Justice League of America #254 - Sept. 1986

The final battle with Despero--will the new Justice League be up to the task?

The Story: "Desperate Climax" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. Picking up from last issue, we open on Batman, grimly staring into the Fire of Py'Tar, trying to figure out a plan.

Despero experiences another agonizing renewal of his power, and walks out of the fire, only to be temporarily blinded by an explosive gas pellet thrown in his eyes by Batman.

Despero chases after Batman, blasting away at everything in sight, enraged more at Batman's guts than the explosion itself.

Meanwhile, Vixen tires to wake up the other JLAers, knocked out by Despero's last attack. They finally do, and Vixen tells them of Batman's plan.

When Vixen tells Vibe Batman is in there, fighting Despero alone, he basically gives up and says they have no hope of stopping him. But Steel doesn't want to hear it:

The JLA heads toward Despero's temple, and Vibe initially starts to walk away. Finally, he realizes his cowardice, and turns out to join his friends.

Inside, we see Batman has been captured again by Despero, but he's still trash-talking him anyway. This drives Despero nuts:

Batman even goes so far to call Despero "a pathetic little loser"(!), which distracts Despero long enough for the JLA to sneak in and hit him with a series of blows, courtesy Vixen and Steel.

Vixen then frees Batman, and they and the rest of them fight the various stone demons Despero has created. Despero then blasts at Steel, which infuriates Gypsy, who uses her hallucinogenic powers on Despero, causing him to go completely berserk.

Vibe then uses his powers on the Flame of Py'Tar, causing the effect on Despero that Batman guessed it would:

Everything Despero created disappears into nothingness, and Batman credits Vibe with the final blow.

Vibe is touched by Batman's compliment, and asks if they can double-date. Batman's answer: "Don't press your luck."

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

Notable Moments: Maybe the new JLA's finest moment, sad to think this was Gerry Conway's last story line with the team he wrote for so long. Despero is defeated by teamwork and logic, not some deus ex machina event at the end. I think, over time, if just a couple older JLAers had returned to the team, this could've been a workable concept. But of course, it wasn't to be.

This issue's cover is inked by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, another unusual choice as inker.

Justice League of America #253 - Aug. 1986

Despero takes on the entire JLA!

The Story: "Pyre" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. The JLA is stunned to see their old foe, Despero, in a new, more powerful form, as well as their teammates Batman and Vixen trussed up.

While most of the team don't know who this guy is, Martian Manhunter sure does, and he keeps repeating, solemnly, "Despero", as if he can't believe it.

Despero explains he is here for revenge, and uses his power to turn a nearby skyscraper into a giant stone dragon, based upon a beast from Despero's home planet.

Steel tries to subdue the creature, but it doesn't work. This is something they've never encountered before.

My favorite part of this whole story line is that, even through all this, Batman still manages to play mind games with Despero:

The combined powers of the JLA find a way to smash the dragon into bits, which seems to pain Despero greatly, causing him to lash out and cause the ground beneath the JLA's feet to shake and shatter.

Despero then moves Batman and Vixen inside his stone temple, where Batman--of course--starts to form a plan.

Despero then joins them, and tells them how all this came to be, and how he came to battle the Justice League:

Even during this whole soliloquy, Batman stays focused, and gets Despero to tell him about the Flame of Py'Tar, which Bats believes is the source of Despero's newfound power.

Despero says, in the Flame of Py'Tar, his entire being was atomized and he was reborn in this new body, one capable of amazing, god-like power.

As Despero renews himself in the Flame, Batman slips one hand out of his stone manacle, freeing himself, and then Vixen. He then tells her that the JLA needs to destroy the Flame, which should stop Despero.

Vixen tries to argue, but Batman is already off to distract Despero. Vixen heads outside, and runs into a problem:

To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: A lot of the letters in the JLA Mail Room ask for Aquaman to come back. And while I've said before that I wouldn't want to lose the Neal Pozner/Craig Hamilton 1986 mini-series for anything, you have to think DC made a mistake dropping him from the JLA so abruptly. Maybe it's because he's still pictured in the letters page header.

