Our coverage continues of JSA in the 90s with Devin Clancy and The Irredeemable Shag discussing JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #9 (Apr 1993) by Len Strazewski, Mike Parobeck, and Mike Machlan! The JSA is on the run when the entire world turns against them, including their closest loved ones! Then, a battle of ring-slingers – Alan Scott vs Guy Gardner! Plus, we discuss some favorite team-ups between JSAers and their legacy characters! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback!
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One intresting thing about Alan Scot in the post golden Age he’s super good at using the ring. Which makes sense as he was supposed to be Hal with more practice. in 40s comics he PUNCHED a lot for a guy with a power ring. Kinda like the earth 2 Superman is’nt killing wife beaters he’s an older Silver age Superman.
AS to last time Who trained Catwoman? uh maybe judomaster? Heck what else is he doing?
Will you be covering the Crisis Times Five story arc in JLA #28-31?
The closest fit is probably Denholm Elliot (Marcus Brody). Indiana Jones counts as a superhero, right? The other details all line up.
From the brief looking I did, he’s the candidate that jumped out to me too. To be specific, the dialog says he played sidekick to a “comic book hero”, not a superhero. And Indy had stories published in comics, so that might work. Especially if you squint and assume Indiana Jones was more successful in comics than the movies in the DC universe.
Great episode! How funny is it that this issue is covered after the Superman movie where someone spews false propaganda turning the public against our heroes while Guy Gardner gets involved. Also, we can now say star of the big screen Guy Gardner.
As for my favorite moments where a hero meets their legacy, I have to go with the nineties Starman, however, I’m going with the Starman One Million issue where Ted Knight meets his descendant Farris Knight. Ted gets to see how far his legacy extends in the future and while that starts off great, it quickly devolves with a confession by Farris. This is a great example of how a hero’s legacy might not always be a good thing.
Thanks again to Shag for having me on. It was a ton of fun!
Things I forgot to mention on the episode:
— Another early exposure to the JSA was a book called Secret Origins of the Super DC Heroes. It was a paperback reprint from the mid-70s that included the Golden Age and Silver Age origins of a ton of DC characters, including both Flashes, Green Lanterns, Hawkpeople, Green Arrows, and Atoms. I want say I remember it including both Ma Hunkel and the android guy, but I could be wrong about that.
— For some reason I carried the Last Days of the JSA comic around for a while and ended up tracing it or recreating it in art class. (poorly)
— I also neglected to mention the first JSA series from 1991. I remember it being more focused on an individual character each issue, so less of the JSA-as-a-team stuff I was clamoring for at the time.
— On page 10, you see a TV image of Alan Scott shaking hands with a Soviet. But they are shaking left hands. As anyone who’s heard Shag’s V podcast knows, that’s a sure sign of brain-washing and trickery.
Interesting to note that even back then Guy had already had quite a few run-ins with a lot of his other fellow heroes by that point ; Batman, Superman, Hal Jordan, etc…. but none of them ever seemed as satisfying to me as when Alan Scott gave him his comeuppance! Way to hold it down for the elder crowd, Alan!!
My two favorite Green Lanterns on the cover. Of course I had to buy it. As for the question posed, I’m not sure if this counts, but there was an issue of the much underrated comic Damage where Alan Scott showed up to teach him self control. He claimed to be an expert in will power. I loved that.
An angry mob of ordinary citizens attacking the JSA? And it’s not caused by the Psycho Pirate? Now, that’s a twist.
Alan Scott has long been my favorite GL, although Jessica Cruz is gaining on him. Seeing him teach Guy Gardner a lesson is right up there w/ that “moment” between Batman and Guy in JLI.
As far as heroes meeting their legacies, I can’t decide between so many great moments between Jay and Wally during the 90s Flash series.
Shag and Devin –
Great episode! I’m so sad that the series is coming to its abrupt end with the next issue. It would have been fun to see it get more runway to develop. I would have especially liked to have seen more members of the All-Star Squadron show up.
