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Post by Chris on Jan 10, 2019 18:59:22 GMT -5
JLA #90 “Plague of the Pale People” (June 1971) The third moral, “trust only yourself,” was handled so ham-fistedly that it defies description. If anyone can make narrative sense of this sequence of panels, you’re certainly welcome to try! After this, Hawkman tells his fellow JLA members that America too has “lost its traditional value system” (Christianity?) and needs to replace it with self-reliance instead of following politicians. So, if I understand this right - and correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm going off of just these panels, having never read the issue - the rock is not something to place faith in, it's just a rock. Nothing special about it. Yet they should eat the rock, because it's, like, special. So it is special, or just a rock? It also seems like a hollow ripoff of Christianity, with "the food of life." Mind you, “believe in your own souls” is a self-refuting notion. On what grounds would you imagine that your own soul is more reliable that the soul of the leader you’ve just declared unworthy? I've been wondering about that for years. This is more of the "Believe in your awesome self!" pap pushed by tons of self-help books and the like, which has nothing to do with actual self-reliance, but just an overabundance of unwarranted self-esteem. At one point Superman is overwhelmed when “the tremendous water-pressure nearly equals that of his native Krypton.” As far as I’m aware, Krypton is not known for having incredible water pressure or incredible gravity. It just has a red sun that inhibits Kryptonian super powers, right? Krypton used to be legendary for it's superheavy gravity. Pre-1986, Superman's powers were derived from a combination of Earth's yellow sun and lighter gravity. The exact details varied in different stories, but it usually went like this. In fact, up until the yellow sun aspect was introduced somewhere in the 1950's (I think), Earth's lighter gravity was given as the only reason for Superman's powers. The gravity factor was so integral before the 80's revamp that anytime an Earth native went to the bottle city of Kandor (or time travelled to Krytpon), they had to be given devices to counter the extreme gravity, to prevent incapacitation or even possible death. Personally, I thought the above explanation made a lot more sense than the post-revamp explanation of his powers. Having said all that, I'm fairly sure water pressure and gravity aren't the same thing. Otherwise Superman could be weakened by a criminal with a high powered firehose.
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Post by rberman on Jan 10, 2019 19:05:36 GMT -5
JLA #90 “Plague of the Pale People” (June 1971) The third moral, “trust only yourself,” was handled so ham-fistedly that it defies description. If anyone can make narrative sense of this sequence of panels, you’re certainly welcome to try! After this, Hawkman tells his fellow JLA members that America too has “lost its traditional value system” (Christianity?) and needs to replace it with self-reliance instead of following politicians. So, if I understand this right - and correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm going off of just these panels, having never read the issue - the rock is not something to place faith in, it's just a rock. Nothing special about it. Yet they should eat the rock, because it's, like, special. So it is special, or just a rock? It also seems like a hollow ripoff of Christianity, with "the food of life." At the beginning of the issue, we see that the Sareme "Proof-Rock" is some sort of mood rock with color-changing lie detector properties, so it helps to guide the Sareme in matters of truth and falsity at least. It was never suggested to be edible until the end of the issue.
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Post by Farrar on Jan 10, 2019 20:36:52 GMT -5
By the way, how similar were the two Earth supposed to be (except for the superheroes and the odd city)? Did they have the same Presidents, same musics, movies and so on? Did she ever mention if she had any problem to adjust to the new Earth? Back in 1970, here's what appeared in Brave and the Bold #91 (written by Bob Haney) that touched on the similarities and exceptions between the two Earths: I suppose there have been updates/changes/clarifications to the above since then. Fwiw, to put this issue into publication date context: B&B #91 was on sale at around the same time as JLA #82 and just before GL #79. The B&B issue featured a Black Canary/Batman team-up; here's Batman thinking about BC:
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Post by zaku on Jan 11, 2019 2:45:14 GMT -5
By the way, how similar were the two Earth supposed to be (except for the superheroes and the odd city)? Did they have the same Presidents, same musics, movies and so on? Did she ever mention if she had any problem to adjust to the new Earth? Back in 1970, here's what appeared in Brave and the Bold Bold #91 (written by Bob Haney) that touched on the similarities and exceptions between the two Earths: I suppose there have been updates/changes/clarifications to the above since then. Well, like she said, there were exceptions. Like a lot of them. So many exceptions that they were the rule. I mean, just from memory: - There were heroes that simply didn't exist on the other Earth.
