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The biggest JLA/JSA cross-over ever concludes!
The Story: "Let Old Acquaintances Be Forgot..." by Gerry Conway and Don Heck. Picking up from last issue, the JLA, the JSA, and the All-Star Squadron reconnoiter at the White House, having broken up into several smaller teams to find the nuclear missiles stolen by the Crime Syndicate under Per Degaton's instructions.
In Switzerland, Steel, Firestorm, and Power Girl defeat Johnny Quick and destroy the missile. At the same time, Green Lantern, Firebrand, and Zatanna go back in time and head for Cuba, to try and stop Per Degaton from triggering World War III.
Meanwhile, the remaining heroes find Degaton's headquarters, defeat his army of armed henchmen, while the Huntress makes short work of Owlman. I mean, the guy's name is Owlman.
The Crime Syndicate show up in 1962-era Cuba to steal the Russian's missiles, but the heroes are there to stop them, thereby righting history. Immediately, all the heroes begin to fade away, back to their original times.
The All-Star Squadron has some hazy memories, Per Degaton is back working as a lowly lab assistant, dreaming of world power, and the Crime Syndicate is back in their inter-dimensional prison.
We then cut back to the moment the JSA was supposed to beam across to the satellite, and this time they do, and marvel that, for once, nothing bad happened:"...Now what was that you were saying about wanting to get me alone?" Wow! Score one for Firestorm!
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Zatanna, Firestorm
Notable Moments: ...I probably did this story a disservice, condensing it down so much. A lot happens in these five issues. Nowadays this plot would run for two years.
Another awesome cover by George Perez, nicely summing up all that has come before. You have to admit, Per Degaton got a lot accomplished, more than most supervillains ever dream of. It took three sets of heroes to beat him, and he doesn't even have any superpowers!Four of the five issues of this story came out when I was on vacation in the Poconos, a favorite spot when I was a kid. With two of the month-old issues still on sale at newsstands in August 1982, I got to read 4/5ths of the story in two weeks, which was very exciting.
The biggest JLA/JSA cross-over ever continues here!
The Story: "The Bomb-Blast Heard 'Round The World!" by Gerry Conway, Don Heck, and Sal Trapani. Picking up from last issue, the JLA and the All-Star Squadron find themselves face to face in the ruined headquarters of the Justice Society.
Not knowing each other, they of course start beating the crap out of each other, Marvel-style. Aquaman takes a swipe at Steel, and is surprised to find that he doesn't immediately fall over. The heroes from each side approach each other, fists clenched...
Superman can't take it anymore, and yells "Stop It!" at the top of his lungs, nearly bursting the ear drums of every one but Robotman.
The two teams get each other their back stories, Firestorm tries to hit on Firebrand, and then they get a call from...President Roosevelt!
FDR is amazingly calm, meeting all these new superheroes, and Zatanna is quietly stunned at the (to her) former President's magnetism. I think I'd feel the same way.
Anyway, FDR explains they got a crate in the mail, inside of which is a machine that plays a tape of...Per Degaton!
None of the heroes know who he is, exactly, and Firestorm makes an interesting observation:...I bet Ronnie also believes in Phrenology.
Anyway, the heroes figure out that somehow Per Degaton changed history, something the JSA is learning too, while searching the destroyed Earth-Prime.
Turns out, on Earth-Prime, the Cuban Missile Crisis ended with all-out nuclear war, leaving the world the way it is now. Clearly, also the work of Per Degaton.
Back on Earth-2, Per Degaton's promise to explode a nuclear bomb out in the Pacific Ocean is fulfilled, but then the JLA sees a bubble in the aftermath, filled with their JSA friends!
As the JLA cares for their unconscious friends, they don't realize Per Degaton is watching them, plotting the end of his terrible plan! To be continued!
Roll Call: Superman, Aquaman, Hawkman, Zatanna, Firestorm
Notable Moments: ...an awesome cover by George Perez. I would've loved to have seen it full bleed, but the overall design is cool, too.
