JLA Satellite Interview with Steve Englehart

Steve Englehart only wrote a year's worth of JLA stories, but what a memorable set of stories it was! Steve got to add a new member, bring back an old one, kill Superman(!), give frequently under-used members Aquaman, the Atom, and the Elonagted Man an adventure all their own, and if that wasn't enough, give the JLA a whole new origin!

Steve was generous enough to take some time and chat me with about his time writing for the World's Greatest Super-Heroes:

JLA Satellite: How did you end up writing JLA?

Steve Englehart: I had been doing The Avengers and The Defenders, and all this other stuff for Marvel, and then I quit Marvel, and I had no plan other than to Quit Marvel; that was the extent of it. But right at that point Jenette Khan had taken over at DC and she got in touch and said come on over and do stuff for us.

I said, well, I'm planning on leaving the country in a year and go to Europe and travel around, so I can only do it for a year. And she said that's fine, we need you to revamp The Justice League, we need to bring the Justice League up to speed with what Marvel is doing and you're obviously the guy, having come off The Avengers, to do it.

So we had lunch in New York and I said I'd be happy to do it, but I want to do Batman specifically, and that led on to me doing Detective. But the original concept was, fix the Justice League--y'know, give all these characters character, and so forth.

The other significant thing about all that was, once I thought about it, and if I'm supposed to give every one of these guys characterization and tell a story, I can't do that in a regular-sized book. I need something larger and I came up with this idea for a double-sized book so I could tell what turned out to be fairly expansive stories and get to spend time with each individual character as they showed up.

The final thing about that is, years later, Marvel asked me to do basically the same thing with the Ultraverse. They wanted to bring the Ultraverse back and some point and they wanted me to reintroduce all the main characters and it was the exact same situation so I wanted to use the exact same solution--a double-sized book.

Marvel said that would be completely impossible, and their reasoning was wonderful--they said that anybody who could draw that many pages a month is someone the fans don't want to see; anyone they want to see can't draw that many pages per month.

JLA Satellite: What was it like working with Dick Dillin? Did you have a lot of communication with him?

SE: One of the great things[about the book] was that I had Dick Dillin, and you know, Dick Dillin probably couldn't get arrested today, in today's market. But I totally enjoyed working with Dick, I always loved working with the guys who were around before I came along, that was roots.

And you know, you could say anything to Dillin--it's going to be twice as long, it's going to have all these characters in it, and we're going to this, that, and the other thing, and he'd say "fine", and he'd draw it! It was the old-time comic book approach to things--he was a journeyman in some senses, but he was also a guy who could do what was necessary to turn out that book.

As I said, I enjoyed working with him because of who he was, and because he gave me such nice pieces of artwork every month and told the story I needed to tell, and all in all, the book was a lot of fun to do.

For many years, Batman was the thing I did that everyone remembered, not the Justice League, and I remember doing interviews where I'd say "Now don't forget I did the Justice League, because that was kind of cool." It seems now with the JLA animated show, with the JLA getting its own series, the JLA has become more visible in people's minds...

JLA Satellite: Yeah, outside of comics.

SE: So now I do get asked about the JLA--still not as much as the Batman--but it[the work] has returned from obscurity.

JLA Satellite: I was amazed at those issues because, they were twice as long, and Dillin was still drawing all of it! He was on that book for something fourteen years, every single month, it's just an astounding run. And he did other comics besides that!

SE: The first major series I did was Captain America with Sal Buscema, and Sal is another guy who, you know, could draw anything well, no matter; he could have done the same thing--give him another twenty pages a month, and Sal could've done it.

And Joe Staton, who I did Green Lantern Corps with, was another guy. There are just some guys--I like all their art, I like every one of those guys--their Comic Book Artists. You say "this month, the book is twenty pages longer", and they'd say ok.

I do believe these days if you went to pretty much anybody, any artist, and say this book is going to be twenty pages longer, they'd drop off the book. People don't want to do that kind of stuff anymore, but Dillin was Old School. And you know, for everyone who says Old School sucks, I say no, man, I liked Old School.

JLA Satellite: When you sent the scripts to him, did he need further input, or was he so used to--I mean, he had drawn like a billion pages of JLA by then--did he immediately grasp what you were doing and run with it? Or was there a lot of back and forth?

