Justice Society of America #12

Or – “I Thought The Legion Had A Lot Of Characters…”

I gotta tell ya, it’s good to see Ving Rhames getting work… I haven’t seen him in anything since the remake of ‘Dawn of the Dead.’ This issue of Justice Society of America is part four of the apparenly endless “Thy Kingdom Come” storyline, and I gotta tell ya: I admit to having a lower tolerance for Alex Ross than most, but I have to wonder if even his most hardcore fans are onboard for this one. Kingdom Come is a fine story, but if it suffered anywhere, it was in its’ desire to throw as many legacy characters into the plot as possible with limited character development. With no less than five new members this issue, another familiar face returning and a roster that already has 18 members, is JSA giving us too much of a good thing?

Previously, on Justice Society of America: When Starman was forced to create a collapsar during a mission, the JSA found themselves with a new/old member: the Earth-22 version of Superman. The Once And Future Big Blue Boy Scout seems to be trapped on New Earth (Ugh.) much to the consternation of Earth-2’s Power Girl, who finds him to be a painful reminder of her own Kal-El. With the Countdown to Final Crisis in full swing, the Justice Society seems to be one of the only teams who aren’t of a cloistered bent, actively seeking out and recruiting new members. So far, they’ve accumulated a new Wildcat, (#3 in a series, collect ’em all!) Cyclone, (the grand-daughter of Ma Hunkel, the original Red Tornado) Citizen Steel, (grandson of Commander Steel, a.k.a Steel, the Indestructible Man) Damage, (the biological son of Al Pratt, the original Atom) and the aforementioned Starman (Thom Kallor, formerly of the Legion of Super-Heroes, about which more can be seen here.)

The festivities kick off with the return of one of my fave-rave JSA’ers, the Grant-Morrison-created Jakeem Thunder.  J.T. and his animated pink thunderbolt arrive at the new JSA headquarters to absolutely no fanfare whatsoever, which seems to chap young Jakeem’s hide.  “I think I liked the old brownstone better,” grouses the modern-day Aladdin to his cohort.  Thunderbolt agrees, and as they round a corner they run into…  four complete strangers.  “Who the @#&# are you?” cries Jakeem, and T-bolt amusingly repeats the same thing.  Ancient djinns cursing out loud is funny in the same way a drunken baby is, you don’t want to laugh, but you still can’t help but snicker a little.  Wildcat III, Damage, Starman and Citizen Steel are all sitting at the  ready, not for an attack, but for yet another Wildcat-in-a-boxing-ring scene.  I think they’re contractually required to have one every fifty pages in this book, actually.  Star-Thom is enthused to see them, introducing himself in his inimitable manner.  “I’m from the FUTURE!  WeeeOOOOOeeee!”  Heh. 

While Jakeem meets the new kids (same as the old kids?) Wildcat squares off with the new Judomaster, who kind of confuses me.  I assume she’s the same girl who appeared in ‘Birds of Prey’ a couple of months ago, wherein she was pretty effusive and even made ribald jokes with Huntress about Big Barda’s (R.I.P.) “Mega-Rod.”  (Sure, it’s kind of funny, but it’s no Giant-Size Man-Thing.)  Here, she’s not proficient in English, and her powers seem to operate completely differently, keeping even Wildcat’s finely-honed combat skills at bay.  This continuity problem bugs the hell out of me (TOM WELLING PRIME PUNCH!) but we quickly jump away to see the other three original JSAers (Hawkman, The Flash, and Green Lantern) discussing how their last batch of recruits aren’t rookies anymore.  (Hasn’t it been like ten minutes in DCU time?)  Either way, they seek out their new batch, starting with one awesome and honestly long-overdue addition.

“Back in the ’40’s, nearly every African-American mystery man kept to the shadows…  until Markus Clay’s grandfather, Will Everett stepped into the spotlight.”  Amazing Man is one of my very favorite DC characters, even though he was retconned in by Roy Thomas, with a cool power, a great costume, and now (finally!) a great history to match.  The JSA remembers Will Everett’s days as a pioneer of civil rights, and his rightful place in DCU history as one of the most important figures in the fight for civil rights, and then we cut to the new Amazing Man in New Orleans.  When Superman-22 and Power Girl arrive to recruit him, A-Man is happy to help, so long as THEY pitch in helping to clean up some of the debris from Hurricane Katrina.  It’s an intriguing opening…  Here’s hoping they don’t make him a pious “issue-driven” jerk-hero.

