Huh, I'd already fallen off by this point?

From 1988, Action Comics #603, cover by Kyle Baker. 

I know I tried the first two issues of DC experiment with weekly comics, but I can't recall: was it available in newsstands, or direct-market only? At a glance, the covers didn't have barcodes. Well, I just asked on BlueSky, we'll see if anybody knows! So, this was the third issue of the weekly experiment, thus it's the third chapter of everything.

This was post-Green Lantern Corps #224, a last issue I've never blogged, because I. HATE. It.. Hal Jordan was one of a very, very few GL's left; and his teammate and friend, Katma Tui, had been killed by Star Sapphire, who had been Carol Ferris, but Carol didn't seem to be home right then. Sapphire wanted revenge for the loss of her subjects, the Zamorans, who had left the universe with the Guardians of the Universe in GL #200, an issue I love! Hal manages to disable her, by snapping the ring setting of her gem; which is like using the Force to turn your opponent's lightsaber off mid-fight; then by punching her a bit. Hal moves to summarily execute Sapphire, but his ring won't do it--either because a lack of will, like he really didn't want to kill her; or something else--but after the cops show up, Sapphire zaps everyone, and now passes sentence on Hal...I haven't read all of this run, and Peter David would take over for a bit shortly, while Priest would have a couple Green Lantern Specials later; all of which seemed to have interesting ideas or moments, but maybe didn't entirely work for me. (Art by Gil Kane.)

Secret Six was an interesting idea: six injured specialists are given mechanical aides, uniforms, and gear, to serve as a Mission: Impossible-style vigilante team. Their benefactor, Mockingbird, was masked and unknown; and might not have been revealed until just before the serial ended, and isn't connected to the later team of villains. (Written by Martin Pasko, art by Dan Spiegle.) Then, in the Yucatan, Deadman tries to deal with the ghost Mayan Talaoc, the Central Intelligence Agency, and a stockpile of weird alien anti-ghost weapons. (Story by Mike Baron, pencils by Dan Jurgens, inks by Tony DeZuniga.)

Superman had only a token presence in Action for this run, a two-pager reminiscent of classic newspaper strips. I think the rationale was, Supes had two other books, right? (Written by Roger Stern, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by John Beatty.) Wild Dog was next, and possibly a bigger draw at the time than the rest; coming off a pretty successful mini-series. So, of course we don't get to see him today; as a pro-censorship/anti-porn group blows up a book store in Jack's neighborhood. I don't think I'd seen Wild Dog without his mask often, and without it he seems like an amiable goof; which might be a good cover for a hardass killer. (Written by Max Collins, art by Terry Beatty.) 

Finally, a plot-heavy installment of Blackhawk, as Ms. Hastings--who's pretty likely CIA herself--approaches Janos with an offer, to go after gold lost by the Japanese post-WW II, that probably fell into the hands of druglord Red Dragon. I think Blackhawk might've been the first Action serial to get spun off to a new title, but it only lasted 16 issues? Huh, I thought it ran longer. (Written by Mike Grell, pencils by Rick Burchett, inks by Pablo Marcos.)

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From the title, I did not think things were going to go great for him.

The cover pulled me in, and I had guessed this was from the tailend of the series, after they had maybe course corrected back to being a more traditional war comic. Not quite! From 1983, Blackhawk #259, "The Tomb of the Unknown Blackhawk!" Written by Mark Evanier, art by Dan Spiegle. Cover by Howard Chaykin! 

Winslow Shirk leads a sad, gray life: being a nobody would be several steps up for him. So would a 4-F classification, the draft board describes him as "7-W...the only time you go is when the enemy is on the Triborough Bridge, heading west!" But, after a newsreel, Winslow decides to make something of himself, and join the Blackhawks! I feel like knowing how to fly a plane would be a prerequisite for joining, but the first step might be simply to find the Blackhawks. Their base wasn't public knowledge, but while Winslow manages to find Blackhawk Island, it was a smoldering, radioactive crater; nuked in the previous issue! (That was reprinted in Best of DC #52, which probably got it in front of a lot more eyeballs!)