SE: No, I don't remember if I even even spoke to the guy. Again, that's Old School comics--it was perfectly usual to send stuff in to the editor, like Julius Schwartz, who would then send it to the artist, and Julie would be the traffic coordinator.

Scripts are supposed to tell the artist everything he needs to know to draw the book. There are some people who say "they fight for the next five pages, you take it", and then you've got Alan Moore's scripts, which are like phone books. I lean more towards the former. Hopefully I gave Dick everything he needed; I think I did because I don't recall every hearing from him or Julie saying we need more explanation here. But I never wanted to put the artist in a straight-jacket by giving them too much to follow.

JLA Satellite: How much was Julius Schwartz involved in the plotting? I've read that in the 60s when he was working with Gardner Fox, he was almost co-plotting it, was he that involved by the time you got there?

SE: No. And you know, everything I knew about Julie at that time, was that--I mean, that's not all I knew, but that was his reputation. So I said to Jenette, if I'm in charge of these characterizations, and since I come from Marvel, where I was given free reign to do what I wanted to do, it doesn't make any sense to put me in a straight-jacket, and is that going to be a problem with Julie, and she said no, and then there wasn't.

Julie acted as a good advisor. On Batman, there was a situation I wrote where I had Hugo Strange beaten to death on-camera, and Julie contacted me and said I think this would be better off-camera, and so we did. And that's the one instance I can remember Julie coming in as an edtior, but that was his general approach, and I don't ever remember that happening on JLA.

There was never any problem between me and Julie, and we became good friends, and he went on to live another 107 years[laughs]. We were buddies, but I think everyone was buddies with Julie.

JLA Satellite: There were a couple of things you did, like when you added Hawkgirl[to the team], that was a permanent change that would presumably go past your year. Was that Julie's idea, where he said we want to add this character, or did you say, maybe we should add this character, or was it a collaboration?

SE: No, it was my idea. I was coming in as a professional comic book writer, and as a fan. The DC Universe was all new to me, in terms of writing it, but I'd always been a fan. And there had been letter columns, asking "why isn't Hawkgirl in the Justice League?" and the answer was always "well, we don't have people who have the same powers" but I was coming at it from my usual stand-point, which is characterization.

I'm like "These people are married. They came here from another planet, they're living together, they're married, he gets to be in the group and she doesn't get to be in the group, that's bullshit!" I was trying to look at these people as who they were, trying to build them into something better than they had been, characterization-wise, at least, so I thought she should join.

I thought having a married couple in there was a good thing to do, because you had Green Arrow and Black Canary in there, as the "dating" couple, so there were parallels, so I thought having her in there worked from a storytelling standpoint, and also made sense from the idea to reinvent these people, so they can stand up and be on the same level as The Avengers.

JLA Satellite: As a fan, I should formally thank you for that, because I always liked that they added her, I was thought it made sense, it gave a lot more to the book.

SE: I got a letter once when I was doing Green Lantern [Corps] asking, how can you write characters when everyone has the same power? And, to me, it's not the powers, its the character, and whose using the powers, that's important to me, certainly.

And so I can see on a formalistic basis, you can't have two Hawk-people, but it's like, it doesn't matter, since they're two different people, that's the important thing.

JLA Satellite: You introduced a new character into the book, the Privateer. When took over the book, you said you only intended to write it for a year, did you almost write that whole year out with that in mind? Did you plan it out like, we'll introduce him, we'll bring him back, and then we'll have him betray the team, ior did you just start it and say, we'll see where it goes? Maybe he'll join, or was it more mapped out?

SE: No, it was pretty organic. The way I tend to do stuff is, some parts of my story I've thought several issues ahead--I'm never more than a few issues ahead, I don't start off thinking "I'm going to do this twelve-part epic". A lot of it is done on the fly, I'll be writing a story and I'll go, this thing here would be really interesting, and I trust myself to know what to do later when it has to payoff.

So that's pretty much what that was. I did the Manhunter story[JLA #'s 140-141], and at the end of it the Privateer says "I was wrong, I'm going away" and that was the end of that story. Then a couple issues later, I reintroduced him. I have to plead not remembering exactly, but if I had brought him back I must have had an idea about what I was going to do, because I didn't need another character...

JLA Satellite: [laughs] Right, yeah...

SE: It wasn't like throwing Mantis into The Avengers, or bringing in the rest of the Green Lantern Corps, so I may well at that point have said I've got five issues to go, where would I go with this? I honestly don't remember, so I can't say definitely, yeah that's what I was doing, but it seems most likely that's what I was doing, when I brought him back I had an idea of what I was going to do.

