Members of the Golden Age JSA - Favorites?

[MajorHoy]

. . . It interests me that the poll seems to reflect a preference for the characters that Johns most heavily featured in his JSA revival. In the 60's when the JSA was first being broken out of mothballs, there seems to have been some attempt to promote the JSA characters that did not have counter parts on Earth-1, like Starman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Johnny Thunder, Hourman, Dr. Fate, and (until her transfer) Black Canary. It somewhat surprises me that DC didn't continue with that policy in the '90s.

I fail to understand what you're talking about here.

The whole point of the poll was

Title says it all: which members of the Justice Society of America during their original Golden Age run are your favorites?

All the members listed are just that: characters that were appearing in the JSA stories during their run in All-Star Comics #3 - 57 during the 1940s (and 1950). It has nothing to do with Geoff Johns run on the JSA / Justice Society of America (which, by the way, I've read very little of). Geoff Johns wasn't even born when I first discovered the JSA back in 1972.

[Robotman]

definitely Ted Grant aka Wildcat! i've always been a boxing fan and i love how Ted was just a regular guy who fought crime with his fists. and unlike Batman Ted wasn't a dark brooding jerk. he was kind of an average joe who would probably go grab a beer after a long evening of crime fighting. i miss Wildcat.

[upgrayedd]

definitely Ted Grant aka Wildcat! i've always been a boxing fan and i love how Ted was just a regular guy who fought crime with his fists. and unlike Batman Ted wasn't a dark brooding jerk. he was kind of an average joe who would probably go grab a beer after a long evening of crime fighting. i miss Wildcat.

True, but Jay is the only hero I know who got his powers while taking a cigarette break.

[Robotman]

True, but Jay is the only hero I know who got his powers while taking a cigarette break.

Hah! That's a Lucky Strike commercial right there.

[Babylon23]

Love the JSA more than any team in the DCU. I almost voted for everybody but tried to narrow it down a little. I could still oonly get it down to 8. I couldn't really name my absolute favourite.

Flash (Jay Garrick)
Hawkman (Carter Hall)
Green Lantern (Alan Scott)
Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson)
Doctor Mid-Nite (Charles McNider)
Hourman (Rex Tyler)
Sandman (Wesley Dodds)
Spectre (Jim Corrigan)

[MajorHoy]

Those with the most votes so far appear to be:

* Flash (Jay Garrick) with 41 votes
* Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson) at 36 votes
* Green Lantern (Alan Scott) at 36 votes
* Wildcat (Ted Grant) with 31 votes
* Hawkman (Carter Hall) has 28 votes

[WonderScott]

Dinah Drake
Alan Scott
Carter Hall
Diana Prince

[warzon]

I have these issue's of the JLA and the first time I fell in love w this STARMAN aka TED KNIGHT[QUOTE=MajorHoy;1472100][img]http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/0/4/21078

[Thor2014]

[QUOTE=warzon;2934595]I have these issue's of the JLA and the first time I fell in love w this STARMAN aka TED KNIGHT

[img]http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/0/4/21078

Ted Knight was great on Too Close for Comfort. I really enjoyed the TK Starman/Black Canary team-ups during the Silver Age. Great Murphy Anderson art. Black Canary, Wonder Woman and Johnny Thunder and Thunderbolt for me. The GA Flash and Hawkman were pretty cool too.

[Jim Kelly]

It's pretty tough to choose between any of them. I like them all. But I voted for Wonder Woman. I could go back and vote for more--but that would kind of negate my vote, I think. Wonder Woman seems like one of the greatest characters--and I dont like it when she's been retconned out of the JSA.

It's nice to think that if I had been a reader back in the day, I could have been a member of the Junior Justice Society and I would have got a membership document from Diana Prince (Wonder Woman), with her signature on it. I think that her being secretary really means she was the most powerful member and she ran the whole show--thus why she would be the one issuing the junior club memberships.

[MajorHoy]

It's nice to think that if I had been a reader back in the day, I could have been a member of the Junior Justice Society and I would have got a membership document from Diana Prince (Wonder Woman), with her signature on it. I think that her being secretary really means she was the most powerful member and she ran the whole show--thus why she would be the one issuing the junior club memberships.

Actually, back in the 1940s, aside from any restrictions Marston may have placed on using Wonder Woman, she probably was the secretary because she was a GIRL!

And that was waaaaaaaaaay before DC had Wonder Woman in that fab "Woman's Lib" issue in the early 1970s.



(We've come a long way, baby!)

[Jim Kelly]

I prefer my retcon. But I have a longish explanation why Diana Prince was the secretary for the JSA--which I've gone into before, but I'll try to explain it here without going on too long.

The rules meant that Diana had to leave the JSA almost as soon as she got membership, because she got her own title so soon. So like Flash and Green Lantern, she couldn't be a regular member (and one can extrapolate this is why Superman and Batman were always honourary members).

However, the editors (Gaines and Mayer) probably liked having Wonder Woman on the covers--and maybe they wanted to use her to promote the book. So by having Diana Prince as the secretary, that let them keep Wonder Woman in the book, without breaking their own rule.

And it's not sexist to have Diana Prince as a secretary since that was her job in her own comic. You could argue that being a secretary for a high-ranking general she had special clearance and she was the liason between the JSA and U.S. Military Intelligence.

After the war, the JSA relaxed their rules (and there were real world reasons for this) and Flash and GL came back as regular members. And WW did the same--although she was still the official secreatry--or rather Diana Prince was since that's how all the Juniour JSA documents were signed.

I'm not so stupid that I can't see there was some sexism in having her as secretary. I just think some people go way overboard in their outrage about this detail--there were sexist ideas back then, get over it. There was a reason for the Woman's Lib movement.

That Denny O'Neil edited special "Woman's Lib" issue of WONDER WOMAN is much more offensive because O'Neil was supposed to know better. Heck I knew better and I was only a kid when that issue came out, so I don't understand why O'Neil got it so wrong.

[Jekyll]

I LOVE Jay Garrick. He will always be my favorite. Close second would be Alan Scott and Hawkman.

[MajorHoy]

I'm not so stupid that I can't see there was some sexism in having her as secretary. I just think some people go way overboard in their outrage about this detail--there were sexist ideas back then, get over it. There was a reason for the Woman's Lib movement.

Oh, I agree people can go too far in their complaining about how things use to be, but they're judging the past by the standards of the present. It's like judging things done at that time AFTER you already know how they will turn out, which isn't quite fair.

[warzon]

what's too close for comfort ?[QUOTE=Thor2014;2935286][QUOTE=warzon;2934595]I have these issue's of the JLA and the first time I fell in love w this STARMAN aka TED KNIGHT

Ted Knight was great on Too Close for Comfort. I really enjoyed the TK Starman/Black Canary team