Here's where the weirdness starts: exposure to the radiation turns Winslow invisible. Stripping down to his glasses, he infiltrates British intelligence, then follows a officer to the Blackhawks in the field and gets to see them in action. He also notes they seemed to be a man down: Stanislaus was still in infirmary, now with a crisis of confidence. Blackhawk catches up to the Nazi leader, and discovers--Hitler? In the field? With a trick electrical field and an escape balloon, he gets away; and the Blackhawks recall they had seen no less than five Hitlers escaping a Nazi lab a few issues prior. Winslow invisibly hitchhikes back to "Blackhawk Island II" with the team, and listens in as Blackhawk and Stanislaus hash things out. The full squadron then deploys to defend Wilson Churchill, leaving Winslow behind in a borrowed uniform--hey, it's cold! But, Winslow is the only one to get a late message: Churchill wasn't at Downing Street, he was in Belvar! In his borrowed uniform and a latex mask used in an interrogation, Winslow convinces a mechanic to fly him to Belvar, then leaps into action to defeat the Hitler-lookalike. (When his mask comes off mid-fight, faux-Hitler nearly wets himself!)

Winslow disappears after saving Churchill, who sends a bronze statue of the Unknown Blackhawk to the team. And he becomes visible--after sneaking onto a ship back to America! One suspended sentence later, Winslow returns to his apartment, and paints it bright orange: "you don't have to confront the enemy to be a hero. You just have to confront yourself." Eh, confronting a Hitler is pretty good, too.

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Hmm, I've got a minute, but can only blog a quarter book within reach...That gives us either Aquaman #10, or Blackhawk #13.

(Strains, grunts, knocks over stack trying to reach another book.)

Alright, let's give Blackhawk #13 a try: from 1990, "Operation Skywing" Written by Doug Moench, art by Rick Burchett. In Burma, not even her pet tiger is able to keep smuggler Red Dragon from being captured by Chinese forces; but luckily for her, they have a job for her that involves Blackhawk. For his part, Blackhawk has had it up to here with spy agency nonsense: the O.S.O. and C.I.G. may have been stepping on each other's toes, or fighting for turf. Still, Operation: Skywing piques his interest: "an engineering think-tank" of aviation, that agent Stanfield believes could be targeted by those filthy commie bastards. He's a bit worked up about it. Like, the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids worked up. Blackhawk seems more reserved, if only because he knows communism--particularly Soviet communism--doesn't work: nothing works, people are generally too corrupt.

Still, Blackhawk and his team aren't completely jaded: there really are a lot of cool planes at the secret base in Malaya. There is also, as they come in, a UFO, or as they would call it, a foo fighter! Not a hallucination since they can all see it, and they do get a ping back on radar; but it then peels out at impossible speeds--then their plane is attacked by three fighters! One rough landing later, the Blackhawks get a sorry-not-sorry apology for the security "mix-up" from Masterson, of the newly minted C.I.A.

As I often do, I grabbed this thinking it might be the last issue: nope, the series would run to Blackhawk #16. I think much of the plot from this one might've continued until then, too.
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"The End" Week: Blackhawk #273!

I know I've bought this issue twice, as I come across it, but had I read it yet? Let's see. From 1984, Blackhawk #273, "No Information Available at Press Time!" Written by Mark Evanier, art by Dan Spiegle; and "Deserter!" Written by Mark Evanier, pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by Richard Howell.

The Gil Kane cover is nice, if not at all indicative of the inside story; and the "Final Mission?" blurb is a bit misleading, since this was set fifteen months before Pearl Harbor. Reporter Ginny Mueller wants to follow a story with the Blackhawks in China; they're looking for their man Chop-Chop, who's been fighting a one-man rebellion against the Japanese. He managed to destroy some blueprints and set them back, but they had completed a new weapon, a massive dragon-tank! The Japanese had captured Chop-Chop and his girl, to lure in Blackhawk, to kill him as part of their deal with Germany. They had even called in the press to cover it, which is how Blackhawk realizes it's a trap--right before it's sprung!