Even then, I'm sure I didn't know exactly how that was all going to work out. I remember coming up with the idea of the android, Red Tornado, understand it because an android would when nobody else would. I thought of that when I was doing that issue, how am I going to pull this off? Oh, this is how I get from here to there, and it's a good bit for Reddy.

That's always the stuff I'm thinking about, what's the story I have to tell, and how does that affect the characters. And as I worked through the year, I did what I was supposed to do--I did my Aquaman story, I did the Elongated Man, the Atom; all these people that hadn't been that important--I worked my way through the Justice League and hadn't done, you know, "The Ultimate Red Tornado Story" at that point, so that was a good way to tie that up.

JLA Satellite: I loved the fact that Aquaman, the Atom, and the Elongated Man got their own story[JLA #142], and it was, ok, let's focus on these guys and have them talk about that their not as "useful" as the other guys. So that was a character-based thing and "let's explore these guys for a little bit?"

SE: Yeah, well I did it everybody, and I came to this knowing what I knew about the guys in the DC Universe, so I knew that Aquaman, the Atom, and the Elongated Man were sort of the second tier of the group, and it would seem to me that they would know it, and yet one of the things I tried to play up in the Justice League was this sense was that...if you were a member, you were a member.

Nobody ever looked at Aquaman and said "You're second-rate"--he might have thought it, and if you hang out with Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, you might think it, you know, so that's why he thought it.

I definitely said I'm going to do an Aquaman, Atom, and Elongated Man story, so that was one thing, and somebody said to me at the San Diego [Comic] Convention, "Are we ever going to see Mantis again?", so I thought "I can put her in the Justice League! That'd be bizarre."

So that's how I work--I think I gotta do this, I gotta do that, I gotta do this other thing; that leads me to this fourth idea, then I sort of throw them all together into something hasn't been done previously and go from there.

I focused on everybody, but I thought that was a particularly successful story, becaue you got to focus on them, and by bringing Willow into it, it kind of made it a special kind of story, so those guys got to star in a special kind of story, which they didn't often do, so it was kind of organic.

JLA Satellite: Was writing JLA fun? Obviously, when you got the Batman assignment, which you pursued, you really went to town and it's become a legendary run. But was it just as much fun writing something you didn't necessairily go after?

SE:Yeah, it was fun. Even though Batman was what I wanted, I liked the Justice League. And I basically felt what Jenette felt, which was they had been sort of marble statues. I think in the early days--Brave and the Bold, the Gardner Fox days, they were all sort of treated like these demi-gods who were somewhere off the Earth a little bit, in terms of anyone actually relating to them, but they were all stiff and marbleized.

Along the way, Denny O'Neil had taken his run at it, and Len Wein had taken his run, and there had been some loosening up, but they were still kind of off in the distance, I thought, so I really wanted to get in there and do what I do, which is characterization, and that's what Jenette wanted.

So taking each one and looking inside of these DC characters and figuring out how to make them viable was the kind of stuff that I as a writer like to do, so I mean there's no question I enjoyed quite a bit doing the Justice League. I mean, I wouldn't say any of those characters speaks to me on an attavistic level as the Batman, Batman is just this thing I really have a vibe for. Superman? Let's just say I have less interest in Superman, but I'm going to try and write the best Superman I can write. And try and write the best Justice League I can--think about Wonder Woman, think about Black Canary.

JLA Satellite: Were you privy at all to the sales? I know DC and Marvel generally kept that info away from the writers and artists, but did anyone say "Hey, there's been an uptick in the sales since you went on."?

SE: I did when Dick Giordano was in charge ten years later. Back in those days--DC in particular, Marvel in those days made no secret of the fact that sales were going up all the time. They didn't go out of their way to tell you what sales were, but it was generally understood.

DC took an opposite approach. DC's approach--and I know this because Neal Adams told me about it, because the same thing happened to him, before I came over there--DC's approach was "sales suck, you're lucky to have a job."

JLA Satellite: What a wonderfully creative atmosphere.

