Justice League of America #55
August 1967 (June 13, 1967) $.12

Cover Art: Mike Sekowsky (Penciller), Murphy Anderson (Inker)

“The Super-Crisis That Struck Earth-Two!” 23 pages

Julius Schwartz (Editor), Gardner Fox (Writer), Mike Sekowsky (Penciller), Sid Greene (Inker), no lettering or coloring credits

FC: The Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Superman, teamed as the Justice League of America
GS: Hawkman, Hourman, Mr. Terrific, Johnny Thunder [and The Thunderbolt], Wildcat, Wonder Woman, teamed with Robin as the Justice Society of America
Reintro: Robin (Dick Grayson)
Intro: The Black Spheres (some die in this story)
Intro: Gem Girl (Claire Morton)
Intro: How Chu
Intro: The Money Master (Horace Rowland)
Intro: The Smashing Sportsman (Marty Baxter)

Synopsis

Four ordinary people of Earth-Two are struck by strange balls of glowing black matter. Once absorbed through the skin, the spheres grant the quartet superhuman abilities but also turn their previously benevolent hosts evil (except Mongolian bandit How Chu, who was already so inclined). The newly minted villains embark on a worldwide campaign of crime and terror.

Pausing only long enough to welcome new member Robin, the Justice Society set out to stop this rampage. Every encounter leads to the heroes' frustration and defeat, even the most powerful members of the available roster proving ineffectual. Thinking the Justice League may have better luck, Johnny Thunder has his servant summon four Leaguers ― Superman, Flash, Green Lantern and Green Arrow ― to Earth-Two, only to find that they too have met defeat at the hands of four more sphere-possessed super-villains on their own world.

The Thunderbolt reveals that the spheres are a form of extradimensional life that evolved in negative time and have traveled to the Earth-One and -Two dimensions to continue their evolution in positive time. If they are not separated from their hosts soon, the changes will become permanent... and the villains will become masters over the Earths.

Meeting Minutes

Robin joins the Justice Society in this issue, the first new member since Black Canary joined in All-Star Comics #41 (June-July 1948) and the first to join in the Silver Age. He is the eighteenth official JSA member.

The Good Guys

Because ‘Batman and Robin’ stories were published continuously throughout the 1940s, '50s and '60s, there is no point at which it can be authoritatively said that Robin segues from his Golden Age incarnation to his Silver Age persona. It is therefore impossible to pinpoint the exact title and issue number of the Earth-Two version's last appearance.

Robin appears to be in his early twenties in this issue but is actually around 35, assuming that he ages at the same rate as his fellow JSAers and that he was eight years old when he first appeared in the “Batman” story in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940). This contradicts late Golden Age continuity, which continued to portray him as a schoolboy well past the time he would've finished graduate school.

This is the first appearance of the Bat-Jet, a Batplane repainted with the Earth-Two Robin's chest emblem.

The Smashing Sportsman comments in this issue that the JSA should have sent Superman to fight him. This is the first mention in Earth-Two continuity of the existence of its Superman or of his membership in the Justice Society.

The Bad Guys

Gem Girl should not be confused with the Earth-One super-heroine of the same name introduced in the “Dial H for Hero” story in House of Mystery #169 (September 1967).

Fashion Watch

Hourman's boots are now depicted with the red rectangle on the arch replaced by a third red stripe encircling his ankle. The trim on his cape is missing in some panels of this issue and is colored black and yellow instead of black and red in the others.

This is the first appearance of Robin in this costume designed by Mike Sekowsky. The costume seen on the cover of this issue, however, differs from that depicted in the interior art in having a red circle behind the combined bat-and-capital-R chest emblem and in substituting a Batman-style bodyshirt for the Robin-style belted tunic. The tunic is depicted with both long and short sleeves throughout this issue and the next. When the sleeves are short, his bare arms are colored gray.

I don't recall if I enjoyed this particular JLA/JSA teamup or not. But I do know that after GL #52 and that ridiculous My Mother The Car parody, Earth-2 stories were no longer consistantly entertaining to me. Lots of peaks and valleys

As noted elsewhere in the thread, the Earth-Two comics are being reviewed in order of publication. Thus, we interrupt “The Super-Crisis That Struck Earth-Two” to bring you the following:

The Flash #173
September 1967 (July 20, 1967) $.12

Cover Art: Carmine Infantino (Penciller), Murphy Anderson (Inker), signed

“Doomward Flight of the Flashes!” 23 pages

Julius Schwartz (Editor), John Broome (Writer), Carmine Infantino (Penciller), Sid Greene (Inker), no lettering or coloring credits

FC: The Flash [of Earth-One]
GS: The Flash, Kid Flash
SC: Iris Allen, Joan Garrick
Intro: The Golden Man of Vorvan
Intro: The Domino Gang

Synopsis

Alarmed to learn that Barry Allen hasn't yet revealed his Flash identity to his wife, Joan Garrick persuades her husband, Jay, to take her to Earth-One so she can set Barry straight. Arriving in Central City, they learn from Iris that Barry and her nephew, Wally West, are out. When Wally returns a few minutes later alone, Jay senses something is wrong. Pulling the boy who is secretly Kid Flash aside, Jay learns that Barry and Wally interrupted a crime by the Domino Gang. In the middle of the battle, Barry disappeared in an explosion that knocked Wally out. Leaving Joan to distract Iris, Jay and Wally switch to their Flash costumes and begin criss-crossing the city, hoping to find some trace of Barry. As their paths intersect, a second explosion occurs and Kid Flash vanishes.

