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The return of Ultraa! Let's see how he screws up this time!
The Story: "A Hero For All Seasons" by Gerry Conway, Don Heck, and Bob Smith. On the Atlantic City boardwalk, down-on-his-luck fella Joe Perry ponders the failures of his life.
You see, one time, many years ago, Perry found a sort of "wishing machine", and instead of using it to make himself rich and famous, he ended up in a battle with the Justice League, way back in JLA #31.
As he walks down the boardwalk, he notices a young man sweeping up the dirt, and is amazed to see the guy yank up a plank of the boardwalk with one hand! Yep, it's everybody's favorite loose cannon, Ultraa!
We then see Joe talking to Ultraa, trying to talk him into using his extraordinary abilities to make himself--and Joe--rich and famous. Howabout ads for health clubs?
Meanwhile, on the JLA satellite, Green Arrow and Black Canary are going through some training sessions, when they receive a distress signal. Superman and The Flash also arrive to see what's up.
The alert is from The Atom, who is at FBI headquarters, and while there he shows his fellow JLAers some disturbing footage: their old friend Ultraa going into a bank and robbing it, ripping the bank vault door right off its hinges!
The Flash spots Joe Parry in the background, and heads to Midway City to ask Hawkman for help. Partly because he was in on the case previously, and partly to shake Carter from his depression over Shayera's extended absence.
At first Hawkman turns him down, but The Flash is persuasive, and eventually he and the other JLAers head to Atlantic City to find Joe Parry's apartment.
They knock out Joe with a Concussion Arrow, but Ultraa attacks them and the battle spills out into an Atlantic City casino, one that uses giant props as a backdrop (this must be the Finger Casino they just opened up).
Ultraa takes out Superman and The Flash, and then calms down, realizing he's been duped and led astray again. As he kneels at the feet of Joe Parry, wondering how it all went wrong, he is approached with a different tack by Hawkman, having just woken up from taking a giant pair of dice in the chest:
...a nice sequence by Heck. The back and forth between the two is effective and dynamic.
Cut to: Joe Parry being convicted of conspiracy to commit theft. But where's Ultraa?
Hawkman and the JLA saw it Ultraa went where he would belong--with a tribe of Aboriginies, in the outback of Australia, just like the kind of place he came from on his home planet. Here, Ultraa is finally happy.
Roll Call: Superman, Flash, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary
Notable Moments: Patience is strained, watching Ultraa get duped into fighting the JLA again, but at least Conway knew how to end this--with Ultraa finally being put somewhere where he can't cause trouble anymore.
Replacing George Perez is not a task I'd envy for any comic book artist, and after two mediocre issues (198-199), I think Don Heck brought his "A" game here--the layouts are inventive, the storytelling effective.
The entire JLA turns out to save a burning world--" The entire JLA, huh?
The Story: "While A World Lies Burning" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Picking up from last issue, the Earth is experiencing massive fires all over, due to the increased oxygen that started occurring last issue.
While Batman remains in the JLA satellite trying to figure out what's causing all this, the trial of the five JLAers continues.
During the trial, Ultraa leaps from his chair and starts attacking his lawyer, and the JLA try to stop him. After fighting most of them all, Ultraa's lawyer assumes his true shape, the pink globby collection of tissue, which explains it rigged this whole trial as a distraction from its real plan to destroy Earth!
Back at the satellite, Batman, after calling out the other available members of the League (plus Supergirl), decides to take on the problem head on. He dons a spacesuit, grabs a small spaceflier, and heads to a "rogue" asteroid that has been orbiting Earth for a short while.
Once there, Batman discovers its not an asteroid, but a small spaceship! He gets inside...
Meanwhile, on Earth, the JLA destroys the propulsion machine that was sucking all the Hydrogen out of Earth's atmosphere, and Ultraa is knocked out during the battle. They then get a communication from Batman that he redirected the "asteroid" and sent it hurtling out of the solar system, restoring Earth's natural balance.
