The Original Justice Society of America Set To Return In Their Own Book!

[Lee Stone]

For me, the charm about the Golden Age JSA wasn't necessarily the WWII backdrop... but rather the less powered world.
Gangsters with guns, mad scientists, a higher ratio of non-powered heroes and villains.
For me, the JSA was a more grounded JLA.

It's hard to get that feeling in a world where superpowers are a dime a dozen.

[DeathFalcon182]

The continuity was a mess and it always was. You just had to basically ignore it. Which is fine if you have to, but they don't have to force it anymore. Why do it that way again when the main reason those problems came about aren't an issue again?

They're not utilizing their multiverse if they stick them on the main Earth, and that's what makes it a dumb idea.


No it doesn't HAVE to be. But it was really cool that they re-established that in canon to honor the symbolic nature of what he was to the company. But hey, if today's news showed anything, if that news is indeed accurate, its that DC doesn't give a flying crap about Superman in any context anymore anyway. So I shouldn't be surprised.

Sorry for being such a downer, I AM glad that other people are seeing good things about properties they thought got a bad rap from the New 52. But at the same time hard to join in when my personal favorite is getting dumped on (by DC, not you guys). I'll get over it, I'm just whiny today.

I do think the classic version is the right move though, outside of placement concerns. I enjoyed what Robinson was doing but they torched that beyond saving and can't go back now, so just go with the originals again.

Because they clearly give a crap about continuity after 4 and a half years into new 52. They're bringing it back because it is how they can sell it. Yhe "right way" is the way that'll move floppies. And in the end nobody would care how it fits into the continuity as long as the stories are good besides maybe like 10 people. Remember as long as the stories you enjoyed about new 52, you didn't really care how it all fitted in, it's exactly the same situation.

[Robotman]

If they're going to bring the Justice Society back I think it would be good to start off with just the core members. I see people hoping to see a huge group right away. Just have Jay, Alan, Ted, Wesley Dodds, and I would love to see Carter Hall but there's already a Hawkman on Prime Earth so I don't know how that would work out. It would be nice to see a female member return. Perhaps Liberty Belle. although with Jesse Quick appearing on the Flash show they may want to use that version of the character. Just not Hippolyta. There should only be one Wonder Woman.

I would love to see some characters brought over from the now failed Earth 2 book. Val, Power Girl, Mr. Terrific, and Kendra should be added. The rest can fade away and never spoken of again.

[Frontier]

If they're going to bring the Justice Society back I think it would be good to start off with just the core members. I see people hoping to see a huge group right away. Just have Jay, Alan, Ted, Wesley Dodds, and I would love to see Carter Hall but there's already a Hawkman on Prime Earth so I don't know how that would work out. It would be nice to see a female member return. Perhaps Liberty Belle. although with Jesse Quick appearing on the Flash show they may want to use that version of the character. Just not Hippolyta. There should only be one Wonder Woman.

Maybe Hawkman will get his memory back of being in the JSA, like the Titans in Titans Hunt ?

[Flash Gordon]

Oh god, just what I didn't want.

Just put them on a different Earth. They're relics at best, in the normal continuity. Superman should be the first superhero.

[HsssH]

"...[N]ot only will this active team of superheroes be revealed, along with an explanation as to why no one remembers them, but they will be brought forward, young, to the present days, fishes out of water, fighting alongside the Justice League of America."

"Why no one remembers them?" Sort of like the Titans Hunt Titans, I guess.

You know, I love the JSA characters, I really do. But I love the characters in their setting. Or, if in the present, then as older characters who reflect their long history. And characters who have actually had an effect on the history of the world in which they live.

But - they were there, but nobody remembers them? What, does everybody remember a history in which they didn't exist, and now everybody remembers a history in which they were important? That's the kind of comic-book chronobabble (cf. technobabble/Treknobabble, but with time-travel, memory & record-keeping wipes, and history changing) that I have never enjoyed, because it smashes any kind of world-building. And now they're young, because older, experienced characters are boring - but we love the JSA!

It sounds like such a kitchen-sink approach. "Yes, we've created a new continuity, but everything you like about the old continuity will be recreated, sort of but with changes, in the past, but everyone will have forgotten about it, but then it just gets re-revealed in the present...!"

I guess it's just a point-of-view thing. Some readers are very focused on their favorite characters. "Yeah, that JLU story didn't make much sense, and was very deus ex machina, but I got to see Cliff Steele again, so I'm happy!" And that's fine. I'm glad you're happy, truly. But I want to see Cliff Steele in a story that really feels like a part of Cliff Steele's ongoing narrative (and character development), not a "plucked out of time and dimension and deposited here" story. Or at least, not too often.

I want to see a DCU with a history that feels somewhat organic. And a JSA whose history is not being pulled and twisted like taffy, just to fit them in somewhere where they really don't look like they belong. And where they are not by any means the premiere superhero team of their era, but second fiddle to the JLA.

I'd much prefer to see them on their own Earth - where they could have their own Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman; where they could develop over time; where they could have kids who don't wind up being chronologically older than they are, or some such.

That's just me. Really and truly, I'm not arguing with anybody who enjoys it some other way - you are more than entitled. But this approach - here and in Titans Hunt - is certainly not directed at readers like me.

I suspect most of the readers like me have drifted away a long time ago.

