All-Star Squadron Appreciation 2019

[MajorHoy]

It's worth noting that D.C. is giving All-Star Squadron issues 14, 15 and 50-60 the deluxe treatment this fall with their hardcover Crisis collection. Hope Roy gets a little money from the reprinting of so much of his material!
https://www.amazon.com/Crisis-Box-Se.../dp/1401295177

Issues #14-15 were part of the 1982 "Crisis on Earth-Prime" crossover with the Justice League of America (that year's annual JLA and JSA meeting) and was included in the Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 6 collected edition.



Issues#50-60 were either CoIE cross-over issues of were continuations of stories begun during then (with issue #60 showing the differences in the "before" and "after" membership).

[DrNewGod]

Issues #14-15 were part of the 1982 "Crisis on Earth-Prime" crossover with the Justice League of America (that year's annual JLA and JSA meeting) and was included in the Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 6 collected edition.

One of the things that makes me slightly bananas is that DC doesn't have the second JL issue of the crossover available for single issue download.

[MajorHoy]

In honor of Memorial Day Weekend 2019 here in the U.S., a few covers:


All-Star Squadron #31 (March 1984)


All-Star Squadron #32 (April 1984)


All-Star Squadron #35 (July 1984)

[Ishmael]

They need to omnibus this series. It was so good, I can't believe they haven't attempted to give it better reprints than a showcase volume.

[DrNewGod]

They need to omnibus this series. It was so good, I can't believe they haven't attempted to give it better reprints than a showcase volume.

It's available end to end on DCUniverse and Comixology.

[MajorHoy]

It's available end to end on DCUniverse and Comixology.

But that's just digital.

It should also have a printed collection.

[Nomads1]

In honor of Memorial Day Weekend 2019 here in the U.S., a few covers:


All-Star Squadron #31 (March 1984)


All-Star Squadron #32 (April 1984)


All-Star Squadron #35 (July 1984)

Rick Horberg and Bill Collins were, IMHO, worthy successors to Ordway and Machlan in the art duties, to bad it was so short a run and Collins didn't mesh as well with the following artists (Howell and Arvel Jones).

But that's just digital.

It should also have a printed collection.

Agreed. 100%.

Peace

[The Odd Man]

I collected every single issue of this when it came out. Loved it. Still do.

[Ishmael]

But that's just digital.

It should also have a printed collection.

This. Some of us like having printed collections rather than digital.

[DrNewGod]

But that's just digital.

It should also have a printed collection.

This. Some of us like having printed collections rather than digital.

I get that. While I've come to prefer digital, my comment was strictly PSA on the chance somebody was missing some of the stories.

[icctrombone]

Til shortly after Crisis, from 1981-1987. I've heard that Roy Thomas was told he'd be allowed to finish his original vision, which was to have the series run through the end of WWII at a pace of about 1 week of real-time history per issue (somebody double check me on that, I'm not sure if I've got that ratio right), so he had several years of issues left to go. However, DC reversed course on their decision, and yanked Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Green Arrow and Speedy out of the book.

Up to that point, All-Star Squadron had been a rather good title, (IMO) one of Thomas' best because his heart was clearly in it. He has always had a deep love of the comics of his childhood, and a great affection for the characters of The Golden Age, as well as a very strong (if overly nostalgic, US-centric) interest in WWII history. The focus of the group were some of the lesser known lights of the time (Liberty Belle, Johnny Quick, and Robot Man forming the core of the group, along with Commander Steel who'd been created in the late 1970s and retconned into Earth 2, and Firebrand who was a retconned female successor to a short-lived 1940s character). The title featured a wide array of characters from the period, and even folded some of the 1940s original stories into its own plots. It was a really impressive, large scale effort.

DC launched a post-crisis book called The Young All-Stars, which attempted to substitute for the retconned heroes with various teenage analogs who became the center of the book. It just didn't really work as well.

I have the entire series and it was very good right until the Crisis wiped out the Big three. The artwork was spectacular at the beginning but degenerated to artists that looked like they were just starting out. Too bad.

[icctrombone]

Rich Buckler doesn’t get the recognition that he deserves on this book.

I agree. He launched this title, but read somewhere that he knew going in that he was there for a limited time.

[Jekyll]

33950A49-FF25-4BDB-8439-D33081B83529.jpg



Picked up this issue and the following issue at my local con yesterday. Very excellent read and featured many of my favorite DC characters.

[DrNewGod]

33950A49-FF25-4BDB-8439-D33081B83529.jpg



Picked up this issue and the following issue at my local con yesterday. Very excellent read and featured many of my favorite DC characters.

That was one of my favorite All-Star stories. One thing that struck me about it was why Thomas picked the characters for it that he did. It eventually sunk in for me that they were the most popular of properties of 1942 from the National, AA, Fawcett, and Quality lines. It also struck me that if you think of Hawkman as character that operates in and talks to the denizens of a different environment than most people, and think of Plastic Man as a shape changer, The All-Star team for these issues are a Golden Age analogue of the Justice League's O7.

[MajorHoy]

Here's hoping that once the Golden Age members of the JSA are restored to DC's active past continuity that maybe the company's other Golden Age characters and the All-Star Squadron may also be brought back.

In the meantime, here are a few pages spotlighting the members of the Justice Society of America from All-Star Squadron #25 (September 1983), the same issue where Infinity Inc. first appeared: