Justice League of America #212 - March 1983

The conclusion of the JLA's desperate attempt to save Earth from self-destruction!

The Story: Untitled by Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, Paris Cullins, and Romeo Tanghal. Picking up from last issue, the JLA tries to take on the War-Kohns who have invaded Earth.

The Flash is zapped by some sort of energy beam, Wonder Woman is pummeled by the biggest of the War-Kohns, and even the Phantom Stranger's mystical powers only seem to barely work against them.

The War-Kohns start rounding up humans, and we get to see some of the other races these conquerors have ground under their boot. It ain't pretty.

Meanwhile, in the Treasurers' ship, Superman and the others are barely holding their own. Luckily the Atom has sneaked off, and frees all the other aliens the Treasurers have been holding captive. These aliens help turn the tide, and the War-Kohns aboard the Treasurers' ship are defeated.

Back on Earth, Elongated Man has deduced that the War-Kohns ships seem to be purposely avoiding any contact with water:

This seems to work, and the JLAers on Earth start spraying the War-Kohns ships with water, evening the battle.

Back in space, Superman and the others find George Stuart, and they find out why he's so special. While the JLA is shocked, he tells them they are more needed on Earth. They beam down to the different trouble spots to help out their fellow JLAers and start taking out the trash:

The JLA, having defeated the War-Kohns on Earth, then regroup, head back into space, and defeat the War-Kohns leaders. The head War-Kohn gets hit simultaneously by Superman and Wonder Woman, something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Turns out that George Stuart--and he alone--carries in his genes the genetic pattern of the entire human race! Only he could combat the mutated X-Element, which is why the War-Kohns wanted him off Earth!

The Atom designs a huge machine that uses Stuart to convert all the affected humans back to normal, while we also see that our brave human David has found his beloved Olivia.

The JLA is satisfied with a job well done, but the Atom has to rain on their parade a little bit by telling them that the Treasurers don't create the X-Element problem, they just find a world and exploit it. So what happens if the X-Element loaned to them by the Treasurers starts to decay? What will any of them do then?

Gee, thanks Ray...

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

Notable Moments: A great wrap-up to the story, I like particularly that Aquaman got a lot to do. I still chuckle at the top of that third panel above, where Aquaman in on top of one of the War-Kohns ship, single handedly Bringing the Pain to several alien baddies all at once.

A superb cover by George Perez. How many times have I said that?

This story is untitled, which most likely had to do with the fact that this was originally one story, titled "When A World Dies Screaming!" They remembered to give last issue's chapter a separate title, but somebody forgot about it this time.

Justice League of America #211 - Feb. 1983

Part 2 of the JLA's desperate attempt to save Earth from self-destruction!

The Story: "The Devil's Bargain" by Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, and Romeo Tanghal. Continued from last issue, the JLA meet with the aliens--who call themselves The Treasurers--to deliver the samples they requested.

The JLA balks at them taking an actual human being, but lowly, simple George Stuart volunteers to go, saying he's been ordinary his whole life--here's his chance to be special.

While Ray's co-worker David steals a jet(!) to find his fiancee, Superman decides that some of the team needs to head into space and investigate these treasurers--this whole thing is all too conveniently timed.

When Red Tornado heads into the upper atmosphere to release the sphere containing the X-Element, it explodes in his face!

The JLAers rescue Reddy, and while the X-Element from the aliens seems to do the trick for the moment, things quickly turn sour. All of a sudden, people and animals touched by the sparkling dust falling from the sky turn into horrible monsters!

Superman and the others, spying on the treasurers, find them making some sort of deal with another set of aliens, seemingly for the person of George Stuart. At the same time, the JLA satellite is attacked by those same aliens, named the War-Kohns.

These War-Kohns think they've killed the JLAers inside, and they head to Earth. The heroes of course are not dead, and they decide to head to Earth to fight these alien attackers, with an added bit of muscle suddenly appearing...The Phantom Stranger!

Superman and the others learn that the Treasurers and the War-Kohns have been warring for years, and struck an uneasy bargain. The Treasurers would find a planet, deplete its X-Element, then offer to replace it. But this new supply of X-Element was infected with a germ, causing the natives on a planet to turn into War-Kohns!

This enrages the JLAers, who have had enough of talking:

...that is one scary Superman!

The JLAers find themselves evenly matched by the War-Kohns. Meanwhile, our lovelorn human David lands his stolen jet in Sweden, where he is met by a bunch of snarling War-Kohns! He knocks a few of them around with a well-swung fire extinguisher, and heads off to find his fiancee Olivia! To be continued!

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

Notable Moments:As I mentioned yesterday, artist Rich Buckler offered up a couple of awesome full-page shots, meant to take advantage of the treasury comics-sized format this story was planned for.