Kid Flash awakens to find himself and Barry the paralyzed prisoners of the Golden Man of the planet Vorvan. Vorvan is a planet inhabited by primitive Neanderthal-like humanoids ― except for the Golden Man, an evolutionarily advanced mutant. Their captor claims to have brought the Earth-One Flashes to Vorvan for the challenge of hunting them. He releases the duo and offers to return them home if they can elude him for four hours. The Flashes escape trap after trap laid by Golden Man, unaware their opponent has lied about his motivations. He intends to use the Earthmen's super-speed vibrations to power a machine that will hurl his fellow Vorvanians up the evolutionary ladder to his level, after which he will lead his race of supermen on a campaign of interplanetary conquest. But when Barry seemingly perishes in a quicksand pit, Golden Man is forced to bring the Earth-Two Flash to Vorvan.

Thanks to the internal vibration he uses to blur his unmasked features, Jay arrives conscious and unparalyzed. He and Kid Flash attack Golden Man in his laboratory. The mutant seems about to defeat them when Barry ― who had faked his death ― arrives and proceeds to destroy Golden Man's lab equipment. Realizing that with three speedsters' vibrations at hand he can now power his device, the Golden Man triggers his evolution ray, only to find himself devolving to the primitive level of the other Vorvanians. The menace ended, the three Flashes return to Earth-One, where they round up the Domino Gang.

Back on Earth-Two, Joan tells Jay that Barry has decided to reveal his double identity to Iris on their first anniversary (as he will, indeed, do in the next issue).

Cosmology

When Jay and Joan Garrick introduce themselves to Iris Allen as friends of Barry's from Keystone City, Iris accepts their statement at face value. It can be concluded, then, that Earth-One has its own Keystone City located in a different geographic region than the Earth-Two version.

Continuity

The story in this issue probably occurs after the events of Justice League of America #55-56 (in which the Earth-One Flash is a participant) but this cannot be confirmed.

The Good Guys

The Flash of Earth-Two explains in this issue that he doesn't wear a mask because he maintains an “internal vibration” that blurs his features when in uniform.

The Spectre #1
November-December 1967 (September 21, 1967) $.12

Cover Art: Murphy Anderson

“The Sinister Lives of Captain Skull!” 23 pages

Julius Schwartz (Editor), Gardner Fox (Writer), Murphy Anderson (Artist), no lettering or coloring credits

FC: The Spectre
SA: Commodus, Paris
Intro: Captain Skull (true name unknown)
Intro: Joseph Clanton
Intro: Sir Guy the Cruel
Intro: The spirit beings of the astra-dimensions

Synopsis

International tensions run high on Earth-Two. Only the diplomatic skills of American special ambassador Joseph Clanton can help avert war. An unknown assassin shoots Clanton. All seems lost until an experimental anesthetic makes surgery to safely mend Clanton's brain injury possible. Shortly after the surgery, a brawny stranger speaking 18th Century English and dressed only in a hospital gown rushes from the operating theatre in a panic. Even as the medical staff discovers that Clanton has disappeared, the stranger steals a pirate costume from a nearby store.

This theft is witnessed by Jim Corrigan, who gives pursuit. He follows the thief to a city park, where he seems intent on destroying the commemorative statue of a Spanish-American War hero. With The Spectre off on a mission, Jim is no match for the supernatural powers of the brutish pirate, who calls himself “Cap'n Skull.” Spectre returns just in time to prevent Corrigan from being crushed beneath the massive equestrian bronze. The Ghostly Guardian is dismayed to find his foe permeated with an energy capable of destroying his ectoplasmic form. Skull is able to hold Spectre at bay long enough to retrieve his long-lost treasure chest from where it lay buried beneath the statue and escape.

Comparing notes with Jim, The Spectre deduces that Skull must be Clanton himself transformed by the experimental anesthetic. Travelling to the “astra-dimensions,” Spectre learns from the energy beings living there that Skull is a previous incarnation of the ambassador. In travelling from his own time, Skull has been charged with “megacyclic” energy. It is up to The Spectre to stop the pirate's rampage and restore Clanton's true personality before war breaks out.

Confronting Cap'n Skull anew, the Spirit Sleuth forces the buccaneer to abandon Clanton's body and return to his own time. Desperate to avoid returning to his own body, which will cause his megacyclic powers to fade, Skull travels backward through time and attempts to possess such previous incarnations as the English robber baron Sir Guy the Cruel, Roman Emperor Commodus, and Prince Paris of Troy. Each time, he is forced to flee from the pursuing Spectre.