I love, love, love that, even amid all this unbelievable power, Batman is still not all that impressed by Despero, and how much that pisses Despero off. It must be really fun to write Batman sometimes.

Justice League of America #252 - July 1986

All hell breaks loose as Despero arrives on Earth, looking for the Justice League of America!

The Story: "Arrival" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. As we saw last issue, Despero makes his way to Earth, enveloped in a giant ball of fire.

Despero doesn't have much time for niceties, as we see him use his mental powers to extract from a human he stumbles upon where the Justice League is. Once he gets what he needs, he immolates the poor sap (and his dog, the bastard).

While he is disappointed to learn the Justice League he last fought and imprisoned him is no more, he is more than happy to go after the new one, since it is led by one of his old enemies, Batman:

Meanwhile, we see Zatanna try and escape from the hospital bed the megalomanic Adam has put her in, but some sort of electronic headband keeps her from going too far, but not before she sees Adam putting himself through some sort of bizarre experiment, starting with an electronic arm cutting him open with a scalpel!

Later that night, Bruce Wayne and Mari McCabe are having dinner. But of course, the dinner is interrupted by big trouble:

Bruce turns to Batman before Mari even has time to think, but she quickly changes too into her superhero togs and they see who's the cause of all this destruction.

Batman is a little unprepared for the sheer amount of power Despero is now showing, as the ground shakes and breaks open, with demons spewing forth.

Despero grabs Bats, who gets a punch in, which infuriates Despero for the sheer effrontery. Vixen then knocks Despero into a pit of fire, but that only makes him angrier, so angry that he shoots himself into the sky, causing a massive ball of fire to explode in the night sky!

Back at the Secret Sanctuary, the League has assembled, Batman having sent a JLA distress signal. They head to New York, and they don't like what they see:

To be contnued!

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

Notable Moments: This issue's cover is inked by Kyle Baker, of all people. I wonder how that came about.

Luke McDonnel gives this battle a real sense of scope--he doesn't skimp on shots of lots of lots of buildings surrounding this massive conflagration caused by Despero.

Elongated Man's new costume makes its first appearance in the book.

Justice League of America #251 - June 1986

Despero returns to exact his revenge on the Justice League!

The Story: "Hunters and Prey" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. We see the all-new Despero making his way with only one thing on his mind...revenge.

Meanwhile, the new JLAers are being put through their paces by Batman (Ha! and they thought Aquaman was a hard-ass!).

As he tries to teach Vibe to concentrate and hone his powers, Vibe gets fed up and walks off, throwing insults as he leaves. You gotta say this--Vibe has guts. No brains, but guts.

In another part of the Secret Sanctuary, Martian Manhunter works on the murder case he stumbled upon (back in JLA #248), and Gypsy tags along when Manhunter leaves to follow up on the trail.

In Manhattan, we see what grim events have taken over Zatanna since getting knocked out:

...it's here she meets Adam, a slick, nice-looking man who the rest of the group talk about as if a god.

Adam takes a blood sample from Zee, with the goal of injecting into himself, so he has enough power to "fulfill his dream." Uh-oh...

While Manhunter and Gypsy make progress in the investigation, and Steel goes on a date with a woman named Robin, Vixen and Batman spend some private time together:

...I love the moody art on this page, and how cool Bats looks, panel four in particular.

Back with Despero, we see him reach the burned out hull of the JLA satellite, only to find it, well, burned out and empty. He turns his attention toward Earth...that's where they must be.

To be continued!

Roll Call: Batman, Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, Vixen, Steel, Vibe, Gypsy

Notable Moments: Elongated Man (and Sue) makes no appearance in this issue, the first time since JLA Detroit started where not all of the members made at least a cameo appearance.

I think this issue reveals--retroactively--the idea that Gerry Conway mentioned in our interview, in that he originally intended to Aquaman stay around a lot longer. He and Vixen formed an interesting friendship, which she immediately then transfers to Batman.

Justice League of America #250 - May 1986

The JLA's 250th anniversary issue, and a new leader takes charge!

The Story: "The Return of the Justice League of America" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. Picking up from last issue, Sue Dibny managed to hit the JLA Distress Signal, just as she is blasted by a strange being who has sprang forth from the alien stowaway known as "Junior."

