We continue our coverage of the 1991 JSA mini-series! Doug Zawisza and The Irredeemable Shag discuss JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #5 (August 1991) by Len Strazewski, Mike Parobeck & Rick Burchett! The Flash and Hawkman face off against the living constellations, but when Vandal Savage joins the fray, things go from bad to worse! Plus, we spotlight our favorite non-powered allies of JSA heroes and their legacies. Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback!
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A few more for the JSA allies list:
-Earth 2 Steve Trevor always seemed cool in Bronze Age stories.
-Johnny Rose: While nearly Cousin Oliver territory, he was a fun side character always trying to suss out the origin of Betsy Ross & Molly Pitcher’s powers.
-Kim Liang: A sitcom character stuck in a horror series, Kim was the heart of the Moench Spectre run.
Doug as guest host? Yay! He’s always a delight to hear, and great discussion all around.
Following up on Vandal Savage, he was indeed a big part of Wally West’s Flash in issues 1 and 2. Writer Mike Baron intentionally brought in Savage as there was an earlier issue where he fought Barry and Jay together. So this was Baron setting the stakes by having Wally face him solo, and he kept returning here and there until issue 50. They also made Savage look larger and emphasized his neanderthal origin. This issue’s return to his classic JSA look might even have been confusing to readers at the time. So I would say, your mileage may vary on the readers recognizing him.
I feel like Savage talking about ancient Egypt was brought up later in Justice Society of America #10 of volume 2 as well. Not a big deal, just interesting to me seeing Strazewski may have been feeling out story ideas.
Parobeck’s art in this issue was delightful. He must have really enjoyed drawing Flash, because that eternal grin on Jay’s face is so great.
So many great choices for allies that I’m struggling to think of more. I completely co-sign Doiby Dickles, Jayne Payton, and Ma Hunkle.
It’s fresh on my mind, but other great supporting characters were the crew helping Dr Mid-Nite from Matt Wagner’s series. He had the street-wise guys: Nite-Lite and Ice Sickle. Plus the wonderful Camilla Marlowe, with the light allergy and became his girl Friday. I really enjoyed them in that story, and more than a little sorry they haven’t returned in JSA in some fashion.
But you know, if legacies count, then the Justice League is a legacy of the Justice Society, and the best ally would have to be Oberon. Full stop.
It’s really been fun revisiting this miniseries. Can’t wait for next time!
If Linda Park counts, then I will cast my vote for the Wally West Flash series as having the best supporting cast this side of Metropolis: Wally’s parents, Mason Trollbridge, Speed and Tina McGee, and my personal favorite Chester P. Runk. And a special shout out to Stargirl’s family: Pat (I’m a step-dad too), Barbara, and little brother Mike. Great show as always!
Blimey, these episodes are coming thick and fast, I’ve still not left a comment on the brilliant Vigilante entry with Ranger Gord. Time for some traveling…
Before that, I’m glad this month’s excellent guest host, Doug, agrees with me on the William Wildeagle/Wyatt Wingfoot front. They’re obviously cross-Earth alternates. I wonder if Len S planned to make Will Wildeagle the canonical first Golden Eagle.
As regards the slow reveal of the villain’s name across this mini-series, you are so generous, Shagg – I think it’s pure writer and editor sloppiness.
I did enjoy the supporting characters game, Doug gets a million points for bringing up Mavis Trent (is it pronounced ‘Ma-vis’ as in ‘Maven’ in the US, rather than ‘May-vis’?). I loved Mavis, she was such a cow. Weirdly, Cary Bates nicked the name for a character in his True Believers mini-series at Marvel.
Seventies Inza Nelson really did have a point, locked up in that tower like a red-headed Rapunzel, no pals, left to wonder if her husband would come home from his latest case. She seemed crankier than she was because Walt Simonson drew her like Agnes Moorhead’s Endora in the Dr Fate First Issue Special.
May I put a word in for Larry Lance? So charming and handsome and helpful he got to marry Black Canary but, sadly, fridged before there was a term for it.
Sounds like you two (Doug and Shag) struggled a bit with the coloring, same as I did. Was really looking forward to Parobeck’s artwork but my individual comics have not aged well in that manner. Having purchased them unbagged, never boarded, from dollar bins several years after publication, probably added to the degradation. Sounds like the digital edition cleaned it up some though, I’ll have to make a note to check this miniseries out next time I enroll in the DC Universe Infinite reading app.
