Justice League of America #243 - Oct. 1985

Aquaman returns, and the final chapter of the Amazo story!

The Story: "Storm Clouds" by Gerry Conway, George Tuska, and Mike Machlan. Continued from last issue, we see Aquaman--with Mera--return to the JLA's Detroit headquarters. He isn't relieved when he sees its empty.

Using the JLA computers, he sees the JLA headed for the Canadian Northwest, and he gets a feeling in the pit of his stomach--a bad one. Has he abandoned his friends when they needed him most?

Back in the Yukon, we see most of the JLA, unconscious and trussed-up, as they remain trapped in a pitch-black pit, put there by Amazo.

Vixen suffers from claustrophobia, but she finds it in herself to stay calm, and the power of her Tantu Totem allows her to break free of her rope bonds. Now...to dig herself and her friends out!

Meanwhile, Manhunter and Dale Gunn have arrived at the Fortress of Solitude, which was, before the melee in the Yukon, Amazo's last known address, as it were.

Vixen does manage to move the rock Amazo left there and dig herself out, helping her teammates out of the pit. She is met by another JLA shuttlecraft, and she is shocked to see it's Aquaman, and he's not alone:

Back at the Fortress, Manhunter finds what he was looking for: how Amazo escaped. Turns out it was an errant meteor that crashed and freed Amazo, not some supervillain or Amazo himself. To Manhunter, that means that all this destruction he is causing is from whatever human he first encountered, whose personality he assumed.

While Mera tends to the wounded JLAers, Aquaman tracks Amazo, who has made his way to Vancouver, and is ripping up the town!

They fly the shuttlecraft over him, and Aquaman dives out, getting a few good shots in on Amazo before he knew what--or who--hit him.

Back in the small town where all this started, Manhunter finds out that Amazo has been calling himself "MacGregor." Who's MacGregor? The local constable tells him:

...Tuska may not have been the best choice for superhero slugfests like this, but I simply adore that portrait of MacGregor--its so perfectly realized. Cartoony yet real--many artists tend to draw heavy people so they look grotesque, like Jabba the Hut, but Tuska nails it.

Anyway, back to Vancouver (where I'm sure all the destruction is causing the many, many movies always being shot there to halt production), Steel recovers enough to try again with Amazo. Amazon responds by throwing an unconscious Vixen at him.

Amazo is then confused when he meets--himself, Slick Jake MacGregor! But...how can that be?

Amazo is distracted long enough for Aquaman to deliver a two-handed, knockout wallop upside Amazo's head. MacGregor reveals himself, of course, to be Martian Manhunter using his shape-shifting powers.

Aquaman is happy, but Manhunter demands and explanation. He gets one, but probably not the one he wanted or expected:

Roll Call: Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: And with that abrupt ending, Aquaman's quarter-century career with the Justice League comes to an end.

At the time, I was furious that this story ended like this--I had been waiting for the eventual payoff to Aquaman being such an AquaJerk these past few months, but instead he ditches the JLA, gets back with the wife who seems to leave him every few months (I know she's hot an all, Arthur, but there are plenty of fish in the sea!), and leaves the JLA. I was fifteen, and the word "stricken" comes to mind as I recall reading this comic for the first time.

Of course, I now know some of the external forces that caused this, and while I wouldn't trade the superb Neal Pozner/Craig Hamilton Aquaman mini-series for anything, I really wish a better compromise could have been worked out between what Gerry Conway was doing here and DC's plans for Aquaman.

Also, this cover marks JLA Detroit co-creator Chuck Patton's final work on the book. After a fill-in next issue by Joe Staton, a new regular penciler takes over, the last one the book would ever have.

Interesting tidbit: on the JLA Mail Room page, letter writer Kent A. Phenis (who seemed to get more letters printed in DC books than anyone save T.M. Maple) wonders if the Phantom Stranger is still a member, since he wasn't around to be forced to make a choice.

Editor Alan Gold isn't sure, but I think its a safe bet that if Flash, Green Arrow, Hawkman, et al, showed up too infrequently for Aquaman's tastes, then the Stranger was definitely out. He probably would've sent the Stranger his JLA membership card torn up into little bits, if he had known where to send it.