Chop-Chop, who does all the heavy lifting this issue, lures the tank into firing at explosives and blowing itself up, then returns to the Blackhawk roster. Ginny is left without a story, since Blackhawk tells her they have to figure out who leaked that info, hence "No information available at press time."


Mark Evanier has other writing credits, yet I'm most familiar with his long run editing Sergio Aragonés Groo. The letters page has a piece from him that mentions he was the book's current editor, but had to fire himself as writer, which in turn caused Spiegle to quit; but DC cancelled Blackhawk before Bill Dubay and Carmine Infantino could take over. He also suggests a new fan look into back issues, but keep it under his hat, as to not drive up prices: "I made the big mistake of opening my cavernous mouth about how good old Fox and Crow comics were...then ZOOM!" Meanwhile, I'm not sure Blackhawk appeared again until Howard Chaykin's miniseries in 1988. No, he probably was in Crisis, wasn't he? He still turns up here and there, and DC's tried to repurpose the name with the New 52. He'll be back.
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Deep into Blackhawk continuity, so good luck with that.

It's like everyone remembers the Listener for mocking purposes, but that's about it. From 2010, Batman Confidential #37, "Blackhawk Down, part two" Written by Royal McGraw, pencils by Marcos Marz, inks by Luciana Del Negro.


This was the second of a four-part story, guest-starring Zinda, Lady Blackhawk--who had been brought to the future during Zero Hour--and the original Blackhawk, who was pretty darn old by this point. Jan alludes later that he's in better shape than someone his age should be, but he's not holding up as well as Nick Fury or anything. Together, they face the menace of former Blackhawk team member Ted Gaynor, who stole tech from Blackhawk Industries for his secret army, and the mutated Nazi the Killer Shark. (Who shouldn't be confused with any of the multiple shark-guys tearing about the DCU.)


Although this story does tie into her past appearances, it's not the best one for Zinda: she's brainwashed, treated like a prize, and referred to by Gaynor as a "leather-clad victory girl." The art isn't bad, but if her skirt was any shorter it'd be a belt, and she's inexplicably drawn with her mouth open a lot. For his part, Batman is somewhat dismayed that he's gotten too used to fighting lunatics that leave riddles and clues, but a wanna-be Napoleon probably isn't too far removed.

Until Comics Alliance brought it up the other day, I had forgotten there was a New 52 Blackhawk update. Sight unseen, I can't say if it was better than this, but this wasn't bad.
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80-Page Thursdays: Even More Secret Origins, Replica Edition!

Hey, kids! Ready for the thrilling secret origin of the Blackhawks?

Oh, goddamnit...from 2003's replica edition of Even More Secret Origins, featuring stories from Edmond Hamilton, John Broome, Bob Haney, and Gardner Fox; with art by Carmine Infantino, Curt Swan, Lee Elias, Joe Kubert, and Gil Kane.

Among other reprints, this issue features the first appearance of Eclipso; which was a relatively straight-forward Jekyll-and-Hyde setup, without any of the later agent of Chaos/Wrath of God business that came in later. Eclipso had a OK run, for a villain that could be defeated by a tanning booth...

There's also the Silver Age classic "Creature of a Thousand Shapes!" that introduced the Hawkman and Hawkgirl from Thanagar; then the secret origins of the Jimmy Olsen/Robin team and of Green Lantern's oath. I don't know how many of these Secret Origin specials they did, but if they were down to or were successful enough to get to those last two; they were either doing something really wrong or really right.

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"Chicks dig scars...woo, maybe not."

A short one this week, but what the hell, click to enlarge.

This one's for Dwayne, "the canoe guy," over at Matching Dragoons, certainly the blogosphere's number one site for Jonah Hex. If you have even a nodding familiarity with Jonah past, present, or future (I really liked Hex, honestly) then you need to be over there on a regular basis. He does more than just Hex coverage, but hell, that's enough!

This wave of Showcase figures is a strong one: classic Batgirl and Hawkman, and Superman with multiple Red Kryptonite inspired heads. That's mighty tempting, even though I have more Superman figures than I'd ever planned on getting. Hell, I still have to buy the electric one from DCUC.

