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Post by rberman on Jan 14, 2019 17:38:46 GMT -5
The various headshots often change from issue to issue, and the quality really varies. Including the headshots on the cover was smart. It tells who everybody is, cutting down on the need for "Green Lantern, use your Oan-powered ring!" type clunky exposition in the story proper. It also tells which of the many JLA members will be spotlighted in a given issue. Marvel sort of did this with big clusters of heads up in the corner, but without names, how helpful was it really? You already knew which comic book you were buying from the title, so putting just tiny heads in the corner didn't add anything. However, Marvel did at least standardize the art on those heads, which JLA should have done as well rather than (apparently) expecting the artist to draw the heads de novo every month.
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Post by badwolf on Jan 14, 2019 18:16:33 GMT -5
In the modern age, each time Grundy is reborn he varies both physically and intellectually. He could be savage and Hulk-like in one incarnation, and a calculating master criminal in another (see "The Tornado's Path" by Greg Rucka). So (retroactively applied) technically it might be possible for him to be twenty feet tall in one story.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 14, 2019 18:33:19 GMT -5
The various headshots often change from issue to issue, and the quality really varies. Including the headshots on the cover was smart. It tells who everybody is, cutting down on the need for "Green Lantern, use your Oan-powered ring!" type clunky exposition in the story proper. It also tells which of the many JLA members will be spotlighted in a given issue. Marvel sort of did this with big clusters of heads up in the corner, but without names, how helpful was it really? You already knew which comic book you were buying from the title, so putting just tiny heads in the corner didn't add anything. However, Marvel did at least standardize the art on those heads, which JLA should have done as well rather than (apparently) expecting the artist to draw the heads de novo every month.It was good that the characters were identified, especially those from the JSA, but they weren't all drawn anew by Dillin. They were a crazy-quilt of clips from all over the place, some newly drawn, some from old issues. Many were by Murphy Anderson. A few were by Mike Sekowsky. I think the GL that I referred to was Infantino inked by Greene. And some were obviously Neal Adams' work.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 15, 2019 0:18:16 GMT -5
The Comics Code was updated in 1971, lifting the prohibition on vampires, werewolves and ghouls, provided they were in the literary tradition of Frankenstein and Dracula. This is when you see a shift into more horror material, including the introduction of new horror features and horror elements being used in other stories. Tomb of Dracula began in 1972 and others would follow. Stoned was also a term used with alcohol, meaning drunk. Apparently, Gold Key did not care about Comics Code approval, since they had been publishing their adaptation of the gothic horror soap-opera Dark Shadows (with its star being a vampire) since 1968. The Big Two should have considered going that route long before the 1970s. Western/Dell declined to join the Code, originally, and had, instead, a "Pledge to Parents," which made promises of wholesome entertainment. Given that the bulk of their material was licensed properties, from Disney, Warner, tv and movies, they were pretty safe. They were also the number one publisher of the 50s, thanks to the Ducks (number two, at worst). By the time they expanded into adventure and horror, under the Gold Key name, the furor was long gone and no one noticed. Their horror stuff wasn't as gruesome as the stuff in the late 40s/50s; so, no one made a fuss. They also self-distributed, including non-newsstand clients, like toy stores, discount stores and the like. I suspect Marvel was the first to push updating the Code, given they bucked it with the Spider-Man drug issue. Plus, Roy Thomas' interests lay in that area. DC, being more moribund, probably went along when they saw the wind was changing, hoping to tap into the Warren market (especially when they saw that their "mystery" titles were doing better than a lot of the superheroes). I suspect some of the younger editors at DC favored pushing for change and some of the old guard were wary, until they saw sales figures.
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Post by tarkintino on Jan 15, 2019 6:08:13 GMT -5
Guys, if you meant "standardized" as in consistent art for group title head symbols, as you will see, DC/JLA did move in that direction with more Adams-redrawn heads on JLA #98 (and using it as licensing art moving forward). In the same era, Marvel was still not completely on board with standardized group headshot symbols, as seen on the August, 1972 debut issue of The Defenders-- Each Defender's head was the work of a separate artist. By issue #10 (November, 1973) this would change, with the debut of John Romita's headshots / licensing art-- --which would be used for most of the title's life, with few exceptions (e.g. new member head shots added), but in DC's case, they would push forward with more (if not total) consistency once the Adams work was introduced.
