Man, these covers are getting crowded! Props to Dillin for composing a cool cover image, especially since he had so little space to work with.The Story: "Where Valor Fails...Will Magic Triumph?" by Denny O'Neil, Dick Dillin, and Joe Giella. As the heroes from both earths fall victim to the same problems(i.e., when one hero falls, the corresponding hero on the other Earth falls too), Black Canary decides to sacrifice herself, thinking that will save both Earths.
Meanwhile, Dr.Fate and Johnny Thunder summon The Spectre who they believe is the only one who can stop the two Earths from colliding!
The Spectre in fact stretches and grows, and places himself between the two worlds. The two aliens who started all this in the first place try and counter, forcing the Spectre to use up all his energy to keep the Earths apart, dying in the process!
But can The Spectre ever truly "die"?
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary
Notable Moments: This is one of those issues that featured those two-page "DC Surveys", where they're tried to find out more about their readers. These were my answers I gave at the time, around 1984 or so I'd say:
...apparenly the young Bob Kelly wasn't that interested in "Black People"(my best friend at the time was black, maybe that was it?), yet very intersted in "Romance"(I didn't have any contact with that), and somewhat into "Sports", Baseball especially. Hmm, am I sure it was actually me who filled this out?
I was going to comment on the issue, but seeing your survey... what issue? That's outstanding.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you were such a fairly interested baseball fan, Rob. Maybe we can catch a game sometime.
As for me, I'm interested in some of the subjects they're offering up there.
I think pollution, black people, and space flights would make for a great comic!
I think pollution, black people, and space flights were in Teen Titans, not JLA. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd so ends Denny O'Neil's run on JLA. Althought it is famous for all it did (and didn't do), I for one never cared for his run. There were too many space aliens, for one thing, and the stories were just too pedestrian otherwise (this story arc being a good example: great idea to have the two Earths linked, ends with a dead guy dying again. Huh?) I much preferred Mike Friedrich's run, starting right after a fill-in by Bob Kanigher, coming up next.
ReplyDeleteIs that cover actually by Dillin? I thought it looked like Murphy Anderson again.
ReplyDeleteit was inked by Anderson, but i only mentioned Dillin since of course did the layout. but yeah, it is hard to see Dillin under there sometimes!
ReplyDeleteYeah, i always thought it was drawn by Anderson as well, and, if it's any consolation, the only thing i remember from filling out this survey back in 1970 was answering the question of what the best name for a groovy new character would be with a earnestly-scrawled "SNOW BEAST" in ball-point pen. This is the second issue of JLA i ever owned, and my second-favorite of all time ((go figure)). I love how Starman's Cosmic Rod shoots with an "F-ZAAP" effect, but is repelled with a "RE-ZAAP" sound. I own the original last half-page artwork; alas, it doesn't have the ad for Binky and that Wild West mag on the bottom half.
ReplyDelete