- There were heroes that started their careers decades before their Earth-1 counterparts (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) with all their supporting casts!
- Often these heroes had sons who obviously didn't exists on Earth-1
- Entire cities didn't exist on the other Earth
- Even if heroes couldn't operate on occupied territories, still they contributed to the war effort, like that time when the Spectre destroyed an entire invasion fleet. So different people survived or died on both Earth (and their offspring!)
- They made clear that entire planets didn't exists on the other universe.
- Magic was more predominant in Earth-2 (because the Guardians expelled there all the surplus magic from Earth-1 Universe)
- They have technological breakthroughs like space travels decades before Earth-1
and so on.
Earth-2 was a fun concept, but that couldn't survive too much scrutiny. If the authors wanted to bring the concept to its natural conclusion, now the Earth-2 universe should resemble the world of Watchmen. I know that some writers tried to justify the similarities between the Earths with some "cosmic resonance", but really, why only these two worlds had that? PS. Dinah, I didn't read that story, but your reasoning isn't sane. You should seek professional help.
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Post by rberman on Jan 11, 2019 15:51:48 GMT -5
JLA #91-92 “JLA/JSA: Youth vs Experience” (August-September 1971) Creative Team: Mike Friedrich wrote it. Art is Dillin and Giella. JLA #91 “Earth-the Monster Maker!”: The trouble starts with three alien teens joy-riding in a trans-dimensional ship. One of them, A-Rym, falls through a dimensional vortex to land on Earth-2, while his symbiotic pet S-Kyr lands on Earth-1. Neither can long survive without the other. Green Lantern loses his power ring to A-Rym during “a solo side-trip to check up on Slaughter Swamp.” Is that a regular thing? On Earth-1, Batman brings severely wounded Flash to the JLA satellite. Flash mutters a warning about “New Carthage” just as Aquaman calls for help. Time to split into squads! Black Canary is on the “stays behind with unconscious Flash” squad. Atom has the brilliant idea that it would be “scientifically more sound” for half of the JLA to travel to Earth-2, and half of the JSA to travel to Earth-1, to deal with this threat about which they know essentially nothing at this point. Team-up time has arrived. One Earth-1, S-Kyr the alien doggie proves quite a handful, felling both Supermen momentarily, but soon the heroes have him penned on an island of dirt surrounded by a wide ditch. Flash-1 and Superman-2 head back to Earth-2 to see what’s going on. These teams should really recruit a telepath for communication purposes. Five heroes on Earth-2 (GL-1, Hawkman-1, Hawkman-2, Robin -1, and Robin-2) find A-Rym sobbing inconsolably over his plight. Robin-1 feels the best way to deal with a crying alien child is a frontal assault. A-Rym beats up the whole group, including GL-1, who really had no reason to enter melee range. Wandering further into Slaughter Swamp, A-Rym is taken in by the kindly Solomon Grundy. But alas, the overly aggressive “heroes” are soon harrying them again, leading to another pile of defeated heroes. JLA #92 “Solomon Grundy.. The One and Only”: The heroes revive enough to fight Grundy for a few more pages, then tuck their tails and flee. They soon return to attack the poor kid again, but this time Earth-1 Robin eventually tries being nice to A-Rym, and it works. A-Rym collapses sobbing into Robin’s embrace. Soon the alien is reunited with his pet, and then with his friends on the spaceship, who swear to turn themselves into the dimension-cops for stealing this spaceship. The two Green Lanterns surround Slaughter Swamp with “a barrier that Solomon Grundy can never break out of!” Never? How long do ring-created objects last? Continuity References: Aquaman’s rage at Americans “as recounted in last issue’s “Plague of the Pale People!” Robin’s recent adventures “as detailed in the August Batman – ‘Vengeance for a Cop!’” Reprints: The cover price increased from 15 cents to 25 cents, justified by the inclusion of some old stories. Issue #91 also contained “The Day the World Melted” from Mystery in Space #6 (1952), a “Galaxy Knights prevent nuclear holocaust in the 20th century story,” as well as “The Hour Hourman Died!” from The Spectre #7 (1968). Issue #92 contained “The One Man Justice League!” a Professor Ivo story from The Flash #158 (1966), and John Broome’s sci-fi yarn “Space-Enemy Number One!” from Mystery in Space #29 (1955). Also, JLA #93 was an all-reprint issue (for a whopping 35 cents) containing issues #13 “Riddle of the Robot Justice League” and #18 “Journey into the Micro-World.” My Two Cents: There’s a whole lot of unmotivated behavior here. Atom had no particular rationale for splitting up the teams