As I’m sure everyone who is a fan of DC Comics knows, there are thousands of characters, heroes and villains that have been created. Some of these characters were created in the golden age era while others were made in the silver, bronze, dark and modern ages. Due to this, there has been so much history in the DC Universe and one of the main and most important pieces of history has to be the Multiverse. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction and in the case of the DC Universe, events in history can be different, resulting in the Earth for which those events take place on to be different from an Earth in which those events didn’t happen. This does sound confusing doesn’t it? Well, simply put, the DC Universe features thousands of Earths which are all different, some in small ways while large in others. The original two Earths are named Earth-1 and Earth-2. The first of the two Earths was home to the Justice League of America and the rest of the silver/bronze age heroes while Earth-2 was home to the Justice Society of America and the rest of the golden age original heroes. These two Earths were never meant to meet, but once a upon a time, a scientist on Earth-1 named Barry Allen was the Flash and by accidently vibrating at certain speed at a certain place at a certain time, he was transported to Earth-2. He was shocked to find that his home of Central City had disappeared and instead had been replaced by Keystone City, the home of the Earth-2 Flash named Jay Garrick. This was from the Flash of Two Worlds story in The Flash (vol 1) 123 by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson in 1961 and although this isn’t the focus of this review, it begun the special friendship and saga of the JLA meeting the JSA and the Multiverse, which continued in its original state until the game changing event Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985-86.
In the first of a series of reviews covering every DC Crisis in the silver and bronze ages up until Crisis on Infinite Earths, I will be reviewing:
Crisis on Earth-One/Crisis on Earth-Two --- Justice League of America (vol 1) 21-22
Crisis on Earth-Three/The Most Dangerous Earth of All --- Justice League of America (vol 1) 29-30
Earth Without a Justice League/Crisis on Earth-A --- Justice League of America (vol 1) 37-38
Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth0-Two/The Bridge Between Earths --- Justice League of America (vol 1) 46-47
Justice League of America issues 21-22, 29-30, 37-38 and 46-47 were published in 1963, 64, 65 and 66 respectively, with the part ones being release in August and part twos being released in September. All of the stories are written by Gardner Fox with art by Mike Sekowsky, Bernard Sachs and Sid Greene. I have read all of these stories in the
Crisis on Multiple Earths Volume One trade paperback.
Crisis on Earth-One/Crisis on Earth-Two --- Written by Gardner Fox with art by Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs
THE PLOT
One day in the Justice League Cave (their original headquarters), Batman calls a meeting of all members to inform them that villains Chronos, Felix Faust and Doctor Alchemy have escaped from prison and they have warned the JLA that they are going to rob numerous places. Meanwhile, similarly with the Justice Society of America on an alternate Earth, just as they are happy to be back from retirement, their villains known as the Icicle, Fiddler and Wizard have challenged the JSA to stop them from robbing multiple places. Back on Earth-1, the JLA members have split up to find the three villains and although all of them were located, the JLA members were beaten as Chronos, Faust and Dr Alchemy all escaped. Unknown to both teams, the Earth-1 villains appear at the headquarters of the villains from Earth-2, who each tell the JLA villains that they also defeated and escaped the JSA. They have also managed to capture both Flashes, with Barry Allen (Earth-1) and Jay Garrick (Earth-2) being imprisoned in vibratory bubble traps. The villains then decide to swap places and identities to rob the areas on Earths which they have never been able to go to, resulting in Chronos, Faust and Dr Alchemy going to Earth-2 while the Icicle, Fiddler and Wizard go to Earth-1. Using the Wizard’s power, all three villains that went to Earth-1 take up the disguises of the other three villains who originated from Earth-1 and although the JLA locate them, the villains manage to defeat them as their combat skills are unrecognisable to the league. The same applies to their powers, resulting in the Wizard’s magical powers being capable of taking out Superman. In the end, the JLA are trapped in their own hideout by the villains and they decide to use Merlin’s crystal ball (which they obtained in Justice League of America (vol 1) 2) to contact the JLA's Flash. He tells them to use the ball to contact the JSA, which they do, and everyone happily greets each other. After their happy meeting, everyone escapes (using Doctor Fate’s powers) and both teams split up to stop the criminals.