SE: Well, yeah, the only thing I remember from that era involving the Justice League and sales--although if it had done poorly, they wouldn't have continued to do it as a double-sized book, so obviously it was working out on its own terms, whatever that may mean--but I did go to Europe, so it wasn't until a year later that I came back to discover how well the Batman[run in Detective Comics] had done, so I went to Jenette and said "How about a bonus?"--I know it wasn't in my contract, but howabout a bonus for having done so well with the Batman, and she said "Oh, that stuff never sold."

JLA Satellite: [Laughs]

SE: So that afternoon, Marshall [Rogers] and I looked at each other and said "You know, for a book that didn't sell, it sure seems like everybody's got a copy." But that was DC's attitude, so nobody ever came to me and said sales are doing great, until Dick Giordano later said our Green Lantern sales had done really great.

JLA Satellite: One last thing I wanted to ask you about--the one issue you wrote where its the revised origin of the Justice League [#144], which as a kid I went "What the hell?" because it seemed like such a strange story--was that your bid to write a Gardner Fox-type story?

Because it reads like that--it's very old school, in the middle of a very different JLA book; you've got all these guys in it like Congorilla, and the Vigilante, etc. As a kid, I didn't understand that, but going back as an "adult", it reads like an homage to that earlier style. Was that what was in your mind?

SE: Absolutely. It was the "Untold Story" and I thought it would be fun to throw in everybody from the fifties, and since one of those were the Blackhawks, that was for Dick Dillin.

I tried very much to be true to those characters as they had been in the fifties and write them in that style--it was supposed to have taken place in the Brave and Bold era, so it definitely was an homage to DC in the fifties--not so much Gardner Fox, but DC in the fifties.


I really appreciate the legendary Steve Englehart, who has written so many comics I've loved over the years, took the time to talk to me about such a brief part of his career. It was a thrill to get to talk to him and get his thoughts on his memorable time with the Justice League. Thanks Steve!

Justice League of America #150 - Jan. 1978

The return of the villainous Key!

The Story: "The Key--or Not The Key" by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. The JLA is shocked to discover the Star-Tsar is actually their old friend, Snapper Carr!

But before he has to explain, his henchmen show up and attack, distracting the heroes long enough for Snapper to escape.

The JLA splits into two teams to try and track him down, and Green Arrow is a bit worried when Black Canary chooses to pair up with their new friend, The Privateer. "You think he's gonna be a member?" Ollie worriedly asks.

Some of the team follows the Star-Tsar's energy trail, but it leads them to be attacked by a bunch of keys, which of course are the hallmark of another famous JLA villain. They all get sucked into a key-shaped black hole, and find themselves trapped in an alternate dimension, each in their own keyhole-sized jails. Here the Key reveals himself, and tells the JLA he and the Star-Tsar are in cahoots.

Meanwhile, the other JLAers visit Snapper Carr's old stomping grounds of Happy Harbor, where they run into Snapper's sister Janet and she tells them of her brother's tough post-JLA life:

...there's something about this sequence that just sticks with me. This was one of the first times I can think of a writer of a superhero comic taking on the angle of superheroes as celebrities.

The JLA is sympathetic, but that only goes so far when the Star-Tsar attacks! He manages to escape when a second Star-Tsar attacks knocking everyone out! One of them then heads for Washington, D.C., where the Star-Tsar shows up to extort money...President Jimmy Carter!

Now all the JLA are trapped by the Key, but the combined efforts of The Elongated Man and The Flash free them all--including Snapper Carr, who is trapped along with them. They find the second Star-Tsar, who is really, of course, The Key, at least that's how it seems.

The Key's malformed body prevented him from performing the physical tasks needed, so he duped Snapper into helping him. So who is the real Star-Tsar? Red Tornado knows, it's...The Privateer!

Red Tornado uses his perfect android memory to recall that, during all the crucial moments against the Star-Tsar, the Privateer was the one missing!

The Privateer tries to escape, but of course the JLA stops him. Here Mark Shaw reveals (in a full page consisting mostly of text) that while he may not be a Manhunter anymore, the taste for power is still there! All these attacks over the last few issues, involving The Construct, the Key, and Dr. Light, were all part of a plot for Shaw to gain more and more power!

His plan in tatters, the JLA carts him off, but not before forgiving Snapper, and promising him some of the help he needs (to be revealed in an issue of Superman Family, according to "Soft-Sell Schwartz"). Man, the JLA are a forgiving bunch of folks.

The issue ends with Red Tornado having a good laugh over the fact that, of all the members of the JLA, it was he who Shaw overlooked, so it only he who could've defeated Shaw's plan!