At last, the Spectre visits a nearby quasar and fills himself with megacyclic energy, which turns out to be simple radio waves filtered through the human soul. Able to face his opponent on an equal footing, Spectre forces Cap'n Skull back into his own body in the eighteenth century.

Ambassador Clanton, fully recovered as a side effect of his possession, negotiates a peace treaty. A third World War on Earth-Two is averted.

Cosmology

Internal evidence in this story suggests that Gateway City sits on either the Atlantic Coast or the Gulf of Mexico because Captain Skull, described as having looted the Caribbean islands and the Carolinas, was able to anchor his ship offshore and bury his treasure chest on the future site of a Gateway park.

The Spectre #2
January-February 1968 (November 21, 1967) $.12

Cover Art: Neal Adams

“Die, Spectre ― Again!” 23 pages

Julius Schwartz (Editor), Gardner Fox (Writer), Neal Adams (Artist), no lettering or coloring credits

FC: The Spectre
SC: Mona Marcy
Intro: Dirk Rawley and his etheral double
Intro: Gateway City Police Commissioner Hackett

Synopsis

A mugging goes awry for stage magician and small-time crook Dirk Rawley when his intended victim ends up in possession of Rawley's gun. A strange faceless being appears out of nowhere and disarms the other man. Rawley looks on horrified as the being's faceless features slowly change into his own. It introduces itself as Rawley's “etheric double,” brought to life by the mugger's fear of imminent death. The etheric Rawley departs for the town of Arkham, where he will fortify himself with the ancient evil residing there.

Several days later, while resting inside Jim Corrigan, The Spectre encounters Dirk Rawley, who is the headliner at the charity ball Jim and Mona Marcy are attending. While Jim plays the dutiful fiancee, the Disembodied Detective looks into a series of seemingly impossible crimes. At the most recent crime scene, Spectre is nearly torn apart by the traces of evil etheric energy he finds. Continuing his investigation, he finds himself drawn to the site of the next crime. Though Spectre recognizes Rawley, the sinister doppelgänger's etheric powers are too much for the Spirit Sleuth to overcome and it escapes with its loot.

Consulting with Jim later, Spectre concludes there is only one hope of defeating the etheric Rawley: if Corrigan strikes the real Rawley at the same moment Spectre strikes his spirit counterpart, their power will be broken. With that in mind, Corrigan escorts Mona to another of the magician's performances. As expected, the etheric Rawley undertakes a crime while the physical Rawley performs, giving himself a perfect alibi. Spectre confronts the doppelgänger and alerts Corrigan. The detective, failing to connect with Rawley, soon finds himself in hot water. Unable to explain his actions without revealing his connection to The Spectre, Corrigan is suspended from active duty.

Managing to imprison The Spectre long enough to escape but aware now of its own vulnerability, Rawley's etheric double recharges its powers in Arkham. At their next confrontation, Corrigan and The Spectre are able to fulfill their plan and knock both Rawleys unconscious. Spectre erects a psychic shield around the real Rawley, blocking his etheric self's absorption of evil psychic energy and imprisoning it forever within Rawley's body. His mugging victim is released from the hospital, and his testimony convicts Rawley. Corrigan is exonerated.

Cosmology

The fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts ― created by horror writer (and former Julius Schwartz client) H. P. Lovecraft ― is a real place on Earth-Two.

Meeting Minutes

The Spectre mentions having just concluded a mission with the Justice Society at the beginning of this story. Since Spectre's last known appearance with the JSA was in Justice League of America #47 sixteen months earlier, this mission must be considered an ‘untold adventure’ of the JSA.

The Good Guys

This is the last appearance to date of Mona Marcy. No explanation has ever been given of how and when her engagement to Jim Corrigan ended.

Nope. There isn't an Earth-One Spectre yet, as far as we know (though this would, in theory, be his first appearance), and there's no mention of his home city in this story, only that Corrigan "came to Gotham to observe its police methods." Anyway, it's the Earth-Two Spec who operates out of Gateway City. His Earth-One counterpart will operate out of New York (cf. Adventure Comics #435). I'll be covering the differences between the two in depth when I get to the launch of the Fleisher/Aparo series.

Cei-U!
I summon the devil in the details!

I don't want to go into a lot of detail on the subject just yet but, as mentioned above, I delve into Spectre's tangled continuity when I cover Adventure #431.



The Silver Age series is most definitely set on Earth-Two, as Spec's frequent allusions to the JSA and the upcoming appearances by Wildcat and Psycho-Pirate make clear. And while there is no mention of interdimensional crossovers in B&B #75 (which does indeed star Earth-One's Batman*), there is nothing to preclude such a possibility either. As I stated in the continuity notes, the existence of Earth-Two is public knowledge on Earth-One so a cross-dimensional cop visiting Commissioner Gordon wouldn't necessarily be all that bizarre.



An open mind is always a good thing.

Cei-U!
I summon the tangled skeins!

*Unless you subscribe to Bob Rozakis' "Earth-B" nonsense, in which case B&B #75 features the Earth-B Batman *and* Spectre