Justice Society of America #1 Discussion/Spoilers

[MajorHoy]

Uh oh. Never a good sign when a Geoff Johns project starts to get delayed. Hopefully this thing doesn’t take 3 years to get out all 12 issues.

As I said,

Anybody who wants to discuss this further should see a separate thread:

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...-date-slipping

These days, there could be many things besides any problem involving the creative team that can delay production/delivery of an issue of a comic book.

[bat39]

Crisis could still be on the sliding timescale.

I think Dataweaver's big theory is that COIE happens simultaneously across time-periods, in 1985 and about 10 years ago...and the JSA is transplanted from the 80's to 10 years ago as a result.

[Dataweaver]

I think Dataweaver's big theory is that COIE happens simultaneously across time-periods, in 1985 and about 10 years ago...and the JSA is transplanted from the 80's to 10 years ago as a result.

Yeah; that's my theory. D.Z is stating that my theory might be wrong. And it might be. But if it is, there's a whole mess of problems that need to be sorted out.

[CaptCleghorn]

Yeah; that's my theory. D.Z is stating that my theory might be wrong. And it might be. But if it is, there's a whole mess of problems that need to be sorted out.

The more I think about your theory, the more I like it. The JSA appears in 1940 and does its thing until Crisis in 1985. Now how the JLA teams with the JSA has an alternate Earth idea (even if it's effectively time travel. The JLA hasn't experienced Crisis yet and from their point of view the JSA is from another universe. The boom, Crisis hits the JLA and the present day DC inhabitants. As seen in WW2 era books and Legion, COIE affects all eras. Now there will be discussion about exactly how long ago COIE happened for present day characters, but those details can be haggled out.

After COIE, The JSA and their support cast and villains find themselves in our present day on one Earth where their history is now ingrained (except for E-Two Bruce, Dick, and Clark and others). What is particularly elegant about this is that the Morrison story in Secret Origins about Flash of Two Worlds and Keystone being forgotten is a rough way of looking at it. The Crisis jump also gives the JSA a time jump to keep them from being all 100 years old and aging.

Obviously, this is a rough overall strategy and the more detail;s that are set, the more one can find flaws in them. But something needs to be done.

[Jekyll]

Sigh………waited over a decade for that……incredibly disappointing, that’s about all of the nice things I can say and not get banned.

[CaptCleghorn]

Sigh………waited over a decade for that……incredibly disappointing, that’s about all of the nice things I can say and not get banned.

If you don't like it because of the lack of relative action, I expect that will improves as the first issue was a lot of scene setting. But if you're disliking the scenes, then I feel for you.

[Jekyll]

If you don't like it because of the lack of relative action, I expect that will improves as the first issue was a lot of scene setting. But if you're disliking the scenes, then I feel for you.

The latter, much of which has been discussed in the previous few pages. No need to beat the dead horse.

[Jekyll]

I enjoyed the New Golden Age one-shot, but this Justice Society of America #1 issue left me flat.

Unlike most of the people here I'd be happy to never see the Huntress' team again. Maybe if I'd actually read the decades of stories leading up to this team I'd feel differently. But not having 26 years of back story as to why these people are on the team I felt nothing for them. It was like Johns wanted us to be drawn in by his use of names associated with the team, but not actually have to use any pre-exising characterization.

"Hey look it's the Icicle from Pre-Flashpoint. Wasn't he a villain? [repeat for Grundy/Craddock] ... oh, they changed for reasons we'll never see". You lost my interest somewhere in the time jump.

I get that this is just a first issue, but there was nothing here I needed (or wanted) to read. I get the feeling i could pick up issue #2 without having read this and not feel like I had missed anything.

Agree with both points.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Huntress's team works as her version of the Outsiders. Them being former villians or the legacy of villians is interesting. It provides a strong source of external and internal conflicts. I haven't read much JSA and I had to look up Kyle's references. So I think they work just fine.

I also liked Helena's compassionate streak in the story. It provides a nice contrast to the Batman legacy.

[TheCasualReader]

I enjoyed the New Golden Age one-shot, but this Justice Society of America #1 issue left me flat.

Unlike most of the people here I'd be happy to never see the Huntress' team again. Maybe if I'd actually read the decades of stories leading up to this team I'd feel differently. But not having 26 years of back story as to why these people are on the team I felt nothing for them. It was like Johns wanted us to be drawn in by his use of names associated with the team, but not actually have to use any pre-exising characterization.

"Hey look it's the Icicle from Pre-Flashpoint. Wasn't he a villain? [repeat for Grundy/Craddock] ... oh, they changed for reasons we'll never see". You lost my interest somewhere in the time jump.

I get that this is just a first issue, but there was nothing here I needed (or wanted) to read. I get the feeling i could pick up issue #2 without having read this and not feel like I had missed anything.