And on a strange note – Devin has such a great voice for podcasting! As I was listening in the car, my wife asked if I was listening to NPR. Devin missed his calling as the host of “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”:
Not to be
I’m not surprised almost nobody knows who Kulak is. He only made one golden age appearance. I wouldn’t have known who he was either if Roy Thomas hadn’t brought him back for All-Star Squadron. I guess that was enough for him to get a listing in Who’s Who.
I have a copy of Mayfair’s World At War sourcebook. I agree with Shag, it is well worth it if you want to take a deep dive into DC’s war characters. It gets into very deep into the lore.
Great episode gents. I remember really liking this issue…and as I said, I thought for some time it was the LAST issue and they just didn’t publish #10!
Alan taking out Guy with One Punch was brilliant. Oh and Shag, when reading feedback, I think you do have to use the sound effect for my post, because I was the guy on that original JLI Podcast episode that covered the classic One Punch issue!
Legacy heroes meeting their mentors…I know it’s a bit past the 90s, but in the last arc of Starman, when Jack went to the past and teamed up with a younger version of his Dad and David as the Starman of 1951, that was a wonderful bow around the whole series. Outside of that decade, I love that DCCP Annual #1 story with the two Supermen. I plan to cover it on the Mr. and Mrs. Superman series here at some point.
I have a couple of comments for the issue, so I’ll just jump in.
Looking at the cover, I can see the inking of Mike Machlan, but also when I study Guy’s face I’d swear that’s Karl Kesel inks. That would explain Guy looking less cartoony than usual for Parobeck. So maybe Machlan was channeling Kesel’s style for Guy specifically, or maybe Kesel did ink this cover as a one-time thing. I can’t see any artist signatures on the cover, so it could be either way.
For the biker that barges into McNider’s clinic and refuses to let him help, I don’t know if this was discussed, but the biker has an eye of Kulak mark on his forearm shown on page 5. Since the eye was also prominent in the previous issue, I inferred that the spell influenced people with Kulak’s mark even stronger, so the biker reacted to Charles as Dr Mid-Nite, while not knowing why. (See Joan not knowing why she’s mad at Jay.) But again, maybe you guys talked about that and I missed it.
Wonderful discussion, Shagg and Devin! I can’t wait to hear you two discuss more issues from this series. Oh, that’s right. never mind…
Wonderful discussion, Shagg and Devin.
Gosh, no idea how a double “Wonderful discussion” got in there! Yeesh!
I feel like a broken record, but for Golden Age-successor team-ups, Mark Waid did a couple of my favorites with his issue of Faster Friends featuring Jay and Alan working with Wally and Kyle, and later in his Brave and the Bold: Flash/GL mini-series, issue 5 had Jay and Alan with Barry and Hal. Both are stellar, but I’m an easy mark with Mr Waid writing.
Fun discussion! One of my favorite legacy crossover stories happened in Wonder Woman #300. Much of the story is WW dealing with imaginary scenarios while fighting a nightmare demon. She’s questioning her relationship with Steve Trevor. A sideways step to Earth 2 sees her meeting with E2 Diana, married to Steve and with a daughter named Lyta. Written by Roy & Dann Thomas, it was a genuinely nice moment.
Another great episode and another great issue! I love that cover—I’m a total sucker for Alan Scott facing off against a legacy Green Lantern. We’ve had plenty of Kyle and Hal fighting Alan, but this is the only cover with Alan vs. Guy. Too bad we’ve never gotten a cover with Alan against John, Simon, Jessica, Sojourner, or Keli. The closest we got was that story that had a couple panels of Alan and John played chess against each other (I don’t remember what comic though).
I also agree that when it comes to legacy stories, Starman is the strongest. But that time-travel arc from JSA #68–72 was also great.
And I couldn’t help but wonder if the Hourman series mentioned in the letter column was the same one Paul Jenkins talked about recently. He pitched it to DC, but when they passed, he reworked the concept into the Sentry over at Marvel. https://newearth2.com/post/782572577797406720/paul-jenkins-originally-pitched-the-sentry-as-an
Ment to leave a comment earlier but life happened. I think there is only one older hero Guy will listen his childhood hero . And pure Allan can you imagine having to deal with guy the man child Gardner .