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

Notable Moments: The JLA Mail Room header, now officially bursting with members, is changed for essentially the last time to a more generic image:

Though the older header would return, in a way. But that's a few months down the road...

This was Steve Englehart's final issue as writer of Justice League of America, and a big deal was made of it:

...all in all, a solid run of issues. Changes, characterization, and lots of fun. I like how the stories are all of a piece, yet work individually as well.

Gerry Conway would take over the book with the next issue, and become, for all intents and purposes become the team's final writer.

But before we start the Conway Era, be here tomorrow where the JLA Satellite presents a word or two from the man himself, Steve Englehart!

Justice League of America #149 - Dec. 1977

Dr. Light returns! (This shouldn't take long)

The Story: "The Face of the Star-Tsar!" by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. We open with Dr. Light trying to access the transporter tube that will take him to the JLA satellite, when he is stopped by the new hero The Privateer!

When the JLA shows up, Dr. Light tucks tail and runs away. After a minute or two of arguing with the Privateer, they take after Light, and its the Red Tornado who finds him.

Dr. Light uses a "image-mirage trick" to fool Tornado into escaping, and in the process throws in a dig at Reddy for falling for it. Dr. Light then bumps into a new villain, The Star-Tsar, and they briefly fight before ST runs off.

Meanwhile, the JLA is getting the lowdown on the Privateer, who manages to charm the socks off the World's Greatest Superheroes. So much so that they wonder aloud if they haven't just met their newest member, a comment that hurts Reddy's feelings:

After battling some of the Star-Tsar's thugs, they run into their old mascot, Snapper Carr, who for some reason was in the area and is acting very defensive. Hmm...

The JLA then runs into Dr. Light (busy day for them!), who traps them with a weapon called The Spectriminator, which divides the JLA into different parts of the color spectrum. Green Lantern manages to put himself back together, and they then run into Star-Tsar again, who says he wants to defeat Dr. Light, too, so he helps them find Dr. Light before vanishing.

They grab Dr. Light, knock him out, but then find the Star-Tsar laying unconscious a few miles away. When they pull his mask off, they see that this new bad guy is...Snapper Carr?!? To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: I like the Privateer character. You could argue that with Batman and Green Arrow on the team, the Privateer's skills don't add much to the team, but he looks good with them. Had Englehart clearly not had a plan for the character, it mighta been cool to see him join.

Dick Dillin's work was hardly what you'd call flashy, instead it was reliable and comforting, due to its sheer consistency (sometimes--a lot of time, actually--I think comics need more of that). But once in a while DD would pull a rabbit out of his pencil and come up with a really cool shot:

...you rarely saw the Flash from this angle, and I think it's one of the best representations of how the world looks to Barry Allen.

Justice League of America #146 - Sept. 1977

You can't keep a good Construct down!

The Story: "Inner Mission!" by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Continued from last issue, the Red Tornado has miraculously returned, but with no memory of what happened to him since he seemingly died(in JLA #129).

Superman is suspicious, and asks Reddy some questions only he would know. When that trips him up, he suddenly attacks the JLA, with a voice not his own, but one they recognize as...The Construct!

As the JLA decides to go after the real Construct, Hawkman moves to have eternal guest-star Hawkgirl made an official member! Superman puts up an argument, but the Phantom Stranger advises to table the discussion for the moment, in a rare moment where the Stranger acknowledges he is, in fact, a JLA member.

Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow meet up with Aquaman and Atom, where they take on a weapon under the control of the Construct. Aquaman smashes it(yay!), and the Atom tells them to head to Manhattan, where Ray has tracked the Construct's broadcasting beam.

They meet up with the other JLAers at the Construct's headquarters--a basement hideaway beneath, er, the World Trade Center. Its here they find the Construct's robot army, but the big man himself is gone. It's here that Red Tornado shows up, claiming to be the real deal. The JLAers are of course skeptical, but Hawkgirl peers into Reddy's "soul" and claims she knows for sure this is the actual Red Tornado!

They finally find the Construct, but when he attempts to flood Reddy with power to overwhelm him, the presence of Tornado's soul flips the power back at the Construct, destroying him. And Wonder Woman took the precaution to ensure a Construct cannot reform.

And even though the last time they talked about it they couldn't come to a decision, Black Canary predicts the JLA is about to have an election:

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

Notable Moments: I have no idea what happened to the bottom corner of the cover. I know I didn't buy it like that.

