this time.