I like a lot of characters that are either on the fringe or not traditionally part of the DC universe: in fact, I would say out of Blackhawk, Sgt. Rock, Warlord, Enemy Ace, and Jonah Hex; it's ok for them to crossover into special events like Crisis on Infinite Earths or time-travelling Justice League stories or even each other. For instance, Rock has a cameo in the Garth Ennis written Enemy Ace, and the Ace met Bat Lash in Guns of the Dragon.

That said, I think their individual books should be completely self-contained. I sure as fun don't wanna read a Jonah Hex Final Crisis crossover. If you read the superhero-tinged issues of Warlord, you'd be nodding your head in agreement right now...except nobody read those.

My DC Direct dream list gets shorter every year, as the figures I want trickle out: for example, a new Creeper is coming next year, I believe. I would love a classic Doom Patrol: Elasti-girl, Negative Man, Robotman, maybe the Chief. (No Mento. Mento sucks. I will brook no discussion on this matter.) Wildfire and Dawnstar from the Legion of Super-Heroes both have striking and toyetic looks, even if they might not fit in with the frankly, rather whitebread, other Legion figures. (Those other Legion figures are deliberately in a retro style.) OMAC. The real one, Kirby style. Hell, throw Kamandi in there too; maybe even Atlas to round out another Kirby wave.

Perhaps a wave or a box set of forgotten, ill-advised, or unpopular big bads: Extant! Monarch! Neron! Evil Max Lord! Some of these would be more fun as toys then they ever were in the comics.

There's probably more, but I'll have to think about it. If you have one you can't wait for, let me know, it might ring a bell... Read more!

"Interlude."

As usual, click to enlarge, and last week's strip (so to speak...) is here.



I know some people, including his creator Robert Kanigher, subscribe to the idea that Sgt. Rock dies of the last bullet fired in World War II. I can't buy that, because if so, who shoots the guy that shoots Sgt. Rock? I suppose maybe Bulldozer could beat the shooter to death, but Kanigher also figured the rest of Easy Company would also be killed before it was over.

Now, I liked Sgt. Rock's multiple Brave and the Bold appearances, but I don't know about the idea of Rock dying in Our Worlds at War or his unsuccessful Suicide Squad series. Hanging out with Fury and Blackhawk seems like more fun, even if Rock's half-senile. Three-quarters senile. Completely gone.

Incidentally, in DC continuity, what did Blackhawk die of? And a tip of the hat to the Fortress Keeper, who saw this coming! I occasionally get frustrated with DC Direct, but they have got a ton of figures out that probably would never have happened otherwise.

Deadpool and Nightcrawler, or Pool and Kurt; will be in the deep end next week. Rest assured...it makes no goddamn sense whatsoever. Read more!

Everyone has something to bring to the table: Justice League of America #144

Today we're going to look at a comic I haven't had for years and read a bazillion times, although it very much feels like I have. Not in a bad way, though. My wife had a presentation at a, well, giant-ass yard sale thing; and I visited her and wandered around a bit. Not a lot of comics, a little surprisingly. Overpriced 90's issues, a couple Fantastic Four and a Mystery in Space that were too rich for me, and a little pile of old Brave and the Bold for fifty cents a pop, including this gem: Justice League of America #144, "The Origin of the Justice League--Minus One!" Written by Steve Englehart, pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Frank McLaughlin. From the cover, or perhaps because of the dates involved within, or the guest-stars, I had thought this was an older issue until I noticed the Spalding basketball ad on the back.

The story begins with Green Arrow slamming shut a logbook of the Justice League with a very audible slam, then storming in on Green Lantern and Superman playing cards. Why everyone's hanging out on the satellite is anyone's guess, but GA is fuming that the origin of the JLA was a lie. He asks Hal when he became Green Lantern, and Hal says September 1959, the first of many hard dates in this issue. Check out the footnote:



"Comic heroes have their own ways to stop the clock and avoid aging!" Like spa treatments, steroids, deals with Satan and/or Bat-Mite...

