Justice League of America #200 - March 1982

Welcome to the 200th issue of Justice League of America!

The Story: "A League Divided" by Gerry Conway, George Perez, Brett Breeding, Pat Broderick, Terry Austin, Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano, Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Frank Giacoia, Brian Bolland, and Joe Kubert.

This mammoth, 72-page anniversary issue opens, after the wonderful three-page origin prologue, with Firestorm, bored out of his mind while on Monitor Duty.

Suddenly, founding member The Martian Manhunter comes smashing through the hull of the satellite!:

Firestorm, not having boned up on JLA history, has no idea who this guy is. At the same time, Manhunter is acting very strangely, even without all the satellite-smashing. He doesn't seem to know that this is the JLA satellite, even though he has been here before.

Firestorm manages to fend off Manhunter for a while, until his inexperience gives Manhunter the chance to knock him out and grab what he's there for--a small green meterorite residing in the JLA Trophy Room.

Minutes later, Firestorm wakes up amid the wreckage, and, not knowing what is going on, sends out a Triple Priority Signal to all members, past and present!

Soon the satellite is filled with JLAers Atom, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Zatanna, and Green Arrow. They inform Firestorm who it was he faced, and alone among them its Green Arrow that seems to know what's going on, and why none of the original members--Superman, Batman, etc.--have answered the distress call!

They quickly figure out that all the original JLAers must be after the Appellax Meteors, relics of the JLA's first case.

Then another face from the past shows up--Snapper Carr! Green Arrow takes charge, breaks up the heroes into teams, ordering Firestorm to stay behind with Snapper. Pwned!

Next we find ourselves at the Indian Ocean:

Aquaman doesn't know why he "needs" to get the Appellax Meteor, but he does it anyway. He is attacked by Red Tornado in the process, and Aquaman gets a good shot in, plunging Reddy into the water.

As Aquaman's back is turned, Reddy is about to try again, but he is hit by a force of energy from The Phantom Stranger, who, as usual, is seeing The Big Picture, as is only fulfilling his "destiny." Aquaman then takes off, and its up to the Stranger to tend to Reddy.

Cut back to the satellite, where Reddy, unconscious, mysteriously appears from out of nowhere! Firestorm wonders aloud, "How did Reddy get up here, anyway?"

As the book says, "somewhere, a Stranger is smiling. His job is done."

Next we go to Paradise Island, where Zatanna is hoping to stop Wonder Woman before she performs her task:

Unfortunately, the Amazing Amazon beat her there, and Zatanna proves to be no match for her. She gets knocked out by Diana using one of Zee's own spells against her, and she wakes up, hours later, with the Amazons using their curative Purple Ray on her.

Next, in Zimbabwie, a local General receives a phone call, and is a little shocked to see who made the call:

The Atom finds Green Lantern, digging up one of the Appellax meteors. He momentarily knocks GL on his butt, and tries to reason with him, trying to make him remember who he really is.

It seems to be working, except that GL has just been sneaking up on Atom, and traps him with his ring. He grabs the meteor and takes off.

The Atom shrinks beneath the atoms of the ground, and slips out of the bubble, and heads back to the satellite. The Atom chalks up all their defeats to the "edge of experience" the others have, but Red Tornado theorizes that its because the original members are facing unknown opponents, while they are fighting friends.

Over in Italy, The Elongated Man lays in wait for The Flash:

He gets the drop on The Flash, and feels sick about attacking his friend, but like Reddy guessed, the Scarlet Speedster has no such compunctions. One good super-speed punch, and The Flash has accomplished his mission.

Down at the original JLA Sanctuary, the original members start to talk, and can't figure out when all these changes--Wonder Woman's new uniform, the sancutary in ruins, Mars II--occurred.

On the North Carolina coast, Green Arrow joins Black Canary in searching for Batman:

The Batman, of course, gets the drop on both of them, and uses the tight, confined space to his advantage. Green Arrow fires off an arrow, which misses, bounces off a tree, and knocks out Black Canary!

As Green Arrow finds himself handcuffed, he yells at a departing Batman: "You can't do this to me!" To which a smart-ass Batman replies: "I already have."

Canary then wakes up, and Brian Bolland shows off his mastery of distinct facial expressions:

...I love Canary's annoyed, pursed face in panel four. They move on, thinking they've found Batman, but it turns out to be a decoy--Batman, and the Appellax meteor, are gone.

Last is what can only be the result of Hawkman drawing the short straw: he has to take on Superman!:

Hawkman figures Superman can't retrieve the Kryptonite-laden meteor himself, so he isn't surprised when he encounters several Superman robot duplicates instead. But the third one looks a little different--its actually Superman!

One punch, and its all over, ending with Hawkman being hit so hard he drifts into outer space. Superman, using a paper-thin lead alloy suit to cover himself, finds the meteor and heads off.

Hawkman wanders so far into space he hits an oncoming Zeta Beam, and disappears! He is then found by old JLA friend Adam Strange, who calls the JLA and tells them they plan to beam Hawkman back. The Elongated Man, stretching himself farther than he ever has, shoots himself out of an airlock, and retrieves The Winged Wonder.

