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I've long made the argument that bringing the JSA to DC's main Earth made their presence through the Golden Age years irrelevant. In order to maintain a planet like the one we live on for the arrival of the Silver Age heroes, the JSA (and ASS) did nothing to impact history. Wonder Woman not changing the world? I agree 100%. But the same should apply to the entire JSA as well.
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Didn't the Spear of Destiny explain why the JSA wasn't able to turn the tide in WW II regardless of which Earth they lived on? The Golden Age stories showed plenty of instances where they fought the good fight but didn't end the war. I do think the widening gap between World War II/The HUAC hearings of 1952 and the present creates a greater window of believability that modern generations wouldn't feel a connection to the JSA on Prime Earth and would therefore see the dawn of the Silver Age heroes as something brand new.
Not arguing for or against clutter Earth here, just saying the GA heroes didn't change the course of history on Earth 2 either, other than battling many homeland villains.
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I tend to think the JSA should be set on a separate earth for that reason, a closer to the original reboot "Earth-Two" set in the 70's where there is an Atompunk Solar System, the Soviets are a major presence, and the Magic Robot Nazis managed to escape from Antarctica to the Moon, and are now an interplanetary threat.
The Spear of Destiny was the reason given for this. It somehow kept the super-powered heroes from going into and fighting Germany. But even that wouldn't have stopped Green Lantern from flying into space and raining meteorites down on Berlin and Tokyo. In any case, the JSA didn't win the war or change the world in any noticeable fashion. There was also a belief that having the JSA take a major part in winning the war would minimize the contributions and sacrifices of real life people fighting the war. But making a change would have been a lot more than just winning WW2. If we look at present day DC Earth, we see a planet that is superior technologically to ours. That is due to the heroes actions, other scientists in the DC Universe, and alien contact.
I’ll don the mask and wear the cape
If I am super, how can I wait?
Yeah honestly I never get the argument that "The JSA did nothing during WW2".
In current continuity, Superman has been around 15-20 years and its not as though the 2023 in the DCU is radically different from our real-world 2023, barring the existence of superheroes and villains, and some advanced tech (a lot of it alien in origin). And there's not even a Spear of Destiny to restrain Superman and the JLA right now!
Its a conceit of the mainstream superhero genre that they inhabit a heightened version of the 'real world' - except for stories which specifically seek to delve into the implications that superheroes have on the world, and which are thus set in (or create) alternate realities. I'm talking about stuff like Watchmen, or Flashpoint, or Kingdom Come.
Has Hippolyta been depicted in this way (via flashback) in any other comic outside Streets of Gotham 2006-2011?
Also, I was never clear if her time as WW in the then-present had been erased post-IC. Her time with the JL, the Amazonian Civil War, her death in OWAW etc.
The only place I can remember seeing Hipployta depicted in costume post-IC is the cover for WW (Vol 3) 1 and a cameo in JSA Classified 11.
Last edited by jaygon; 02-04-2023 at 12:43 PM.
Or The Authority, which I've heard described as “what if superheroes decided to fix the world's problems, whether we wanted them to or not?”
And bringing this back to Wonder Woman: the argument against putting her in the JSA appears to be that the JSA is somehow not good enough for her. Basically, it's an argument from people who have no respect for the JSA, viewing it at best as a “has-been” team. So putting her on the team during their Golden Age somehow lessens her? I just don't see it.
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Angel knows all the angles.
100% agree with everything here. I'd rather Hippolyta be on the JSA than Diana but I'm not particularly into either. And unless they completely upend her entire origin story where Steve is the catalyst for her departure from Themyscira (which makes about as much sense as saying Superman wasn't raised on a farm in Kansas), you have no choice but to gut her supporting cast.
I'd add another thing, which is that Wonder Woman is a really bizarre choice for the first superhero. She's not Captain America or even Superman. She's (A) a woman, (B) obscenely powerful, (C) from a hidden island of women with magic and all sorts of mysterious tech, (D) raised by a culture with no concept of sexual orientation, race, gender roles, capitalism, etc., and (E) literal living evidence that the Greek gods are real. And that's something her most iconic writers have addressed at length - Perez and Rucka's first run spent a lot of time exploring the sorts of moral panics she'd cause, and those were stories set in the late '80s/early '90s and mid-aughts. Yes, it's comics and they're goofy, but making her the first superhero is like skipping past gunpowder and going straight to nukes.
I don't know. Considering the times, if you see a) a woman who is (b) obscenely powerful, and who (c) hails from a mythological island with all sorts of magic tech, (d) raised by exotic women warriors, and who (e) worships living gods, I'd be amazed and inspired by this mysterious "woman of wonder" myself, especially as a "minority"/PoC.
BTW, I would highly recommend PROMETHEA (by Alan Moore and JH Williams III). IMO, hands down, the best "Wonder Woman" book out there.
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The point is that if someone like WW showed up in the 40's, the present day is not going to resemble anything close to what we are living now. The same can't be said for the other members of the JSA who could all conceivably be sweeped under the rug. WW was designed to be a status quo buster.
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I'll grant that Wonder Woman is more of a status quo buster than the others; but the others are status quo busters too, in their own ways.
Rogue wears rouge.
Angel knows all the angles.