Ollie calls them on it, although I suppose Supes and Hal could've just said, "No, the JLA formed November 1959, three years give or take. Now do you mind? I've got gin!" That wouldn't be the most exciting issue ever, though; so they go to tell GA the real story. By putting in a videotaped message from the Martian Manhunter, J'onn J'onzz. Probably should've just had Ollie watch this at his orientation, guys.

J'onn explains that the story really begins with his arrival on earth in 1955, transported from Mars by Dr. Erdel's robot-brain. Even though he was abducted, J'onn is cool about it, even though Dr. Erdel has a heart attack and dies right there. Trapped, J'onn takes a human form, finds a job as a police detective, and watches an assload of TV. Wait, that's New Frontier. Instead, J'onn finds the people of earth prosperous but paranoid, about war, martians, comics, sex, etc.



He continues to fight weird crime invisibly and work on the 'robot brain' with--is that a bevel? I think I see why you weren't having a lot of luck, J'onn, trying to fix the computer with wood shop tools. As he considers going public as a hero, Commander Blanx and his white Martians arrive in his lab. (Here, it was weird for me to see both J'onn and the white Martians look pretty much like humans, since I grew up on the Giffen/DeMatteis issues, when J'onn was occasionally seen in his real, 'Gumby' form.) As J'onn explains on the tape, before J'onn was brought to earth, Blanx had conquered the green Martians, exiled J'onn, and probably kicked some Martian puppies.

Blanx had apparently happened across J'onn teleport-beam experiments, reverse engineered them, and teleported himself and his men to get J'onn. Before they can, J'onn opens up fire--on tap!



Traditionally, we have gas, then a pilot light; but Dr. Erdel was a busy man and didn't have time for any extra steps. While it weakens him as well, J'onn is able to escape. The lab is totaled, and the white Martians have fled back to Mars, and J'onn realizes he's not in any big hurry to get his ass to Mars anymore. (The wife and daughter he lost are relatively recent additions to J'onn's origin, and not mentioned in this story.)

The next day, as Detective Jones enjoys a nice cup of coffee, the white Martians are spotted "running riot through the south side of town!" I swear, how come every time you hear about a riot, it's always the White Martians, never the green? Oh...yeah. J'onn goes and kicks white ass pretty handily, until the Flash shows up. Going invisible by reflex, Flash assumes the worst and clocks J'onn at super-speed. Being a DC Comic, though, it's ok for J'onn to talk this out:



See, that would never, ever fly at Marvel: you meet, you fight. I've been reading Marvel for like 30 years, and can think of maybe one exception, once. If you plan on being a Marvel superhero, you plan on Spidey, Captain America, and/or the Hulk punching you in the face at least once.

A bystander almost takes a shot at J'onn, but is stopped by the Flash. (Did people in the 50's routinely keep rifles in their apartments?) J'onn disappears after the escaping white Martians, and Flash is left fielding questions about what he's going to do about this alien invasion. It's supposed to be a sign of the times, with people paranoid and hateful; but it would work a little better if this wasn't at least the twentieth alien invasion in recent memory. Seriously, wasn't Batman fighting alien invasions back then? As the people start to panic, Flash announces that he will bring Superman in on it. Yeah, why not bring in another alien to stop the invasion?

Flash goes to Metropolis, and climbs the tallest building there, which Superman must watch like a hawk: Superman had been "patrolling the eastern seaboard" with Batman and Robin in tow. B & R hadn't even bothered to bring the Batplane, Batcopter, or Batmobile, they just let Superman fly them around. It's weird and awkward: like when you go to visit a friend and there's already two other guys there, that you don't really know, spend all their time together, and have their own in-jokes. Batman even suggests maybe calling in Aquaman and Green Arrow, but Flash says they've got enough guys for now. They head back for Middleton, this time with Superman carrying the Flash, Batman and Robin! As they leave, a creepy looking man pushes aside some small children, to make a call to Roy Raymond, TV Detective.



