The JSA returns, again shunting their hosts off the to the side! For the love of Snapper Carr, where are my Justice Leaguers?!?The Story: "The Stormy Return of the Red Tornado!" by Gardner Fox, Dick Dillin, and Sid Greene. We open on Earth-2, where a JSA meeting is interrupted by the Red Tornado, who insists he is a member of the team! Problem is, no one can remember who this guy is!
While they try to figure this out, Hourman's newest invention, a machine that predicts crime(somebody call Spielberg and Cruise!), warns the JSA of some upcoming shenanigans!
Turns out this is all a plot by T.O.Morrow, a villain from the future whose supercomputer told him that the JSA will stop him, and the only thing that can prevent that is to infiltrate the team with a new member plant, the Red Tornado!
Roll Call: Absolutely no JLAers appear in this issue; instead we get the JSA consisting of Black Canary, Dr.Fate, The Flash, Hourman, and Starman
Notable Moments: Another issue where the JLA doesn't appear. Whose comic is this anyway?
Several important debuts are in this issue. The Red Tornado--future JLA member and punching-bag, and his creator, T.O. Morrow, show up for the first time. I always liked Morrow's creepy supercomputer that could tell him anything.The bigger news, of course, is that this issue marks the debut of Dick Dillin as penciller, who would go on to become the JLA artist for the next decade plus, making Sekowsky's sixty-three issue run look like a walk in the park. Under Sid Greene's heavy inks, there wasn't a huge visual change from Sekowsky, but over time Dillin's style would emerge and he would establish his own distinctive look for the World's Greatest Super-Heroes.
This was always one of my favorites, and one of the earliest back issues I ever picked up. I always loved the JSA AND Red Tornado, and I think it was because of this issue. Yeah, Red Tornado!
ReplyDeleteAre those Jack Abel's inks on the cover? I never liked that guy's work.
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