Justice League of America #242 - Sept. 1985

Part of the new JLA vs. Amazo, plus Aquaman's search for Mera!

The Story: "Battle Cry" by Gerry Conway, George Tuska, and Mike Machlan. Picking up from last issue, we see Aquaman as he begins his search for his wife, Mera. He asks some of his finny friends, who tell him they saw her "Southeast--place of dark currents."

Meanwhile, the JLA is in the Yukon searching for the rampaging Amazo.

The Elongated Man and Gypsy are the next JLAers to run afoul of the super-powered android, and then soon after Zatanna uses her powers to conjure an image of what's happening to her friends and teammates. She and Steel take off to find them.

By this time, Martian Manhunter (and Dale Gunn) have awakened after their beat-down by the hands of Amazo. Manhunter takes a cool drink from a nearby stream, and something clicks in his head--"that's the answer--water."

Back with Aquaman, we see him reach "the place of dark currents"--off the continental shelf in the Atlantic Ocean, a crevice as vast as the Grand Canyon. Arthur senses his wife is near:

Back in the Yukon, Steel is going after Amazo, and has just as tough a time as Manhunter did. Meanwhile, Zatanna has rounded up Vixen and Vibe (yeah, they'll be a lot of help) when Amazo gets the drop on them, too!

Laying on the back of a softly swimming whale, Aquaman and Mera discuss their differences, and when Aquaman admits he inadvertently cut himself off emotionally from his wife, Mera welcomes him "home."

We see that Manhunter and Dale Gunn are on their way to Superman's Fortress of Solitude, claiming the solution is there. Manhunter told the rest of the team not to engage Amazo, only to keep an eye on him.

But obviously that hasn't worked out, because we see Elongated Man, Gypsy, and Vixen trussed up and dropped in a hole, which Amazo attempts to seal forever:

To be continued!

Roll Call: Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: I absolutely love the old-timey cover by Chuck Patton, even if it strikes me as odd--first off, why is Patton still doing covers even after he left the book so unceremoniously?

And second, the JLA was in dark period here, and the cover's light-hearted tone doesn't really match the events inside. But what the hey, its still nicely composed, and this Aquaman fan is happy to see Arthur happy, if only for a moment.

Justice League of America #241 - Aug. 1985

An old foe returns to face the new JLA!

The Story: "Sea Change" by Gerry Conway, George Tuska, and Mike Machlan. We open in the the Yukon, where we see a drunken, staggering man named Slick Jake MacGregor cursing the small town he's stuck in.

Jake gets caught in a blizzard and bumps into an ice-encrusted, strangely dressed stranger, who grabs MacGregor and starts to shake him, his hands heating up, until MacGregor screams in agony!

Cut to: the JLA's Detroit headquarters, where Aquaman is taking a swim while talking to Vixen.

Vixen is trying--again--to convince Arthur to go search for his wife, Mera. Aquaman is having none of it, saying she left him, her choice, and he wants to respect that decision. Vixen calls shenanigans:

While Vixen rejoins the rest of the League in preparing a meal, Aquaman sits in his quarters and broods. He told Vixen his mind is made up, but we see he's anything but sure.

Back in the Yukon, we see the local sheriff as he staggers out of a local bar. He can barely drive his truck, but that's the least of his troubles, as he runs into the same mysterious stranger, who picks up the sheriff's car, tosses it, and then blows it up with...heat-vision?!?

Meanwhile, we see Steel, Vibe, and Ralph and Sue out on the Detroit streets together, when they get a JLA distress signal. Vibe says this is his chance to try on his "new suit":

I'm not sure who designed it, but I do like this new costume of Vibe's much more than his original. And even though my...uncertainty about Tuska's work on the JLA has been said before, what he was best at sometimes came through: I just love the look on Gypsy's face in the second panel there.

Anyway, Manhunter explains they have two problems--news of what's happening in the Yukon has reached them, and the fact that their leader, Aquaman, is missing!