Meanwhile, at the Secret Sanctuary, the JLAers notice that all the Appellax meteors are glowing, and they eventually explode open, releasing the seven Appellax warriors!

This obliterates the JLAers' amnesia, and they are told, years ago, the Appellax meteors put a post-hypnotic suggestion in them, triggered to go off, just as it did.

The JLAers attack the Apellax warriors, but they find themselves overwhelmed, one by one, until finally there is only Wonder Woman:

...that panel always felt so harsh to me. Yeah, I know Diana is nearly invulnerable, but taking a bunch of crystals to the face like that? Ow.

The Appellax warriors decide to pick up where they left off--that is, to fight one another, to see who will be the leader of their home planet!

Next, we see Batman and his fellow JLAers slowly waking up, but surrounded by their fellow heroes. Apologies are made, the heroes collect themselves, and head out to stop the aliens:

(click to JLAify!)

The massive group of heroes split up into teams, classic Gardner Fox style, and Batman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Zatanna head to Vermont to battle the Wood King, Crystal Creature, and Mercury Monster.

Unlike what defeated them before, the JLAer use teamwork, and after a well-placed Batarang shatters the Crystal Creature, its over.

Next, we go to the Irish Coast, where Aquaman, Elongated Man, Flash, and Red Tornado find the Glass Creature and the Fire Monster. The Flash tries a frontal assault, giving Aquaman the chance to sneak up from behind:

...this is one of my favorite Aquaman sequences of all time. I love the examination of Aquaman's ability to survive in depths that would kill almost anyone else, but holding the Glass Creature by the throat until he shatters into little bits is just hardcore.

In the meantime, Flash, Elongated Man, and Red Tornado take out the Fire Monster--mission accomplished.

Last, in the heart of New York City, The Atom, Firestorm, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter take on The Golden Roc and The Stone Creature.

Lantern pummels the latter into chunks of rock, and The Atom is fired directly into the head of the Golden Roc, giving Manhunter the chance to shatter it with a well-aimed punch. It's all over!

Back at the satellite, Green Lantern and Red Tornado shoot the aliens' remains into the sun, destroying them forever.

Then the three old JLA friends, Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, and Snapper Carr take their leave...well, two of them do:

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

Notable Moments: What to say about this issue? Its one of my all-time favorite comic books ever, and certainly my all-time favorite superhero comic, ever.

I love the scope of it, and the fact that Conway took the time to work in as many people from the JLA's past as he could--The Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Snapper Carr, Adam Strange, The Phantom Stranger...

Of course, the one glaring exception is Hawkgirl. Apparently over in the solo Hawkman feature in World's Finest running at the time, Hawkgirl was missing or something, hence her not being here.

As as kid, I loved internal continuity, and having all the characters work in a definable time line. But--in this instance, I wish Conway and whatever other editors would've made the call had forgotten that for a moment, and put Hawkgirl in here. This is the big JLA story, and Shayera definitely should've been included.

The art is of course fantastic--Aparo, Perez, Kubert, Bolland, and lots more, many of them working on their signature characters (Aparo even gets a two-fer). Having Perez do all the linking chapters gives the book a cohesiveness that improbably works, considering all the people involved.

Fun Fact: The Superman/Hawkman chapter was lettered by The Joe Kubert School, the first time I can remember hearing of such a place. Little did I know I would be a student there, a little less than eight years later.

As if all this wasn't enough, Gerry Conway gives us a two-page text piece on the history of the team, which is enormous fun. Click here to read it.

I remember buying this comic at the now forgotten-but-not-gone Voorhees Tobacco and News Shop, which had a huge selection of comics, many more than my local 7-11. To that end, I used to beg my Dad as much as I could to take me there.

Like I said, the place is still there:

The copy I have is the same one I bought in Dec. 1981--its beaten up, has brown pages, the binding is held together with high hopes and a lot of scotch tape. Yet if there was ever a fire in the house and I could only save one comic, this would be it.

To me, this book sums up everything that is fun about the world of superhero comics, and what drew me to the Justice League so passionately at such a young age--camaraderie, action, humor, plus a sense of enormous history. Not too long after this, the Crisis would take place, forever putting the DCU I knew and loved into the Past Tense. This book is one glorious 72-page tribute to what made DC so great for so long.


How can we possibly top this, especially since #201 is just a "normal" issue? Well, we're going to try--#201 will show up two days from now, with tomorrow being the day for an interview with the man whose idea it was to make the 200th issue so special: legendary comics writer and editor Len Wein! Be here!

Justice League of America #199 - Feb. 1982

The Lord of Time learns what "Kryptonian Haymaker" is in this issue!

The Story: "Grand Canyon Showdown" by Gerry Conway, Don Heck, and Brett Breeding. Continued from last issue, we open with the Lord of Time having subdued Superman, and having trapped four Justice Leaguers in the Old West, who are being trailed by his posse of robot cowboys!

