Superheroes, bi-planes, and dinosaurs, oh my!The Story: "Crisis from Tomorrow!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Continued from the last issue, the Lord of Time is fretting over a program run by his super-computer that will do nothing less than destroy of all existence in just five hours!
The five time-traveling members of the JLA and JSA make their way to the Lord of Time's lair, where the computer's defense systems kick in, which include the giant dinosaur, plus a horde of lizard men!
They are defeated by the computer's sophisticated defenses, leaving the plan still in motion. The Lord of Time realizes the only hope all of existence has is the JLA and the JSA, who he hopes, now that they've "tasted defeat", will come back even stronger and more resolute than they ever would've been before.
Meanwhile, the one member of the JLA who still hasn't shown up, Aquaman, finally arrives to see how his fallen comrades are doing:
The doctor's mention of "others" who escaped the explosion thrills Aquaman, who thought they had died. He heads of to get some of the advanced medical diagnostic equipment she needs to tend to the heroes.
The heroes still on the case find their way to the Lord of Time by blasting through a nigh-impenetrable "reef on the sea of eternity." How do they do this? By having Wonder Woman throw a Star-Spangled Kid-charged Superman through it. These heroes don't know the meaning of the word "can't."
The heroes find their way to the Lord of Time, fight the super-computer, who tries to stop them with a giant, multi-armed robot. But it's The Elongated Man, of all people, who thins himself into the machine, destroying it from within!
Ralph wakes up in the hospital, all his fellow heroes recovered.
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl
Notable Moments: Man, a lot went on in this story!
Dick Dillin didn't put a lot of moody shadows in his work, but this panel with Aquaman I thought was particularly nifty.This was the final "Giant" issue of JLA. Starting in #161, the book would be in the regular 32-page format and stay that way until the end (except for one glorious exception).
The JLA Mail Room has two interesting tidbits: One, a mention of the upcoming JLA All-New Collector's Edition, a book that would sadly--tragically--never see the light of day as a treasury, for whatever reason. Written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Rich Buckler, it would later be re-purposed for JLA #'s 210-212.
The second tidbit was the result of a contest, asking fans to vote for their favorite potential new member. Finalists included (in ascending order) Metamorpho, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Captain Comet, and:
...so be here tomorrow to watch Zatanna join the Justice League!
What, no Shade the Changing Man?
What, no Shade the Changing Man?
A great finish to the team-up!
ReplyDeleteThis marked the end of the short-lived 'DC Explosion', which had pretty much already 'imploded' by the time this issue came out.
The results wouldn't show up til the next issue. interesting that the house ad printed here, showing the Zatanna cover, leaves a blank space where the price should have been!
ha! i've never noticed that before!
ReplyDeleteThe DC books cover dated late '78 and early '79, for the most part, didn't contain letter columns, so I don't know if the company ever acknowledged what was behind the 'Implosion'. They just let the readers figure out for themselves that about 28,000 'all new' titles had been cancelled overnight!
ReplyDeleteBasically, their plans to expand their line of comics were killed by the parent company, Warner Communications, which was cutting back in all other areas of business.(a huge blizzard in 'early '78 that kept trucks from delivering comics in much of the country, didn't help, either.)
So, blame Warner and Mother Nature for 'Shade, the Changing Man' never becoming a star!
This whole team-up was weird, but it was neat to see Ralph save the day.
ReplyDeleteI was a bit disappointed that the two Wonder Women didn't get to work together. They had only appeared together once before (#100-102), and that was during the Earth-One Diana's powerless phase. This was the third JLA/JSA team-up since WW re-joined the JLA, but she missed the first two then got knocked-out here. Too bad.
If you ever get the chance to interview Gerry Conway, maybe you could ask why he had a 'thing' for using only the Earth-2 Wonder Woman, rather than the one who, you know, belonged to the JLA, in so many of the JSA team-ups!(And even when he did use the Earth-1 version, in '81, she was unconscious most of the time!)
ReplyDelete