JSA / Justice Society of America Appreciation Thread 2022 version

[BatmanJones]

You evolve or you die, there's no middle ground

For all their complaining about there not being a new JSA series, they never really wanted one. What they want is reprints.

[CaptCleghorn]

When was the All-Star Squadron Annual #3, Ian Karkull explanation for the JSA longevity discarded? Post COIE?

Peace

It does some, but I personally never got the impression Karkull's effect was that potent. A few years maybe even a few decades, but at this point we're needing it to plant another 40-50 years of life minimum on these characters. If DC were to state that the effect was that potent, I'd accept it.

[Frontier]

But should Ted really have that supernatural nature? Wouldn't it be better to leave him be as one of the legends that relied only on his knuckles and lived / died like anyone else? And deepen his relationship with the Black Canary by making him the husband of the first one, the father of the second one, and the grandfather of the third and current one

Dinah Drake (married to her partner in justice, Ted Grant)


Laurel Grant (married the hippie private investigator Quentin Lance)


Dinah Lance current Black Canary

Ted being Dinah's legit grandpa would feel kind of surreal.

It's not like the nine lives thing actually impacts his fighting, it's just how he doesn't stay dead.

[CaptCleghorn]

Ted being Dinah's legit grandpa would feel kind of surreal.

It's not like the nine lives thing actually impacts his fighting, it's just how he doesn't stay dead.

I believe Ted's on his ninth life right now. I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong. But if he is on his last life, he's effectively mortal.

[Alpha]

Ted being Dinah's legit grandpa would feel kind of surreal.

Why do you feel that way?

[John Venus]

And I like Ted Grant but he really doesn't have to be alive in the present. He will still be one of the best boxers of all time, a legendary guy that stood besides a Green Lantern and a Flash without any powers or gadgets. And he can still train other great superheroes when they were starting out.

Disagree. Ted is one of my favorite JSA characters. I want to see him interact with Dinah, Bruce and Selina in the present day as well every other hero/villain in the DCU.

[John Venus]

But should Ted really have that supernatural nature? Wouldn't it be better to leave him be as one of the legends that relied only on his knuckles and lived / died like anyone else? And deepen his relationship with the Black Canary by making him the husband of the first one, the father of the second one, and the grandfather of the third and current one

No thanks. Let him be their friend and mentor.

[Digifiend]

Doesn't Ted's "Nine Lives" (introduced during the Goyer/Robinson/Johns iteration of the JSA) go some distance in explaining his longevity?

Yeah, he's basically immortal like Alan and Jay. His only other superpower is night vision.

I believe Ted's on his ninth life right now. I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong. But if he is on his last life, he's effectively mortal.

His lives regenerate. He'd have to take nine mortal blows in quick succession to be killed, otherwise he resets. Read JSA #31.

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Ted_Grant_(New_Earth)

[John Venus]

He already did. In the JSA Classified series he convinced Jay Garrick to kill him 9 times in rapid succession so Ted can be immune to the effects of the Spear of Destiny.

[achilles]

I believe Ted's on his ninth life right now. I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong. But if he is on his last life, he's effectively mortal.

That would be the best way to solve that little problem. Now he's just a boxer again, with all the risk that implies. Nothing more to back his play, no powers left now that one's been used up.

[CaptCleghorn]

That would be the best way to solve that little problem. Now he's just a boxer again, with all the risk that implies. Nothing more to back his play, no powers left now that one's been used up.

It's a simple, elegant solution. But the lives that regenerate thing is kind of dumb. It turns him into an immortal or, worse yet, closer to Marvel's Wolverine.What I like about many of the Golden Agers is they weren't overly powered. At least a greater fraction of them were normal humans who put on a costume and mask and may have been touched by weirdness. Dr. Mid-Nites or Wildcat, or Sandman, ot Atom (up until his later years). Even Hawkman and Hawkgirl basically had wings and an anti-grav thingamabob.

[achilles]

It's a simple, elegant solution. But the lives that regenerate thing is kind of dumb. It turns him into an immortal or, worse yet, closer to Marvel's Wolverine.What I like about many of the Golden Agers is they weren't overly powered. At least a greater fraction of them were normal humans who put on a costume and mask and may have been touched by weirdness. Dr. Mid-Nites or Wildcat, or Sandman, ot Atom (up until his later years). Even Hawkman and Hawkgirl basically had wings and an anti-grav thingamabob.

Yeah, it needs to be a finite thing, able to get him up to today as a relatively young man, but no further. In the here and now, he should be as powerless as any normal person in the DCU. A skilled, conditioned, and experienced boxer, the best in fact, but still a mere mortal.

[ultradav]

Wildcat's nine lives thing is totally ridiculous -- but you know what, that's okay. Comics can be ridiculous. We constantly suspend disbelief in comics, I don't know why people have such a hard time suspending disbelief when it comes to these very old heroes still being around. Whether they're long-lived, or went into limbo for years, it's not something to get stuck on IMO. Just pick an explanation and hand wave any details. If the writing is good people don't really care. Marvel does it all the time.

[Frontier]

Why do you feel that way?

Just because he's an older mentor figure of hers and was pals with her mom...so legit making him her grandpa would feel kind of weird.

[Alpha]

Just because he's an older mentor figure of hers and was pals with her mom...so legit making him her grandpa would feel kind of weird.

Exactly, he already has a really close relationship with both Canaries. Having him be with the first Canary seems like a pretty obvious thing to me for those two reasons, him already having that close relationship with her, and already behaving like a grandpa to the younger one