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Post by rberman on Jan 15, 2019 12:02:17 GMT -5
JLA #99 “Seeds of Destruction!” (June 1972)
Creative Team: Mike Friedrich wrote it. Art is Dillin and Giella. The Story: Black Canary and Green Lantern require rescue from attacking plants in two separate incidents. The blame goes to two seed-strewing aliens named Bür Sëd and Kêr Sêd. Not only can the aliens deflect the heroes’ attacks, but they can redirect them to cause more damage elsewhere. The JLA change tactics, pretending to help the aliens plant and water their seeds, then snatching the aliens’ power-staves in a moment of distraction. The aliens discover that their efforts to oxygenate the world have inadvertently made it incompatible with their own biology; they request their staves back and flee the planet. Continuity References: Black Canary is helping with clean-up from the Starbreaker incident in Central City. Sargon has been granted honorary JLA membership in consideration of his assistance. OK, but would the JLA really hold a staff meeting to discuss his status, and the upcoming JSA crossover, in the middle of an alien invasion? I love that the Atom can be full size if he wants, but he prefers to attend JLA staff meetings as a tiny man in a tiny chair, presumably with a tiny helium voice. So cute! Reprints: “Case of the Stolen Emeralds” is a Sandman story from Adventure Comics #51 (1940). “Terror Rides the Rails!” is a Golden Age Atom story from Flash Comics #98 (1948). My Two Cents: The Starbreaker story was really Friedrich’s last hurrah as JLA writer, a triple-issue slugfest. This is more of a coda, an environmental morality play about the hazards of fouling your own nest. Friedrich and O’Neil have hit this theme regularly, and this story puts a bit of a twist on it by depicting the unintended consequences of overzealous environmentalism, though the general message of “be careful with the only world we’ve got” is ultimately the same. Not a whole lot else to say about this issue I guess.
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Post by tarkintino on Jan 15, 2019 16:00:31 GMT -5
JLA #99 “Seeds of Destruction!” (June 1972)
Creative Team: Mike Friedrich wrote it. Art is Dillin and Giella. Just a...ho-hum story. Not so interesting. Yeah, that's like two firemen stopping to talk about a helpful bystander being made a fireman...while standing in the middle of a 50-story building on fire that said bystander was helping contain. I will always tip the hat to DC for really going deep in making great use of its old catalog, and certainly allowed younger fans to really know the mediums' past ¬ think of the Golden Age as some remote, dusty period only the older generation spoke of. From the 80-Page Giants to the 100-Page specials of their monthlies, DC gave you your money's worth. One would have expected JLA's creatives to build some stronger story going into the all-important 100th issue, but that was a lost opportunity/letdown, to say the least.
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Post by rberman on Jan 16, 2019 8:15:41 GMT -5
Justice League of America #100-102 “Seven Soldiers” (August-October 1972)
Creative Team: Len Wein wrote it. Dick Dillin and Joe Giella on art. Dick Giordano helped with ink on #102 and subsequent issues. Issue #100 “The Unknown Soldier of Victory!”: The JLA gathers for a party to celebrate “Our 100th meeting.” (five pages) The JSA teleports them to Earth-2 to help with a crisis: The villainous Iron Hand is crushing the planet with a giant mystic hand. In a séance, Dr. Fate, Zatanna, and Thunderbolt summon the omnipotent Oracle who delivers tons of exposition concerning the Seven Soldiers of Victory, who came together as an ad hoc team which defeated The Hand’s team of super-villains in the Golden Age. Subsequently, they defeated the giant Nebula Man but were themselves scattered across history, so now the JLA and JSA need to (what else?) divide into small teams and retrieve the Soldiers. (thirteen pages) Rescue 1: Dr. Fate, The Atom, and Elongated Man rescue Crimson Avenger from being the brainwashed king of the ancient Aztecs. In present day, Iron Hand swears he will “hold dominion over all!” (six pages) Issue #101 “The Hand that Shook the World”: Diana Prince recaps three late JSA arrivals (Green Lantern-2, Mr. Terrific, and Robin-2) on the plot of the last issue. Those three head to the Himalayas. Iron Hand gloats and sneaks up behind Diana in the JSA base. (six pages throughout the issue) Rescue 2: Superman, Sandman, and Metamorpho incapacitate the army of Genghis Khan, whose leader is a confused Shining Knight. (six pages) Rescue 3: Hawkman, Dr. Mid-nite, and Wonder Woman-2 head to medieval Merrie England, where they rescue Green Arrow-2 from being executed as Robin Hood. (six pages) Rescue 4: Batman, Starman, and Hourman are temporarily captured by ancient Egyptians. Breaking free, they also liberate Stripesy. (six pages) Issue #102 “And One of Us Must Die!”: Oracle regrets that he is bound not to interfere in the story. (one page) Rescue 5: Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Johnny Thunder are captured by Plains Indians in the late 19th century. After freeing themselves, they rescue Vigilante from being burned at the stake. It’s not clear exactly when this story occurs. The Indians have European ropes, but they act as if they have never seen “white skins” or handguns before. (The ancient Egypt sequence features both modern ropes and iron chains.) The setting of this episode will be a minor plot hole down the line for Grant Morrison. (five pages) Rescue 6: Aquaman, Wildcat, and Green Lantern battle prehistorical cavemen, including one who is ten feet tall. They retrieve the Star Spangled Kid, who is hiding in a cave out of concern that his respiratory virus might prove a fatal disease to the Neanderthals. Thoughtful guy! (five pages) Rescue 7: Flash, Zatanna, and Red Tornado are on Circe’s Island, where Speedy has been transformed into a Centaur. After suffering in animal forms themselves (snail, hummingbird, and mole respectively), they wrest Circe’s wand from her, freeing all her victims from enchantment. (five pages) Wrap-up: All thirty-plus heroes reconvene at the JSA headquarters. Crimson Avenger explains that the tomb of the unknown Soldier in the Himalayas contains his sidekick Wing. This revelation has absolutely no effect on the story. Diana is briefly held hostage by Iron Hand but subdues him with her kung fu skills. The Seven Soldiers build a gadget to defeat the “Nebuloid Hand” that is crushing the Earth. But who will go on the suicide mission to deliver it? While the heroes debate, Red Tornado sneaks off to do the deed, and everyone mourns his heroism. (seven pages) My Two Cents: JLA #100 was significant for several reasons. Not only was it the sort of round number that we tend to interpret as a landmark, but it was also the end of the “52 pages for 25 cents experiment,” dropping the backup stories and reprints, and dropping the price down to 20 cents. Len Wein was taking over for Mike Friedrich on writing. As we see here, it was also a lengthy JSA crossover. Wein’s first JLA outing follows a classic Silver Age JLA story structure: Lots of heroes who fan out in squads for a series of self-contained adventures that could occur in any order, or not at all, followed by a resolution segment. It’s long on serial action sequences, with minimal characterization. Only two squads (those rescuing Shining Knight and Crimson Avenger) must battle their targets before rescuing them. The other five squads face mostly unpowered humans, except for the prehistoric squad, and I for one would have rather seen a dinosaur threat rather than the giant cave-man! The ultimate solution of the Seven Soldiers to the problem (which, you’ll recall, is a giant space-hand crushing the Earth) is to… build a gadget that only they can build? Does Shining Knight really have a lot to contribute to that effort? Stripesy? Speedy? Try to imagine that scene with any other super-team of your choosing, from the Teen Titans to the New Warriors, and it’s just as ludicrous to make everyone a techie. "Forsooth, Crimson Avenger! Wilt thou pass me yon soldering iron?" Nor does the story explain how Iron Hand gained the ability to put the world at such risk. He was a one-shot villain from Leading Comics #1 (1941, Mort Weisinger) at the formation of the original Seven Soldiers, as recounted in this story by Oracle. However the death of Wing (a character who first appeared prior even to Batman, back in Detective Comics #20, 1938) happened off-panel, only in the context of this story’s wrap-up of the Seven Soldiers. I suspect that Len Wein’s main objective was to resurrect the Seven Soldiers through the time travel artifice, bringing them forward from the Golden Age into the year 1972 (a year mentioned explicitly more than once) in order to make them available for future stories. In the process, he must ignore the Vigilante's recent appearance JLA #78-79. I suppose that was the Earth-1 Vigilante, whereas this story is on Earth-2, but in the previous story, Vigilante acted like all the Golden Age adventures belonged to him. One clever bit is that The Hand’s real name is Ramon Solomano (one-hand). In this new appearance, he has a robot hand with zap-rays in it. Grant Morrison will latch onto the ethnic implications of Solomano’s name in his series to come. Also, there was one smidgen of character development worth discussing. Early in issue #100, Flash comments that he’s married, and Zatanna makes a rueful retort. Are we to understand that she is displeased at him in particular being unavailable, or is she more generally bemoaning her own unmarried status? Wein's Zatanna is more glum than Friederich's "calm in the center of the storm, girl with the dancing eyes and enigmatic smile." Zatanna’s loneliness will get picked up by Grant Morrison in his Seven Soldiers series which draws heavily on this story.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 16, 2019 9:32:54 GMT -5
Flash and Zatanna will be a bit of an item, under Conway, after Iris' death in the Flash series (she got better...).