J'onn is trying to find the White Martians before Flash and everyone find him instead, and does spot three, who promptly trap him. Twenty minutes later, Superman and all arrive; and Roy Raymond's already there: he says after the tip, he and his staff had been right behind in the company jet. The SR-71 company jet, that they keep airborne at all times, by all indications: if Metropolis is around the Chicago area, and Middleton approximately Denver, if I remember my DC faux-geography...twenty minutes my hindquarters. It'd take longer to the airport then that, even circa 1959.

Raymond breaks the story, which brings in more backup: the Blackhawks! The Challengers of the Unknown! Plastic Man! The old cowboy, not the Punisher-clone, Vigilante! Plastic Man! The original, non-Doom Patrol, Robotman! Congo Bill and Congorilla! Rex, the Wonder Dog! Aquaman and Wonder Woman, who look like they arrived together! Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, just by virtue of knowing Superman and being nosy!



I wonder how they know that's Rex, the Wonder Dog, and not Sam, the shoe-eating stray. It's not like Rex told them, right? Maybe he brought a note...or his tags, duh. I like Rex, though: this retelling of his origin still makes me smile.

I know I probably seem mocking, but this page is what I love about the DC Universe: even with a guy that could move the entire planet into the next galaxy, and another guy that could kick everyone in the western hemisphere in the groin faster than I could type it; they still have a guy that talks to fish and a wonder dog on the case, just in case they need 'em. You know, if the day can't be saved by a superstrong amazon, a kickass robot, or a small army of men in jumpsuits and leather; you might think a guy who transfers his mind to a gorilla and the press corps might be intimidated, but they totally aren't.



At this point, Green Arrow wonders why he and Speedy didn't get in on this. He remembers that they were on Starfish Island...and I just spit coffee up all over my monitor. Great Rao, I hope that's not a metaphor for anything.

Since this is Brave and the Bold-vintage Batman, he's totally down for a team-up with anyone...suggestive. The heroes split into teams...really unbalanced teams. Don't play Heroclix with Batman, he'll give you Andre and Congo Bill, while taking Superman, Wonder Woman, and Rex the Wonder Dog.

The Blackhawks, plus Olsen and Plastic Man, patrol until they scan "an exceptional energy source--toopowerful for earth machines!" How a bunch of WWII vets can scan for that, I can't say. Ask a vet. Approaching a lonely cabin, they are pinned down by machine gun fire, which Plas points out isn't very Martian. As they storm the cabin, with Plastic Man coming down the chimney, they find it empty. Even invisibly, the Martians couldn't have got past them. Jimmy pipes up: "Gosh, you had 'em and you lost 'em! What're you going to tell the others?"



I have the feeling a lot of kids reading this comic when it came out cheered out loud at the newsstand on that one. The Blackhawks and Plas bag out the rest of the story, presumably to get drunk. Oh, come on, you don't need Howard Chaykin to tell you those guys drink. And the Blackhawks hate Wing? Short Round? Chop-Chop? The Asian kid in the pajamas. No cool leather uniform for you! Well, they hate him less than Jimmy, who is probably left on the mountainside, to try to make his way home in the dark...from several states away.

And the mysterious inhabitants of the cabin? Rip Hunter and sidekick Jeff, who thought the Blackhawks were "some military group, I'd guess--who got wind of our discovery somehow, and came to steal it!" They escape in Rip's time machine to the Civil War, just as confused as everyone else. Why clone Thor? Why?



Elsewhere...let's say Montana: it's got mountains, trees, campers. Why not? A motley team with the Challengers, Vigilante, Robotman, Congo Bill, and Lois Lane get a sighting of a Martian from some campers. The Martian flew and fired a ray at the campers, then took off. The men take off chasing him, but Lois intuits that whatever this is, it's probably not a Martian (if it was, it would have gone invisibly) and that it keeps coming back to a specific spot, so she waits for it.

Congo Bill puts his mind in Congorilla, and locks up his body; apparently without telling anyone what he's doing. He grabs the flier, who takes off. As everyone converges on it, the flier shakes Congorilla, who lands on Lois.



Why was Superman always so worried that Lois would get hurt or killed if they got married? The woman had a gorilla fall on her, and walked it off two panels later.

Unknown to the gathered heroes, the flier was Adam Strange. Who I guess isn't above firing warning shots at campers.



