Justice League of America #245 - Dec. 1985

Steel in an adventure all his own--with an old foe of the Justice League!

The Story: "The Long Road Home" by Gerry Conway, Luke McDonnell, and Mike Machlan. We open with Steel, beaten and dazed, wandering a strange, unfamiliar land. Is this even Earth?

Steel is so tired he falls over onto the ground, but learns this is no time for a rest--he is immediately attacked by a horde of giant insects!

Luckily, instinct and training kicks in, and Steel makes short work of his attackers, punching and throwing them off him.

We see that Steel is being watched, by a mysterious group of people drenched in shadows. They resolve among themselves to capture Steel and bring him to them.

After smushing most of the giant bugs with a giant rock, Steel runs into a beautiful stranger (aren't they always?):

As this Olanda woman carries Steel off, she is attacked by the "killer bot" ordered by the shadowy group to do the same job. Olanda fires a weapon from her ship, blowing the robot up.

This group watches what happened, and talks of "The Progenitor" and how he/she/it will "learn the intruder's secrets." They also claim this Progenitor brought Steel here in the first place.

Back on our Earth, the JLA explain to the wounded, elder Hank Heywood that his grandson is gone, and they have no idea where he is!

Back to with Steel, we see him in an opulent bedroom, with Olanda bringing him food and drink. When he mentions he is part of the Justice League, she is startled, and storms out.

Steel follows Olanda, and sees her talking to a disembodied voice. She tells Steel this is the year 1,000,000,000 A.D., and asks what he remembers before he came here.

Turns out (in Crisis on Infinite Earths #9) Steel was separated from the rest of the League, and caught in some sort of explosion, which knocked him into another dimension, and, apparently, into the far future.

They are then suddenly attacked by a group of "kill bots" from outside their base, but Steel makes quick work of them. He then meets who the disembodied voice is:

...the Lord of Time!

Turns out the Lord of Time eventually gave up his super-villainy, and decided, using cloning techniques, to create a family for himself, including his beloved daughter Olanda.

But the other clones rebelled, and stole the Lord of Time's Chrono-Cube, which allows him to travel through time. Without it, he is stuck here, at the end of the world, suffering their attacks.

At the clones' base, we see they are split as to what to do. Most of them want to attack their "father" one more time, once and for all. But one of them is afraid of this new addition, who ca destroy their robots at will. He suggests taking the cube and moving to another time, leaving the Lord of Time behind.

As the clones dicker, Steel comes crashing through a wall, tossing kill bots left and right!

Olanda grabs the Lord of Time and throws him into the cube, so he disappears, taking the cube with him.

Steel suddenly sees all the clones and bots disappear, and the Lord of Time returns, explaining he went back in time and stopped himself from creating all the clones in the first place...but not Olanda.

The Lord of Time offers to return Steel to his own time, but he grabs Olanda's arm, and says, what's the hurry? He's got all the time in the world...

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

Notable Moments: A really interesting story...I like the idea of one of the JLA's most indefatigable villains finally giving up and creating a life for himself away from the rest of humanity.

There's very little mention of the LOT's history with the JLA, I wonder how this story would have read if it had been written a lot earlier, and it had been one of the original Leaguers taking this trip? I'm not saying it would have been better, just different.

This is the debut of Luke McDonnell as the JLA's last regular penciler, and I enjoyed his work quite a bit. It would get a bit loose and cartoony at times, but under inkers like Machlan and later Bill Wray, he gave the book a nice smooth (if frequently dark) look.

I'm guessing DC wouldn't have allowed the JLA to not appear at all in their own book, so they make a one-page cameo here. Might've been neat to never see the JLA at all.

Justice League of America #199 - Feb. 1982

The Lord of Time learns what "Kryptonian Haymaker" is in this issue!

The Story: "Grand Canyon Showdown" by Gerry Conway, Don Heck, and Brett Breeding. Continued from last issue, we open with the Lord of Time having subdued Superman, and having trapped four Justice Leaguers in the Old West, who are being trailed by his posse of robot cowboys!

While The Lord of Time is watching events unfold in the past, Superman wakes up from his Kryptonite-induced coma, and uses his X-ray vision to find the Lord of Time's chamber, which is currently invisible to the naked eye.

Meanwhile, back in the past, all four sets of superheroes and western heroes find their way to town. First up is The Scalphunter and The Elongated Man, who head into a saloon and meet Cinnamon and a woman that The Elongated Man just knows he knows:

...soon, Bat Lash and The Flash also show up, and the three of them realize they know each other.

At the same time, Jonah Hex and Green Lantern finally noticed they're being followed by the Lord of Time's robot cowboys(!), and they make quick work of them.