Loved this crossover, hokey ideas or not. It's good solid adventure, with an interesting mcguffin, which would have stood it well for the Super Friends series (they had a few similar plots, in the Challenge days). It's also a favorite of James Robinson, who wrote glowingly of it. It proved to be pretty popular, in the letters pages. It also establishes the formula of reintroducing more Golden Age heroes, in the annual team-ups. Next time, we will have the Freedom Fighters, created with the Quality Comics heroes. Eventually, Conway will bring back old historical adventure characters, used as pawns by the Lord of Time, consisting of Jon the Viking Prince, Black Pirate, Miss Liberty, Jonah Hex and Hans Von Hammer (Enemy Ace). Not sure why he forgot Tomahawk. Western characters would turn up a bit later.
We are now getting into the era where I was exposed to the book, with the Freedom Fighters, appearances by Adam Strange (including his wedding to Alanna), the Dr Light identity swap story (which helped spawn Identity Crisis) and some other gems.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2019 9:42:36 GMT -5
Justice League of America #100-102 “Seven Soldiers” (August-October 1972)
These stories are considered my favorites ... and the action, drama, and everything about this was excellent. I read this on an annual basis during when I go on vacation ... on the plane.
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Post by zaku on Jan 16, 2019 10:00:56 GMT -5
Wasn't Zatanna's dad (Zatara) a native of Earth-2 too? And the Spectre? And Salomon Grundy? Earth-2 must have been a truly horrible place if all those people emigrate from it.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 16, 2019 10:09:12 GMT -5
Wasn't Zatanna's dad (Zatara) a native of Earth-2 too? And the Spectre? And Salomon Grundy? Earth-2 must have been a truly horrible place if all those people emigrate from it. For all their love of the Silver and Golden Ages, the first wave of fan writers (Roy Thomas excepted) could be as haphazard about adhering to continuity details as any of the old guard whom they criticized.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jan 16, 2019 14:54:59 GMT -5
One 'o the top three best JLA stories ever, quite possibly # 1. Fite me.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jan 16, 2019 17:32:11 GMT -5
Also I feel like I should stick up for Dick Dillin a little bit. Keep in mind that the majority of artists of his generation didn't care about superheroes, didn't have any nostalgia for them, didn't particularly like them. And that goes triple for superhero team books, which are far more labor intensive because of all the damn figures. It wasn't that Dillin was a bad artist, but I think he was... unenthused about his JLA assignment.
And I can't really blame him.
And he wasn't alone. Mike Sekowsky is a fine artist when he's doing what he's best at (Sci-fi and pretty girls... Star Hawkins is his best work, IMO) but his JLA stuff often looked sloppy and rushed. And he's not alone...
Don Heck, Barry Windsor Smith, Sal Buscema, Bob Brown... all of 'em did some of their worst work on superhero team books. There were only a handful of silver age artists - Premiani, John Buscema, Adams - who would really give it and produce top-tier work when drawing super teams.
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Post by badwolf on Jan 16, 2019 17:49:42 GMT -5
I like Dillin's art but I feel it was better towards the end of his run.
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