in the way he did. Robin-1 certainly had no good reason to assault a crying alien child. Has he been hanging out with Wolverine? Friedrich is shooting for a story about youth and experience needing each other. The alien kids endanger themselves and others with their cosmic joyride, and Robin-1 makes things worse with an impetuous assault.. Robin-2 rebukes Hawkman-2 for treating him like a sidekick. Never trust anyone over thirty! Note Robin-2’s weird costume, mostly Batman’s but with a garish “R” in the middle, with batwings coming out of it. Hey Robin, here’s a protip: If you want to convince people you don’t live in Batman’s shadow, get your own uniform! Friedrich makes a point of showing a similar petulant attitude in Robin-1, who has decided to toss his motorcycle in the bushes so that he can hitch this awkward-looking ride from Hawkman. At another point, the two Robins commiserate about their also-ran status. Robin-2 lets Robin-1 have a new uniform “fashioned by a costume-maker I know—Neal Adams!” An editorial caption solicits reader input as to whether Robin should switch to this suit permanently. Robin-1 does better the second time, and the Hawkmen apologize for being condescending. Issue #92 contains Friedrich’s dedication to previous JLA and JSA writers, as well as a nice bit where the lanterns charge their rings together. This was the punchline of a plot thread in which GL-2 has lost his ring, so GL-1 makes him a temporary ring. That’s why GL-2 can charge his ring on the Oan battery here: Is Solomon Grundy usually twenty feet tall? I think of him more as a seven or eight footer, but Dillin makes him immense. Who made him clothes that tall? Twice, Grundy is called a “Man-Thing.” Hey, that would make a good name for a swamp-based monster! Robin-2 quotes Aesop’s fable “The Bundle of Sticks,” which contains the proverb “In union, there is strength.” Friedrich has adopted a new serialized writing format in which the last page of each issue teases the upcoming story. Issue #90 had the “Batman brings in wounded Flash” teaser. Now issue #92’s final page shows Batman, Green Arrow, and Aquaman in the crosshairs of an unknown assailant with the silhouette of a big game hunter.
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Post by Chris on Jan 11, 2019 20:47:42 GMT -5
JLA #91-92 “JLA/JSA: Youth vs Experience” (August-September 1971)Is Solomon Grundy usually twenty feet tall? I think of him more as a seven or eight footer, but Dillin makes him immense. Who made him clothes that tall?
He went where everyone from the discriminating swamp monster to the savvy space tyrant goes - Metropolis! The city where they have long experience dealing with non-normative, non-Earth-native body types and physiologies. Optional pre-shredding for your convenience. I, myself, would love to see the Earth-1 version of the J. Peterman Catalog.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 11, 2019 21:06:32 GMT -5
JLA #91-92 “JLA/JSA: Youth vs Experience” (August-September 1971) Creative Team: Mike Friedrich wrote it. Art is Dillin and Giella. JLA #91 “Earth-the Monster Maker!”: The trouble starts with three alien teens joy-riding in a trans-dimensional ship. One of them, A-Rym, falls through a dimensional vortex to land on Earth-2, while his symbiotic pet S-Kyr lands on Earth-1. Neither can long survive without the other. Green Lantern loses his power ring to A-Rym during “a solo side-trip to check up on Slaughter Swamp.” Is that a regular thing? On Earth-1, Batman brings severely wounded Flash to the JLA satellite. Flash mutters a warning about “New Carthage” just as Aquaman calls for help. Time to split into squads! Black Canary is on the “stays behind with unconscious Flash” squad. Atom has the brilliant idea that it would be “scientifically more sound” for half of the JLA to travel to Earth-2, and half of the JSA to travel to Earth-1, to deal with this threat about which they know essentially nothing at this point. Team-up time has arrived. One Earth-1, S-Kyr the alien doggie proves quite a handful, felling both Supermen momentarily, but soon the heroes have him penned on an island of dirt surrounded by a wide ditch. Flash-1 and Superman-2 head back to Earth-2 to see what’s going on. These teams should really recruit a telepath for communication purposes. Five heroes on Earth-2 (GL-1, Hawkman-1, Hawkman-2, Robin -1, and Robin-2) find A-Rym sobbing inconsolably over his plight. Robin-1 feels the best way to deal with a crying alien child is a frontal assault. A-Rym beats up the whole group, including GL-1, who really had no reason to enter melee range. Wandering further into Slaughter Swamp, A-Rym is taken in by the kindly Solomon Grundy. But alas, the overly aggressive “heroes” are soon harrying them again, leading to another pile of defeated heroes. JLA #92 “Solomon Grundy.. The One and Only”: The heroes revive enough to fight Grundy