Dr. Fate versus The Human Bomb is going to be a very quick fight!The Story: "Thirteen Against The Earth!" by Len Wein, Dick Dillin, and Dick Giordano. The JLAers and JSAers continue to scour Earth-X in search of the hypno-ray machines, and this issue opens with Superman, Doll Man, Green Arrow, and Phantom Lady in Japan. (It's awfully nice of Superman not to point out that those three really don't help him out much, in terms of muscle)
Like what happened in the previous issue, the heroes defeat the Nazis and destroy the machine, but nothing seems to happen!
Meanwhile, Black Condor, Sandman, Uncle Sam, and the Elongated Man are at Mt. Rushmore(which features the addition of Adolph Hitler--boo! hiss!) and the same thing happens. It takes Ralph to figure out what's been going on, that the machines themselves are mirages, generated by yet another machine somewhere else! The figure think that that machine is hidden inside the giant Hitler head, which Uncle Sam smashes to bits.
The heroes regroup, but the JLAers and JSAers start to think its the Freedom Fighters who have been the beneficiaries of all the energy dispersed from the machines. This of course leads to a fight!
Red Tornado figures his comrades have fallen victim to the Nazi's hypno-ray, and takes off to find the source of the ray, a Nazi satellite in space! Reddy heads in, where he meets...Adolph Hitler!
Reddy punches Der Fuhrer in the face, knocking his head off, showing that this Hitler is merely an android. (Of course, Reddy didn't know that at the time, which means Reddy was ready to deliver a killing blow--don't mess with Red Tornado.)
Turns out a giant sentient machine was behind the whole thing. Reddy smashes it, releasing the entire planet from the Nazi's grip. The JLA and the JSA leave Earth-X, handing it over to the Freedom Fighters to rebuild.
Roll Call: Batman, Green Arrow, Elongated Man, Red Tornado
Notable Moments: After a few issues where the JLA sort of kicked him around, it was nice to see Red Tornado get the big save. Plus he got to do it by punching Hitler in the face!
The JLA Mail Room is header is changed again(I don't know why I feel the need to so obsessively document this tiny, tiny piece of JLA arcana, but here we are), this time with art by Dillin and Giordano, adding Red Tornado and a mis-colored Elongated Man:
I think that don't mess with Red Tornado is truely a phrase to live by. To be fair though, would anyone pass up the chance to punch Hitler so hard his head comes flying off? Would you even feel a tiny bit guilty?
ReplyDeleteNo, no you wouldn't.
Isn't that letter column art by Dillin-Giordano? I always thought so...that GL and Batman look like Dillin-Giordano to me.
ReplyDeleteyou're probably right, russell--Canary looked particularly Giordano to me, but the rest of them are surely Dillin and Giordano. duly corrected!
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite JLA/JSA crossovers. Too bad Len couldn't put a few more heroes in. I guess he needed a break after the previous year's crowd-fest.
ReplyDeletePage 15 has a couple of strange images: Doll Man hanging onto Ralph's stretchy nose (weird) and Phantom Lady tossing Batman with a judo throw (wow!).
Hey rob! I hope you will continue showing the changes in the JLA Mail Room banners. It's been fun watching how the membership and the artwork changed over the years.
i will keep posting the mail room headers, tho we're getting near the time it was replaced by the all-purpose satellite shot.
ReplyDeletesometime at the end of the JLA Satellite blog's run, i'll post all the mail room headers together. it'll be keen.