Nearly six decades ago, DC created one of their most famous, and confusing, features of their universe. Gardner Fox had changed comics when he wrote The Flash of Two Worlds in The Flash 123, which united Barry Allen’s Flash (Earth-1) with his JSA counterpart (from Earth-2). Soon afterwards, things like that were becoming all the more common. You’d get Green Lantern, the Atom and then even the Justice League of America meeting the Justice Society of America in issues 21 and 22 of the former’s title. Now, why is this important when you think about Elseworlds stories and the Justice League? Well, the Multiverse is packed with Earths and worlds that all contain different variations of the Justice League. There’s the Justice Society, the Crime Syndicate, the Lawless League, the Justice Lords, and the League of Titans to name just a few. Elseworlds have spawned so many more and Justice Riders is one of my favourites. This is primarily because Justice League International by Giffen and DeMatteis is one of my favourite comic books runs of all time and the best version of the Justice League for me. Here, Dixon creates his own versions of the likes of Maxwell Lord and Blue Beetle. With an interesting Wild West-feel to the book and some of the team’s best characters, is this the best JLA Elseworlds story?
Justice Riders was a one-off published in 1997 under DC’s Elseworlds imprint. It was
written by Chuck Dixon with art by J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray. I have read the story in its original trade paperback.
In an old Wild West town named Paradise, the night seems calm and peaceful. The villain Felix Faust is safely trapped behind bars and guarded by Oberon, a deputy sheriff (seemingly not working with Mister Miracle in this universe). Suddenly, the prison fills with harsh light and when Sheriff Wonder Woman arrives home, she finds Paradise completely destroyed. In the ruins, she finds Oberon and hears his last words, before he succumbs to his injuries. Disappointed in herself and her failure to protect Paradise, Wonder Woman renounces her sheriff title and leaves Paradise, sombre. The next day, Wonder Woman arrives at another town and enters the tavern, meeting Wally West, a bouncer also known as Kid Flash. She tells him about Paradise and that she needs gunmen and soldiers to avenge the deaths of Oberon and the villagers. Out of the shadows appears Booster Gold, a gentleman with a death wish. He offers his services to Wonder Woman, but once Kid Flash proves his worth to her with his super speed, she declines Booster’s help. Notice that out of the three characters we have seen so far, Booster Gold is the one whose been radically changed. Sure, Wonder Woman and Kid Flash are different, but Booster Gold has, for lack of a better phrase, been transformed into a more serious character. However, Dixon does show some consistency as Booster Gold is constantly bigging himself up as a real mercenary, even after it is proved that he isn’t exactly great. Anyway, Wonder Woman and Kid Flash continue their journey and meet Katar Johnson. Upon learning about the situation, he agrees to help as Hawkman. Meanwhile, back in the town, Booster Gold heads into Beetle’s gun shop, owned by a crazy inventor named Ted Kord. Looking for a more sophisticated weapon, Booster is presented with a weapon that could take out an army in seconds. Elsewhere, Felix Faust (who survived the explosion and escaped) reports to his angry and deluded boss Maxwell Lord (a villain in this universe, possibly a hint to some suggestions and storylines from Giffen and DeMatteis’s JLI run), who plans to build a railway through Arizona and in order to complete his project, he must kill Wonder Woman. So, he destroyed a whole town just for a railway? I guess HS2 is taking note. Anyway, Lord orders his zombie-like soldiers to take out Wonder Woman and as she and her team of heroes discuss the disaster at Paradise, the soldiers attack. However, upon fighting them, Wonder Woman realises that they are androids, but they are all suddenly destroyed when Booster Gold arrives with Kord (calling himself Beetle) and his new minigun. Afterwards, Beetle recognises the destroyed androids as clockwork men, expensive machines that Wonder Woman believes were created by Maxwell Lord. Beetle informs Wonder Woman that Lord is hiding out in a town nearby called Helldorado. She tells the heroes that they are all leaving in the morning, including Booster and Beetle. When the time comes, they ride out of town, and as they leave, bounty hunter Guy Gardner arrives, looking to kill Kid Flash. Later at night, Wonder Woman and the heroes camp out, believing that Lord is expecting them. Suddenly, they hear noises from in the darkness. Out comes a Martian, calling himself John Jones. He wishes to help the heroes, not with taking out Lord, but in taking out his accomplice. At this point, we are about half-way through the story and Dixon has introduced us to all of the heroes and main characters. All of them have different reasons for being here and many of them are mysterious and interesting. One of the most fascinating has to be Guy Gardner, no longer a Green Lantern, but a bounty hunter. This change is funnily enough reflective of his character, but by the end of the story, his characters feel much more important for reasons that will become obvious later. Anyway, Lord learns that his clockwork men have failed miserably, but he presents Faust with his next weapon which he ensures the heroes will be defeated by. The next morning, the heroes continue their quest and come by another destroyed village, but as they do so, Guy Gardner is watching. Following the railway line, the heroes arrive at Helldorado, an ugly industrial town where the air is polluted, and the only colour is grey. Instead of waiting until night to sneak into the town and defeat Lord, Wonder Woman decides that they should storm the place now and confront Lord. Reluctantly, the heroes agree, but as the rest of the heroes confront the town and its clockwork men headfirst, Beetle and Booster head around the back where they are confronted by Guy Gardner. Upon learning from Lord that he simply destroyed Paradise because it was in the way of his path to California, the golden state, she braces herself for battle and warns Kid Flash that it is a battle between her and Lord. Suddenly, it begins... and ends very quickly, Wonder Woman shoots Lord,