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado
Notable Moments: Despite what the cover says, the "entire JLA" does not participate in this issue--Atom and Hawkman are mentioned to be on a mission in deep space, and Hawkgirl and Zatanna are not mentioned at all. And yet Aquaman, not shown on the cover, does appear, albeit briefly.
This issue features a nifty subscription ad for the book:
...I could mention here that Aquaman is once again not included, but I won't.
The JLA fights...the citizens of Earth! Plus some weird, gross putty guy. Oh, and Ultraa.
The Story: "The Doomsday Decision" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. We open with several members of the JLA...on trial!
When they ask who brought lawsuit and charges against them, they are shown it was...Ultraa! Ultraa's attorney, Mr. Sloane, accuses the JLA of holding his client imprisoned, illegally.
The Court takes the JLA into custody until the trial can start, and while they do the humiliating "perp walk", it starts a riot between supporters and non-supporters of the JLA.
The JLA uses their powers to stop the rioting, but then they peacefully surrender to the police. Ultraa, watching this from the sides, wonders if he has done something wrong, judged these people too harshly. But his attorney talks him out of his doubt...
Meanwhile, Batman is on Monitor Duty, who has discovered a disturbance in the Earth's atmosphere. He could use some help, but he remembers that "all" the JLA is busy:
Meanwhile, riots begin to break out all over the world, for no good reason. This is all part of the plan by a group of globby creatures named the Over-Complex, who have assumed the form of Ultraa's attorney, Mr. Sloane!
The JLAers, from their prison cell,notice that the ocean level is dropping at an alarming rate, so Superman heads out to investigate. Green Lantern uses his ring to create a fake Superman as not to alert the guards.
While investigating, Supes is zapped by the Over-Complex, and to make matters worse, Batman now sees that the Earth's percentage of Oxygen is growing in direct proportion to the ocean's disappearance!
Meanwhile, Ultraa notices this strange creature, and follows it to see it turn into...his lawyer! Ultraa decides to follow Sloane in secret, but he doesn't notice that this creature already knows that Ultraa knows! To be continued!
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Red Tornado
Notable Moments: Wow, a lot happens in this issue! And this isn't even a double-sized issue or anything.
Ultraa is a bit of a sap in this issue, so maybe it was good he didn't join the JLA--he seems easily swayed.
One of my favorite covers (by Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano) leads off part three of the battle with the Secret Society of Super-Villains!
The Story: "The Last Great Switcheroo" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Continued from last issue, we see that the newly arrives JLAers (Green Arrow, Black Canary, Flash, Hawkman, and Elongated Man) are looking at their fellow JLAers a little askance.
This gets kicked into overdrive when "Green Lantern" encases the "bad guys" into a diamond-shaped prison, which "Superman" then hurtles into the sun!
Superman manages to convince them that the diamond will remain in orbit around the solar system until the prisoners can be rehabilitated, but Green Arrow knows something is wrong.
Interlude: back from last issue, we the mytserious Mr. Sloane as he frees the prisoner inside the stasis cube--and it's Ultraa!
Back at the satellite, we see Red Tornado, now fully recuperated, ready to attack the Star Sapphire, who has just beamed aboard! But before he can, Sapphire mentions her mother--Sindella--which lets Tornado realize what's been going on!
Meanwhile, at a museum for Aztec treasures, the JLA is standing guard. The true JLAers wonder why they're here, and the faux-JLAers tell them they are expecting a super-villain attack. They split up into groups, but when Black Canary is paired off with Green Lantern, he can't help himself:
The real JLAers easily defeat the faux ones, since they are still inexperienced at using their new powers. They take the SSOSV back to the satellite, where Zatanna presides over the soul re-switching, having rescued the trapped JLAers earlier.
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Zatanna
Notable Moments: I love that the main reason this plan falls apart is because Prof. Zoom is such a horndog. That's priceless.
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?
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!
