This issue is a veritable feast of comics history--the enduring JLA villains Felix Faust, The Lord of Time, and the Demons Three(Abnegezar, Rath, and Ghast) all debut in this one comic!Eventually all three(six?) bad guys would find their way into the larger DCU, and specifically the tres Demons would make a memorable appearance in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run, where they take on Dr.Fate and he immolates one of them right on the spot. Don't mess with the helmet of Nabu!
The story: "The Fantastic Fingers of Felix Faust!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. Felix Faust learns the only way to unleash these Demons Three guys is to retrieve specific magical objects, so he uses his magic powers to force the JLA into getting them for him(there's a lot of JLA-controlling-by-bad-guys in these early issues).
Meanwhile, the Lord of Time wants to get these objects, too, which causes this story to get so big that it becomes the first multi-issue JLA story!
Roll Call: Superman, Batman Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow
Notable Moments: Sekowsky's design of the three demons is way cool--they look funky and weird, with strange proportions that actually make them look otherworldly, not just humans with a fang or a horn. Also, here they are colored bone white, instead of the pink tone they are more associated with.
Felix Faust is knocked out by a school of flying fish, under the command of Guess Who. Not one of Faust's best moments.
Letter writer John Budnick of Hicksville, NY, wants the book and team to be renamed the "Interplanetary League of Justice" since he thinks it suits them more accurately. He points out, a little angrily, actually--that Superman is Kryptonian, Manhunter is Martian, and "[y]ou'd have to stretch a long point to consider Aquaman an American, and of course Wonder Woman's birthplace is the Amazon Paradise Island." Somebody call Lou Dobbs!
Snapper actually makes it on a cover. Yeah.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, what a great cover. I think the art of comic covers that really GRAB you has been lost. Back then, the thought seemed to be, the wilder the situation, the greater the chance readers wouldn't be able to pass it up. Nowadays, symbolic, "posing" covers seem to be the norm. A result of comics taking themselves WAY too seriously. This could have contributed to the death of newstands comics.
Oh, and this cover was no doubt inspried by the last issue of Sensation Comics, # 109 (per an article in Comic Book Marketplace years ago):
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/276/400/276_4_0109.jpg
Chris
Another of my all-time favorite Silver Age JLA stories. I first came across this story when I read Len Wein's last regular issue, The Return of Anakronus, in JLA 114. It was a wild take on this already wild adventure. And that cover STILL creeps me out!
ReplyDelete"Intergalactic League of Justice?" That sounds like something a sitcom writer would concoct in order to make fun of the Justice League. Because comics are stupid, BIF! POW! ZAP! affairs, you know.
ReplyDeleteThat cover is so classic. I love how Local Jerk Snapper Carr is in there to make it an even, err, nine.
Isn't it the 1st JLA cover to feature Superman and Batman?
ReplyDeleteWere there ever JLA finger puppets made? If so, i need a set, so i can go as Felix Faust for Halloween.
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