Then our other heroes come out to see what the noise is, and they compare notes. Scalphunter spots three more of these strange cowpokes riding off in the distance, and The Flash catches up to them. He destroys them as easily as GL did, and the group of heroes start to think this is some sort of trap.

They find their way to the Grand Canyon, where Lantern's ring alerts them to the anti-matte bubble that is approaching Earth, and headed right for them! Zatanna, Flash, and GL manage to destroy the bubble, and then the heroes suddenly vanish.

As Jonah Hex, Scalphunter, Cinnamon, and Bat Lash wonder what the heck that was about, we see the four JLAers return to their normal time and find Superman with an unconscious Lord of Time!

Turns out Superman used his heat vision to create an offshoot of the Colorado River, washing the Kryptonite away, giving Supes the opportunity to box the Lord of Time's ears.

Roll Call: Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Elongated Man, Zatanna

Notable Moments: A truly great George Perez cover--I just love how villainous The Lord of Time looks--he'd twirl his mustache if he had one.

The story's ending seems a bit rushed--everything basically wraps up in the last two pages, but let's not be too critical. After all, tomorrow is JLA #200!

Justice League of America #198 - Jan. 1982

The JLA gets stranded in the Old West!

The Story: "Once Upon A Time, In The Wild Wild West" by Gerry Conway, Don Heck, and Brett Breeding. This issue starts off like no other--not with any of the JLA, or even the JSA, but Jonah Hex!

Jonah Hex is almost hit by a giant green beam, which comes from...Green Lantern?!?

We know its Green Lantern, but he does not--he's delirious, starving, and is suffering from amnesia. Hex takes pity on the oddly-dressed cowpoke, and gives him a sip from his canteen.

He wakes up that night, with some sort of vision of someone laughing, but that's all he can recall. Hex makes a campfire, not realizing they are being watched.

Cut to: Desecration, Arizona, where a confused young woman is being harassed by some scummy cowboys. They are stopped by the crimson-tressed gunslinger Cinnamon, long enough for the woman to defend herself via a magic spell! Yep, the dazed young woman is Zatanna, trapped in the Old West. I'm seeing a pattern here...

Soon we see Scalphunter running across The Elongated Man, and the West's weirdest hero, Bat Lash, who is saved from taking a bullet in the back by The Flash:

...I love how exaggerated that stance of The Flash is--it looks like a drawing from Mad or something.

Bat Lash and The Flash then make friends, after Bat sees that this oddly-dressed stranger saved his life:

...before Bennifer, before Brangelina, there was Bat-Flash.

Meanwhile, back in our time, Superman is desperately trying to find out what happened to the four Justice Leaguers. He follows their last JLA Signal Device trails to the Grand Canyon, where he discovers a giant robot!

The robot seems to know him, and when he destroys it, he finds its insides are loaded with Kryptonite radiation! Superman passes out before he can see the man behind this attack is...The Lord of Time!

The Lord of Time helpfully explains his plot, which involves the four amnesiac JLAers doing his work for him--namely, capturing an anti-matter bubble that, if harnessed, could make him Master of the World! To be continued!

Roll Call: Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Elongated Man, Zatanna

Notable Moments: After an extraordinary hot streak (issues 189-197, in my mind), this two-parter is a bit of a step back. I don't think its a bad story, but swapping out Don Heck for George Perez didn't exactly thrill the eleven year old me that bought this issue. And while I enjoyed DC's westerns just fine, I always found them mixing with superheroes to be an uneasy fit, at best.

Nice cover, though, well designed and well colored, by Ross Andru and Romeo Tanghal.

Justice League of America #160 - Nov. 1978

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:

...I like how only Traya, a child orphan, is there to visit the heroes.

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?

Justice League of America #159 - Oct. 1978

As you can see from the cover, a jam-packed issue starring the JLA, the JSA, and other historical characters from the DC Universe!

The Story: "Crisis from Yesterday!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. The JLA and JSA are having their annual meeting at the swanky Club 22, located in Gotham City (presumably in one of the nicer parts of town).

The heroes are engaging in their usual chit-chat, when an explosion occurs!

Meanwhile, we find the one of the JLA's foes, The Lord of Time, going over his newest plan to defeat the JLA and JSA, by bringing five heroes from the past into the 20th Century!

Turns out that's what caused the explosion (you knew that already, didn't you?)--the arrival of The Viking Prince, Jonah Hex, Enemy Ace, Miss Liberty, and the Black Pirate!

These five heroes are confused as to why they are where they are, why they attacked these heroes, and who made them do it! So they take off to get some answers.

Individual teams of heroes meet up with our five time travelers, who again are forced to do battle. Each time, it ends up in defeat for the JLA and JSA:

Meanwhile, the Lord of Time reveals that all of existence will be wiped out in five hours by his own computer, and even he cannot stop it! To be continued!