While The Lord of Time is watching events unfold in the past, Superman wakes up from his Kryptonite-induced coma, and uses his X-ray vision to find the Lord of Time's chamber, which is currently invisible to the naked eye.

Meanwhile, back in the past, all four sets of superheroes and western heroes find their way to town. First up is The Scalphunter and The Elongated Man, who head into a saloon and meet Cinnamon and a woman that The Elongated Man just knows he knows:

...soon, Bat Lash and The Flash also show up, and the three of them realize they know each other.

At the same time, Jonah Hex and Green Lantern finally noticed they're being followed by the Lord of Time's robot cowboys(!), and they make quick work of them.

Then our other heroes come out to see what the noise is, and they compare notes. Scalphunter spots three more of these strange cowpokes riding off in the distance, and The Flash catches up to them. He destroys them as easily as GL did, and the group of heroes start to think this is some sort of trap.

They find their way to the Grand Canyon, where Lantern's ring alerts them to the anti-matte bubble that is approaching Earth, and headed right for them! Zatanna, Flash, and GL manage to destroy the bubble, and then the heroes suddenly vanish.

As Jonah Hex, Scalphunter, Cinnamon, and Bat Lash wonder what the heck that was about, we see the four JLAers return to their normal time and find Superman with an unconscious Lord of Time!

Turns out Superman used his heat vision to create an offshoot of the Colorado River, washing the Kryptonite away, giving Supes the opportunity to box the Lord of Time's ears.

Roll Call: Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Elongated Man, Zatanna

Notable Moments: A truly great George Perez cover--I just love how villainous The Lord of Time looks--he'd twirl his mustache if he had one.

The story's ending seems a bit rushed--everything basically wraps up in the last two pages, but let's not be too critical. After all, tomorrow is JLA #200!

Justice League of America #198 - Jan. 1982

The JLA gets stranded in the Old West!

The Story: "Once Upon A Time, In The Wild Wild West" by Gerry Conway, Don Heck, and Brett Breeding. This issue starts off like no other--not with any of the JLA, or even the JSA, but Jonah Hex!

Jonah Hex is almost hit by a giant green beam, which comes from...Green Lantern?!?

We know its Green Lantern, but he does not--he's delirious, starving, and is suffering from amnesia. Hex takes pity on the oddly-dressed cowpoke, and gives him a sip from his canteen.

He wakes up that night, with some sort of vision of someone laughing, but that's all he can recall. Hex makes a campfire, not realizing they are being watched.

Cut to: Desecration, Arizona, where a confused young woman is being harassed by some scummy cowboys. They are stopped by the crimson-tressed gunslinger Cinnamon, long enough for the woman to defend herself via a magic spell! Yep, the dazed young woman is Zatanna, trapped in the Old West. I'm seeing a pattern here...

Soon we see Scalphunter running across The Elongated Man, and the West's weirdest hero, Bat Lash, who is saved from taking a bullet in the back by The Flash:

...I love how exaggerated that stance of The Flash is--it looks like a drawing from Mad or something.

Bat Lash and The Flash then make friends, after Bat sees that this oddly-dressed stranger saved his life:

...before Bennifer, before Brangelina, there was Bat-Flash.

Meanwhile, back in our time, Superman is desperately trying to find out what happened to the four Justice Leaguers. He follows their last JLA Signal Device trails to the Grand Canyon, where he discovers a giant robot!

The robot seems to know him, and when he destroys it, he finds its insides are loaded with Kryptonite radiation! Superman passes out before he can see the man behind this attack is...The Lord of Time!

The Lord of Time helpfully explains his plot, which involves the four amnesiac JLAers doing his work for him--namely, capturing an anti-matter bubble that, if harnessed, could make him Master of the World! To be continued!

Roll Call: Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Elongated Man, Zatanna

Notable Moments: After an extraordinary hot streak (issues 189-197, in my mind), this two-parter is a bit of a step back. I don't think its a bad story, but swapping out Don Heck for George Perez didn't exactly thrill the eleven year old me that bought this issue. And while I enjoyed DC's westerns just fine, I always found them mixing with superheroes to be an uneasy fit, at best.

Nice cover, though, well designed and well colored, by Ross Andru and Romeo Tanghal.

Justice League of America #197 - Dec. 1981

Part 3 of the JLA and the JSA versus the Secret Society of Super-Villains!

The Story: "Crisis in Limbo!" by Gerry Conway, George Perez, Keith Pollard, and Romeo Tanghal. Continued from last issue, we watch the SSOSV gloat as they transport the kidnapped members of the JLA and JSA into another dimension.

After the heroes disappear, the desired-for effect happens, and both worlds experience a worldwide--but momentary--reality shift (another reason why it would be absolutely terrifying to actually live on either of these worlds, since stuff like this seems to happen every couple of days).

Anyway, Ultra Humanite checks his figures and...presto! The heroes of Earth-2 are gone!

While he, The Monocle, The Mist, Brainwave, Psycho Pirate, and Rag Doll gloat, the Earth-1 villains start to think this was going to be the result all along, and they have been hoodwinked.