Also, while last issue ended at an understandable point, this one ends on the most minor of the sub-plots. I guess DC only had so many choices where to break up a 72-page story into three 23-page chapters.

Hey, Phantom Stranger--nice of you to show up, but are you a member or not?

Justice League of America #210 - Jan. 1983

How can the JLA fight a menace they can't even see?

The Story: "When A World Dies Screaming!" by Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, and Romeo Tanghal. An untold tale from the JLA Casebook!

The story opens with Ray Palmer, discussing a dire discovery with a co-worker--that a collection of pseudo-neutrino energy called the "X-Element" is quickly evaporating! This X-Element does nothing less than affect all other elements on the Earth! Without it, all of the world's basic chemical reactions start to fail!

Ray takes off to "notify some people", leaving his friend David to do the same. David vows to be reunited with his fiancee, who just happens to be on the other side of the world at the moment.

David assumes Ray is going to find his wife Jean, but of course he's actually headed out to the JLA satellite, to warn them of what's about to happen!

As the JLA discusses what's happening, distress signals go off all around the world, on every continent, so the World's Greatest Superheroes spring into action! Meanwhile, a giant spaceship ominously orbits Earth, watching the events unfold.

Teams of Superman and Wonder Woman, Flash, and Elongated Man, and Green Lantern and The Atom try and stop natural disasters from becoming tragedies. The Atom does some more digging, and discovers that all these events are "X" related--its decaying at an alarming rate, and he can't figUre out why. The Earth might only have mere hours left!

In Southeast Asia, water used to grow crops is turning into gas, potentially causing mass starvation. Luckily the animal friends of both Aquaman and the Hawks team-up to lend a hand:

The JLA is successful, but they know they are just combating the symptoms, not the disease. Suddenly, the giant spaceship we saw earlier arrives in the skies of Manhattan!

Out of the ship come a group of magenta-skinned aliens who offer a deal with the world's governments--they will provide the elements needed to reverse the decay of the X-Element...for a price!

But its not money they want...it is samples from various surfaces around the world, like snow from the peak of Mt. Everest, salt from the Indian Ocean, and sands from the Sahara. The JLA is suspicious, of course, but they do what the U.S. government asks them to do, and use their powers to round up these items.

One item the JLA was not asked to get is...an old man named George Stuart?? What's going on here? To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: As a kid, I wondered why we were getting an "untold tale from the JLA Casebook".

It wasn't until I started doing research for my site TreasuryComics.com that I learned this story had originally been commissioned for an all-new, treasury-sized, JLA edition of All-New Collectors' Edition. DC ran blurbs for such in their Amazing World of DC Comics fanzine:

For whatever reason, around the time of the "DC Implosion", DC decided to shelve most of the material originally planned to run in ANCE. Some of it was immediately re-purposed for the regular-sized books (Action Comics #500), some of it jettisoned entirely (The Legend of King Arthur, also written by Gerry Conway).

This story sat in inventory for almost six years, and then someone at DC decided to drop it in here. Presumably it was called an "untold tale" to explain the absence of the team's two newest members, Zatanna and Firestorm.

That this was originally going to be a treasury-sized book breaks my heart. I'm such a devoted fan of the format, and an all-new treasury-sized JLA book would've made my then-seven-year-old head explode (in a good way).

When you realize the story was originally meant to run at 10 1/2 x 13", you can see how artist Rich Buckler prepared to deliver artwork that made the most of the bigger size. I particularly love the splash page:

*sigh* What could have been...

Justice League of America: The Lunar Invaders

One of the most obscure JLA adventures ever, complete with words, pictures, and sound!

The Story: "The Lunar Invaders" by Marv Wolfman, Ross Andru, Rich Buckler, and Bob Smith. On the moon, a collection of astronauts from different countries are working on Moonbase Peace, a livable space colony being built there.

Suddenly, they and the base are attacked by...the JLA satellite?!?

Yes, the satellite starts firing missiles at the base, destroying most of it, leaving the astronauts diving for cover.

NASA sends a distress signal, and members of the JLA--who are home, on Earth--respond to the call and can't believe what they are being told:

The JLA is completely baffled, since the JLA's weapons are defensive weapons, and can't even be used to attack anyone or anything. Yet, it has happened, which makes the JLA confused and angry, none more so than the Atom, apparently:

Wonder Woman is the current chairperson, so she sends Superman and Batman to the moon to help out there, and the rest of them to the satellite to see what's going on up there!

They try to beam up there, but find the teleporters aren't working, so Green Lantern uses his Power Ring to transport them there.

They find the airlock doors sealed shut, but Red Tornado blasts his way in using his tornado powers (again, how exactly does Reddy do that in airless space?) and then the JLAers search the satellite for intruders.