Part four of the story takes place in All-Star Squadron #15:
...I thought I had these issues in my collection, but apparently I don't. That's a shame, since I remember Aquaman gets a lot to do in, er, ASS #15.
Time to hit eBay...
The biggest JLA/JSA cross-over ever begins here!
The Story: "Crisis on Earth-Prime!" by Gerry Conway, Don Heck, and Romeo Tanghal. The JLA and the JSA prepare meet at the JLA satellite for their annual get together. Think something will go wrong?
The JLA's transmatter machine lights up, but its not the JSA that steps out...it's the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3!
Startled, the CS make quick work of the JLAers, and then steal one of their spacecraft, heading for Earth-1.
Meanwhile, we find the JSA trapped in the same prison bubble in another dimension that the heroes left the Crime Syndicate in, waaay back in JLA #s 29 and 30.
Luckily, the combined powers of Green Lantern and Dr. Fate free them, and GL uses his ring to find the "hole" in reality that they believe the baddies left through. They follow that path, and make their way to Earth-1, or so they think:They find this other Earth, Earth-Prime, completely destroyed in a nuclear holocaust, and filled with all sorts of irradiated creatures. GL scans the planet, and picks up psychic patterns which reveals who did this...the supervillain Per Degaton!
Back at the satellite, the JLAers wake up, and head to Earth-2 to try and find the JSA. But when they get there, they see they've arrived on Earth-2, all right, but this Earth-2 is different than the one they know...its a fascist world, filled with statues of its leader...Per Degaton!
The JLA sees that the JSA's headquarters was destroyed in 1942, so they decide to head back to that time, to figure out what happened.
Once they arrive, they are greeted by superheroes, but not the JSA--it's the All-Star Squadron! To be continued!
Roll Call: Superman, Aquaman, Hawkman, Zatanna, Firestorm
Notable Moments: The biggest JLA/JSA team-up ever, spanning over five issues and two books. It was even more unusual, because you got to see the All-Star Squadron's "side" of the story in fourteenth issue of their book:
...which ended basically on the other side of the door to the JSA's headquarters, at the exact same moment this issue ended, leading into tomorrow's JLA.
The cover design, with all the heads reacting to the center image, is quite striking. Kudos to whoever designed it!
Aquaman, for whatever reason, rarely participated in the yearly JLA/JSA team-ups (he only appeared in two in the last decade), so its nice he was in on the biggest one they ever did!
Part Two of the second JLA/JSA crossover!
The story: "The Most Dangerous Earth of All!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. The JSA fights the Crime Syndicate, but is tricked by them and they get transported to Earth-Three. So the JLA then goes to Earth-Two, and defeats them there.
Realizing they can't return them to their homeworld, Green Lantern uses his ring to place them in an inter-dimensional prison bubble, all alone, covered in warnings to potential visitors(?). When last we see them, they have no water, no food, no beds...the five of them are just in a small bubble. This would inspire the later Marvel series Crime Syndicate Zombies.
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern
Notable Moments: The JLA and JSA barely interact in this story; in fact they only share a few panels together, and most of those are on view-screens, ala Kirk and Khan in Star Trek II.
The JSA is back!
The story: "Crisis on Earth-Three!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. We are introduced to the Crime Syndicate and the concept of Earth-Three, a world where all the major events of our Earth are different--Abe Lincoln shot Pres. John Wilkes Booth, England won freedom from the United States, etc.--and there are no superheroes, only villains!
The Crime Syndicate and the JLA square off twice, once on Earth-One, where the JLA wins, and once on Earth-Three, where the Crime Syndicate wins. Since they are evenly matched, they decided to fight on neutral ground--Earth-Two! When the bad guys discover that world has superheroes, they decide to take them on instead!
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern
Notable Moments: The JSA returns in what will be a yearly event--the JLA/JSA team-up, one of Fox and Schwartz's most ingenious plot devices.
The Crime Syndicate was another neat idea, though I never understood why there wasn't an evil duplicate of Aquaman. Hmmph.
