DC Comics Review: Justice Society of America #30

Rating:  ** 1/2*

We pick up from where we left off with last month’s issue with the Justice Society of America (JSA) all defeated except Stargirl and The Flash Jay Garrick.  For whatever reason, Stargirl must not be harmed.  The group of miscellaneous stand ready to take out Jay Garrick when he runs away.  He runs to go get help in the form of the new Dr. Fate.  A while back there were a series of one-shots called the Helmet of Fate as well as the mini-series Countdown to Mystery that saw the return of an all new Dr. Fate.  This Dr. Fate is a legacy character named Kent V Nelson and he is the grandnephew of the original Dr. Fate, Kent Nelson.  This was all new to me as I wasn’t aware that a new Dr. Fate was chosen.  This Dr. Fate is able to fool the villains into thinking he’s the real deal as far being able to use his powers as well as his predecessor’s. 

Fate, Stargirl, and Flash hold off the villains long enough as it gives the other JSAers enough time to recover and regroup.  The villains see that the tide has turned on them and run off.  Magog wants to run after them.  Wildcat wants to retreat as Liberty Belle is hurt and they can’t seem to contact Mister Terrific.  Power Girl agrees with Magog, but appeases Wildcat and splits the team up with some heading back to headquarters, while others head after the villains.  Magog is portrayed as being more aggressive here.  He’s looking at this from a military perspective and wants to stomp out the enemy for good.  Something doesn’t seem right with him.

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DC Comics Review: Justice Society of America #29

Rating: ***

I have given Geoff Johns a lot of praise in numerous posts over the past few months.  So I won’t go into that here.  I mentioned before how I was disappointed that he’d be leaving the Justice Society of America and hoped that the new writers would do well because I love these characters.  After a two-issue guest stint by Jerry Ordway, the new writing team of Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges begins here in issue #29.  Jesus Merino is the new artist for the title and begins his run here as well.  I liked his work here.  It’s strong and it reminds me a bit of the work that was done by the previous artist, Dale Eaglesham.  Willingham and Sturges do a good job, but they didn’t knock my socks off with their first issue in control.

The two writers are best known for their critically acclaimed work on the Vertigo title Jack of Fables a spin-off of the Vertigo title Fables which is also written by Willingham.  I’ve never read these titles, so this is the first time I’ve been introduced to their work.  The story here was okay.  It revolves around two things that may be connected somehow by the end of the story arc.  Flash discovers a black orb in the JSA headquarters.  It’s a mysterious orb and the team doesn’t know what it is or where it came from.  After some investigating, the team discovers that the orb is in fact their teammate Obsidian.  Somehow his body has transformed into this orb and Mister. Terrific takes it upon himself to investigate why this has happened.

A smaller side plot is also intertwined between the two major events that occur in this issue.  In this issue we see two new junior members join the team.  One is a sidekick to the current Mister America.  Evidently the Golden Age Mister America had a sidekick called the All-American Kid.  I did some research and I didn’t find a reference to the character on Wikipedia so this might be a retcon.  The original Kid was killed during World War II and the new one is the great-nephew to the original.  The second is a young boy named King Chimera.  He is the son of a Golden Age character named King Standish.  A little known character who didn’t show up immediately after a Google search.  He’s arrogant and has the power to create illusions.

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