Gas starts seeping in the air vents, almost knocking the heroes out until Reddy connects to the computer and has the gas sucked away.

Meanwhile, on the moon, Superman and Batman discover giant monsters, which threaten them. Superman tries to fight them, but finds he passes right through them! As Superman tries to engage them, Batman figures out what's going on.

Back at the satellite, the JLAers are attacked by other systems in the satellite. They easily defeat them, but it leaves parts of the satellite destroyed.

On the Moon, Batman tells Superman to use his X-ray vision to scan under the surface, where the monsters emanate from, and he discovers an underground city!

They find their way in, and discover two yellow-skinned aliens pointing ray guns at them. The same thing happens at the satellite, where the heroes find two more aliens in their main deck!

Turns out this race of aliens--called Orians--escaped their doomed planet and moved to the moon, and built giant underground cities. When the astronauts started inadvertently damaging their cities while building the moonbase, the Orians assumed it was an attack and used the nearest set of weapons--the ones at the JLA satellite--to defend themselves, but taking pains to only attack the machinery, not the people.

The JLA makes peace with the Orians, to the benefit of all:

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Atom, Red Tornado

Notable Moments: This is one of four book and cassette adventures made by Fisher-Price and released in 1982, the others starring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. They run 61 pages, which is presumably why you have the penciling chores spread over two artists, Ross Andru and Rich Buckler.

They are printed on nice paper and in full-color, and with the use of DC stalwarts Buckler and Andru, this looks a lot like any other DC comic of the time, albeit one inside a hardcover.

They feature full-cast recordings on a single audio cassette, and you can listen to an mp3 file of this story here, something I fully suggest you do, JLA fans!

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 #190 - May 1981

Part 2 of the return of Starro the Conqueror and the battle for New York!

The Story: "Our Friends, Our Enemies" by Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, Bob Smith, and Larry Mahlstedt. Continued from last issue, we find the remaining JLAers not under Starro's control aboard a battleship, along with a fleet of other ships, waiting out in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Admiral in charge explains to the JLA that, if Starro can't be contained, they may have to "lose a finger to save a hand" and destroy New York!

The JLA notices the Admiral says they have until nightfall to resolve this, and its that window that they think they can use:

...I love that sequence, with all the JLAers talking in turn. Cool.

Back in New York, Starro is using the zombie JLAers to build giant energy conduits to make himself more powerful. But he doesn't notice that Red Tornado is not actually under his control, and is sneaking off, heading out of the city.

The other JLAers arrive, wearing "repellor-disks" of Thanagarian technology to keep themselves safe from the Starro drones. They split into teams, and head off into the city streets.

Aquaman learns from his finny friends that Starro has some of his minions heading out of the city in boats, and he sees if he "can dissuade them."

He can, because he's Aquaman and he rules:

Meanwhile, Batman, Flash, Zatanna, and Elongated Man are down in the subways, and also stop the Starroistas from getting out of the city (though not before Batman and Ralph notice something seems a little...different...about Flash and Zee).

Red Tornado, unbeknownst to his fellow teammates, participates in a bit of sabotage, by shutting down a major power station, keeping everyone in the city.

At the same time, the Hawks discover the original little boy (from last issue), alone and crying, Starro-less, inside a giant restaurant's freezer.

Back to Tornado, who seemingly sacrifices himself to destroy a circuit board, cutting off power directly to Starro, who is holed up in Grand Central Station.

Starro notices this, and is none too happy to see all of the JLA before him, where they explain to him that they discovered bitter cold can freeze his duplicates, freeing the other JLAers.

Green Lantern and Firestorm combine their powers, and zap Starro into a giant frozen block. Elongated Man wonders if the JLA might want to market Frozen Starfish On A Stick.

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Zatanna, Firestorm

Notable Moments: A great, fun conclusion to the story. I especially loved the "stealth mission" aspect to the JLA. Aquaman gets some good moments, all on his own. Thank you, Gerry Conway.

Another spiffy cover by Brian Bolland...but that's superflous, isn't it?

This issue's letters page featured one of the oddest letters--if not the oddest--to ever run in the book:

...back in 1981, 1999 seemed so far away.

Of course, had the original JLA book (and two more subsequent series) not been cancelled, the original Justice League of America title would be up to around issue #520 or so. That woulda been cool.

"Plunked down a C-note"--Steve wasn't that far off, was he?


Update: Russell in the comments section mentioned that he didn't see the Atom anywhere, in either issue.

Upon further examination, I realize that The Atom is not in this issue, a fact I've somehow overlooked even after having read these issues approximately fifteen thousand times.

No mention is made of the Atom, and why he's the only JLAer not in the story. This was long before Sword of the Atom, so I have no idea why he isn't here!