Roll Call: Superman, Flash, Hawkman, Elongated Man

Notable Moments: Most of the JLA appear in cameos during the Club 22 sequence (though no Aquaman).

The Huntress is written kinda bitchy here, where she goofs on Elongated Man and at one point uses his head as leverage to pitch herself out Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane! Now that's chutzpah!

Dick Dillin, having "missed" two issues in the last year (the only ones he would ever miss), was clearly being punished with this story by Conway, by adding even more characters to the already-crowded yearly JLA/JSA team-up.

Justice League of America #50 - Dec. 1966

That is one goofy-looking Lord of Time! It looks like Batman could swing right into his mouth if he's not careful.

The Story: "The Lord of Time Attacks the 20th Century!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Sid Greene. Vietnam vet(!) Eddie Brent becomes a pawn of the Lord of Time, and has him use futuristic weapons to take on the JLA. Luckily the JLA figures out the Lord of Time is duping Brent.

Roll Call: Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Arrow

Notable Moments: Hey, Gardner Fox remembered Aquaman is in fact a member of the JLA!

This issue guest-stars Robin for no real good reason, maybe with the Vietnam angle they thought they needed a younger POV, and Snapper Carr, being a total a-hole, didn't count.

The story opens in the jungles of Vietnam: "'Somewhere in the central highlands of Viet Nam, an automatic rifle chatters in flaming fury...' 'This is as far as you get, V-Cs!' Vatta-Vatta!" I'm sure actual Vietnam vets talked like that.

At the end of the story, the JLA literally gangs up on the Lord of Time, in a panel I found a tad distubring to look at:

...not only is it a little unfair, but the combination of the JLAers looks of glee with Lord of Time's look of pure misery makes me feel like this isn't one of their most heroic moments. The Lord of Time was such a pansy you could've just had Green Arrow take him out.

The story does have a nice ending, though--Eddie Brent is cleared of all charges, and receives a medal from an off-panel President Lyndon Johnson. It's a genuinely well-intentioned moment, marred only slightly by the fact that there are gaudily-costumed superheroes(including Superman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantrern, The Atom, and Hawkman) in the background.

Justice League of America #11 - May 1962

Part 2 of the Felix Faust plus The Lord of Time plus The Demons Three epic!

The story: "One Hour to Doomsday" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. The JLA, having chased the Lord of Time into the future, try to go back by find themselves unable to return home.

They enlist the help of the Demons Three, who then try to turn the tables on them. Nice try, Abnegezar, Rath, and Ghast!

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

Notable Moments: The Demons Three are now colored pink, the look they will keep for the rest of the four-color career. To help defeat the demons, the JLAers "switch bodies", and its Batman who gets turned into Wonder Woman. Awkward...

A letter writer asks--nay, demands--that the Atom join the team. As a hint, they run another letter analyzing that each current JLA member's name has a sequential number of letters--i.e., Flash has five, Batman has six, Aquaman has seven, and so on. The response is that there is no hero with thirteen letters in their name, but there is one with four--The Atom!

By the way, that last, obsessively-compiled letter is by somebody named E.Nelson Bridwell!

Justice League of America #10 - March 1962

This issue is a veritable feast of comics history--the enduring JLA villains Felix Faust, The Lord of Time, and the Demons Three(Abnegezar, Rath, and Ghast) all debut in this one comic!

Eventually all three(six?) bad guys would find their way into the larger DCU, and specifically the tres Demons would make a memorable appearance in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run, where they take on Dr.Fate and he immolates one of them right on the spot. Don't mess with the helmet of Nabu!

The story: "The Fantastic Fingers of Felix Faust!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. Felix Faust learns the only way to unleash these Demons Three guys is to retrieve specific magical objects, so he uses his magic powers to force the JLA into getting them for him(there's a lot of JLA-controlling-by-bad-guys in these early issues).

Meanwhile, the Lord of Time wants to get these objects, too, which causes this story to get so big that it becomes the first multi-issue JLA story!

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

Notable Moments: Sekowsky's design of the three demons is way cool--they look funky and weird, with strange proportions that actually make them look otherworldly, not just humans with a fang or a horn. Also, here they are colored bone white, instead of the pink tone they are more associated with.

Felix Faust is knocked out by a school of flying fish, under the command of Guess Who. Not one of Faust's best moments.

Letter writer John Budnick of Hicksville, NY, wants the book and team to be renamed the "Interplanetary League of Justice" since he thinks it suits them more accurately. He points out, a little angrily, actually--that Superman is Kryptonian, Manhunter is Martian, and "[y]ou'd have to stretch a long point to consider Aquaman an American, and of course Wonder Woman's birthplace is the Amazon Paradise Island." Somebody call Lou Dobbs!