Guest-starring--again-- Hawkgirl!The Story: "Night of the Soul-Stealer!" by Denny O'Neil, Dick Dillin, and Joe Giella. Hawkgirl is floating in space--not dead, but in some sort of hypnotized, unconcious state!
Superman has the team split up to investigate just where Hawkman is(he was last seen taking Jean Loring to Thanagar in Atom and Hawkman #45). "Black Canary, you stay here and play nurse", orders Supes.
Batman and Green Arrow are attacked by a hooded man in Midway City, and Superman finds the Hol's spaceship being drawn into a neutron star. He saves it, but is hit by some beam and knocked out!
Turns out his hooded man is a Thanagarian as well, who was picked up when his ship was adrift by Hawkman and Hawkgirl. He opened a box named the Ghenna Box, which knocked them both out.
Turns out our bad guy is convinced the universe is about to end--"all the signs are there"--and he's been collecting souls inside the crystal inside the Ghenna Box in a misguided attept to save them.
Eventually the JLA wrest the crystal from him, and return everyone's stolen souls. Superman destroys the Ghenna Box, while Green Arrow ponders a guy carrying a "The World is Coming To An End!" sign on Earth. Walter Kovacs?
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary
Notable Moments: The cover to this issue is a tad misleading. But hey, that's comics.
The letters are in on JLA #77, and the response seems to be--well, mixed. Future writer Alan Brennert loved the issue, and so did two other letter writers. The others are mixed, but there aren't any of the "I hate it, you guys suck" responses you'd get nowadays on the web. Comics fans were more polite back then.
Another good JLA, where the "bad" guy was just... misunderstood!
ReplyDeleteComics fans were more polite back then, but nearly 40 years has passed at this point. Comics creators have done a lot more damage and tried the patience of a many good people since then.