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The return of the JLA's goofiest foe!
The Story: "Who Can Stop The Shaggy Man?" by Gerry Conway, George Perez, and Frank McLaughlin. We open in the frozen wastes of a remote spot in the Soviet Union, with two lonely guards getting attacked by some sort of giant monster.
One of them is killed, but the other survives to tell his tale to his superiors, who summarily execute him to cover up the story.
Meanwhile, at the JLA satellite, Elongated Man, bored while on Monitor Duty, has his boredom interrupted when a Russian space ship hurtles by! He sends out a JLA distress signal and we watch a few of the team respond, like Black Canary, who ends her exploration of Green Arrow's quiver to answer the call.
The JLA is shocked to see his Cosmonauts in their satellite, but they show the heroes some pictures they took from space....that of The Shaggy Man, rampaging through Russia!
The Flash is downright rude to the Cosmonauts, who shows them that they have The Shaggy Man imprisoned, after their last battle (JLA #104). Even when its brought up that this could be the other Shaggy Man, last thought to be trapped underground (JLA #45), he still calls the Russians bald-faced liars.
Turns out he and Green Lantern fought that second Shaggy Man several months ago, and defeated him, so he now thinks the Russians freed him to use as a secret weapon, except its all gone wrong. "Let them deal with it", Flash says.
The other Leaguers ignore Flash's bitterness and head to Russia to stop the rampaging monster, leading to a wonderful little sequence with Batman:
...Perez was always so good at stuff like that, turning what could be a routine sequence into a funny and exciting couple of panels.
While the fight continues, Bats lures the Shaggy Man onto the top of a rocket he has rewired to blast off into space. The Shaggy Man, being none too bright, of course isn't smart enough to let go, even as the rocket hurtles out of the atmosphere.
At first, the JLAers think Batman has just sacrificed himself, but he shows up behind them telling them it was a dummy for the expressed purpose of fooling the Shaggy Man long enough to get him into space. The Dark Knight Detective isn't about to be taken out by the friggin' Shaggy Man.
Roll Call: Batman, Flash, Atom, Black Canary, Elongated Man
Notable Moments: A fun issue, and after the mammoth JLA/JSA three-parter, a nice change of pace to have the whole story in just one issue.
Gerry Conway definitely amped up Barry Allen's conservative feelings (at least in comparison to his fellow JLAers), but here he is a real jerk. Even when its obvious that--planned or not--the Shaggy Man is on a rampage, killing people all over Russia, he barely cares.
The JLA Mail Room page is filled with contradictory letters regarding Green Arrow's departure. Two comic book reading sisters (sounds like a Maxim photo spread), Karen and Alicia Wu are divided on it, as, it seems, are most of the fans.
On the splash page, it states this issue is dedicated to Dick Dillin.
The return of the Shaggy Man!
The Story: "The Shaggy Man Will Get You If You Don't Watch Out! by Len Wein, Dick Dillin, and Dick Giordano. We open with the villanous, giant-domed Hector Hammond, using his vast mental powers to travel the earth, and landing upon the JLA as they have a meeting in their satellite.
Hammond is trying to devise a way to defeat the JLA, and he gets an idea from reviewing their cases in the JLA library, considering all the various baddies they have fought in the past...Amos Fortune, The Key, Amazon, Kanjar Ro, Despero...but settles on another. He heads(no pun intended) to Northern Chile, and revives the long dormant Shaggy Man!
He transports the Shaggy Man to the satellite, but sneakily. The Shaggy Man is discovered during a sequence with Aquaman giving the Black Canary a tour of the JLA Trophy Room. Aquaman shows Canary the Shaggy Man statue until he realizes "Waitaminnit...we never had a statue of the Shaggy Man!"
Aquaman and Canary fight the beast to a standstill, until Hammond gets involved and rings the Gamma Gong(as bad as it sounds!), knocking them out. Shaggy, with the help of Hammond, proceeds to make short work of the JLA, as he individually defeats Hawkman and Green Arrow, Batman and Atom, and the Flash.
Unfortunately, the Shaggy Man isn't the mintiest comic in the box, and he bursts through the hull of the satellite to get to Superman, causing the JLA HQ to lose orbit and it begins to hurtle towards Earth!
As the satellite is about too crash, Green Lantern shows up, catches it, and he then revives the unconscious JLAers to team up to fight the Shaggy Man, in one of those great full-page shots of the whole JLA:
The Shaggy Man makes like King Kong by grabbing Canary and heading for the top of a skyscraper. As Lantern fights him, Hammond finds his mental powers exhausted, leaving GL to reduce the Shaggy Man to action figure-size proportions, encasing him in a small tube.
We end with Hammond, still in prison, vowing revenge once again. Whatever, Mike Farrell!
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary
Notable Moments: In just a few issues, writer Len Wein brought back the Seven Soldiers of Victory, plus classic JLA villains Felix Faust and the Shaggy Man. A fun issue all around, one of my favorites.
Given the Shaggy Man's size, and that Batman looks so stiff, this cover always looked like The Shaggy Man was playing with Batman and Flash action figures to me. Is it just me?
The Story: "The Super-Struggle Against The Shaggy Man!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, Frank Giacoia, and Joe Giella.
When the JLA determine that the Shaggy Man is unbeatable(c'mon, unbeatable? Really?) they trap him underground with a rock creature(and a duplicate Shaggy Man--don't ask) so they will battle one another forever. Um, good, humane plan, Justice Leaguers!
Roll Call: Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman
Notable Moments: Debut of the Shaggy Man, one of the JLA's goofiest, yet long-lasting, bad guys.
