When is a number one issue not actually the number one issue? During the Silver Age heyday of Showcase at DC Comics, the answer was, “Most of the time.” Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Justice League of America #1 awaits!

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1

Writer:  Gardner Fox
Penciler: Mike Sekowsky
Inker: Bernard Sachs
Colorist: Uncredited
Letterer: Gaspar Saladino
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: 10 Cents
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $16,000.00
Release Date: August 25, 1960

Previously in Justice League of America: Having already faced Starro the Conqueror, The Weapons Master, and the first incarnation of Amazo, The Justice League of America had firmly established themselves as a force to be reckoned with. Working out of a secret cave headquarters in the town of Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, the heroes of the JLA featured the cream of the Earth-1 crop: Superman! Batman! The Martian Manhunter! Wonder Woman! The Flash! Aquaman! There was another guy, I think, but who remembers everything? With the help of their ally/mascot/proverbial albatross, Snapper Carr, the League fights a never-ending battle something something Ted Knight voiceover. This particular issue begins with Barry “The Flash” Allen encountering a strange phenomenon that causes his car to die on a remote road, in the middle of nowhere. The culprit? ALIENS!

At the sound of the emergency signal, six superheroes (and one insufferable hipster doofus) assemble in Happy Harbor to hear the aliens’ tale of woe. But with the exception of The Flash, who was exposed to strange energies in Jasonar’s dimensional traveler, they are captured and immobilized by the monster the aliens are fleeing: Despero of Kalanor!
Thanks to his third eye (and the fact that his head has a frill like one of the little dinosaurs that ate Dennis Nedry), Despero has fantastic powers of telepathy, strong enough to overcome the minds of the League. He forces the Flash to play a deadly game of chess… but every move the Scarlet Speedster makes causes another of his teammates to be exiled from reality. When all the members are gone, he himself is sent away, as Despero reveals that he was controlling the game from the beginning.

As for the League, they’ve been transported to distant planets, but fortunately for the heroes, they’re not all on different worlds.

Superman and Wonder Woman end up saving one another from menaces on one world, while Aquaman and Green Lantern trade saves of their own on a planet with too much yellow and a boiling ocean. The Detective Comics Duo of Batman and J’onn J’onzz, though, find themselves separated and at the mercy of their greatest weaknesses. For Batman, it’s the limitations of his vehicle, a borrowed spacecraft, while for The Martian Manhunter, it’s fire. Fortunately, no member of the League stands alone.

I’ve always wondered what led Julie Schwartz to tap Mike Sekowsky as the initial penciler of the Justice League, as his unique choices of anatomy (and eyebrows) give each of the heroes an almost alien quality, while the design of Despero is just plain WEIRD. It’s charming stuff, though, as the seven heroes reunite, while Despero (with stowaway Snapper Carr) finally tracks down Jasonar, who is ready to use a weapon of his own design to render the despotic pink villain powerless and free the people of Kalanor from the villain’s flange-headed tyranny. Can the Justice League save the day?

No. No, they can’t. But Master Lucas Carr of Rhode Island apparently can. It feels like a strange story beat in a modern context, but it is important to remember that Gardner Fox is among the oldest of the old school and doesn’t hang everything on which hero is the most powerful or the most popular. Since Snapper is one of the members of this League, he plays his part in Justice League of America #1 with the same capability and heroism as Batman or Green Lantern, wrapping up the story with a little science fiction touch and earning 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. Weirdly, this issue features no external numbering at all, making me wonder if the editors were worried about readers catching on that this story picked up where The Brave and The Bold #30 left off, two months earlier.

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