Justice League of America #189 - Apr. 1981

The return of the JLA's first foe--Starro the Conqueror!

The Story: "The Return of the Starfish Conqueror!" by Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, and Frank McLaughlin. We open up on the JLA satellite, where Black Canary is taking Firestorm through some training exercises.

Firestorm sorta cheats a little bit, and when Black Canary calls him on it, he complains the course is "too tough for anyone."

"Really?" Canary responds. "I run that course every day, Firestorm."

Back down on Earth, a young boy goes fishing, where he reels in something...odd. He reels in what looks like the tentacle of a starfish! That's strange enough, but it's a tentacle that can zap you with an energy ray! That's even weirder!:

...I love the positioning of the story title, right after the kid gets zapped. A very exciting, 50's sci-fi-movie style opening.

The kid, now a glassy-eyed zombie, returns home, where his Fin In A Box zaps his Mom and rotten jerk of a Dad. I think this is going somewhere!

Meanwhile, Wonder Woman and Red Tornado are having a picnic with Reddy's family, where Diana is charmed by the love Reddy's family has for him, and vice versa.

Suddenly, some sort of creature blasts out of a nearby lake, and its blasts both heroes when they try and stop it. The creature is revealed to be...Starro the Conqueror!

Starro, for no good reason, explains how "he" survived since the last time he tangled with a superhero, Aquaman, and how he now plans to take over all of New York City!

Meanwhile, Superman and Green Lantern, hanging out at his Fortress of Solitude, get a distress signal, and at the satellite they see Black Canary and Firestorm tending to WW and Reddy.

Wonder Woman wakes up and tells them she now remembers who it was she saw just before she got knocked out--Starro! They then head down to New York, where they vastly underestimate how much more powerful Starro has become.

Starro has literally millions of tiny duplicates, who quickly attach themselves to the JLAers, taking control of their minds and bodies. Starro rallies the troops, and sets his sights on the rest of the world.

We then follow a lonely seagull, as it flies from New York, out to sea, to a battleship:

"We may have to destroy New York!"

A heck of a cliffhanger--the first week in February can't get here fast enough!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Zatanna, Firestorm

Notable Moments: Ok, I'm going to admit this right now--these issues, #189 till around #218, are my all-time favorite JLA stories, ever. All the copies I have in my collection and that I'm scanning here are the same copies I bought off the newsstands, twenty-seven years ago. So expect a lot of car-waxing of Gerry Conway, George Perez, and Rich Buckler over the next week or two.

This is a big story, and it needed the entire JLA to participate. Like I said, the ending is a classic cliffhanger.

The cover is by Brian Bolland, doing some of his earliest DC work. As usual, it's fantastic--exciting, well-composed, and drawn within an inch of its life.

This issue has a subscription form that I filled out for some reason, even though at age ten I had no way of paying for all of them:

...thank God I took lettering classes while at the Kubert School.

One last note--it took the entire JLA to defeat Starro in Brave and the Bold #28, yet Aquaman managed to do it all by himself in Adventure Comics #451.

Just sayin'.

Justice League of America #188 - March 1981

Two...two...two stories in one issue!

The Story: "The Metamorph War" by Gerry Conway, Don Heck, and Frank McLaughlin. Continued from last issue, we have the faux-JLA (actually duplicates created by supervillain Proteus) about to rob a bank they are obstensibly hired to protect.

But as they try to get away, they are stopped by...a construction worker, an office worker, a chef, and a waitress!

No...this is not a team-up with the Village People, these are the "regular people" identities that Proteus made the real JLAers believe they are!

The real JLAers quickly discover that their duplicates are faking their powers via machines, so between that and their lack of experience, they are easily defeated.

The Flash manages to take out Proteus, who tells the Scarlet Speedster that the machine he used to do the old switcheroo is damaged due to the Flash's punch, leaving Zatanna stranded in her "other" identity as a bag lady!

He finds Zee, and connects with her emotionally, reflecting their recent romance, which snaps her out of her fog. They both admit that they maybe they work better just as...friends.

Roll Call: Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Elongated Man, Zatanna

Second Story: "The Miracle at 22,300 Miles!" by Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, and Frank McLaughlin

Up at the satellite, the Halls are pining for their home planet, Thanagar:

While they can't return home for now, Carter reassures his wife that maybe someday they'll be able to.

Meanwhile, Ray and Jean Palmer are attending a Hanukkah celebration, where the theme of hope is again celebrated.

No rest for the Batman, however, as we find him and Black Canary busting up a ring of computer thieves! They make quick work of them, when they receive a distress call from the Hawks!

Turns out some sort of small satellite is attacking the JLA HQ, and since it has knocked out their satellite's defense system, Hawkman heads out into space to attack it head on.