I bet when comes to pro wrestling guy is big nature boy Ric flair fan .
Here’s a secret question: you know would bin a great red con in to JSA general glory an Ernest so if you did a story General Glory lead his own version of the invaders with T.N.T &Dan the Dynamite and Johnny thunder and his thunder bolt JSA task force what story would write for like a weird war one shot ? And who would draw it ?
Impressive podcast the most impressive.
Wait there was a team up with Earth 3 Luther and Supes and I missed it bummer. Ah well I may see if I can find it for a good price at some point. As for just men and women not understanding each other. All couples argue. My friends Alita and Donielle have been married a year a more. And they always argue. But, not long after that they make up and are good.
In fact one time the three of us and a guy named Nate went to a bar to hang and sing karaoke.anyway Alita forgot her purse with their money in it. So they had to ride all the way back to their place as me and Mr. Nate sat at the bar. I drank he had cola. Any way we joked how Donielle would be fuming mad cause it happened all the time. Then they would make up quick. Cause they just clicked together so well.
Then Alita’s bike broke so they had that. Then again I am worse than her with that. So there is that. Went back and got another. But sure as they walked in the silent anger on Donielle’s part. But after a minute Alita put in the charm and these lovely ladies were lovey dovey again. All couples do that with out magic.
Anyway cool movement on Jay catching that stuff. What the Hawks working with the villain? That’s just wrong. Hmm Dr. Mid Knight had a live in girlfriend cool. An eye everywhere interesting. So wait cause Jay shook a solders hand that makes him a communist? No sorry does not work. Sad they use those so-called proof. Well, technically, both Putin and Stalin would fit as fascist communist.
The tent as far as I understand it as someone who has never been a Communist with the whole Marxist way of doing things was more in line with what linen was doing, however, since linen, unfortunately put stalling as number to guy mostly. Since he needed a brute for that position and the people in his organization, thought he wanted him to be the next person in line though linen said that would be the worst choice. Russia’s version of come became what it was
So I believe their belief system is that all of the people have to share an equal thing however in practice at least from what I understand in the USSR that is not what actually happened. It definitely doesn’t seem to be what’s going on with Putin so yes, in the case of Stalin and Putin can say they were both communist and fascist in one go. After all art styles removed if they didn’t think the average person could understand them.
And don’t even get me started on their thought on LGBQT + people. and make no mistake if Putin doesn’t like someone he has them executed not exactly falling in line with what I understand the Marxist beliefs to be, but very fitting for what I find fascism to be, but again since I follow neither one I can’t give you an accurate depiction. It’s not something I’ve studied just what I’ve picked up.
But no, none of the justice society of America would fit in that category either one.
For communism as I supposed to be again, I have no idea.
Ah GL beat Guy Oy. No y’all are correct and Nathan fill in with great as guy. In the Superman movie.also Hal got his ring taken from Bat Man. In the new 52. So it’s a thing. Yeeeeah as a Trans person I can tell ya. Yep the world or at lest a section of it can hate you for no reason. Again talking about my friends Alita and Donielle. Alita has her ID at the moment to female. But, they went to some pizza place and it had a single use bath room and they went to the little ladies room.
The manager got butt hurt about it so called a group of weak bikers. I called them week. Four they did next and the six grown ass men beat these old ladies.after surrounding them out side. What a time to live in. Also laughing at our Prez that thinks autism is caused by a pregnant woman taking Tylenol for morning sickness. This is the level of stupid. We are dealing with people. Any way great comic. Not a fan of the art, but it’s a good style just not my favorite. Also interesting GA is now only Alan Scott is the only one of these heroes to not appear in live action.
The atom was in the JSa movie played by Henry Winkler. Wildcat appeared on green arrow. Jay on the flash show doctor midnight was shown in flashbacks on the Stargirl show and also an AI thing that helped the current doctor midnight become a hero. So yeah only Allan as far as I know not in tv. Well not Johnny Thunder, but who cares? Sorry I kid. Stop looks a cool comic that sadly I didn’t read it as it came out. Ah well can’t wait till the next episode.