We see who is receiving the signal--first up, its Batman, who is in the process of stopping some kidnappers from getting away with their hostages. After punching out most of them, he ends the melee simply by staring down the last one. Nice.

He is shocked to hear his JLA signal device go off, as is Superman, who finishes putting out a wildfire and then heads off to the source of the signal.

The same thing happens to Green Lantern, currently out in space, and Green Arrow and Black Canary, a little closer to home. Alas, the signal does not make it to everyone:

Back at the Secret Sanctuary, we see who this intruder is--a golden skinned man, who short circuits the JLA computer with his touch. He knows more are coming, and he will be ready...

Next, we find ourselves in a bucolic neighborhood, as the girl we know as Gypsy is coming from school. She has a Mom, a Dad, a little sister, and all seems to be well. Is this a dream? A flashback?

She enters a typical teenaged girl's room--stuffed animals, messy bed, Madonna poster on the wall. No, wait, it's a poster of...Vixen?:

Gypsy is pulled into the wall, then watches all her JLA friends start to wither away to nothing, all of them telling Gypsy she is next.

Of course, this is all a hallucination, and Gypsy wakes up from it screaming, in the arms of Black Canary and her fellow former Justice Leaguers:

Gypsy explains what happend, and Batman immediately takes charge. The heroes split up to search the Sanctuary to find the creature that did this.

Meanwhile, Zatanna is continuing her search for her friend Sherri. The trail leads her to a marina, where she assumes regular clothes and finds her way to a docked yacht. Amid weird questions about whether she is "part of the group", across the yacht she sees...Sherri!

As she approaches her, Sherri can only offer "I'm sorry" before one of them hits Zee over the head, knocking her out. To be continued...

Back at the Sanctuary, Green Lantern and Green Arrow run into the mysterious alien attacker, who blasts Hal, aging him the same way the others are! Green Arrow gets an arrow into the baddie's chest before he runs off.

He then runs into Superman and Batman, and they figure out that this alien is "carrying" their friends' life energies in him, and if they destroy him, they do the same to their friends!

The JLAers lure Junior from room to room, until he dives for Batman, misses, and plunges into a web of high voltage wires! Superman then grabs the wires, and, using his own body as conduit, transfers the energy to the unconscious JLAers, restoring them to normal. As Batman says, "It's over."

As the heroes celebrate, Martian Manhunter makes a plea to Batman--he should leading the League. At first he demurs, but finally:

In an epilogue, we see the strange alien from the previous issues has survived the trail of fire, and emerges reborn, as...Despero the Destroyer!

To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: The story a lot of JLA fans were waiting for, if a little dishonestly sold--you got the sense from the ads that Superman, Green Lantern, et al, were rejoining the League, when it was just Batman. Still, progress!

This issue has a two-page JLA Mail Room, now back under the aegis of Alan Gold. Gold had a nice habit of printing the names of every person who sent in a letter, even if he didn't print the letter. To that end, here's the one moment he original JLA book and I converged:

...yep, that's me heading the list. My letter writing at that time was atrocious, and it doesn't surprise me that none of my letters ever got printed. Getting mentioned at all was a total thrill--and in the 250th issue yet!


Ok--we're now a year's worth of issues away from the final issue of JLA. As I have mentioned before, I'm planning about a week or so of posts after that before officially turning out the lights on JLA Satellite.

One of themes I've covered since starting this was naming my favorite issues, whenever they came down the pike.

But what I'd like to hear before we go are your choices for favorite issues. This blog has never enjoyed the (relative) popularity of The Aquaman Shrine, but its audience has remained remarkably consistent--each post of this blog has almost the exact same number of hits each day--which leads me to think those of you who stuck with me through this long, strange trip are, deep down, big fans of the JLA.

So, if you are so inclined, email me a list of your three or four favorite issues, with maybe a few sentences as to why you like them so much, and I'll post everyone's choices!

Justice League of America #249 - April 1986

Things get worse with the mysterious alien visitor Junior!

The Story: "All Fall Down!" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. The JLAers are stunned to see what has happened to Vixen--she is suddenly aged to the point of near death, and they don't know why!