for a few more pages, then tuck their tails and flee. They soon return to attack the poor kid again, but this time Earth-1 Robin eventually tries being nice to A-Rym, and it works. A-Rym collapses sobbing into Robin’s embrace. Soon the alien is reunited with his pet, and then with his friends on the spaceship, who swear to turn themselves into the dimension-cops for stealing this spaceship. The two Green Lanterns surround Slaughter Swamp with “a barrier that Solomon Grundy can never break out of!” Never? How long do ring-created objects last? Continuity References: Aquaman’s rage at Americans “as recounted in last issue’s “Plague of the Pale People!” Robin’s recent adventures “as detailed in the August Batman – ‘Vengeance for a Cop!’” Reprints: The cover price increased from 15 cents to 25 cents, justified by the inclusion of some old stories. Issue #91 also contained “The Day the World Melted” from Mystery in Space #6 (1952), a “Galaxy Knights prevent nuclear holocaust in the 20th century story,” as well as “The Hour Hourman Died!” from The Spectre #7 (1968). Issue #92 contained “The One Man Justice League!” a Professor Ivo story from The Flash #158 (1966), and John Broome’s sci-fi yarn “Space-Enemy Number One!” from Mystery in Space #29 (1955). Also, JLA #93 was an all-reprint issue (for a whopping 35 cents) containing issues #13 “Riddle of the Robot Justice League” and #18 “Journey into the Micro-World.” My Two Cents: There’s a whole lot of unmotivated behavior here. Atom had no particular rationale for splitting up the teams in the way he did. Robin-1 certainly had no good reason to assault a crying alien child. Has he been hanging out with Wolverine? Friedrich is shooting for a story about youth and experience needing each other. The alien kids endanger themselves and others with their cosmic joyride, and Robin-1 makes things worse with an impetuous assault.. Robin-2 rebukes Hawkman-2 for treating him like a sidekick. Never trust anyone over thirty! Note Robin-2’s weird costume, mostly Batman’s but with a garish “R” in the middle, with batwings coming out of it. Hey Robin, here’s a protip: If you want to convince people you don’t live in Batman’s shadow, get your own uniform! Friedrich makes a point of showing a similar petulant attitude in Robin-1, who has decided to toss his motorcycle in the bushes so that he can hitch this awkward-looking ride from Hawkman. At another point, the two Robins commiserate about their also-ran status. Robin-2 lets Robin-1 have a new uniform “fashioned by a costume-maker I know—Neal Adams!” An editorial caption solicits reader input as to whether Robin should switch to this suit permanently. Robin-1 does better the second time, and the Hawkmen apologize for being condescending. Issue #92 contains Friedrich’s dedication to previous JLA and JSA writers, as well as a nice bit where the lanterns charge their rings together. This was the punchline of a plot thread in which GL-2 has lost his ring, so GL-1 makes him a temporary ring. That’s why GL-2 can charge his ring on the Oan battery here: Is Solomon Grundy usually twenty feet tall? I think of him more as a seven or eight footer, but Dillin makes him immense. Who made him clothes that tall? Twice, Grundy is called a “Man-Thing.” Hey, that would make a good name for a swamp-based monster! Robin-2 quotes Aesop’s fable “The Bundle of Sticks,” which contains the proverb “In union, there is strength.” Friedrich has adopted a new serialized writing format in which the last page of each issue teases the upcoming story. Issue #90 had the “Batman brings in wounded Flash” teaser. Now issue #92’s final page shows Batman, Green Arrow, and Aquaman in the crosshairs of an unknown assailant with the silhouette of a big game hunter. This story was published when I started reading comics. I have fond memories of those issues despite the story being average to dopey. There were some tender moments that grabbed me. And this was probably the first that I saw of the earth two dynamic.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 12, 2019 0:48:08 GMT -5
I don't recall if it was ever addressed in the stories; but, I think the E-2 Robin costume was supposed to indicate he had taken over for Batman; but, was still trying to be his own man and the mixing was supposed to cover both bases. I hated it and everyone else did, too; so, luckily, it didn't hang around too long, before he adopted the Neal Adams suit. an't believe it took nearly 20 years for something like it to be the regular Robin costume, with Tim Drake, Poor E-1 Robin and Jason Tod had to continue to run around in trunks and elf shoes.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jan 12, 2019 1:30:27 GMT -5
Make fun of his costume if you have to, but every DC "legacy" hero -approximately 102% of all DC characters in the '90s - was ripping off the Earth-Two Robin, characterization wise.