Manhunter figures out, based on what kind of destruction this stranger is wreaking, that it is their old foe, the one-man JLA, Amazo!

The JLA arrives in the Yukon, and they split up to search for Amazo. Its Manhunter who finds him, who alone proves no match for the super-powered android.

Meanwhile, we see where Aquaman went:

To be continued!

Roll Call: Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: After one issue by Mike Sekowsky, having a major story line drawn by George Tuska, instead of regular artist Chuck Patton, was disorienting as heck.

I never understood why Aquaman just took off, as opposed to telling Manhunter--or at least Vixen--where he's going. It seems as irresponsible as the JLAers he railed against for not showing up during the Earth-Mars war.

JLA/Aquaman fan Vince Bartilucci generously sent me a scan of a page of original Tuska artwork from this issue that's in his collection:

I'm struck at how much nicer Tuska's work looks to me in the original black and white. Colorists tended to color Tuska's work in day-glo, coloring book-style colors, so I guess its no surprise that it looks better like this.

Thanks Vince!

Justice League of America #191 - June 1981

For the first time in a looooong while--no Superman or Batman! Bad timing, since the JLA has to fight Amazo!

The Story: "The Key Crisis of the One-Man Justice League!" by Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, and Pablo Marcos. We open with an unholy alliance between two of the JLA's most fearsome foes, The Key and Amazo!

Amazo doesn't like being bossed around, but the Key zaps him with a ray and tells him too bad, he has plans for him...

Meanwhile, we find Zatanna waiting for Ray Palmer in a park. She confides to Ray that she believes she is losing her magic powers!

Cut to The Flash, stopping some kidnappers aboard a train. He foils them, and stops the train--all in a day's work for The Fastest Man Alive.

Except...as he starts to run away, The Flash suddenly feels a pain in his leg and quickly he realizes...he has lost his super-powers!

Simiar events befall Black Canary and The Elongated Man. And when Ralph shows up at the JLA satellite to look into it, he finds several other JLAers there, all facing the same problem.

When Zatanna mentions bringing her problem to Ray, the Flash feels hurt:

Hawkman and an off-panel Hawkgirl do some investigating, and conclude that someone is "tampering" with the normal life-span of their powers. Hawkman also concludes the most natural culprit is...Amazo!

Back at The Key's secret base, we see him undergoing another of his painful "rebirths" into a new body. Just as this happens, the JLA bursts in, and then The Key sicks Amazo on them!

Amazo, having the powers of all of them, defeats the JLAers, and then turns on The Key for manipulating him. He's about to break The Key into several smaller pieces when, suddenly, the Atom delivers a blow to Amazo's head.

Amazo then realizes he no longer has the powers he had just a few moments ago, and a one-two punch from The Flash and Black Canary's sonic cry takes him out, reducing him to a pile of junk.

The Key, whose lifespan energies were connected to Amazo's powers, can't understand why his body isn't automatically reverting to its smaller, crippled form.

Turns out Zatanna gave some of her "life-energies" to The Key:

...a nice, sweet moment for Zee, followed by a great joke.

As the JLA shoots the pile o' Amazo into space (yeah, that'll never come back to haunt them), Zatanna and The Atom discuss the fact that she started losing her powers (hinted at in JLA #190) before The Key started his plan, so what's going on?

She informs him that there is an inherent limit to her magical powers, and that she was using them so massively during her first few months as a JLAer that she finds them now diminished. The Atom assures her, even with half her powers, "You'll never be less than first class!"

Roll Call: Flash, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Zatanna

Notable Moments: I remember at the time, this issue being a big deal, because it didn't feature either Superman or Batman.

Considering how well this issue works, I think it proved--creatively at least--that of course you could tell a good JLA story without them. I wish that this template had been used later on, when the JLA Detroit concept kicked in.

Justice League of America #112 - Aug. 1974

The return of one of the JLA's most fearsome foes, Amazo!

The Story: "War With The One-Man Justice League!" by Len Wein, Dick Dillin, and Dick Giordano. Continuing the story from last issue, we rejoin he JLA in their satellite, having lost their powers due to the machinations of the mysterious Libra.

