Favorite Member of the Original "Big Seven" Justice Leaguers

[Sutekh]

Agreed, not because I'm a huge fan of Hal, which I'm not, he's probably my fifth favorite Green Lantern, but the whole Parallax thing was completely out of character for him. Chosen from all the planet for being the man with the most courage, and *he's* the one that gets possessed by a fear-entity? That makes no sense.

I'm not adverse to a good deconstructive arc, so long as it builds the character back up afterwards, but this wasn't it, this was just tearing him down and leaving it to another writer years later to try and sift through the ashes and rebuild him.

Especially when you're writing a character or setting for an IP that *you don't own,* one that's possibly been popular and successful longer than you've been alive, it seems pretty darn arrogant and short-sighted for a writer to show up and rip up and set on fire what he's been hired to work on (just as we'd all be rightly pissed at someone we hired to do some work on our house, and instead just tore it all down and left us with a pile of rubble and a hole in the ground and said 'Job done! Pay me!').

(Still, from what I understand, even the Parallax thing was a retcon, a desperate attempt to make Hal not responsible-by-way-of-possession for the terrible acts he'd done, sort of DC's attempt at 'Dark Phoenixing' the whole previous arc and salvaging the hero by shunting the blame on a possessing-entity.)

Ugh. Replied to self instead of Edited self. Used to be able to delete these and fix it, but, welcome to the future, where stuff I used to be able to do, I can't now, because of either senility or 'software improvements.' I don't even know.

[j9ac9k]

(Still, from what I understand, even the Parallax thing was a retcon, a desperate attempt to make Hal not responsible-by-way-of-possession for the terrible acts he'd done, sort of DC's attempt at 'Dark Phoenixing' the whole previous arc and salvaging the hero by shunting the blame on a possessing-entity.)

The retcon itself was in response to a "desperate attempt" to recreate the buzz and sales of "Death of Superman" and "Knightfall" by editorial demanding Hal act completely out of character, so... yeah, I'm okay with it.

[The Darknight Detective]

The retcon itself was in response to a "desperate attempt" to recreate the buzz and sales of "Death of Superman" and "Knightfall" by editorial demanding Hal act completely out of character, so... yeah, I'm okay with it.

Heh. Same here.

[Jim Kelly]

Just to be picky (people probably hate me for this), the original original seven only was the line-up for eight issues at most. There were the three try-outs in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. Then the first three issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA. In the fourth issue, Green Arrow wins membership making it eight; however, in that story he's a guest star and not yet a member, so you could argue he's not counted as one of the seven. And in the ninth issue, they tell their origin to Green Arrow, so there's just the original seven for most of that flashback story.

But this was when Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff were limiting how much Julie Schwartz could use Superman and Batman in the J.L.A. So in all those eight stories, the World's Finest Duo are side-lined and it's the original five who are the stars. Supes and Bats don't even get to appear in the flesh on the covers--they're on JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 1 (October-November 1960), but only as small chess pieces.

[MajorHoy]

With 121 people having now voted,

* Wonder Woman = 23 votes
* Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) = 23 votes
* Batman = 19 votes
* The Flash (Barry Allen) = 16 votes
* Martian Manhunter = 16 votes
* Superman = 15 votes
* Aquaman = 9 votes

[caj]

Just to be picky (people probably hate me for this), the original original seven only was the line-up for eight issues at most. There were the three try-outs in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. Then the first three issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA. In the fourth issue, Green Arrow wins membership making it eight; however, in that story he's a guest star and not yet a member, so you could argue he's not counted as one of the seven. And in the ninth issue, they tell their origin to Green Arrow, so there's just the original seven for most of that flashback story.

It's funny how Green Arrow is not considered an original member of JLofA even though he joined in the 4th issue.

Yet, Speedy IS considered an original Teen Titan even though he didn't officially join until TT #19.

[The Darknight Detective]

Just to be picky (people probably hate me for this), the original original seven only was the line-up for eight issues at most. There were the three try-outs in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. Then the first three issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA. In the fourth issue, Green Arrow wins membership making it eight; however, in that story he's a guest star and not yet a member, so you could argue he's not counted as one of the seven. And in the ninth issue, they tell their origin to Green Arrow, so there's just the original seven for most of that flashback story.

But this was when Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff were limiting how much Julie Schwartz could use Superman and Batman in the J.L.A. So in all those eight stories, the World's Finest Duo are side-lined and it's the original five who are the stars. Supes and Bats don't even get to appear in the flesh on the covers--they're on JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 1 (October-November 1960), but only as small chess pieces.

I have always thought this was a stupid policy regarding both the JLA and the JSA. Now you didn't have to have Superman, Batman, or whomever front and center in every issue, but having them appear every now and then would have been smart financially.

[MajorHoy]

It's funny how Green Arrow is not considered an original member of JLofA even though he joined in the 4th issue.

Yet, Speedy IS considered an original Teen Titan even though he didn't officially join until TT #19.

I don't consider Speedy an "original" Teen Titan.

Heck, Donna Troy / Wonder Girl isn't exactly an "original" member in my book, though she was present for the first time they were called the Teen Titans on the cover of a comic book.

(In The Brave & the Bold #54 it was just Dick, Wally, and Garth)

[MajorHoy]

One other clarification regarding Speedy and the Teen Titans: he may have been a member of the original version of the team at one point, but he wasn't an original / founding member.

Oh, and speaking of issue #4 (though for the Teen Titans, not Justice League of America),

[Jim Kelly]

Clearly someone at National Periodicals had a clever eye for symmetry. Not only did Green Arrow and Speedy both guest star in the fourth issue of those respective titles, but the cover designs were very similar.

It's like how the cover for ADVENTURE COMICS 247--the first time Superboy meets the Legion of Super-Heroes--provides the cover idea for SUPERMAN 147--the first time Superman meets the (adult) Legion of Super-Villains. But with those two, it was the same cover artists for the same editor--Swan and Kaye for Weisinger. The JUSTICE LEAGUE cover was Murphy Anderson for Julius Schwartz, while the TEEN TITANS cover was Nick Cardy for George Kashdan.

That might be nothing special in today's world, but for the 1960s, when few readers would have noticed such things, this was very inside baseball.

[MajorHoy]

Clearly someone at National Periodicals had a clever eye for symmetry. Not only did Green Arrow and Speedy both guest star in the fourth issue of those respective titles, but the cover designs were very similar. . .

I was thinking about that similarity in the cover designs last night after I posted the cover of Teen Titans #4.


Justice League of America #4 (April-May 1961)


Teen Titans #4 (July-August 1966)

[MajorHoy]

With 124 people having now voted,

* Wonder Woman = 24 votes (+1)
* Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) = 23 votes
* Batman = 19 votes
* Superman = 17 votes (+2)
* The Flash (Barry Allen) = 16 votes
* Martian Manhunter = 16 votes
* Aquaman = 9 votes

[kcekada]

Although I didn't buy every issue, I collected all of the Superman series as a kid in the early 70s -- Superman, Action, Superboy, Supergirl, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. Oh, World's Finest as well. But in regard to favorite character in that original line up, I have to go with everyman Flash. I really liked that version of Barry Allen/Flash.

[MajorHoy]

With 127 people having now voted,

* Wonder Woman = 25 votes (+1)
* Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) = 23 votes
* Batman = 19 votes
* Superman = 19 votes (+2)
* The Flash (Barry Allen) = 16 votes
* Martian Manhunter = 16 votes
* Aquaman = 9 votes