All the heroes split to achieve different goals. Earth-2 heroes Hourman and The Atom, Black Canary and Hawkman and Doctor Fate on his own all go after The Fiddler, The Icicle and The Wizard respectively, while Earth-1 heroes Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow and the Atom, Batman and Wonder Woman, Superman and Aquaman all go to capture Felix Faust, Doctor Alchemy and Chronos respectively. All heroes succeed and the villains are captured. Meanwhile, both Green Lanterns (Hal Jordan from Earth-1 and Alan Scott from Earth-2) go to rescue the Flashes, but just as they think of a plan to save them, every single hero from both the JLA and JSA disappears, leaving the villains to roam free. All the heroes reappear in cages and although they all try to escape, they all fail. This doesn’t last long as the Earth-1 Atom tells both Green Lanterns to use their rings on themselves to shrink down to atomic size (as the Atom’s cage prevents from doing so) to escape. This works and all of the heroes break free. Together, the heroes find all the villains and take them all out. Afterwards, both teams say their farewells and go back to their respective Earths.
MY THOUGHTS
For a story that featured the first ever meeting of the JLA and JSA, Gardner Fox wrote an exceptional and fantastic story, which is thoroughly entertaining, fun and interesting, A great aspect of this story is that we get to see some of the strange villains teaming up together to defeat both superhero teams, which had obviously never been done before and it works well here. Also, Fox manages to keep the scenes between the
JLA and JSA balanced and we get to see an equal amount of all of the heroes. The same goes for the scenes where the heroes split up and fight the villains, which gives everybody a piece of the action and no character is left forgotten. Even though the meeting between the JLA and JSA for the first time is rather strange as everybody is happy (even though they have just all been defeated by the supervillains), there is a great sense of drama and cleverness for the twist near the end of the second part where we see both the JLA and JSA trapped in outer space prison cells. This is clever as Fox writes reasons for why some heroes cannot escape. For instance, he explains that the cells with both the Earth-1 Atom and Earth-2 Atom in is actually preventing the “Tiny Titan” from escaping, resulting in the unexpected escape of the two Green Lanterns. This story is incredibly memorable as it features the first team-up between the heroes of the past and the heroes of the present and due to that, it is honestly hard to say this is bad story because it isn’t due to its interesting and great plot. Additionally, Fox explains the pseudo-science of the story simply, making it easy to read and although the concept of the Multiverse may be a confusing concept for some, I found it easy to understand, making me enjoy it more.
However, my only problem with the story has to be the fact that the Earth-2 villains decide to disguise themselves as the villains from Earth-1. This just comes across as entirely illogical as surely the villains would have been even more successful if they kept their normal guises as the JLA wouldn’t have a clue who they are or how they fight. Apart from that, I must explain the usual Gardner Fox problems. This is nothing to do with his storytelling, but the method in which he tells it. Not only is there dialogue explaining what is clearly going on in a panel (which many writers did at this point anyway), but as we move on through his plots, we see the Fox story pattern of: heroes go to take out villains, the heroes fail, they then do something strange (or nothing) to increase their chances of winning, fight the villains again, the heroes win, the end. However, I have basically accepted that Fox writes a number of his stories with this pattern, but in terms of this story which has a great plot and is this iconic, it doesn’t bother me at all.
Although Sekowsky and Sachs are two of the creators of the JLA, I must confess that their art is quite unattractive and not very nice to look at. They do tell the story well enough, but the faces that people pull, and the fighting scenes are incredibly static and not very eventful. While this may be down to Sachs’s inks, who I don’t think is the best inker for Sekowsky, I still think that the art is quite strange and basic at times. The best piece of art in this story has to be the shape of Batman’ head, which is
basically a cuboid. Overall, the art doesn’t look terrible or messy, just dull and unattractive.
Story: 9/10
Art: 5/10
Crisis on Earth-Three/The Most Dangerous Earth of All --- Written by Gardner Fox with art by Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs
THE PLOT
As both Flashes from Earths 1 and 2 take out criminals and save innocent people, a speedster from a third Earth goes about robbing shops. These costumed characters on Earth-3 are the evil opposite to the JLA and JSA and are known as the Crime Syndicate of America, consisting of Johnny Quick, Superwoman, Owlman, Power Ring and Ultraman. These villains have been studying and watching Earth-1 for some time and they decide to challenge the JLA on their Earth. When they arrive on Earth-1 and cause trouble, the JLA confront them and fight them. In the end, the JLA defeat every member of the CSA, but when they are each in the grasp of a hero, they each say the word “Volthoom!”, which transports the villains and heroes to Earth-3. This results in the JLA members arriving confused and immobilized as the CSA stand over them triumphantly. After Owlman reveals that this was all part of his plan, defeats the JLA again and sends them back to Earth-1 under a spell rendering them helpless, the CSA decide to go after Earth-2 and the JSA, who have become aware that the CSA are monitoring them. Due to that, the JSA speak to the trapped JLA members, who warn the team of the CSA’s weaponry word “Volthoom!”