Of course, they are exactly right, and now that they are no longer needed, UH beams them back to Earth-1! What an ungrateful little monkey!

The Earth-1 villains are furious at the treachery, and they hatch a plan. They lay in wait for Green Lantern, and get the drop on him just as he's about to use the JLA Transporter. They use him to beam there, where they subdue The Elongated Man, and use the satellite to beam themselves to the interdimensional limbo where the kidnapped heroes went.

They get Cheetah all worked up, so she attacks Wonder Woman in a blind rage, smashing the tube she's encased in, freeing all the heroes. Unfortunately, the villains didn't really have an Exit Strategy, and they are easily defeated by the JLA and JSA in return!

Soon after, the Earth-2 villains all meet, and ask why the Ultra Humanite wanted them there. He said he didn't, and the confusion is broken when they learn who it was who called them there:

The heroes make quick work of the bad guys (The Flash in particular knocks Rag Doll around like, well, a rag doll), and throw them all into a transporter beam jerry-rigged by Batman, The Atom, and Wonder Woman.

Superman ends the discussion with knocking UH into the beam, transporting them all into the same limbo the heroes were stranded in.

The JLAers return to the satellite, to a bewildered Green Lantern and Elongated Man, while all the villains chase after Ultra Humanite, in an unusually comical ending.

Roll Call: Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Atom, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Firestorm

Notable Moments: I like the glee with which Batman threatens the villains. For once, he's enjoying this.

The JLA Mail Room features a letter from a Canadian named Todd McFarlane. Hmm...

Justice League of America #196 - Nov. 1981

Part 2 of the JLA and the JSA versus the Secret Society of Super-Villains!

The Story: "Countdown to Crisis" by Gerry Conway, George Perez, and Romeo Tanghal. Continued from last issue, we have the SSOSV pulling off their plot to kidnap specific members of the JLA and JSA.

Having already captured Wonder Woman, Hawkman, and Black Canary, they are placed in some sort of giant mix-master, until the other heroes needed for this plan can also be kidnapped.

The next hero on the list is Hourman, and we find him being attacked by The Psycho Pirate out in public, in Hourman's civilian identity of Rex Tyler.

The PP projects his emotions onto a giant movie screen, trying to use them on Hourman, in a sequence wonderfully executed by George Perez (how many times have I said that already):

...of course, the Pirate finally gets the drop on Hourman, and takes him back to the base. This segment is a reminder that there really are very few bad characters, its all how they are handled. I woulda read an Hourman solo comic drawn by George Perez, no problem.

Cut to Earth-1, where we find the Dark Knight Detective on patrol:

He is attacked the The Signal Man, who turns the citizens of Gotham against him. As Signal Man says: "Mission Accomplished!"

The same fate befalls The Flash by Rag Doll, The Atom by The Floronic Man, Johnny Thunder by Brainwave, Firestorm by Killer Frost, and finally Superman by the Ultra Humanite.

All the heroes are then placed in UH's machine, and it spins faster and faster, until it finally disappears into limbo! To be continued!

Roll Call: Batman, Wonder Woman, Atom, Black Canary, Firestorm

Notable Moments: I like the use of the mostly obscure villains--The Monocle? The Mist? Not exactly The Joker and Black Manta here, but maybe the Ultra Humanite thought they'd be easier to control. We'll see next issue how wrong he was.

All of the issues of JLA in my collection are treasured, but this one a little more than most--I bought it while on vacation with my parents in the Pocono Mountains, where we went ever year in August (during my birthday).

I spent a lot of time sitting on the porch, looking out over the lake, with as many comics as I could find at the numerous bookstores and newsstands that lined the one road through the area. The copy I have here is the same one I bought back in August 1981.

Good times.

Justice League of America #195 - Oct. 1981

The JLA and the JSA versus the Secret Society of Super-Villains!

The Story: "Targets on Two Worlds" by Gerry Conway, George Perez, and John Beatty. We find various supervillains (The Monocle, Signalman, the Cheetah) being approached by other supervillains (Killer Frost, and some mysterious, shadowed figure) about joining the Secret Society of Super-Villains. Ah, open enrollment day!

The creepy Flash villain Rag Doll is rescued from a botched bank robbery by The Monocle and the Psycho Pirate, and Killer Frost, the Cheetah, and Signal Man drag Jason Woodrue (aka The Floronic Man, aka The Plant Master) into their scheme, as well.

We find yet another villain, the Mist, and how he deals with former accomplices who have done him wrong:

...The Mist may be a goofy villain, but he's hardcore.

The Earth-1 villains meet up with another villains, Brainwave, and he teleports them all to Earth-2, where they meet up with the other bad guys, and they meet their leader...the Ultra-Humanite!

He explains to them his cockamamie theory that, if you remove certain heroes from each of the two worlds, it will throw the "cosmic balance" out of whack, causing the permanent removal of all the heroes from one of the worlds!