Hawkgirl's addition--duplicate powers rule or not--was long overdue, and I'm glad Englehart added her to the team.

I also like how the Construct kept coming back, though not in issues all in a row. He could give the Joker a run for his money for sheer persistence!

Justice League of America #145 - Aug. 1977

Inside this issue--Superman dies! No foolin'!

The Story: "The Carnival of Souls!" by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. We open with the mysterious Count Crystal, who summons the demon Azgore, who promises the demon that, in exchange for power, he will offer up the souls of the Justice League!

Azgore warns that other sorcerers have tried and failed, so Crystal had better make good on his promise, or he will pay dearly!

Crystal then materializes on the JLA satellite, where his magical abilities quickly overcome Superman.

Meanwhile, the Halls and Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance are having an evening out, which is interrupted by Superman's JLA distress signal. They head to the satellite to find Superman...dead!

The JLAers, trying to figure out what's going on, are then met at the satellite by The Phantom Stranger, who also summoned Batman and Wonder Woman. He tells them what has happened, and conducts a seance to communicate with the dear departed Kryptonian.

Superman's spirit speaks through the Stranger, and he tells the JLA to "Avenge me!"

The heroes then follow the mystic trail to Rutland, Vermont(which appeared in JLA before, in #103, also guest-starring the Stranger), where they discover the Carnival of Souls, with Count Crystal there waiting for them.

As Crystal puts the JLA through various death traps, he manages to "kill" the Phantom Stranger, kidnap Hawkgirl, and leave the other JLAers to the same fate as the Stranger.

As the JLA fight for their lives, Crystal makes a deal with the comely Hawkgirl. If she submits to him, to be his slave, then he might spare her friends. Hawkgirl goes against every feeling she has of loyalty and devotion to her husband and agrees to be with Crystal, to save her friends lives. Crystal then gets a tad too confident, and Hawkgirl has had enough:

Hawkgirl helps rescue her friends, when the demon Azgore returns, demanding a soul! Crystal says he gave the demon Superman and the Phantom Stranger's, but since even on "the other side" the Strange has managed to keep their souls from the demon's clutches! Azgore then does what he threatened, and takes Crystal's, who screams in agony.

The JLA wakes up in the morning, dazed but thankful they survived. Hawkman tries to delicately ask, er, how far did Crystal get, but Hawkgirl assures him she emerged unscathed. Suddenly, an old friend suddenly appears...The Red Tornado!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Black Canary

Notable Moments: This was one of those stories that has elements you miss as a kid but resonate later. I had no idea what Crystal was getting at in the above panels, only as a teen and an adult (hah!) did I get the full, icky nature of Crystal's plans.

You can see Englehart laying the groundwork for Hawkgirl's inclusion into the JLA here, since Shayera plays a large role, and, along with the Stranger, is the one who saves the JLA's bacon.
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Tomorrow:

Justice League of America #144 - July 1977

The super-double-secret true origin of the Justice League!

The Story: "The Origin of the Justice League--Minus One!" by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Green Arrow barges into a Poker Game with Supes and Lantern, demanding to know the truth!

The truth about what? Well, while he was going over some JLA log books, he noticed a discrepancy over when the JLA was founded--February 1959*--but yet Hal himself told Ollie he became Green Lantern in September of that year! So what's going on?!?

Superman and Lantern decide to level with Arrow, and show him a tape narrated by the Martian Manhunter. Manhunter tells the tale of how he came to Earth, and how he had to hide due to the paranoia about aliens from outer space. This paranoia even creeps its way in the direction of heroes like The Flash, who gets freaked out by it.

Flash calls in fellow heroes Superman, Batman, and Robin, and word of a full-scale invasion gets other heroes involved, seemingly every one on Earth at the time:

(It's at this moment we jump to the present day, and Green Arrow wonders where he was when all this was happening...turns out he and Speedy had flown to a South Seas island involving a case)

The mass number of heroes split up to investigate alien sightings, except one of them, almost captured by the improbable team of Lois Lane and Congorilla, turns out to be...Adam Strange, in a fun cameo.

The team of Superman, Batman, Robin, Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Rex The Wonder Dog arrive at a rocket base, where they meet young test pilot Hal Jordan. They also meet the Martian Manhunter, who explains to them the situation.