After being warned by the JLA, the JSA surprisingly discover the CSA in their hideout. All of the Earth-2 heroes fight with the CSA, with Hawkman fighting Johnny Quick, Doctor Fate fighting Power Ring, Hourman fighting Owlman, Black Canary fighting Superwoman and Starman fighting Ultraman. After the fight, the CSA transport the JSA members to Earth-3, where the evil team decide to fight the JLA one final time on Earth-2. The JLA are transported to fight the CSA, with each hero fighting their villain equivalent, which means that Superman fights Ultraman, Green Lantern fights Power Ring, Wonder Woman fights Superwoman, The Flash fights Johnny Quick and Batman fights Owlman. In the end, the JLA manage to defeat their evil counterparts, trap them in a border between the two worlds and rescue their JSA allies. Like before, both teams say their farewells and go back to their own Earths.
MY THOUGHTS
Out of all of the early JLA/JSA meetings, this is certainly one of my favourites and that is mainly down to the Crime Syndicate of America. For those who have read my review of JLA: Earth 2 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (read my review of it here), you would think that I would hate these guys because of their lack of character of intention. While that may be true here, I believe this is shown to a lesser extent and I find the original characters to be much more fun, interesting and surprising. As villains, you can tell they enjoy it and they aren’t completely dull or so evil that all of their emotions have eroded to time (like in JLA: Earth 2). Not only that, but they have a form of character, with Johnny Quick and Power Ring having great respect for Owlman’s successful crimes. This adds a sense of how clever Owlman is and the team are almost grateful that he is there with them. It makes the characters feel more real and there is a sense of honour with them, which is something that the Morrison ones severely lacked in my view. In terms of the main plot, it just highlights how much of an overwhelming threat the Crime Syndicate are as even though the JLA seem to beat in them in part one, the heroes are teleported away to Earth-3 where they are defeated at the hands of their evil counterparts. Aspects like this make the whole story even more interesting and it really shows how much of a great threat the villains are. This applies to when they attack the JSA in the second part and it shows how strong they are. These are great villains for the JLA to fight and it is no surprise (continues after image)
to me why they have come back numerous times. The ending is also good and shows how remorseless the JLA can be to their villains, even though there is a slight lack of character.
Though this is one of my favourite early JLA/JSA team ups, I don’t understand why the Crime Syndicate decide to fight the JLA again, especially after they already beaten the heroes and, in the end, it is their undoing. Also, I thought that Fox was going to use the word “Volthoom!” in the second half of the story to defeat the Crime Syndicate. But, he didn’t. While I find this surprising and I like it to an extent as it makes the story more unpredictable, I thought that it was an obvious thing to so and it would have concluded the story well. Apart from the usual characterless heavy dialogue, this story is one of the best.
The same still goes for the art unfortunately, however, there is some more action and both Sekowsky and Sachs draw the fight scenes well, making it a bit more interesting to look at than before, even if I still think it looks a bit ugly.