Meanwhile, the JLA and the JSA are having their annual get together at the satellite, with The Atom telling bad jokes, Firestorm hitting on Power Girl (can't blame a guy for trying), and Batman happy to see his quasi-daughter, The Huntress. All the JLA are in attendance, even former members:

...how can we miss you if you won't leave?

Anyway, after all the heroes clear out, Canary is left behind on Monitor Duty. So lost in her reveries, Canary doesn't notice that the Mist has sneaked onto the satellite, where he sucker-punches her, knocking her out.

The Monocle and The Cheetah get the drop on the Earth-2 Hawkman and Wonder Woman, respectively, and all three heroes are kidnapped and taken to the SSOV's headquarters, as per the plan.

We find that the Ultra Humanite has been lying about part of his plan--he knows full well which Earth will be de-heroized! To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: I like the running gag of Firestorm trying to score with Power Girl, and it was nice to see Aquaman (if only for one panel), since he seems to rarely show during these JLA/JSA team-ups, for some reason (although that will change soon).

DC raised their price with this issue from 50 to 60 cents, but gave you two extra pages of content. In this issue's case, a nice JLA/JSA pin-up by Perez:

Justice League of America #194 - Sept. 1981

The JLA faces Death itself at the hands of...Amos Fortune!

The Story: "Destiny is a Stacked Deck" by Gerry Conway, George Perez, and John Beatty. A hooded figure deals a deck of Tarot-like cards, except these feature members of the Justice League. He wonders aloud "Which shall live...and which shall die?"

Cut to: a carnival taking place in Metropolis, and reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane are participating in the fun (well, Lois is--Clark is in charge of carrying all Lois' stuff).

As he waits for Lois, Clark realizes that someone can read his thoughts! He makes his way into a nearby tent, where the self-same hooded stranger reveals that Clark Kent is Superman!

He then strikes Superman with a wooden staff, which turns Superman into a frail old man! As the hooded man leaves, he promises Superman for what's next..."You will know him by the horse he rides."

Meanwhile, in Central City, Barry Allen and the Dibnys are spending some time together, but trouble is never far behind--two strangely-dressed men appear, and the two heroes don their uniforms to investigate:

...I always liked this panel. Perez made The Elongated Man look dynamic!

Anyway, they too are attacked, leaving The Flash consumed with depression, and Ralph turned into a giggling moron. Similar attacks happen to Green Lantern, Black Canary (along with Green Arrow), and even at the JLA satellite, where Zatanna is rendered blind.

The affected JLAers find her there, each of them trying to overcome their respective afflictions. Once Zatanna hears what happened to the rest of them, she says she knows who is behind this.

Soon after, they show up at the castle of the JLA's old foe, Amos Fortune, who draws forth Death himself to attack them!

It initially seems hopeless, but soon the JLA starts to feel differently--that, yes, death is inevitable. It can be denied, but it can be defied. This helps restore Superman to fill strength, who punches Death, which is way cool.

Zatanna's theory that once the JLA started overcoming their depressions, they would be able to fight back, was correct. Amos Fortune tries to escape using another of his Tarot cards, but it wasn't the one he wanted:

Roll Call: Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Zatanna

Notable Moments: Even as a kid I knew that Amos Fortune didn't die--what supervillains ever does?--I still found the end kinda creepy. I liked Perez's style on the Tarot cards, too.

Justice League of America #193 - Aug. 1981

Part 2 of the secret origin of The Red Tornado, and guest-starring a being from the JLA's past!

The Story: "Secret of Genesis" by Gerry Conway, George Perez, and John Beatty. Continued from last issue, the JLA was searching for Red Tornado, who is now under the mental control of his creator, T.O. Morrow.

As Morrow threatens to dismantle creation in order to find out what makes him different, he doesn't realize that one of the JLA has found him--the King of the Seven Seas, Aquaman!

Aquaman waits outside, listening, until he hears Tomorrow threaten his friend Reddy. This spurs Aquaman to make his move, in a brilliantly executed sequence by George Perez:

Unfortunately, T.O. Morrow still has his all-powerful sceptre, and he blasts Aquaman, encasing him in ice and sending him hurtling into the ocean. He then uses it to transport he and Reddy away.

Meanwhile, the JLA are back at Reddy's house, having not been able to find him. The Flash thinks this has got to be the work of Morrow, and goes to check on him, currently in a Central City jail, in another sequence perfectly laid out and timed by Perez:

The light moment is interrupted by Green Lantern, who shows them the imprisoned Aquaman!

Back at his mountain retreat, Morrow dissects Reddy, when a blinding light starts eminating from Reddy's body, overcoming him and knocking him out.

At the JLA satellite, Wonder Woman is in Sick Bay, trying to free Aquaman from his prison. The rest of the JLAers are nervously watching, and Firestorm shoots his mouth off, betting there's no way Aquaman is still alive. The Flash takes him aside to disabuse him of that notion:

Wonder Woman manages to free Aquaman, who is conscious long enough to tell them that the culprit behind all this is, in fact, T.O. Morrow.