The bad Martians are defeated, but Manhunter wants to stay on Earth, for he sees that his homeworld has become overrun by evil. But since there's still so much paranoia, they decide J'onn should lay low for a while.

And when he does announce himself, it will be with the backing of all of them. Maybe in some sort of club, or group...

Supes and Lantern explain to Arrow that since all the secrecy was to protect Manhunter, when they met again to fight the aliens from Apellax a few months later, they just decided to make that their "official" first case.

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

Notable Moments: Take this story, expand it, and you've got DC: The New Frontier. Everything old is new again.

I like how Lois and Jimmy felt like they were worthy of showing up among that group of heroes. I guess they figured they had their own titles, why not show up?

Oh, and since Rex the Wonder Dog was with all the big guns at the end of the story, shouldn't he have been a founding JLA member, too?

Justice League of America #142 - May 1977

One of the most unusual JLA adventures ever!

The Story: "Return From Forever!" by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. We open with Aquaman, Atom, and Elongated Man in a relaxing moment on the high seas.

Atom is mopey because he's starting to feel his powers are useless, but Aquaman and Elongated Man try and cheer him up, by reminding him that its sometimes only their specialized powers that help, so it balances out.

Of course, all this hand-wringing comes to an end when they notice two spaceships in some sort of dogfight. One of them is blasted and falls into the sea.

It's about this time they get Green Lantern's distress signal, but they're too busy to answer it. Aquaman finds the sunken ship, and he meets the mysterious, beautiful, green-skinned Willow. Willow tells the heroes that she is being chased by something called The Construct, and they must hide underwater.

Aquaman takes them all to Atlantis, but the Construct--a giant robot--finds them anyway, and shows up on their computer monitors, demanding they return Willow in one hour or he will kill every human in the nearest city, Miami.

Willow has a particular mission to fulfill--which she won't fully explain--so she asks Atom to accompany her while Aquaman and Elongated Man head for Miami.

They each run into the Construct's robot armies, where Willow displays nearly superhuman abilties. Atom and Willow take on the Construct himself, where Atom shrinks down, gets inside the Construct, and explodes him from within.

Turns out that Willow was originally an Earthwoman, who met a man from outer space, and their union resulted in Willow being pregnant. Its this new life that will be the first of a new race, one that will "lead all humans to the stars." This is Willow's great secret, and she will remain on Earth, in hiding, caring for her soon-to-be-born child, and only the Atom will know.

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

Notable Moments: This obviously was one of my favorite issues of JLA as a kid, since Englehart took time out to feature the three least-used members. When I first opened the book up, the splash page itself told me this was going to be a different issue:

Instead of hiding the "B" characters and concentrating only on the big guns, Englehart takes the problem head on, and gives them a story where they get a chance to shine. Nice.

Willow is clearly a DC version of Mantis from Marvel's Avengers, who had just been in a major storyline courtesy of Englehart when he was writing the book. As far as I know, Willow has never been seen again. I'm surprised some writer, some where, hasn't picked up this thread...

Justice League of America #141 - April 1977

We said, no one escapes the Manhunters!

The Story: "No World Escapes the Manhunters!" by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Continued from last issue, the Manhunters are still hunting for Green Lantern, who along with Green Arrow and Black Canary, have eluded their captors for the moment.

While Wonder Woman and Flash are trying to head off an intergalactic war, Superman and Batman follow a hunch that the planet--Orinda--that Green Lantern "blew up" is, in fact, still there, but hidden. Its here that one of the Guardians explain to them the close relationship between them and the Manhunters.

Meanwhile, Wonder Woman and Flash have run out of time and air, since the Manhunter's leader The Grandmaster has encased the JLA satellite in an indestructible bubble. But Wonder Woman digs out the Dharlu (from JLA #130!) from the JLA computer and uses its abilities to break the bubble.

The JLA figures out that Orinda has not, in fact, been destroyed, and it was all a plot. One of the Manhunters--Mark Shaw--realizes he's been deceived and turns on the Grandmaster, who turns out to be an android.

There's a neat sequence with the JLA fighting the Manhunters where we get to see Batman as the unstoppable fighting man who helps figure out this plot:

...and he's outta here!

Mark Shaw is left a bit disillusioned, but tells the JLA he still wants to use his skills to fight for justice...somehow.