Batman, Canary, and the Atom arrive, only to have the JLA's main computer--the one that controls the life support systems and the transporter beam--blow-up! This leaves them with just an hour, or they will all run out of oxygen!

The Atom heads into the system to try and repair the damage, while Hawkgirl heads to the Hawks' orbiting spaceship to get a replacement component. She does, and life support is restored.

But...the Atom reveals he couldn't fix the computer in time. Yet...the life support system continued to work the whole time. How is that possible?

The Atom says they may have witnessed a miracle, like the one that happened in a temple 2,000 years ago...

Roll Call: Batman, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Hawkgirl

Notable Moments: I really enjoyed the second story--its a neat little holiday piece, and it probably wouldn't have worked as an issue-length tale. Pairing it up with the second half of the Proteus story (another tale that really didn't need to go past its page count) was a nice move.

Our pal Rich Buckler's art for "Miracle" is just great here--I loved Shayera's pensive look on the splash page.

Tomorrow would normally be issue #189, of course, but we have two days of special posts first. Be sure to check 'em out!

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 #164 - March 1979

Finally, we get to the bottom of this Zatanna/Zatara business!

The Story: "Murder by Melody!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. The JLA reconvenes after letting Allegro escape, and Zatanna suggests that sorcery is behind his abilities.

She says that his music weakens the barrier between her and her mother, so if she can get his mysterious machine, it can possibly solve two problems at once!

Allegro, meanwhile, starts to play his mad music in an abandoned concert hall, which he then broadcasts all over the Earth!

As you can see, it has the same effect on kids that KISS' music did in the 70s.

The JLA finds an ancient text that Zatanna believes Allegro learned his magic from, which she thinks has driven him mad.

They then find Allegro and Black Canary, via a spell from Zatanna, uses her Canary Cry to dispel the demons, which gives the other heroes a chance to knock Allegro out and get his Mad Synthesizer of Death.

They then turn to Zatara, who tells the story of how he met and fell in love with Zatanna's mother, Sindella.

They use Allegro's machine to open the portal to another dimension. Here they meet a sorcerer named Highlord, who has Sindella as his prisoner! He tells the heroes Sindella is dying, and when she does die, her daughter will take her place! To be continued!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Zatanna

Notable Moments: I like how the Allegro story ends half-way through the issue. There might have been a temptation to pad the story to fill two full issues, but its kinda neat how the JLA goes from one story to the other.

Justice League of America #163 - Feb. 1979

One of my favorite JLA covers, by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano--the angle, the movement, a bad guy, fire demons--total pandemonium!

The Story: "Concert of the Damned!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Green Arrow comes home to find someone waiting for him--well, Oliver Queen--a super villian-esque guy named Anton Allegro.

Allegro plays a few notes on this machine he's carrying, which produces three bizarre demon-like creatures, who make quick work of Green Arrow.

Meanwhile, the JLA is talking to Zatara and Zatanna, and they want to know why her own father cast a spell of forgetfulness on her!

But before he can answer, Black Canary issues a distress call, telling them what happened to Green Arrow. When they arrive, Arrow tells them of his history with Allegro. Apparently he showed up at Oliver Queen's foundation (back when he was rich), looking for financial backing for his odd music, which he says the music establishment won't consider because of a conspiracy.

Queen gives the guy the bum's rush, which infuriates Allegro. Seconds later, Green Arrow is stopping a bank robbery and fires off a tuning-fork arrow in an attempt to shatter the tank(!) the robbers are using.

It works, but the arrow then went haywire:

...it left Allegro deaf for life. Oliver Queen picked up his medical expenses, but obviously something else has happened over the years.

The JLA tracks Allegro's music to a mansion, where he is using his powers to murder his ex-manager! They try and stop him, but Allegro's demons are too powerful, and he leaves, out to find his ex-wife.

Meanwhile, Zatara reveals to his daughter, under a spell of Zee's, that his wife--her mother--who he always thought was dead, is in fact alive! Zatara has tried to find her spirit, but has been unable to. Zatanna tries to do the same thing, and they see a glimpse of her, before it disappears!

Back with the JLA, we find Superman and Batman as they stop Allegro from murdering his ex-wife...sort of. Allegro thinks he's killed her, but after he manages to escape they explain it was a robot duplicate from Superman's Fortress! But...Allegro is still out there! To be continued!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Zatanna

Notable Moments: This is Hawkgirl's first JLA story without Hawkman. Cool. As we always knew, Shayera is fully-formed character in her own right.

While Allegro is quite mad, he's got a murderous glee a lot of comic book super-villains don't have, which was a tad unusual for the time.

Justice League of America #161 - Dec. 1978

Zatanna joins the Justice League...or does she?

The Story: "The Reverse-Spells of Zatanna's Magic!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. The JLA has a meeting where they decide to add Zatanna to the team!