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Post by tarkintino on Jan 12, 2019 12:42:25 GMT -5
JLA #89 “The Most Dangerous Dreams of All!” (May 1971)Creative Team: Mike Friederich wrote it. Art is Dillin and Giella. I wonder how many readers got the play on Ellison's name--assuming they knew who Harlan Ellison was, since in the greater culture, he was best known (arguably) for the script of a certain sci-fi TV series, and if readers never watched that, then its a good chance this in-joke/reference did not "take". A quaint gag, but I've always found it more of a distraction in the supposedly serious adventure comic, as opposed to the work from purposely self-mocking/aware publication such as MAD magazine. ..and those male readers probably tossed the idea of that over their shoulders JLA #90 “Plague of the Pale People” (June 1971) Creative Team: Mike Friederich wrote it. Art is Dillin and Giella. Yyyeeaaahh……. Ya' think?? From the way Hawk-Friederich speaks, its not really lamenting America losing a religious value system, but he's admonishing the Pale People for believing in anything religious at all. Considering the tone and message of so many Friederich JLA issues...and during this point in American history, it seems fairly clear he's soapboxing against religious belief. Still, by saying "everything is a miracle"--even in referring to nature--it very much stems from the kind of "its all here! There's no God or need for one" statement from the more irreligious among the younger generations of that period. "Believe in your own souls" could be read as the term's watering down to another way of saying "basic character" instead of a divinely-given inner being/core of a believer. Oh... Y'know, Adams is an excellent artist and all, but his realistic style doesn't work with more silver age-y covers and stories, especially when, like this one, there are "regular" people in the image. It worked well with Batman, when things were kept at "ground level," and even Deadman, which was kind've a realistic take on a ghost, but for books like The Spectre or Weisinger-edited--uh uh. Editors or writers arguably stuck in another age where plot or general tone were not going to stop the quest for greater realism desired by some artists and the growing, torrential shift in art tastes embraced by readers in the years leading to this point. Even in titles still sort of forgetting that it was no longer 1963, the greater, realism-embracing artists had the kind of talent that allowed them to enhance subject matter, after all, adventure/superhero comics generally emulated real life, so the realism-embracing artists were doing their job with that aforementioned enhancing the subject--or I should say, any kind of story, as seen in the cover examples below, all taken from the period of time in question-- Adams was one of the captains sailing this then-revolutionary ship, but as seen above, he was far from the only one on the bridge, so to speak. Now, I would not suggest this style would be great for say, Casper the Friendly Ghost, but it elevated the perception of the superhero comic (no matter the scripting), as seen with the Adams/JLA covers featured in this thread.
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Post by Farrar on Jan 12, 2019 13:09:31 GMT -5
I don't recall if it was ever addressed in the stories; but, I think the E-2 Robin costume was supposed to indicate he had taken over for Batman; but, was still trying to be his own man and the mixing was supposed to cover both bases. Yes, when the grown-up Robin made his debut and joined the JSA in JLA #55, he mentioned that the Earth 2 Batman was in "semi retirement." In subsequent letter columns readers characterized this particular costume--and its prominence on this issue's cover--as a blatant attempt to draw in the Batman TV show fans.
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Post by Farrar on Jan 12, 2019 13:41:46 GMT -5
I wonder how many readers got the play on Ellison's name--assuming they knew who Harlan Ellison was, since in the greater culture, he was best known (arguably) for the script of a certain sci-fi TV series, and if readers never watched that, then its a good chance this in-joke/reference did not "take"... I think readers who were also reading Marvel would probably have recognized the name. I was not a heavy sci-fi fan myself (though I have since watched that very famous Star Trek episode he wrote), but I do remember that Ellison, and other sci fi authors, were not infrequently mentioned in various Marvel mags' lettercols. As a kid I was always impressed by all the references and connections Marvel readers would make between Marvel comics and contemporary sci fi authors' works. Ellison had also written a piece for Marvelmania Magazine #4 in 1970. Anyway, in March 1971 there was not only "Harlequin Ellis" in JLA #89, but Marvel published a couple of stories with plots by Ellison, in Avengers #88 (an issue I read back then) and Hulk #140, with Ellison's name featured in the credits...and also on the covers! Avengers #88 Hulk #140 ETA:
tarkintino and anyone else who may be interested: I did some additional digging and what do you know, Ellison had letters printed in various DC mags, one example is 1968's Detective Comics #380. In the lettercols the DC editors would then list his accomplishments (author, winner of Hugo Awards, etc.). So there's a good chance DC readers would likely have known of him or at least recognized his name.