You absolutely could: the first issue is really just the backstory that is usually told by a time-traveler to people after they've traveled back in time to stop the villain. You know, the usual exposition that is either conveyed through dialogue or a flashback. It's just shown here. Sadly, however, it's still more tell than show because we don't really see things other than the murders. Everything about Huntress' time is basically relayed to us either by her exposition through narration or through someone else's exposition. We never see the team go on any adventures or anything. The new guys' don't get any real characterization before they all die: everything we learn about them is the same as we would have had they simply been a brief part of Huntress summarizing her backstory to someone else. Khalid is suppose to have been very important to how this Justice Society was formed and had strong relationships to Huntress and Power Girl, but we don't even get a single shot of him alive, in present or even a flashback, to try to establish him in this timeline; everything about him is conveyed through exposition (also, he's a Egyptian-American Muslim who gets mummified, but apparently, the villain used to be a nazi so that being racist checks out)

In the end, the first issue only really serves to provide an insight into Huntress and summarize her for the audience, but since she's the main character, you're going to see that again well as learn her backstory when she inevitably has to explain it to someone.

Btw
- The villain murders the Dapper Ghost by basically resurrecting him and then killing him again, but wouldn't that just make him a ghost again? Was there any special circumstances that made him become a ghost? Because if that was the case, I don't think the issue established that.
- People who know Power Girl, can you tell me if she was in-character in the first issue? I don't remember much of her, but something about her characterization felt really off.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

You absolutely could: the first issue is really just the backstory that is usually told by a time-traveler to people after they've traveled back in time to stop the villain. You know, the usual exposition that is either conveyed through dialogue or a flashback. It's just shown here. Sadly, however, it's still more tell than show because we don't really see things other than the murders. Everything about Huntress' time is basically relayed to us either by her exposition through narration or through someone else's exposition. We never see the team go on any adventures or anything. The new guys' don't get any real characterization before they all die: everything we learn about them is the same as we would have had they simply been a brief part of Huntress summarizing her backstory to someone else. Khalid is suppose to have been very important to how this Justice Society was formed and had strong relationships to Huntress and Power Girl, but we don't even get a single shot of him alive, in present or even a flashback, to try to establish him in this timeline; everything about him is conveyed through exposition (also, he's a Egyptian-American Muslim who gets mummified, but apparently, the villain used to be a nazi so that being racist checks out)

In the end, the first issue only really serves to provide an insight into Huntress and summarize her for the audience, but since she's the main character, you're going to see that again well as learn her backstory when she inevitably has to explain it to someone.

Btw
- The villain murders the Dapper Ghost by basically resurrecting him and then killing him again, but wouldn't that just make him a ghost again? Was there any special circumstances that made him become a ghost? Because if that was the case, I don't think the issue established that.
- People who know Power Girl, can you tell me if she was in-character in the first issue? I don't remember much of her, but something about her characterization felt really off.

I think it's how he died in the first place. Unless he dies the same way again, he wouldn't become a ghost.

It was a flanderized version of her outspoken nature.

[Steroid]

I finally got a chance to read this issue and well lets just say that all of the excitement I had for this series is practically gone. Janin's art was great but I'm not feeling this story at all.

[protege]

I read it, and am not sure what to say. Killing off the "new" justice society seems so random, let alone Grundy and craddock in good guy roles. I'd like to see more of them, as well as harlequins son, who needs a better code name, and red lantern, provided he isn't just some communist stereotype.also, I hope we get a definitive time line for the team when this is all over.

[CaptCleghorn]

I read it, and am not sure what to say. Killing off the "new" justice society seems so random, let alone Grundy and craddock in good guy roles. I'd like to see more of them, as well as harlequins son, who needs a better code name, and red lantern, provided he isn't just some communist stereotype.also, I hope we get a definitive time line for the team when this is all over.

Killing off a group of characters to build up a villain is a trope and in this case, was delivered pretty blatantly. As for the villains on the JSA in the future, I try to imagine how a copy of Avengers with Cap's kooky quartet would look a year or so before it was published. Cap and three villains. I'd guess this was inspiration for Johns here, but I have no evidence.

Red Lantern has potential. There's the green and red worlds which DC has made considerable use of as well as the red USSR and American feelings towards them. The Red Lantern early in WW2 could be seen as a darker ally, just like the Soviets until the war ends and Eastern Europe is engulfed by them. His having a daughter already adds to the character breaking free of many stereotypes. Or Geoff Johns is trying to bring his crayola corps to the Golden Age.

[MajorHoy]

I read it, and am not sure what to say. Killing off the "new" justice society seems so random, let alone Grundy and craddock in good guy roles. I'd like to see more of them, as well as harlequins son, who needs a better code name, and red lantern, provided he isn't just some communist stereotype.also, I hope we get a definitive time line for the team when this is all over.

They weren't really the "new" Justice Society.

They were a future Justice Society ("26 years from now") in a story where Per Degaton is screwing around with time. So they may not actually have ever been a team when all is said and done.