Story: 9.5/10
Art: 5.5/10
Earth Without a Justice League/ Crisis on Earth-A --- Written by Gardner Fox with art by Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs
THE PLOT
On Earth-2, JSA member Johnny Thunder summons the Thunderbolt by saying “Say You” as usual to make up after an argument. The Thunderbolt tells him that he was about to visit Earth-1, which makes Johnny Thunder curious and he decides to go with him. However, after being transported, Johnny Thunder meets his counterpart from Earth-1, who is envious of him, so he knocks him out and takes control of the Thunderbolt himself to commit crimes. The Earth-1 Johnny Thunder commands the Thunderbolt to rob a safe, but he meets the Flash and then throws all of the stolen money to the Flash and returns to the evil Johnny Thunder. After hearing about the Flash, Johnny Thunder tells the Thunderbolt to go back in time and prevent the creation of the Justice League and its superheroes, resulting in the Thunderbolt altering the origins of heroes or cutting their careers short so there aren’t any superheroes in the future. This results in Johnny Thunder naming this new Earth without a JLA Earth-A for Alternate. Meanwhile on Earth-2, the JSA are concerned by the whereabouts of Johnny Thunder. Doctor Fate uses his powers to find their Johnny Thunder unconscious while his evil counterpart is on Earth-A. The JSA confront the evil Johnny Thunder, but are defeated by his Thunderbolt. After the JSA discover that the JLA no longer exist, the JSA heroes disguise themselves as the JLA heroes, with some becoming their equivalents and others like Mister Terrific, Hawkman and Doctor Fate becoming Batman, Martian Manhunter and Superman respectively. The heroes fight a confused Johnny Thunder, who retreats with his Thunderbolt and comes up with the plan of hiring some of the strongest gangsters and turning them into supervillain versions of Earth 1’s Atom, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Superman. After meeting the JSA again and removing their JLA disguises using magic, Johnny Thunder orders the fight to begin against his newly created evil team, named the Lawless League of Earth-A.
The fight between the Justice Society of America and Lawless League of Earth-A begins, with the Flash, Green Lantern and the Atom fighting their equivalents while Mister Terrific fights Batman, Doctor Fate fights Superman and Hawkman fights Martian Manhunter. Although the LL seem to have the upper hand at first, the JSA manage to trick and defeat them. Johnny Thunder then uses the Thunderbolt’s powers to take out the JSA using a hurricane and an earthquake, both of which fail. The JSA manage to escape and try to recover the JLA and get them back into existence, but all the heroes’ powers are useless, and it doesn’t work. Meanwhile, Johnny Thunder and the Thunderbolt have gone to the Moon (yeah, I know) to escape from the JSA. After writing on the ground for the Thunderbolt to add air to the moon, Johnny Thunder makes the Thunderbolt create alien monsters to fight the JSA, who arrive on the moon using Green Lantern’s power ring. A battle ensues and just as the JSA defeat the monsters, Johnny Thunder demands the Thunderbolt to reverse everything, resulting in time going backwards with the Earth-2 Johnny Thunder arriving at his JSA meeting and the return of the JLA, with the Thunderbolt being the only one who remembers the events of the story.
MY THOUGHTS
Out of all of the stories up to this point, this is probably the most confusing and convoluted one. The plan that Johnny Thunder has is pretty ingenious and clever to prevent the creation of the JLA by changing all of the character’s origins and it really makes the story feel unique and different (even if they do show Batman from Detective Comics 27, who actually is the Batman from Earth-2 who was once part of
the JSA and not his Earth-1 equal from the JLA). One of the greatest things about this story has to be its entertainment value and how funny and comedic it can be. In fact, I partly think that this story was written to be more a comedy than a thrilling piece of action. Johnny Thunder and his plan after preventing the creation of the JLA is ridiculous and pretty joke worthy. I mean, he creates the Lawless League of Earth-A by using a group of thugs with stupid names like B ill Gore and Ripper Jones and then goes to the moon and creates a group of monsters to defeat the JLA. I mean, it can’t take seriously, but some aspects of it work well. This story also gives the JSA some of the spotlight, which I think was needed and is essential. This is because they were obviously planned to be meeting the JLA on a yearly basis and due to that, we need to get a feel for their characters and who they are more. Even though the ending is a little bit disappointing as it is all simply reversed, I like how the Thunderbolt is the only one who remembers it as it adds more to his character as well. But the best thing about this story has to be how much of a f*cking idiot the Earth-2 Johnny Thunder is. Sure, his Earth-1 equal is not too bright, but he is so stupid, even if he barely appears in the story.
Like my criticism of the first two-part team up, I don’t get why the JSA decide to become the JLA and pretend to be them. Sure, it adds an element of surprise for Johnny Thunder when he finds that the JLA are seemingly alive, but surely good tactical planning and fighting would do the job better so they could beat him. Not only that, but I find the bizarreness of the story to be a little bit out of hand in certain places, more so in the second part when they are on the moon. I get that the Thunderbolt has all of these magical powers, but it did get a little bit out of hand, even if I enjoyed it.
