More heroes than you can shake a stick at!The Story: "Crisis in the 30th Century!" by Paul Levitz, Martin Pasko, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. The JLA and JSA are hanging out for their usual get together when a giant hand materializes in space, grabbing several heroes and then disappearing! I hate when that happens!
Turns out the hand belongs to Mordru, evil wizard of the 30th century! The heroes try and defeat him, but to no avail.
Mordru then explains that he was in pursuit of the magical artifacts bell, jar, and wheel, but accidentally grabbed the heroes instead. Mordru--not the most detail-oriented bad guy in the DCU.
Mordru tells the captive heroes (including some members of the Legion) that he will kill Green Arrow and Black Canary unless they round up the artifacts for him!
The teams of heroes succeed, but they tell Mordru they won't get the last of the items--the red jar--unless he frees their friends. He agrees to this, but when he summons the Demons Three inside the objects--Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast--they turn the tables on Mordru, zap him with their superior magic, and plan to destroy the magical items which will keep them from being imprisoned ever again!
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary
Notable Moments: DC still felt compelled to explain the whole Earth-1/Earth-2 thing to readers:
Even though this team-up occurred in the middle of Steve Englehart's run, he did not write the annual JLA/JSA team-up. Turns out Levitz and Pasko really wanted to write it, and, having a bit more "seniority" at DC, got the gig.
Oh, boy, this is my least favorite JLA-JSA team-up ever (although it runs neck and neck with the Mr. Terrific storyline coming up in two years). I really don't like ANYTHING about this team-up. I think the art sucks (check out how heavily Frank McLaughlin's inks are in that panel Rob posted), the members chosen suck (Ooh, Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern, surprise!), the Legionnaires chosen suck (what, out of 22 plus members to pick from, we get...Brainiac 5? Exciting!), the plot sucks, the characterizations suck (Superman telling Wildfire to behave, Green Arrow making the JSAers stay longer than they wanted)... Wow, I'm really coming down on this issue. Was there anything good about it? I don't remember anything. I remember thinking, "If only we had Hawkgirl and Red Tornado, and many many more Legionnaires...and if Steve Englehart had written it." I'm interested to know if anybody out there actually enjoyed this mess.
ReplyDeleteuh... that would be me. This was the first of the JLA/JSA crossovers that I was able to get when it came out and get in it's entirety. (though I still think that the JLA/JSA/Shazam crossover from a few issues back had one of the greatest pieces of art with the Flash Allen/Flash Garrick spread saving the future apartment)
ReplyDeleteThe setup seems rather obvious now-a-days, "Let's take the Justice League, the Justice Society AND the Legion of Superheroes and combine them for one tale". Though BC was a pistol in her "If I'm going to die, I want to know why..." comment (pulling that from memory, may not be the exact quote). Never was sure why Green Arrow did cause the JSA to stay other than plot set up.
Though it was interesting the comments between Superman & the Legion with his "age change" from what they were used to seeing. Seems like I recall Wildfire saying something about a friend aging overnight. And Superman calling Wildfire out, which cemented my concept of Wildfire being a bit wild (pardon the pun). Normally I would think B5 would be a asset to a team, but he does seem to be a bit of dunce here. And Batman's line (and body language) "A Scarecrow".
I really miss these team ups.