Morrow wakes up from the explosion at his lab to find himself in the clutches of the JLA, who seem mighty pissed. Morrow gets off a shot with that annoying sceptre of his, but its no help when he is confronted by a giant, sentient tornado!

This tornado creature---the Tornado Tyrant--is something the JLA has faced before, way back in JLA #17. It makes short work of the JLA, knocking them all out, leaving only a scared out his wits Firestorm.

Before he can try and attack it himself, he is stopped by a tiny, man-sized tornado, who explains that he and the Tyrant are two halves of the same being, who fought the JLA so long ago:

And it was he (they?) who chose to inhabit the android body of Red Tornado when it was created. Firestorm realizes this means that Reddy is actually alive, and possesses a soul!

The tornado asks Firestorm to use his powers to fuse it and the Tyrant back together, and back into the Red Tornado. That means the tornado will lose all of its self-knowledge, and resume "being" the Red Tornado, but it says that is a small price to pay to have a purpose in life.

Firestorm does this (with the Tyrant being none too happy about it), and finds a dazed, confused Red Tornado in the aftermath. Firestorm decides not to tell Reddy what he knows, thinking Reddy deserves a chance for a life of his own.

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

Notable Moments: I loved this second part as much as I did the first--it has so many nice character moments, plus plenty of superhero derring-do.

And while Aquaman's plan ends up not being very well executed, its still cool he got this moment to himself, superbly told by Perez. I also love the flashbacks to the old 60s JLA as drawn by Perez, they look utterly charming to me.

This issue also had a 16-page preview (one of many DC did around this time) of All-Star Squadron, which quickly became one of my favorite comics. The best fifty cents I ever spent.

Justice League of America #192 - July 1981

The Justice League versus...The Red Tornado?!?

The Story: "Quest for Genesis" by Gerry Conway, George Perez, and John Beatty. We open at the JLA satellite, where a shadowy figure beams aboard and makes their way to the JLA Conference Room.

Once there, we see members of the League going over some organizational business, when its stops as they notice their late arrival...Red Tornado.

Superman notices something seems...odd about Reddy. He's right, as Red Tornado attacks his friends with his tornado powers!

During the melee Batman's arm is broken, and most of the rest of team is momentarily stunned. But Superman composes himself, knocks Reddy off his feet, and then Flash dismembers him, so they can study Reddy and see what's going on.

While they discuss what just happened, Reddy's severed head explodes while Flash is holding onto it(!), putting him in shock.

As most of the heroes make their way to Sick Bay, Green Lantern hangs back, using his ring to analyze Reddy's "remains" to see if this is the real Red Tornado. Aquaman and Firestorm hang back too, and they take the elevator down, explaining to newest member Firestorm who this "T.O. Morrow" guy is:

Unfortunately, as the heroes step off the elevator, they are sucker-tornadoed by yet another Red Tornado!

This Reddy then attacks Superman and Wonder Woman, with a level of viciousness that still manages to shock his old friends. The Flash, having recovered, grabs Reddy, tosses him out of the airlock, Battlestar Galactica-style, where he explodes--again!

This second explosion has been watched by a man on Earth, in a cabin buried in the snowy mountains of Colorado.

We find this man is, of course, T.O. Morrow, Red Tornado's creator, who wants to know why all his Red Tornado's are exploding!

He has his supercomputer analyze, and it spits back at him that the inherent design of Red Tornado is "flawed" and that the original model somehow differs from the copies. Morrow wants to find out why this is, so he heads to New York to find the real Reddy.

We find that Reddy with his family, when suddenly someone gets "into" his mind, driving him insane and out of control! He cannot resist the voice is in head, whichs is telling Reddy to come to him!

Reddy does, leaving Kathy and Traya completely bewildered. Not long after, the JLA arrive, offering to help.

We cut back to Morrow, now with Red Tornado immobile in front of him, as he goes over their convoluted history. He explains that "something" got into his supercomputer when he created Reddy, which also caused it to incorrectly predict that he would die at a certain time (JLA #106).

Morrow simply must learn what makes The Red Tornado special, and he plans to find out, even if it means dismantling Reddy!

But, as we can see, one of the JLA has found Morrow:

To be continued!

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

Notable Moments: This is an interesting line-up for this story--minus Reddy, its the original members plus new member Firestorm. Cool.

This issue opens with the JLA going over boring organizational minutiae, something we rarely got to see, but I enjoyed:

The art combo of George Perez and John Beatty is, to my eye, sensational--Beatty's smooth line meshes perfectly with Perez's hyper-detailed layouts. I wish these two had stayed on the book in perpetuity.

Another nice thing about Perez's work is the storytelling--I don't know whether the elevator sequence was written out by Gerry Conway or thought up by Perez, but I like how the three of them use the elevator, you know, like regular people would. They don't fly around all the time, and its another nice, subtle touch.

The letters page is interesting, too, since it features a letter by none other than JLA Satellite commenter Russell Burbage:

Wow!

DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #11 - July 1981

The JLA headlined their first digest in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #11, released between JLA #s 191 and 192. It features a solid collection of four stories, along with this spiffy cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.

Inside is the complete 3-part story from JLA #s 100-102: "The Unknown Solider of Victory", "The Hand That Shook The World", and "...And One of Us Must Die!", all by Len Wein, Dick Dillin, Joe Giella, and Dick Giordano.

Also included is "Triumph of the Tornado Tyrant", from JLA #17. Considering the storyline in the next two issues of the regular JLA book, this surely was a sort of hint of what was to come. Well played, editor Len Wein!

The book also features a low-key ad for the next issue of JLA, which we'll get to tomorrow:

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'.

JLA Satellite Interview with Frank McLaughlin

As soon as I heard the legendary writer/artist/inker Frank McLaughlin was going to be at the 2008 New York Comic Con, I told myself I would not leave there until I had gotten a chance to, at the very least, shake his hand and thank him for so much great work over the years, most especially as half of the team of "Dillin & McLaughlin" that was akin to "Lennon & McCartney" to me growing up.

I ended up with a lot more than that--I got a sketch from him for my Aquaman sketchbook, got him to sign my copy of JLA #161 (along with the cover's penciler, Rich Buckler), and got him to agree to do an interview with me for JLA Satellite!

I called Frank on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and we got to talk about one my favorite subjects: The Justice League!:

JLA Satellite: What was it like to work with Dick Dillin? Did you interact much with him?

FM: It was really a pleasure working with Dillin. I would talk on the phone with him occasionally--I rarely went in to DC, we had a messenger here, and they used to take stuff back and forth every day, so we didn't have to go in.

That's why I never really got to see him--he would go in infrequently. Of course , the editor, Julie [Schwartz] didn't care; as along as we got the work done.

JLA Satellite: When Steve Englehart had the book's page count increased, they asked Dick Dillin, and he said 'no problem'; was that a problem for you, having to produce that much more work in the same period of time? That was a lot of work for you, too!

FM: My contract called for x amount of pages per week, and if it wasn't JLA, then it was something else. Dick, I don't know how he did it--he put a lot of work into his drawings.

He would take the logo, the JLA logo, every single tiny bit of it, and trace it onto the page, in pencil, and I had nothing to do with it--they [DC] would just put a paste-up right over it. I don't know why, all he had to do was an outline to indicate where it was. But no, he did the whole thing.

And it being a group your drawing, there's a lot of stuff in every panel.

JLA Satellite: Yeah! I'm looking at these pages, and there's so much stuff in them, and then you've got Gerry Conway and these other writers saying "This time, we're going to guest-star these fifteen other people."

FM: The life of a writer--I get upset when a writer tells me he's got Writer's Block; he can write something in two minutes, and takes an artist two days to draw it.

No kidding, one time we were doing a book for Dell [Comics]--Dick, myself, a guy named Maurice Whitman, a terrific artist--we all shared a studio with some other guys and we had this book that was late.

We had to get it on the train the next morning, and we had three or four pages to finish up. I think Vince Colletta had started it, and he couldn't finish it, so he called us, and Dick said yeah, we'll take it on.

It had to do with two armies fighting each other, I forget the title, it was a movie book, and we split up the pages, and there was one page that was going to take up most of the night--Dick couldn't do it, Whitman couldn't do it, they were working on the other stuff, so I wound up with this one page.

It was a scene of an army on horseback, get this--going across the desert with swords and shields and flags and--oh, christ, it wasn't drawn that well, I don't know who drew it, but he got about halfway in and you know, just kinda [makes 'whoosh' sound] dropped it in, you know?

It took me hours and hours to do this one panel--it was the whole page, or 2/3rds the page, and the book was very late. It was supposed to go the engravers as soon as they got it in their hands.

Well, I finished it with about an hour to go, and I was punchy by this time. So just for the hell of it, in back of the army, there was a hill, I drew a Sherman Tank--there was a gun, a turret, a flag, just for the hell of it.

This is supposed to be the 1500's.

JLA Satellite: [Big laugh]

FM: I was being a wise-ass. But guess what? Nobody caught it. We got a call from the publisher--"What the hell are you guys doing?!?" They didn't even look at it, it just went right to the engravers. But it did get caught--the engravers must have caught it.

JLA Satellite: Oh, I wish they had printed that! If you had told me they had printed that, I would've been like "I gotta go find that book!"

FM: Dick Giordano has the original art, it's been whited out, but I bet if you hold it up to the light, you could probably see it.

JLA Satellite: Getting back to the JLA, one thing I wanted to ask you about, I have seen very little Dick Dillin pencil work, if any...

FM: Yeah, I don't think there's any.

JLA Satellite: How complete was his stuff to ink?

FM: Very, very complete. Occasionally you'd have to leave something out where he overworked it, but that was rare. I would change little things that I thought needed it--very, very little. He did all the heavy lifting.