Meanwhile, Steel and Vibe want to imprison Junior, but Gypsy is having none of it. She insists Junior means no harm; a point that takes a beating when Junior zaps Steel when he tries to touch it!

Then Vibe inadvertently causes a small cave in when he tries to use his powers, trapping him and Steel inside, leaving Gypsy and Junior outside.

While all this is going on, Manhunter and Elongated Man try to figure out what's wrong with Vixen:

As Manhunter finds a piece of Junior's skin on the floor, Ralph starts to feel woozy and weak. Steel and Vibe find them, and he tells them they must find Junior--now.

Meanwhile, Zatanna is on the search for her missing friend, which involves consulting a fortune teller named Mama Larue. She tells Zee about a "voodoo man" who came to town recently, and uses something called Graveyard Dust, the stuff that Zee found in her apartment.

Back at the Secret Sanctuary, Sue Dibny is driving there to meet up with her husband, when she runs into Gypsy and Junior, and we see now Gypsy is starting to age just like Vixen!

On planet Kalanor, however, we see the mysterious alien undergoing a ritual with The Flame of Py'Tar, which, if it doesn't destroy you, leaves you with great powers. He enters the flame, and screams.

Back on Earth, Manhunter consults the JLA's computer memory banks and learns that Junior came from a spore that attached itself to Superman many years ago when he visited an alien planet, and landed in the Secret Sanctuary when he got back. It has been living here all these years, unbeknownst to anyone.

Turns out the Junior is unknowingly sucking the life energy out of the people around it, and we see that this is now happening to all the JLAers!

Sue Dibny sees all this, and then sees Junior start to glow, and crack open. A shadowy, energy-draped figure emerges:

To be continued? Yes, To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: It was good this Junior storyline started to ramp up; after a few issues it kind of got like "Is this going anywhere?"

I also like that this whole thing sprang from a mission Superman went on years ago? Doesn't he check himself before he returns to Earth?

The art team of McDonnell and Wray are exceptional at rendering withered old people--they look like actual old people, not the people you know but with some extra lines on their faces.

Justice League of America #248 - March 1986

J'onn J'onzz, Manhunter for hire!

The Story: "Interweavings" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Bill Wray. Picking up from last issue, Elongated Man, Vixen, and Gypsy are wondering what to do with this new alien resident of their Secret Sanctuary.

They also wonder if there are any other surprises awaiting them, something J'onn might be able to help with.

Unfortunately for them, J'onn is a little busy in his i.d. of John Jones, who is involved with a murder case as a private eye.

He's staking out a woman when he hears a scream coming from her apartment. He rushes in to find her dead, and then is followed by some cops who think he did it!

He smells a frame up, and uses his invisibility to get away, resolving to solve the case himself.

Meanwhile, in deep space, the mysterious magenta-skinned space traveler who we saw last issue arrives at his destination, the planet of Kalanor. He gets out of his ship, where the people there worship him like a God:

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Zatanna continues her quest to find her missing friend Sheri. She collects some mysterious ash on the floor of the apartment they shared, and then finds a note with "Westside Marina 9:00" scribbled on it. She takes the note and heads out.

While Steel and Vibe go through their respective dramas, back at the Secret Sanctuary, the three JLAers are trying to communicate with the alien they have come to call "Junior."

Junior makes it outside, only to be met by Manhunter, Steel, and Vibe. They try and prevent it from getting away and heading to the city, but it zaps Steel, causing the other two to knock it out with a combined Manhunter/Vibe attack.

Gypsy is mad that they did this, saying Junior means no harm. But as we see, that may not be true:

To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: Kind of a meandering issue, the cover promises us an all-Manhunter issue, which could have been fun; instead this is mostly a bunch of random plot lines.

But I remember enjoying the build-up--slow and meticulous--to the return of Despero.

Justice League of America #178 - May 1980

Man, does this cover look familiar...

The Story: "The Chess-Master of Mars!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Continued from last issue, the JLA members, having experienced weird phenomena involving ordinary crooks turning into chess piece-like statues, meet up at the JLA satellite.

As they talk, another chess piece--the bishop--beams into the JLA satellite via the transporter!