The rest of the JLA shows up, and its the Atom who suggests using Amazo to return the heroes' powers. They rewire him, and Black Canary even takes the time to redesign his costume! The plan is to trick Amazo into chasing the JLA, causing him to attract the molecules Libra stole from the JLAers that contain their powers.

Amazo first takes on The Flash, Elongated Man, and Black Canary, and then Superman, Aquaman, and Green Arrow, and everything goes according to plan. Except that Batman--even operating at half his intellectual power--figures out a flaw in their plan!

After Amazo runs into Green Lantern, Red Tornado, and Atom, he figures out their plan, since he has half of Batman's smarts. Luckily. Bats figured that out, too, anf finds a way to hit Amazo with a blast of energy which drained all his powers, making him little match for the Dark Knight Detective.

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado

Notable Moments: There's more to this story than what I outlined above, but I found it peculiarly difficult to summarize. The plan to use Amazo is complicated, luckily the JLA had the Atom and Batman working on it.

This issue comes with a two-page "Amazo and His Creator" feature, featuring panels from previous Amazo stories, a JLA crossword, another Seven Soldiers of Victory reprint(Part 2 of "Beware! The Black Star Shines!", from Leading Comics #2), a Starman solo story, "Starman's Lucky Star!" from Adventure Comics #81, plus "The Super-Exiles From Earth!" from JLA #19.

But that's not all! There's also a separate letters page all about Hawkman's resignation from the JLA, called:

...first Watergate, now this!
__________________________________________________________

This same month, over in Wonder Woman, began the multi-issue storyline guest-starring the individual members of the JLA as they put the Amazing Amazon through "trials" to see if she, now that she had her powers back, was up to rejoining the JLA.

To be perfectly honest, I had zero interest in digging up all these issues of WW, since I always found reading a solo Wonder Woman comic generally a tedious experience (no offense to the fine folks who worked on her book over the years). But it was an unusual and impactful storyline, so it deserves some mention, so here are the covers to the issues:

...as you can see, each then member of the JLA got a shot, even the Red Tornado(though he got pared up with The Phantom Stranger)! The series, of course, culminated in Wonder Woman rejoining the JLA, which we'll get to in a few weeks.

Justice League of America #65 - Sept. 1968

I've had dreams like this, except the JLAers were happy.
The Story: "T.O.Morrow Kills the Justice League--Today!" by Gardner Fox, Dick Dillin, and Sid Greene. Part Two of yesterday's JLA/JSA team-up, it opens with some of the JLA's spouses(Jean Loring, Hawkgirl, Mera, etc.) showing up and planting big wet ones on their partners, which renders the heroes immobile!

Turns out they were anti-matter duplicates made by Morrow in an attempt to get to the other members, where Morrows uses his futuristic abilities to make elements of the JLA Souvenir Room come alive and attack them!

Eventually, its Red Tornado who finds a way to defeat T.O.Morrow, just as his supercomputer predicted might happen!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman
Notable Moments: In an attempt to rescue the immobile JLAers, Red Tornado calls on the real better halves, figuring a real kiss would undo what the anti-matter kiss did:
...lordy, what a weird panel. Wonder Woman looks totally bored, Red Tornado staring, and the odd, fan-fic-esque feeling you get watching Jean Loring kiss a tiny Ray. *shudder*

The bigger news is that this is Gardner Fox's last issue as writer of the Justice League. Obviously, change was in the air, since longtime artist Mike Sekowsky left just two issues earlier.

As good and enjoyable as it was, Fox's "Monster of the Month" style, filled with mostly interchangable heroes, was starting to look old hat in the age of Marvel and it's very specifically characterized heroes. And we'd see that in the JLA, but soon!

Justice League of America #27 - May 1964

Great, 50s sci-fi movie poster-ish cover!

The story: "The 'I' Who Defeated the Justice League!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. An inter-galactic being simply named "I" sends anonymous letters to members of the JLA to draw them out and defeat them, since he discovers their success as a team is draining his life force(huh?).