We then cut to the new Mr. America, investigating the death of the New Olympians, former associates of Batman villain Maxie Zeus and current decomposing corpses.  Seems the “god-slayer” has struck again, and he’s not, as I suspected, related to the Death of the New Gods…  More on him later, as we cut to the home of Jefferson Pierce (aka Black Lightning, another hero finally getting a bit of respect) as he discusses his daughter Thunder’s career with the Outsiders.  I’ve always been a bit troubled by Thunder’s shoe-horned existence, but now, we see Jeff with his wife (!) talking about his other daughter (!!!) and her powers, gaining an electrical charge every time she touches anything electronic.  Okay, I officially hate this.  It seemingly ignores every Black Lightning story written since 1976 for the sake of introducing another legacy hero.  It’s made all the worse by Cyclone suggesting that she call herself “Lightning” to accompany her sister’s “Thunder” code-name.  Oh, goody.  More Alex Ross-isms…  I hate that her “costume” is apparently going to be being naked and yellow with lightning-hair, and I hate the constant “ZOMG!  KINGDOM COME IS COMING TRUE!!!  HIDE THE GOOD SILVER!” 

And it only gets more annoying, as Hourman and Liberty Belle investigate the New Olympians slaying, and see “G-O-something” carved in a wall.  Oh, joy.  Frickin’ Gog.  I honestly didn’t see this plotpoint coming, even with the solicits, because, frankly, Gog is a sucking void of a non-character.  He’s like Cable without the depth that Rob Liefeld provides…  Does anybody smell sarcasm?  In any case, we mercifully cut away to the last recruit, Lance Corporal David Reid, (as Stephen points out, a dead ringer for Buster Crabbe, the original ‘Flash Gordon’ on the cover) as the founders arrive to personally induct him into the Justice Society.  He has some sort of mystical artifact of power on his arm, and an eye-in-a-pyramid tattooed on his arm that J.R. “Bob” Dobbs would love.  When Corporal Reid asks why he’s important enough for them to get involved, Green Lantern explains that it’s because of his great-grandfather, and who he was.  “My great-grandfather?  My great-grandfather was Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

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Uh…

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‘Kay.  That’s either brilliant, or rock-f’ing stupid enough to masquerade itself as brilliant.  Alan, Jay and Carter tell him that FDR founded their team, and that he is, thus, their most important legacy.  His design is pretty spiffy, though, even if his powers and fatigues remind me of the ever-gawdawful Gauntlet over in Avengers: Initiative.  Meanwhile, back at the brownstone, Wildcat’s inability to hit Judomaster is interrupted by the entrance of a bloody Mr. America (new whipping boy for the entire DCU, apparently) asking if anyone has ever heard of Gog, as we fade to black…

Overall, it’s not a bad issue, but it’s not as awesome as I expect from JSA.  This is a title for which “merely interesting” is a step way down in quality, and this is one of the issues where it really shows.  On the plus side, Lance Corporal Reid is intriguing, the return of Amazing Man is well-done, and seems very cool, and more Mr. America won’t upset me.  On the other hand, as much as I like seeing a new Judomaster, (And what’s with all the Charlton heroes dying? And have you noticed how many of them are being replaced with girls?) I’m concerned about the inconsistencies in her character, and I’m frankly “Meh” on every single aspect of Jennifer Pierce, ‘Lightning.’  Away from the distractingly flashy art of their creator, characters like Cyclone, Lightning, and Gog lose a lot of their lustre, showing the seams of their Frankenstein-like cobbling from other, existing heroes.  Still, the art by Dale Eaglesham is excellent, as ever, covering up a multitude of sins, even as the story sags a bit in the middle.  There’s a lot of interesting things floating in the stew here, but the basic blandness of the broth makes for a somewhat ‘blah’ total package.  Justice Society of America #12 ranks a disappointing 2 stars out of 5.  Still, if you can trust Previews, there may be a panacea for the lack of action coming up quick in the rear-view mirror.  I make a point of trying to explain the excellence of Johns & Eaglesham’s JSA to customers at the store, and issues like this make it very difficult to support my point.