As for my favorite non-powered supporting allies, two of the very best which made one on each of your lists but deserve all the accolades are Dian Belmont and Linda Park. I’m a sucker for romance in my comic books and these two lovely more-than-capable ladies gave their leading men (Wesley and Wally) a run for their money in their titles (Sandman Mystery theatre and Flash). The only other character I would add is a bit of a cheat – Ted Knight as ally to Jack Knight’s Starman. James Robinson’s writing of the retired hero trying to rebuild his relationship with his son in that 90’s series propelled Ted to the very top of my favorite JSA members, leapfrogging over longtime stalwarts Jay Garrick and Alan Scott. Now if we could only get DC to revisit his younger days with some new stories – I’d be ecstatic.
‘… The only other character I would add is a bit of a cheat – Ted Knight’
I thought you were going to mention that terrible business with Dinah Lance that James Robinson made up…’
Great episode, guys! I really liked William Wildeagle in this book, especially the moment Shag pointed out.
Some other great un-superpowered supporting characters I’d shout out:
Hourman’s (Matthew Tyler) buddy, Snapper Carr. Snapper’s ex-mother-in-law and chief of police in Happy Harbor recently showed up in a New Titans issue. It got me to reread that fantastic series by Tom Peyer and Rags Morales. It really holds up.
And let’s not forget the greatest ’90s character of them all, Fate, who had a man behind the screen who was up on all the conspiracy theories. The slacker Fox Mulder of the DC Universe, Arnold Burnsteel, who eventually went on to manage the band Scare Tactics. As a side note, that band seems perfect for an appearance in James Gunn’s Creature Commandos.
Oh, and I think the in-story reason for Jayne Payton changing her name to Sadie Falk was pretty weak. I think the real reason was keeping her connection to Will Payton secret until they needed Jack to head into space.
Fun, as always. Always glad to hear a shout-out to the old Science Fiction Book Club. While I can’t say I was *quite* as good about taking advantage of the “5 for a dollar” deals as Shag (the account was really my Mom’s, and it doesn’t really sound like her to play a system like that… but she still got a TON of Anne McCaffrey books out of the membership, so I don’t think she was complaining about the prices), I did get a good number of Star Trek books that way. Often, these were hardcover versions of books otherwise only available in paperback, and it still brings a smile to my face whenever I’m in a used bookstore and I see one of those SFBC hardcovers available and I think to myself “I know where THAT came from!”
Quick historical note re: Vandal Savage and Moses. If Moses existed,* he existed a good deal longer ago than 2000 years ago (a simple look at what year it is on the calendar… recognizing what it’s theoretically based on… should be enough of an argument to support this, but suffice it to say, the Moses of the Hebrew Scriptures would be more on the order of 3300-3600 years ago).
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*Despite my Christian faith and background (for those who don’t know me, I’ve worked in Christian educational institutions for my entire professional career… sometimes to my own chagrin… and my wife is an Episcopal priest), I’m honest enough to recognize that the contemporary historical evidence for Moses is all-but non-existent.
Love this episode as much! Something to consider about the cover is that this issue is halfway through the miniseries, so anyone picking it up has probably read the previous four issues and wouldn’t care much about the lack of a clear villain on the cover. Also, I don’t recall seeing any spinner racks in central Illinois when this series came out, even outside comic shops; they were put out like any other periodical on magazine racks, with the full covers on display. I can’t speak for other places, though. (Also by this point in the 1990s, comics in central Illinois were mostly sold from comic shops anyway.)
As for non-powered supporting characters, how could y’all forget Peachy Pet?
Here here I’m glad some one mentioned peachy
Another great episode.
Favorite non powered alies.
I’ll go with ma hunkle .
And Joan Garrett .
Loved the episode! I’m surprised it took so long for the mini to actually say “Vandal Savage”. As for my favorite supporting characters, you know I HAVE to say the O’Dare family from Starman. They could’ve been background characters, but Robinson gave each O’Dare sibling a distinct personality, so you care about what happened to each of them during the series.
I wanted to bring up something you and Doug talked about in the episode that seems like a dying art these days…picking up a random issue of a series and diving head first into it with no context. I know Crisis was brought up in this, which is a wild to consider going into that story in a later issue as your first, but when you think about comics today, I don’t see a lot of people doing that anymore. Maybe it’s because comics are written for the trade or people are waiting for the trade, but I don’t see a lot of newer comic fans picking up a random issue and exploring the world. Now they’ll go online to ask “Is this canon?” or “What’s the reading order?” or the one I dislike the most “Is this worth reading?” It’s like people get so worried they’re going to miss something or don’t know the entire history of the character that they can’t pick up a random issue and get lost in the wonder of comics anymore. Just wondering what you thought.