And I liked it doing it, and he liked what I was doing, which meant more to me than anything else. Julie Schwartz was not an editor for an artist as much as he was for a writer; he would look at stuff and say "that looks great, see you next week" or something like that. He would act gruff but he was a softie. Good editor.

We worked exclusively for him for a long time.

JLA Satellite: How did you end up inking the JLA book?

FM: Dick Giordano and I worked at Charlton, and then Dick decided to take a shot at being an editor at DC.

So I inherited the studio [in Connecticut], and we were working on DC books, and Charlton books, so we were up to our, you know, in work.

JLA Satellite: [laughs]

FM: One of the books Dick was working on was a JLA, and he decided to give it up. We had worked on it together, though he was doing the lion's share of the work.

And when he gave it up, he told me Julie would like me to continue on it, and I said ok, and I went in to see him, and I signed a contract.

JLA Satellite: Did you prefer penciling or inking, since you could do both?

I was under contract to ink so many pages a week, and it was a good deal. It's not that I can't pencil, its just that there's so much work inking--I was doing that [JLA], I was doing The Flash, a lot of things.

I would get called up by an editor who would say "I got a pencil job that wasn't what I expected it to be, can you...?" I was a doctor, know what I'm saying?

I was erase it, redraw it, and then ink it, and then the penciler wouldn't get any more work.

JLA Satellite: Why did you leave relatively soon after Dick Dillin passed away, and the book was given to George Perez?

FM: I did one or two issues, and then I said to Julie "you know, I think I'd like to move on." I was so used to what Dillin and I were doing together. I moved on a did a lot more other stuff.

It was a good change of speed at the time, inking groups was fast becoming not a favorite--there's too many people in there!

JLA Satellite: What are you working on now?

FM: I'm involved with Comic Mix; it's website with free comics, done by professionals. They've got five or six titles up there now, mostly reprints--stuff done by Mike Grell, Tim Truman.

But the stuff that's being produced as new stuff, which is what I'm working on now with [Dick] Giordano is called White Viper; and that should be starting up now.

JLA Satellite: Are you penciling it and he's inking it?

FM: The other way around; I'm writing it--actually I'm plotting and writing it with my daughter Erin, and Dick's penciling it. Boy, he's doing a bang-up job, too.


Talking to Frank was like sitting back and having a beer with a really cool uncle; albeit one that just happened to work on The World's Greatest Superheroes for almost a decade straight.

I thank him so much for all his great work, and for taking the time to talk to me for the blog. Thanks Frank!

The Secret Origin of the Justice League - 1981

Brought to you by the fine folks at Leaf Candy--the Secret Origin of the Justice League of America!

The Story: "The Origin of the Justice League of America" by...? A bunch of kids are busy rejecting an Asian kid from being in their Justice League Club, because he's "not even an American!"

Superman overhears their conversation, and drops in on the little bunch of racist jerks.

He tells them the origin of the JLA, which is in this telling a single giant alien who threatens Earth, and seven superheroes--Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Superman himself--band together to defeat it.

They decide to form a team, and we get a super-super abbreviated history of the JLA--supervillains like Despero, Starro, Dr. Destiny, the Shaggy Man, and Brainstorm, when the Joker found their Secret Sanctuary, and the creation of the satellite.

We also get this nice group shot of the membership, past and present:

...what the heck do JLA artists have against Hawkgirl?

Anyway, Superman explains to them that the JLA is made up of all kinds of beings--an Amazon, a Martian, a Thanagarian, an android, and of course a Kryptonian! So knock off the "Whites Only" stuff!

The kids learn the error of their ways, and Superman takes off, having made the world a better place.

Notable Moments: This was part of an eight-issue series of mini-comics (measuring roughly 4 x 2 1/2") that were included with little bags of Leaf Candy, starring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, the JLA, and...Hawkman. Poor Martian Manhunter!

I'm not exactly sure when these books came out, but since Zee is in her newest costume in the group shot, it had to be around this time.

On the back cover there was a form you could clip out and send in to get a "Collector's Album" featuring a nice wraparound shot of all (well, almost all--guess who's missing) the members of the JLA, plus some guest-stars:

I'm not exactly sure who drew it, but Dick Giordano confirmed with me directly that he inked it, so we know at least that much.

Despite my diligent efforts, I have not been able to determine who actually wrote this story. I had first assumed Paul Kupperberg did the honors, since he wrote some of the other ones in the series, but he told me he didn't, maybe Bob Rozakis did.

So then I asked Bob, and he said no, maybe it was Len Wein. I then asked Len, and he said no, too! So I have no idea.

Art-wise, it looks a little like the combo of Don Heck and Frank McLaughlin whose work graced JLA #s 187 and 188, but I can't be sure.

A mystery for the ages...


Tomorrow: Normally we'd be profiling JLA #189, which happens to be Frank McLaughlin's last issue as inker after more than six years on the title. But since that is part one of a two parter, and I didn't want to interrupt the story, we'll be running that Tuesday. So what's tomorrow, you ask?

Well, tomorrow is our brand-new interview with...the legendary Frank McLaughlin! Be here!