Zatanna--bearing a new costume--shows up to tell the astonished heroes she doesn't want to join! They ask Zee if something is wrong, but she says no. She doesn't want anyone's help or interference--especially not Green Lantern's! Hmm...

The team, stunned, breaks up and heads home ("What about Adam Strange?" Flash is heard muttering), but The Atom, on Monitor Duty, thinks something is fishy.

Just as Atom calls Batman to ask him for help, Green Lantern materializes in the satellite and zaps Atom unconscious! Of course, this is not the Green Lantern. This faux-GL does some research to find out more about this power ring he has, but is frustrated to find out he can't locate the power battery to charge it.

He mentions something about casting spells, and needing to neutralize the rest of the JLA, "just like I did to my old foe, Zatanna."

Meanwhile, we find Zatanna fighting a horde of demons in an alternate dimension. She is knocked out by one of them on the steps of a castle. We get to peer into the castle, where we find Green Lantern, stiff as a statue covered in cobwebs!

Batman does some investigating, and after talking to Zee's father Zatara, and figures out Zatanna's odd behavior was a ruse, and she was leaving some sort of clue for the JLAers to figure out.

The Atom wakes up, tells them what happened, and they follow the Fake Lantern's flight-path...to the mysterious city of Angkor Wat. Once there, Red Tornado is zapped by the evil Green Lantern. He then blasts the others.

Zatanna is helped out by a cavalry of soliders from different eras she called up with a spell. Once her gag is removed, she casts a spell freeing the real Lantern.

We then see that the evil GL is really The Warlock of Ys, who apparently cast a slow-burning spell that had him switching bodies with Lantern. He then put a spell on Zatanna, preventing her from directly warning anyone of Ys' plan, or even to use her backward spells. But he didn't realize Zee had freed Lantern, and they easily knock him out with a big green fist.

Epilogue: The case solved, the JLA asks again if Zatanna wants to join the JLA...which of course she does!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, and new member Zatanna!

Notable Moments: The Warlock of Ys apparently set this spell when he first met GL, in Green Lantern #42. Since this was before DC started fudging with the chronological dates of the characters, that means that Ys' spell took twelve years to fully kick in. Now that's patience.

Zatanna was a fine addition to the JLA. The added female quotient was good, and her powers nicely balanced out the rest of the team, as did her relative youth. She would "jump ahead" a lot of older members, in that she would participate in a lot of future JLA stories, many more than some of the others.

I was lucky enough to meet both Rich Buckler and Frank McLaughlin at the New York Comic Con a few weeks ago, so I took the opportunity to get them to John Hancock this cover, one of my all-time favorites from the book:

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 #158 - Sept. 1978

The return of Ultraa!

The Story: "The Super-Power of Negative Thinking!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. We find The Flash and Wonder Woman taking on Poison Ivy and Mirror Master, when suddenly that hero from another world, Ultraa, shows up to help!

The villains get away with some stolen loot, but WW explains that the stuff they stole is nearly worthless. Ultraa is so furious these bad guys would risk innocent lives to steal worthless objects he takes off to find them.

Meanwhile, the two heroes are shocked to find that the regular citizens are hardly appreciative of the JLAers saving them--in fact, they tell Flash and Wonder Woman that being around a super-powered fight is like being in an earthquake!

We follow the baddies back to the secret hideout of the Injustice Gang, where their mysteriously cloaked leader tells them these items are far from worthless! He tells them they are extra-terrestrial artifacts that, when combined, will help a race of alien overlord take over Earth!

The members of the IG--Ivy, Mirror Master, Chronos, Tattooed Man, and the Scarecrow--don't believe the story, and their leader gets furious at them for such insolence! The villains pipe down, but Chronos silently tells himself he's going to check up on this guy.

Meanwhile, as the JLA are discussing what's happened, Ultraa breaks in and shoots them with some sort of "negative ray", which he tells them gets rid of all their super-powers! The JLA doesn't believe it, until they all discover they are now, indeed, powerless! Ultraa says this is the only way to bring peace to his new home, so now it's off to find the Injustice Gang!

He shoots them with the beam, unbeknownst to them, and he believes all is well. But when they, along with the alien artifacts, start wrecking the Earth, he realizes something has gone wrong!

Ultraa tries to take on the villains directly, but the Scarecrow instills his terrorizing fear in Ultraa, so the JLA--powerless, they believe--still show up to try and help.

The JLA tell themselves that Ultraa's beam didn't so much take away their powers but their belief in their powers, so the JLA goads each other on to overcome this mental handicap. It works, and Superman delivers the final blow, via heat vision, to the alien artifacts and the IG's leader, who turned out to be...Abra Kadabra!

But what to do with Ultraa?