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Post by Farrar on Jan 12, 2019 13:48:32 GMT -5
JLA #91-92 “JLA/JSA: Youth vs Experience” (August-September 1971)Issue #92 contains Friedrich’s dedication to previous JLA and JSA writers, as well as a nice bit where the lanterns charge their rings together. This was the punchline of a plot thread in which GL-2 has lost his ring, so GL-1 makes him a temporary ring. That’s why GL-2 can charge his ring on the Oan battery here: Oh yes, great sequence. I love the GLs' camaraderie, as shown above and also here from JLA #74 (after Larry is killed). Very poignant.
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Post by badwolf on Jan 12, 2019 18:28:00 GMT -5
There was a time when Ellison was fairly prominent. He appeared on talk shows (either specialized ones, or general ones like Mike Douglas), and had regular columns in some papers. Heck, he was even on Nixon's enemies list!
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Post by rberman on Jan 12, 2019 21:24:59 GMT -5
JLA #94 “Where Strikes Demonfang?” (November 1971)Creative Team: Mike Friedrich wrote it. Art is Dillin and Giella, except for four glorious pages by Neal Adams. The Story: Demonfang, sensei of the league of assassins known as The Demon, sends two snipers in series to attack Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Batman. The first one fails and is captured. The second one, an old (but new to us) competitor of Green Arrow named Merlyn, first incapacitates Superman and The Atom, then lures the other three heroes to a house. Aquaman ignorantly succumbs to his one hour “fish out of water” limit, leading Batman to realize that Aquaman is possessed by some force, which later turns out to be Deadman, as depicted on the cover. Green Arrow and Batman get trapped by Merlyn. The Atom and Superman free themselves and show up before Merlyn can carry out his murders; he flees the scene with a “this isn’t over!” When Flash and Hawkman beam up to the JLA satellite, they never arrive. Where did they go? Continuity References: This story ties in with “Detective Comics #411.” Also, “Batman entered Nanda Parbat in Brave and Bold #86!” Finally a Batman connection! Reprints: It’s the start of a series retelling the origins of the JSA members. This issue contains The Sandman’s origin “The Tarantula Strikes!” from Adventure Comics #40 (1939) and Starman’s origin “The Amazing Starman” from Adventure Comics #61 (1941). Covers that Lie: Not only does Deadman not threaten anyone in the manner shown, but the cover also gives away the fact that Aquaman is not himself, spoiling the surprise inside. My Two Cents: This issue is a whole other kind of weird; JLA is being repurposed as a teaser for stories going on elsewhere. The Sensei, leader of the League of Assassins, first appeared in Neal Adams’ Deadman work in Strange Adventures beginning in #215 (1968). The League was a staple in Denny O’Neil’s run on Detective Comics contemporary with this issue of JLA. This issue of JLA does not make any sense by itself. It has Aquaman but doesn’t pick up the “Aquaman is mad at the surface world” thread from issue #90. It doesn’t tell us how Aquaman teamed up with Green Arrow and Batman, or what they were supposed to be doing when the first sniper attacked. It doesn’t explain who Deadman is. Neal Adams had to be called in to draw the four pages in which Sensei and Deadman appear; clearly Dillin could not be trusted to render these characters faithfully. Adams is great as always but does make Dillin’s adjacent work look impoverished. This issue also doesn’t make any attempt at a grand social statement. It’s simply a tiny piece of the Ra’s Al Ghul mythology. I wonder whether it resulted from (a) Denny O’Neil interfering with Friedrich’s work or (b) Friedrich successfully petitioning to get some of the O ‘Neil/Adams mojo working in his own title. Friedrich continues his second person captions, addressing the sniper directly. Black Canary is in Medusa mode. Look how huge her hair is!
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