Snapper Carr figures out(yeah, ahead of Batman) that if they use the handy Amazo, residing in their sanctuary's trophy room, they can overload "I" and defeat him. Ginchy!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, The Atom

Notable Moments: There's a giant full-page illustration(which Sekowsky didn't do much) of the JLA beating the circuits out of Amazo, which is fun.

Aquaman gets a fairly big role in this story. I'm always happy about that.

Brave and the Bold #s 28, 29, 30 - 1960

F.O.A.M. member Russell Burbage pointed out yesterday that this blog should really start with the JLA's debut in The Brave and the Bold.

I initially didn't think to, because even as a kid with a driving desire to complete my run of the JLA, these first three appearances were way beyond my means, and then as I got older I never really got around to picking them up, especially since all the stories had been reprinted anyway. Plus part of the blog's mission was to chronicle my experiences getting each individual issue, complete with cover scans of the one I bought(not pulled off the GCBD or some place), and I simply didn't have those experiences with these three issues.

Yet, not including them just feels wrong, since they are seminal comics in the team's history. And any blog professing to be a (mostly)complete history of the JLA as a comic can hardly skip them, so here they are, all at once!

Brave and the Bold #28:
The story: "Starro The Conqueror!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. Proving Gardner Fox wanted to hit the ground running, this story opens with Aquaman's finny friend Peter the PufferFish(no, I'm not kidding) telling him about a mysterious, alien starfish that has landed in the ocean!

Aquaman calls the Justice League(who?), and let's them know multiple Starros are appearing all over the world, so Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Martian Manhunter each try to fight them(Superman and Batman are both "too busy" starring in other books at the moment).

They eventually band together to fight the original Starro in the town of Happy Harbor, where local jerk Snapper Carr assists them. For his trouble they make him an Honorary Member. Dig it, man!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter

Notable Moments: Aquaman in this story is wearing yellow gloves, retroactively the hallmark of the Earth-2 Aquaman. Luckily, this has been ignored by continuity mavens and it's always been the Earth-1 Aquaman that's been a member of the JLA.

Superman and Batman were no doubt horrified that the JLA allowed some kid who snaps his fingers to become an honorary JLAer, but that's what you get when you miss a meeting.

Brave and the Bold #29:
The story: "Challenge of the Weapons-Master!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, Bernard Sachs, and Joe Giella. Some weird guy named Xotar(from the year 11,960!) who has all kinds of futuristic weapons at his command, goes back in time to fight the JLA and see which of his wondrous doo-dads works against them, which he then will use to defeat the Intersolar Police, who are trying to apprehend him in his own time. Um, what?

By the way, how is Xotar so certain any of his weapons will defeat the JLA? From an old JLA diary--which is incomplete due to age and wear-and-tear--which uses the worlds "Xotar", "defeat", and "Justice League." Really--he bases his whole plan on this. Obviously, Xotar is not the sharpest gerflonk in the ponfahr.

Roll Call: Superman, Batman Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter

Notable Moments: Superman and Batman play a bigger role in this story, but the individual chapters still feature the other members more prominently.

Brave and the Bold #30:
The story: "Case of the Stolen Super-Powers!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. The brilliant-but-insane Professor Ivo creates Amazo, an android who has the powers of all the Justice League! Holy crap!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter

Notable Moments: Superman and Batman are in the beginning of this story, and while they are technically involved in the case, we don't see them again after page four.

This is the first appearance of both Professor Ivo and Amazon, two characters that would return many times to take on the JLA and the rest of the DCU. Ivo drinks a formula that helps him live five hundred years in this story, which ties in at the end, and is also picked up as a story thread twenty-three years later in JLA #218, written by Cary Burkett. Nice job, Mr. B!


Since I don't have a personal story relating to the purchase of these issues(even as back issues), I thought the next best thing was to run this super-cool description of what it was like from no less a JLA authority than Gerry Conway, from his awesome text piece in JLA #200:

...and so it did.

Tomorrow: the very first issue of the Justice League of America!