And while it seems the trouble is over, Green Lantern informs his teammates that he's been trying to contact Aquaman, Elongated Man, and Atom...but can't find them anywhere! To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: Not only was Dick Dillin drawing more pages now, but Englehart was throwing all kinds of stuff at him--alien races, hordes of Manhunters...Nothing Stops Dick Dillin!

Wonder Woman has been giving Flash a lot of grief in the last few issues, but here she explains that her newfound sense of liberation is butting up against Barry Allen's ingrained sexism. A neat little character trait, and it fits well with the "old fuddy duddy" personality that Barry had.

Justice League of America #140 - March 1977

No one escapes the Manhunters!

The Story: "No Man Escapes the Manhunter!" by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. In Bruce Wayne's bachelor bad, three members of the JLA are surprised (to say the least!) when a Manhunter bursts in to capture Green Lantern!

Green Arrow and Black Canary fight him, but Green Lantern mysteriously gives up immediately. The Manhunter nabs them all, plus knocking out Batman, and they disappear just as Superman and Wonder Woman arrive.

Turns out that Green Lantern is being chased by the Manhunters because, well, he accidentally blew up an entire planet. My bad!

Green Lantern, trying to save a planet in distress, accidentally allowed a force beam to ricochet, destroying it. While investigating this disaster, the JLA run into a sleazy government official who wants Lantern executed for his crime!

Turns out this Governor Tozad is secretly a Manhunter, and this is part of a plan to discredit and destroy the Guardians of the Universe! To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: Steve Englehart could cram twice as much plot in a regular-sized comic, so now that he's got a full thirty-three pages to work with, the plots are even more dense. Trying to condense them here is nigh impossible, so for the sake of brevity I'm only going to hit the highlights. You should read these issues for yourself, since they're a lot of fun!

This issue started an odd two-page feature "100 Issues Ago..." where we get super-condensed versions of previous JLA issues. Kind of like if Castle Films made comic books.

This issue's cover is penciled by Rich Buckler, who would go on to draw a lot of JLA, both covers and inside stories.

Justice League of America #139 - Feb. 1977

Nobody drew a more brutal hit or punch than Neal Adams--Hawkman especially looks like he's getting it right in the kisser!

The Story: "The Cosmic Conspiracy Against Adam Strange!" by Cary Bates, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Some of the other JLAers show up at the satellite and wonder where their fellow members are.

Turns out they are there, too, but in ghostly forms. Suddenly Adam Strange appears, and tells them that it was because of Kanjar Ro(him again?) that the JLAers are gone.

Turns out he rigged Adam Strange's Zeta-Energy so that the JLAers absorbed it from him, which keeps them in their currenty phantom-like form.

When a JLA satellite "transductor unit" is about to overheat and explode, Flash on instinct goes into action, the explosion somehow knocking him back into his regular form. Adam surmises "Perhaps seeing a teammate's life in jeopardy nullified the Zeta-Effect!"

The JLA head to the 73rd Century with Adam, where they are attacked by a military force. Between this battle and Adam Strange, the "phantom" JLAers are returned to normal. All seems well until Adam figures out that the 73rd Century Green Lantern is actually Kanjar Ro in disguise! As is usual with Ro, he's easily knocked out.

Second Story: "The Ice Age Cometh" by Steve Englehart, Dillin, and McLaughlin

The JLA arrives in Ecuador, where the country is victim to a sudden mysterious ice age!

While the JLA is saving lives, they're not doing anything to stop the brutal freeze, until they hear about three super-villains--Captain Cold, The Icicle, and (don't laugh) Minister Blizzard--are on a crime spree! Flash doesn't want the team to stop what they're doing, when Wonder Woman chastises him for not realizing the two events must be related.

The JLAers stop the villains, but that doesn't seem to change anything. Then Hawkman realizes that its his old foe, The Shadow Thief, who is behind the plot. They confront him, and he almost gets away, until The Phantom Stranger shows up to stop him.

Meanwhile, in Ecuador, the ice age has stopped. Is it because of the villains being stopped, or is it...a miracle?

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

Notable Moments: This was a form-busting issue, in that we have two separate stories. This was the first of the JLA "Giants" featuring extended page counts and extra page of letters.

"Ice Age" is the first JLA story by Steve Englehart, who would begin a year-long run on the book.

Update: As Earth-2 Chris mentioned in the comments, this is the first appearance of the classic, long-running "DC Bullet" logo. Can't believe I missed that! Bad Rob!