Roll Call: Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Red Tornado

Notable Moments: I always felt like Ultraa was primed to be the next member of the JLA, but it never quite happened.

For some reason, I also have a copy of this issue in one of those now-maddeningly-popular (read: expensive on eBay) Comic Pacs, courtesy Whitman, under the blanket title of Superman Comics:

Each comic retailed for 50 cents, so via Whitman you get two comics for 99 cents, a savings of...one penny. Gee, I wonder why Whitman had such a tough time moving these out the door?

Justice League of America #156 - July 1978

Behold...the Fiend with Five Faces!

The Story: "The Fiend with Five Faces!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. We start this issue in a very unusual way...with Aquaman!

We find Aquaman climbing out of the water, barely able to move. He staggers his way on shore, and runs into some toughs. But even weakened, this is still Aquaman, and he dispatches them with just a couple of punches.

He finds his way to a cab, and asks to be taken to the Bristol Building. He asks the cabbie to help him to the elevator, which they take to the roof.

The cabbie leaves the mysteriously-dressed stranger there, who he recognizes as...Steve McQueen!:

While Aquaman is attended to on the satellite, Flash and Green Lantern run into a sort of wood nymph type bad guy, who seems to control the vegetation around them, which he uses to knock the two heroes out.

Aquaman tells the JLA about this mysterious being he encountered...the Fiend with Five Faces! Investigating a series of natural underwater disasters, the trail led him to a small isle, where he saw this bizarre creature, who was a statue that came alive, and then blasted Aquaman as soon as it saw him!

While discussing what to do, the Phantom Stranger appears, explaining he is there to offer assistance. Uh-oh, this must be real trouble!

Various teams of JLAers answer distress calls, where they each run into god-like beings who were once combined but now are free to wreak havoc on Earth.

The JLA manages to fight some of them off, and their leader, Tangora who tells them that this moment of freedom is to replenish their souls before they must rejoin into one being, not to cause destruction. Tangora reforms them all into one beings, the isle where they came from sinks, order is restored.

There's an Epilogue, where The Atom debates with his friends about whether to tell Jean his secret identity. Batman is against it (surprise), but Flash, Elongated Man, and Aquaman are for it. So what's he going to do? To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: The Phantom Stranger hangs around during the "Should I Tell Her?" debate with Ray, but says nothing. I think it was a lost opportunity, not to have PS say something like "Look, I've been with Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth, Madam Curie, Mata Hari, Ava Gardner, and Jane Fonda. I'm telling you, Ray, women can't handle dating a superhero!"

Followed by awkward silence from the rest of the team.

Justice League of America #153 - Apr. 1978

The JLA takes quite the beat-down from a new foe, Ultraa!

The Story: "Earth's First and Last Superhero!" by Gerry Conway, George Tuska, and Frank McLaughlin. During a contentious JLA meeting, some members of the team begin to vibrate violently, until some of them disappear!

The JLAers find themselves transported to a planet that, well, looks like Earth...

On this planet, we see some hunters, while chasing after some big game, come face to face with a strangely dressed guy that calls himself Ultraa!

Meanwhile, the JLA arrive and people are perplexed as to these weirdly-dressed strangers are. They stumble across a bank robbery, which of course gives the JLA something to do.

I've never been a fan of George Tuska's superhero work, but there were times it was cool--I mean, I love that guy's face as he tries to escape The Flash. Priceless.

Anyway, the heroes find out that on this "alternate" Earth, they are merely characters in comic books (and they take a look at JLA #151, even!), so what do they do? Visit Julius Schwartz, of course!

The Flash tries to use Julie's Cosmic Treadmill to go home, but somehow it won't work!

Now we get to see, via flashback, who this Ultraa guy is--a lone survivor of a doomed race that was sent to Earth, and was found by an Aboriginal tribe, as raised as one of their own.

Some of the JLA then comes across a giant robot named Maxitron that is searching for Ultraa, who wants to destroy him. Meanwhile, Superman and GL run into Ultraa, there's the classic Misunderstanding, leading to a fight that luckily ends before too much damage is done.

Maxitron finds Ultraa, but is tricked when Supes and Ultraa are disguised as each other, to throw off Maxitron's plan. Ultraa then plants a good one right in Maxitron's hard-drive, causing it to self-destruct.

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Red Tornado

Notable Moments: The first and only time Dick Dillin would miss an issue during his extraordinary twelve-year run. Maybe it was the fourteen million other pages DC had him drawing that month.

Some superhero comic artists would add little touches of detail that made their work distinctive outside of the style itself.

For example, Murphy Anderson always drew superhero boots with little, elf-like tips at the end. George Tuska always put the time in to drawing little seams on superhero's gloves, like the ones pictured here. That always seemed like a lot of extra work to me.