It blasts Superman with Kryptonite eyes, and hits Batman with a lightning bolt-type ray, leaving the rest of the JLA to take it on!

The fight appears to be a standstill, until Zatanna casts a spell to encase Aquaman and Black Canary in an impenetrable protective shield. Aquaman then lands a blow, cracking the being in half, which allows Black Canary to use her Sonic Cry to finish it off.

The Atom examines the wreckage, and tells his teammates that this thing could've easily defeated them all--it let them win! This tips off Zatanna, who begins to investigate her theory.

Turns out that bishop was under the control of the Martian Manhunter, who is imprisoned by Despero. Despero wonders if Manhunter isn't throwing the game?

We learn that Manhunter is in an impossible situation--if he loses the game, he and his people on Mars II will die, but if he wins, that means he has killed his JLA friends!

Manhunter next calls up a knight, but suddenly none of Despero's "players"--the JLA--can be found! And, as Manhunter points out, by the rules of the game, Despero loses because he cannot field his players!

Despero, not a sore loser, tries to play other JLAers not yet participating, but then suddenly the Atom appears, knocking Despero to the ground. Then all the JLAers show up, via a spell by Zatanna, and they fight Despero's killer chess pieces. Superman hurls the Atom with super-strength into them, exploding them from the inside.

What Zatanna figured out what that Manhunter had his bishop destroy the JLA membership file, as a clue for them to discover. Everyone is happy to see their old friend again, except for one...

To be continued!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Atom, Black Canary, Zatanna

Notable Moments: Zatanna's spells got the JLA out of a lot of jams.

Aquaman gets another nice moment, where his sheer strength is highlighted, when he cracks the bishop piece almost in two with one punch. Damn straight.

This issue's cover, by Jim Starlin, is a nice tribute to the very first issue of the book:

...nowadays it seems like half the covers on comics are "tributes" to some previous cover, but this was pretty rare at this time. And, tribute or no, its well done and works all on its own.

Justice League of America #177 - Apr. 1980

After the nifty, uber-exciting cover by Rich Buckler, is a story of the return of the JLA's oldest and most deadly foes!

The Story: "The Graveyard Gambit!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. This issue begins in a way very few issues of the book ever did--with Aquaman!

After many, many months of not being in on the fun, we have a perfect setting for the King of the Seven Seas: open with a group of fisherman who are gloating over their catch, a school of dolphins.

This does less than please the Aquatic Avenger, and I really enjoy the fury with which Gerry Conway has Aquaman express himself:

...even though he is enraged, his instructs his dolphin friends to save the fisherman that have fallen unconscious into the water. While there, he sees something bizarre--the fisherman begin to glow and change shape, and turn into giant, statue-looking beings!

Meanwhile, the same exact thing happens to the Atom, and then again with Green Arrow and Black Canary, and Superman and Batman. In the last case, the strange beings don't even look remotely human, instead taking the form of...castles?

They all share their info with Zatanna, who is on Monitor Duty. She calls an emergency JLA meeting.

Meanwhile, we see who is behind this strange plot, as well as an old friend...

To be continued!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Atom, Black Canary, Zatanna

Notable Moments: Nice to see Aquaman back after being absent from so many issues (how many times have I written that over the course of this blog?), and gets such a nice shot at the action.

This issue features another JLA subscription ad, tying the book in with three of its members' solo titles:

Those Neal Adams heads never get old!

As of this issue, classic JLA writer Len Wein returns to the book, this time as Editor (having replaced Ross Andru, who replaced the legendary Julie Schwartz). Under Wein's tenure, the book would see (IMO) some of its finest moments...as we'll see!

Justice League of America #134 - Sept. 1976

What a icky, clammy place to have a battle!

The Story: "The Battle At The Edge of Forever!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Continued from last issue, two different aliens use their transporter beams to move both Despero and the JLA (inside Hawkman's Thanagarian spaceship) to a sort of antechamber.

Despero takes on the JLA(wondering who the "fool-hardy freak" attacking him is--Elongated Man having joined after the last time they fought Despero), and realizes that the heroes he has imprisoned on his ship are not the real ones.