but discovers that he is just a robot. As the battle begins, Booster and Beetle persuade Guy to help them as if he wants to kill Kid Flash, he should wait for the battle to end and if the hero died in the battle, Guy would lose his reputation as a flawless bounty hunter. Anyway, as the battle progresses, Felix Faust presents the heroes with their greatest challenge yet, that being Lord Havok, a giant robot that Lord controls from inside (also a reference to Justice League America 100 by Gerard Jones). The destructive robot unleashes fire on the heroes, but by seemingly firing Booster’s minigun at it, it pierces the robot’s armour and it collapses, destroyed. Afterwards, as Kid Flash arrests Felix Faust, he is confronted by Guy. In the heat of the moment, Faust attempts to escape, but when he does, he is shot by Kid Flash and Guy. As the two point their weapons towards each other, Wonder Woman and the others appear, pointing their weapons at Guy, who retreats, but warns Kid Flash that he will return. Then, Wonder Woman interrogates Lord and demands to know where he got the machinery and technology from to create the robot. In the rail barn, Wonder Woman and the heroes find a caged Dominator, an alien that John Jones was tracking, explaining why he came with the heroes in the first place. He tells Wonder Woman that he will return the alien to his home planet. In the end, the heroes congratulate each other for their success in the mission, before Beetle states that they should form a team known as the Justice Riders. Silent, the heroes ride away, leaving Beetle behind. But, in the ruins of Helldorado, Felix Faust gets up, seemingly uninjured and he wanders away on his lonely search for water. Some time later, Beetle recalls the story to reporter Clark Kent, telling him that there are no further adventures of the Justice Riders, but they will always remain legends. That is a great place for the story to end and I really like the fact that they only travel with each other once, as creating a team and then having a series of adventures is very predictable and ultimately dull. That being said, there is lots of room here for sequels or follow-up adventures. An example would be Guy Gardner’s bounty on Kid Flash, an element of the story which I thought was forgotten about and didn’t really have a real end, especially since Guy suggests that Kid Flash murdered Barry Allen. Another example would be Felix Faust, who appears seemingly immortal after being shot twice in the chest. Perhaps, more could be done with John Jones, who feels very separate from the others in the sense that he is the only one who isn’t going after Maxwell Lord. The revelation of the Dominator at the end is a nice inclusion in rounding off Jones’s inclusion in the story, but I think that there could have been more of him in the story. Perhaps if he had been introduced earlier, I’d be more satisfied with how his story ends. However, one of Dixon’s biggest strengths in this story is how he changes the characters here and makes them into something different. Maxwell Lord has always been slightly villainous (or sometimes very villainous in more recent years) and making him into this deranged and egotistical villain just worked, partly because the real Maxwell Lord from JLI is deranged and egotistical, but not evil. This change is refreshing and makes sense. I also thought that all the heroes worked well together because there was a sense of mystery in all of them. Of course, you need to know some aspects of their characters if you want to appear real, but as they are all given this mythical and legendary status, it makes the story feel larger and more significant. In terms of the story, it feels very reflective of something that would happen in the 19th Century, particularly during the era of the gold rush with crooked businessman caring more about money than the villages, natives and sodbusters they were slaughtering. Overall, though it may not be remembered as a hugely important Elseworlds story like JLA: The Nail, or Gotham By Gaslight, or Batman: Red Rain, it is typical of Chuck Dixon to deliver a genuinely good and solid story that may not be revolutionary in terms of the ideas of the story, but it delivers on a good story that you can’t really fault.
J.H. Williams III has always been one of those artists who works very well with the visually darker and more mysterious characters like Batman, where he (and his usual inker Mick Gray) uses the darkness very effectively and dramatically. With other superheroes, like the JLA, I doubt their art would work at all. Therefore, its surprising that their art for Justice Riders is brilliant and it reflects a grim Wild West tone effectively. The scenes, particularly indoors or at night, have a real cinematic appearance and the storytelling perfectly matches Williams III’s gothic use of (continued)
shadows. With Gray, the duo add mystery to these new characters that Dixon has created, and their depiction of the villains is very chilling, especially Felix Faust who appears similar to Tony Harris’s Shade from Starman. Although I didn’t think it would work due to Williams III’s very stylised art, he manages give the story a unique appearance that works well with Dixon’s plot. Sure, the scenes in the daytime look rather minimalist and plain, but when the setting is dark and moody, Williams III and Gray really shine.
VERDICT
Overall, Justice Riders may not be the most famous Elseworlds story, but it is very good overall. It may lack the unique streak which other stories like Gotham By Gaslight had and while I do think that there needed to be some hard-hitting consequences of the story (i.e., somebody dying), Dixon writes a good and effective story that feels like a Wild West adventure. It rarely slows down, even at times when it feels like nothing much is going on (such as the middle of the story). Williams III and Gray add a fresh and unique dimension to the story and their art gives it a new atmosphere. If you’re a fan of the JLI era of the Justice League, then you’ll enjoy it for its characters and Dixon’s fresh take on them.
Story: 8/10
Art: 9/10
Next Week: Green Arrow: Crossroads (Green Arrow (vol 2) 81-90, Annual 7). Written by Kevin Dooley, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant and Doug Moench with art by Jim Aparo, Gerry Fernandez, Jim Balent, Michael Netzer, Rob Leigh, Eduardo Barreto, Rick Burchett, and Chris Renaud. Expected by 02/05/2021.
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