Ultraa would return many times in subsequent issues of JLA; I don't know if he's ever shown up anywhere recently, however.

One last thing: on the cover, penciller Rich Buckler I thought really conveyed how much of a beating the JLA is taking from Ultraa. In particular, Batman looks like he's snapped his neck. Ouch!

JLA Satellite Interview with Rich Buckler

Hot on the heels of our interview with Steve Englehart, comes Part 1 of a brief chat with legendary comics artist Rich Buckler, who drew a lot of the JLA covers from the era of the book we've been talking about in the last few weeks:

JLA Satellite: How did you get the job doing the covers? Did you go after the job or did DC call you?

Rich Buckler: At the time I was drawing Justice League [covers] I had some office space at DC. I was within shouting distance of Jack Harris and Julie Schwartz--and whenever a cover was needed, I was up for it.

JLA Satellite: Did anyone provide layouts, like Carmine Infantino used to, or did you do it all?

Rich Buckler: I think there were a couple of Flash covers that were sketched by Ross Andru, but all of the JLA covers were my own creations. I would be handed photocopies of some of the story pages and it was just left up to me to come up with a scene that worked.

I always preferred working up my own ideas. Sometimes I would work up more than one idea. But, usually, the first idea I'd come up with is the one that would be approved.

JLA Satellite: You were inked by a lot of different inkers on them--McLaughlin, Springer, Abel, Giacoia, Giordano--any one(s) you thought made for the best overall collaboration?

RB: My favorites were Frank Giacoia and Dick Giordano. I never knew ahead of time who would be available (either did the editors who assigned the work), so I never had a say about it. Every cover I did was drawn while I was working in the office. The deadline for it was always just a few hours.

I'm amazed, now that I think about it, that I was able to do so many of them and be consistent and keep up the quality!

JLA Satellite: Any particular favorites of the covers you did?

RB: I liked all of them, but probably my favorites are the ones inked by Frank Giacoia and Dick Giordano. Actually, one of the main reasons I got to work on this book is that I knew all of the characters really well. And that's because I'm such a fan at heart--I love these characters!


I call this interview "Part 1" because I intend to go back and talk to Rich again, this time asking him about the complete issues of the book he drew, #'s 189-191 and 210-212 (which are some of my all-time favorite JLA comics). Rich is very friendly and always makes time for my obsessive, nerdly questions, and for that I am deeply grateful. Thanks Rich!

Justice League of America #152 - March 1978

A holiday JLA adventure!

The Story: "2,000 Light Years to Christmas!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Three mysterious aliens, on a long journey through space, unexpectedly get knocked off course by a space warp near Earth.

While the aliens--merely stunned--survive the blow, they each drop the pouch they are carrying, and they fall to Earth. Where will these pouches end up?

Meanwhile, the several members of the JLA--Superman, Batman, the Hawks, and Elongated Man--are relaxing at the JLA satellite playing a few rounds of poker, while Red Tornado stares into space:

...I love Hawkgirl here--"Please tell me again, exactly what is a Royal Flush?" Oh, she's so adorable.

Red Tornado spots some shooting stars, but the JLA concludes its nothing to worry about.

Meanwhile, a war orphan named Traya finds one of the pouches, inside of which is a glowing orb. Another pouch's contents is nicked by a deer(!), which leads to the consternation of a new baddie, Major Macabre! He knows these objects can give one immeasurable powers, and he wants those pouches!

The objects are causing problems all over the world, turning people into monsters, and the JLA divides up into teams to stop them. Traya doesn't know what she's doing with her orb, doesn't understand, but Red Tornado talks to her and gets her to trust him.

Major Macabre shows up, attacks the JLAers individually and fights them off long enough to get the objects. But back at the satellite, Reddy figures out these objects aren't weapons, they just convert the user's emotions, so they're only "evil" under use of someone evil.

The JLA finds Macabre and fights him while Reddy nicks the objects. Without their power, and against the all heroes together, Macabre is defeated. They then return the objects to the alien travelers, on their way to another world, while Reddy offers the orphan Traya a new dawn this holiday season...

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Hawkman, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl

Notable Moments: A sweet story, and it was nice to Reddy get the spotlight again. And Conway's introduction of Traya would become a permanent fixture in Red Tornado's background.

I could never take Major Macabre too seriously, since, to me, he reminded me way too much of Harry Mudd:

...you be the judge.

There's JLA Mail Room Extra feature in this issue, with a poll asking readers to rank their favorite JLAers, in order. The top three most popular were Green Lantern, Flash, and Superman.

Least popular? Phantom Stranger, Hawkgirl, and Elongated Man. While it's not fair to judge PS against the other members, and Hawkgirl is clearly too new to fully register, if I was Ralph, I would've worried.