"The End" Week: All-Star Squadron #67!

Aw, I almost missed this one, and it has an incredibly important message for the new year: namely, punch Nazis as many times as you have to. From 1987, All-Star Squadron #67, "The First Case of the Justice Society" Written and edited by Roy Thomas, pencils by Arvell Jones, inks by Tony DeZuñiga.

This one is pretty much what it says on the tin, as Thomas adapts Gardner Fox's story from 1941's All-Star Comics #4: the newly formed Justice Society of America gets a mission from J.Edgar Hoover himself, to fight Axis spies and saboteurs. Hoover describes them as "hiding behind our Bill of Rights," which is a little troubling; but the team goes after those Fifth Columnists with gusto. Even the Spectre, the embodiment of God's wrath, is all "USA! USA! USA!" which leads me to believe God didn't know a ton about US history; even if Nazis totally have it coming.

The Atom gets a longer, and great, sequence: he had been sent undercover to a Midwest college to stop Nazi sympathizers from intimidating other students. (It's implied these were students sent from Germany; I have no idea if this actually happened.) Atom suits up to beat the crap out of the "junior Ratzis," who then look for a fight they can win, and try to gang up on a smaller fellow--Al Pratt, the plainclothes Atom again, who beats them up again! Getting word later they were looking for revenge, Al suits up to mess them up a third time at their "Fatherland club." The Atom doesn't just wreck them, he does a number on their building, and he didn't even have powers then! His luck runs out when he follows a clue to the main Nazi hideout and gets held at gunpoint, but Johnny Thunder and the rest of the JSA weren't far behind. When the case is all but over, an offhand remark by Johnny Thunder prompts his Thunderbolt to deliver the Nazis to Hoover, house and all.

Sadly, Sandman and Jay Garrick and the rest aren't around today to punch Nazis for us; so it's up to each and every one of us. Here's hoping to see more of that in 2020!