There's a little explanation on why the Zeta-beam hit in the Northern hemisphere involving a Sputnik, which is charming if dated and unbelievable.

Finally, the A-listers, plus Roy Raymond, Rex, and Aquaman (I kid!) get a summons to Cape Canaveral, where they meet Hal Jordan, test pilot and observer for an upcoming satellite launch. Hal shows Wonder Woman his chest within two panels of meeting, but I honestly can't say that seems unnatural. She's a busy woman, so cut to the chase.



At the rocket, Rex sniffs out the Martians, and Superman flushes them out with heat vision. The Martians luck out though: after they become visible, Superman stops the heat vision, which had been weakening them. The Martians are thus able to give a good fight to Superman and Wonder Woman, and Aquaman is getting faint from lack of water. Man, the writers used to flog that point, didn't they? Flash runs and brings back in his wake a ton of seawater. No, seriously: it's a wave that breaks near the top of the rocket. How it didn't tip the rocket, drown everyone, and wreck a ton of electronics, I don't know. Maybe Aquaman absorbs it Spongebob-style, as reinvigorated, he punches out a Martian.

Made visible by the water, Batman and Robin see an unconscious J'onn chained to the rocket. No, I don't know how he was invisible and unconscious at the same time either. To prove he's a good guy, J'onn tells them the Martians' secret weakness, fire. Open flame. Not necessarily heat. But, Superman defeats the Martians with his heat vision off-panel. Maybe he set them on fire, in which case I'm sorry we missed it. Superman's mandate now includes deportation, as he's going to take all the Martians back to Mars. J'onn says he wants to stay, since "The Mars I loved is gone!" He says more, but bolds every other word, and I don't wanna type it.

Superman admits he can understand that, but Flash points out with all the hysteria, any Martian that appeared now would be burned at the stake, as it were. The others put it together:



Hal, and in a surprisingly big move, Roy Raymond both swear secrecy. (Rex however, would for years tell anyone who would listen about the Martians. Unfortunately, the only ones that listened were other dogs, and the occasional homeless person.) Several months later, the Justice League of America would have their first official case, and they would claim that was when they first formed. (At the time, J'onn didn't know Hal was GL, since he hadn't been at the time!) The team always celebrated the original anniversary, though.

Green Arrow acts like he should be mad about being fooled, but is touched that the team would do that for J'onn.



Is it my imagination, or did Ollie cry a lot in those JLA issues? I know he's supposed to be a sensitive old leftie, but there's a very real possibility that Ollie just overemoted, to appear sensitive, so he could continue bagging Black Canary. Probably not real tears, either. GA probably had a Glycerin Arrow. Unless he uses a sad memory, like his puppy dying or Batman snubbing his invite to the Arrowcave BBQ.

The reason this story seemed familiar to me, was that Grant Morrison would of course bring back the White Martians in his first JLA arc, and the conglomeration of heroes seems a lot like wait and Kitson's JLA: Year One. By the way, DC, I'm still cheesed that Year One doesn't seem to be in continuity anymore: it's a great story, working from the ruling at the time that Wonder Woman didn't appear right away in the DCU and wasn't a founder of the Justice League. Black Canary was a great replacement, and a little secret? I like her better.

Also, I mentioned New Frontier earlier, and this issue kind of hints at a time before a Justice League, when soldiers, men of science, and daredevils did the heavy lifting that would later be shouldered by superheroes. Strictly speaking, New Frontier is out of continuity too, but who cares? Part of the fun of this type of story is taking all the toys out of the box, and working out a situation where they all get to play. Something for everyone.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to play with some toys right now...

Bonus!This issue also features "100 issues ago," a two page summary of "The Plague that struck the Justice League!" By Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowksy and Frank Giacoia. Luckily for me, it ties into an issue I actually have, and a Metamorpho cameo! Plus, the summary includes a version of a much-scanned panel:


Robin, what have I done to you!

I love this feature, and would love to see these little summaries in other books, but that would involve keeping the numbering so a book hits a hundred. Hint, hint. Read more!