The two aliens act as though this is a game, and start transporting different JLAers all over to fight Despero, and when he defeats them they just move down the line.

It's Supergirl who figures out when, after she's knocked Despero silly, he keeps fighting, that he and they are under someone else's control. On an asteroid chunk, she confronts the two alien game masters and demands that they each pick a side, and whoever wins wins, ending this game. And even though the aliens have given Despero a force-field which shields him from harm, Supergirl throws him into orbit around the asteroid and meets up with him here:

...force-field or no, I don't know how this punch didn't reduce Despero into a pile of magenta-colored pulp.

The two aliens--the lone survivors of their race--end the issue beating each other up, still fighting over who won the bet.

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Atom, Hawkman, Elongated Man

Notable Moments: Supergirl guest-stars again, in a kind of confusing story--the two aliens, tall and lean, from last issue, seem to be the story's protagonists. And then with this issue it shifts to two other aliens, also tall and lean.

The letter page mentions that Martin Pasko is hard at work on a story where the JLA takes on The Joker, to appear in The Joker #10, which was never published, the book being cancelled with #9. I wonder how far this story got to being completed...

Justice League of America #133 - Aug. 1976

A nicely-designed cover by Ernie Chua. All eyes(!) lead to Despero!

The Story: "Missing--One Man of Steel!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Picking up a story thread started last issue, we find out where Superman has been--grabbed by an outer-space tractor beam, brought to the planet Sirkus by two residents of that planet.

He is aided by alien duplicates of Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Aquaman built by the two aliens, who explain that their planet is under attack from...Despero!

Superman and the faux-JLAers attack Despero, but he easily defeats them when he discovers there's something...odd about these JLAers, how they're not acting like the opponents he knows.

After beating the other heroes, he attacks Superman with his mental energy, turning Superman's white-hot rage against him. The two aliens see this and figure their only hope now is to summon the real Justice League! To be continued!

Roll Call: Superman, with cameos by Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man

Notable Moments: Guest-star Supergirl opens this issue, still wondering where in Rao her cousin in.

Despero is one of my favorite JLA villains, and I love how he never learns--he always has it out for the JLA!

Justice League of America #26 - March 1964

Despero is back!

The story: "Four Worlds to Conquer!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. Despero is Back! Oh, wait, I said that...

Despero escapes the prison he was put in(at the end of JLA #1) and uses a ray to accelerate the age of some JLA members, while trapping the rest in some deathtraps. He then poses as an aged Superman and sneaks into the Secret Sanctuary, but Wonder Woman sees through that and captures him.

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

Notable Moments: Sekowsky excelled at drawing older people, so seeing old versions of some of the JLA is fun.

The story ends with Despero standing off to the side as the JLA decides what to do with him. How humiliating.

Justice League of America #1 - Nov. 1960

Over the many years it took me to amass my complete run of Justice League of America, you'd think this issue was the hardest one to find...but no. This was tough to afford on my meager teenager funds, sure, but it wasn't the first time I had come across it. Luckily, the combo of Right Time and Cheap Enough Condition allowed to finally get ahold of the very first issue!

The story: "The World of No Return!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. Goofy villain Despero challenges The Flash to play him in a game of chess for the lives of his fellow Leaguers, whom he had captured and immobilzed.

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

Notable Moments: This is the debut issue, featuring the iconic chess battle. There's something inherently terrifying I think to most people about this concept--the average person may have a vague familiarity on how to play chess; but they're hardly proficient; playing the game for life-and-death stakes makes what many people think of as a dry, cerebral exercise into a white-knuckle, sweat-inducing battle.

As has been noted before, there is no issue number on the cover; newsstand vendors were skeptical of new titles so many publishers did their best to hide a "No.1" on the cover. My, how times change.

On the letters page, there's a letter by some kid named Roy Thomas, and an incredibly sweet one from a Mrs.Retalis, who writes: "Writing for my little boy, age 6 1/2, he tells me to please inform you that you absolutely must continue publishing the comic book Justice League of America.

Mama nods her head and agrees. It's one of the comics that spurred him to learn to read for himself--and he's not yet out of the first grade. More power to the Justice League of America!"