Good post. At a glance it feels like DC are trying to make some kinda combination of classical JSA and what we had in Earth-2 (before Worlds End) and I can't see it pleasing either group of people.

[Drz]

I'd just prefer a new Earth-2, just look how much fun Flash tv show is having by having the JSA on Earth 2.

JSA will never be seen as important when its on the same earth as JLA.

[Lightning Rider]

When I was reading volume 3 of Johns's JSA, I never got the sense they were second to the JLA, even during crossovers. They were veterans dealing with their own problems, fighting their own battles. We also got to see a cool dynamic where newer or more obscure younger characters were able to shine as well as a kind of "youth team" tethered to these heroes and their guidance, unlike the Teen Titans. I get why people would want to read them on their own Earth, I wouldn't mind that, but they don't necessarily have to live in the JLA's shadow because they live on the same Earth. The JLA was only there if things got crazy every now and then, and it was nice when they interacted.

[Sacred Knight]

Because they clearly give a crap about continuity after 4 and a half years into new 52. They're bringing it back because it is how they can sell it. Yhe "right way" is the way that'll move floppies. And in the end nobody would care how it fits into the continuity as long as the stories are good besides maybe like 10 people. Remember as long as the stories you enjoyed about new 52, you didn't really care how it all fitted in, it's exactly the same situation.

Well they did for most of it. Not to say they didn't screw up from time to time, but continuity was always a priority before this past year. They tried the new model that along with everything else in the DCYou era, failed miserably. And I fail to see how bringing them back on the main Earth as opposed to another one has a better or worse shot of selling. Its the classic team people are looking for. That's the key, not where they're located. So all things being equal why not put it where it makes the most sense, and that's where these characters always made the most sense: a pre-Crisis style world of their own. And more than 10 people care about continuity. If the DCYou era taught us anything its that far more people care about continuity than even DC seemed to realize. Every other question you'd see about certain books where things didn't mesh up were "How does this fit in?" And while I can't speak for anyone but myself, I definitely cared where things fit when the New 52 started, and was bugged greatly by the stuff that didn't fit in at least a general sense of logistics. So for my part there's no hypocrisy going on. I've always been a fan of a tighter continuity and that went for the New 52 just as much as any other era I've been around for.

But if they insist on this, hopefully they'll at least say the team's been in some form of stasis for 60 years and when active they were a cloak and dagger team. Not contrive some dumb story about how the world forgot about them somehow. They're doing that already with Titans Hunt. Much easier and far less retconning necessary if they're unknown because they simply were unknown even in their day and barely anyone is alive today who knew of them in the first place.

But what a missed opportunity it would be to just reboot Earth 2 as a place where there's a divergence in history during/after World War II, (ex. the Fallout world), and build the team and the world with it. A similar vein of what Robinson was trying to do with the modern-ized version but never got to achieve in that the world itself is a character in its own right.

[Robotman]

Well it's not official that they're going to be on Prime Earth. Maybe DC will wisely flush the fuster cluck that is Earth 2: Society and revert Earth 2 into it's more classic form. The Flash tv show has utilized the multiverse and Earth 2 so I think it would be an easy transition for newer readers. Like i said before, they should keep a few of the salvageable aspects of Earth 2: Society. Power Girl will obviously survive. Pretty sure Mr. Terrific isn't going any where either. But I would also like to see Val and the current Kendra Saunders survive.

I think it would be much better if they were back on Earth 2. If they're put on Prime Earth with the Justice League they're always going to be the B team. On Earth 2 they would be the pinnacle of their world's heroes. DC could also bring back the annual Justice League/JSA crossover and make it a fun event.

[Sacred Knight]

I'd get rid of it all at this point. Reboot Karen as the last surviving Kryptonian who lands on Earth 2 in the roaring twenties. But WWII she has come into her powers and is one of the Mystery Men of that day fighting for the U.S.

[HsssH]

Yeah, the JSA need to be these older group of heroes that have been around for a long time. I'm fine with them being in the main DC universe and there being superheroes before Superman, but I think there will be problems when you have a young JSA team in their 20s-30s, a young JLA team in their 20s, and a young Titans team also in their 20s all operating together. All of these books are going to be trying to do the same thing just with different characters.

Just wanted to quote this post since I feel its not getting enough attention - 3 teams of people that are of roughly similar age and share same properties - Superman, Green Lantern, Flash and so on.

[Doctor Bifrost]

Yeah because JSA didn't work on prime earth before right?

It did a little and it didn't a little. Certainly there were a lot of messes associated with trying to put them all on one Earth. (cf. Hawkman.)

But at least, when they integrated the JSA into the main DCU after Crisis on Infinite Earths, they didn't do the whole "everybody forgot about them and all records of them were wiped out of existence but now they're back" thing. They tried to create a semi-organic history that included both the JSA (somewhat altered, by necessity) in WW II and the JLA in the current day, without twisting and pulling at it like Silly Putty.

And frankly nobody gives a shit about Earth 2 JSA.

This is a demonstrably false statement.

[Doctor Bifrost]

Nobody gives a shit about Superman being the first.

Why do you keep speaking for everybody else?

[Starchild]

What if Alan Scott was truly the first human GL inducted by the Guardians back in the 40's, but he was forgotten about? That would be interesting.