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 #65 - Sept. 1968

I've had dreams like this, except the JLAers were happy.
The Story: "T.O.Morrow Kills the Justice League--Today!" by Gardner Fox, Dick Dillin, and Sid Greene. Part Two of yesterday's JLA/JSA team-up, it opens with some of the JLA's spouses(Jean Loring, Hawkgirl, Mera, etc.) showing up and planting big wet ones on their partners, which renders the heroes immobile!

Turns out they were anti-matter duplicates made by Morrow in an attempt to get to the other members, where Morrows uses his futuristic abilities to make elements of the JLA Souvenir Room come alive and attack them!

Eventually, its Red Tornado who finds a way to defeat T.O.Morrow, just as his supercomputer predicted might happen!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman
Notable Moments: In an attempt to rescue the immobile JLAers, Red Tornado calls on the real better halves, figuring a real kiss would undo what the anti-matter kiss did:
...lordy, what a weird panel. Wonder Woman looks totally bored, Red Tornado staring, and the odd, fan-fic-esque feeling you get watching Jean Loring kiss a tiny Ray. *shudder*

The bigger news is that this is Gardner Fox's last issue as writer of the Justice League. Obviously, change was in the air, since longtime artist Mike Sekowsky left just two issues earlier.

As good and enjoyable as it was, Fox's "Monster of the Month" style, filled with mostly interchangable heroes, was starting to look old hat in the age of Marvel and it's very specifically characterized heroes. And we'd see that in the JLA, but soon!

Brave and the Bold #s 28, 29, 30 - 1960

F.O.A.M. member Russell Burbage pointed out yesterday that this blog should really start with the JLA's debut in The Brave and the Bold.

I initially didn't think to, because even as a kid with a driving desire to complete my run of the JLA, these first three appearances were way beyond my means, and then as I got older I never really got around to picking them up, especially since all the stories had been reprinted anyway. Plus part of the blog's mission was to chronicle my experiences getting each individual issue, complete with cover scans of the one I bought(not pulled off the GCBD or some place), and I simply didn't have those experiences with these three issues.

Yet, not including them just feels wrong, since they are seminal comics in the team's history. And any blog professing to be a (mostly)complete history of the JLA as a comic can hardly skip them, so here they are, all at once!

Brave and the Bold #28:
The story: "Starro The Conqueror!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. Proving Gardner Fox wanted to hit the ground running, this story opens with Aquaman's finny friend Peter the PufferFish(no, I'm not kidding) telling him about a mysterious, alien starfish that has landed in the ocean!

Aquaman calls the Justice League(who?), and let's them know multiple Starros are appearing all over the world, so Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Martian Manhunter each try to fight them(Superman and Batman are both "too busy" starring in other books at the moment).

They eventually band together to fight the original Starro in the town of Happy Harbor, where local jerk Snapper Carr assists them. For his trouble they make him an Honorary Member. Dig it, man!

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

Notable Moments: Aquaman in this story is wearing yellow gloves, retroactively the hallmark of the Earth-2 Aquaman. Luckily, this has been ignored by continuity mavens and it's always been the Earth-1 Aquaman that's been a member of the JLA.

Superman and Batman were no doubt horrified that the JLA allowed some kid who snaps his fingers to become an honorary JLAer, but that's what you get when you miss a meeting.

Brave and the Bold #29:
The story: "Challenge of the Weapons-Master!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, Bernard Sachs, and Joe Giella. Some weird guy named Xotar(from the year 11,960!) who has all kinds of futuristic weapons at his command, goes back in time to fight the JLA and see which of his wondrous doo-dads works against them, which he then will use to defeat the Intersolar Police, who are trying to apprehend him in his own time. Um, what?

By the way, how is Xotar so certain any of his weapons will defeat the JLA? From an old JLA diary--which is incomplete due to age and wear-and-tear--which uses the worlds "Xotar", "defeat", and "Justice League." Really--he bases his whole plan on this. Obviously, Xotar is not the sharpest gerflonk in the ponfahr.

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

Notable Moments: Superman and Batman play a bigger role in this story, but the individual chapters still feature the other members more prominently.

Brave and the Bold #30:
The story: "Case of the Stolen Super-Powers!" by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs. The brilliant-but-insane Professor Ivo creates Amazo, an android who has the powers of all the Justice League! Holy crap!

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

Notable Moments: Superman and Batman are in the beginning of this story, and while they are technically involved in the case, we don't see them again after page four.

This is the first appearance of both Professor Ivo and Amazon, two characters that would return many times to take on the JLA and the rest of the DCU. Ivo drinks a formula that helps him live five hundred years in this story, which ties in at the end, and is also picked up as a story thread twenty-three years later in JLA #218, written by Cary Burkett. Nice job, Mr. B!


Since I don't have a personal story relating to the purchase of these issues(even as back issues), I thought the next best thing was to run this super-cool description of what it was like from no less a JLA authority than Gerry Conway, from his awesome text piece in JLA #200:

...and so it did.

Tomorrow: the very first issue of the Justice League of America!