Same old Sekowsky and Sachs, who are great at drawing people with square heads. That being said, it is still improving and the characters like the Thunderbolt look a lot more impressive and funnier, which I think is a good thing. That being said, one thing I noticed was that the team don’t really do dark lighting much, meaning that everything looks a bit two-dimensional. That being said, the next story we get a new inker, Sid Greene.
Story: 8/10
Art: 5.5/10
Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth-Two/The Bridge Between Earths --- Written by Gardner Fox with art by Mike Sekowsky and Sid Greene
THE PLOT
Some heroes from both the JLA and JSA have disappeared from their respective Earths and have reappeared in another. For instance, Doctor Mid-Nite and Black Canary arrive on Earth-1 while Batman arrives on Earth-2. This also occurs to normal civilians and people on both Earths. At the same time, the Spectre is being drawn and taken into the grasp of a strong force while Solomon Grundy is freed from his prison in space and sent down to Earth. Although this is going on, the attention of the heroes from both Earths is spent on Solomon Grundy on Earth-1 and villain Blockbuster on Earth-2. Black Canary and Doctor Mid-Nite team up with the JLA to take down Solomon Grundy by trapping him underground and on the other Earth, Batman teams up with the JSA to take out Blockbuster, who is stopped when Batman takes off his cowl to reveal himself as Bruce Wayne to Blockbuster, who likes Bruce Wayne and due to that, he stops fighting. Unknown to both the JLA and JSA is that the Spectre was drawn to a being known as the Anti-Matter Man, who has caused some of the inhabitants of Earth-1 and Earth-2 to switch places. He defeats the Spectre using his mystical powers, leaving the Spectre to try and keep both Earth-1 and Earth-2 separated.
While the Spectre is trying to keep both Earths away from each other, Solomon Grundy switches places with Blockbuster, resulting in Batman and the JSA fighting Grundy while Black Canary, Doctor Mid-Nite and the JLA fight Blockbuster. During the fighting, Doctor Fate senses that the Spectre is in trouble and that the Anti Matter Man is involved. He therefore takes all of the heroes out of their Earths to take out the villain behind the changes on both Earths. Although Anti Matter Man manages to defeat most of the heroes and they are unsuccessful, the Atom of Earth-1 (Ray Palmer) arrives (explained by some strange pseudo-science) and uses his subatomic powers and the Spectre’s mystical powers to push the Anti Matter Man out of our Matter universe (continues after image)
and back into the Anti Matter universe. Afterwards, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) explains that he sent Solomon Grundy and Blockbuster to the same Earth together. The JLA and JSA find the two of them on one of the Earths beating the sh*t out of each other. The two then become friendly and hug each other, before Grundy hugs some of the heroes. The JLA and Blockbuster say their farewells to the JSA and Grundy as the two go their separate ways home.
MY THOUGHTS
Now while I don’t enjoy this story as much as the previous ones, I must say that the best aspect of the story is the Spectre, who may not be as scary or vengeful as I would like him to be, but he is still done mystically and he is an interesting character, even if the scenes he stars in are quite strange and non-sensical. The main plot certainly had a lot of potential, with people being swapped over on different Earths. This is seen well in the fights with Solomon Grundy and Blockbuster, who swap in the middle of the story. This adds a big challenge for the JLA and JSA and the way they take out the villains, definitely Blockbuster are incredibly interesting, and they add new drama to the story, making it more entertaining. It is just a shame that they are overshadowed by what I think is a pretty mediocre villain…
Enter the Anti Matter Man, a villain who stands about floating in space doing sweet FA. He is just a dull and quite honestly, terrible villain that makes the main plot surrounding him boring and impossible to enjoy or understand. The Earths are merging together and for some reason, the Spectre thinks that the best way to stop them from merging is to place himself between the two Earths and push them away from each other. Not only is that quite stupid and doesn’t make too much sense, but somehow the Atom arrives in space by some crap pseudo-science and the resolution to the tale is so unclear and that you lose all interest in it. I think that a lot of great things could have been done with this story, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. Still, at least Solomon Grundy and Blockbuster became friends (sort of).
Now that we have Sid Greene inking Mike Sekowsky, it looks a bit less ugly. The way that people look aren’t as blocky or square, but it still looks a bit too plain and boring for me. That being said, Greene is definitely an improvement over Sachs as there is some good lighting here and the fight scenes do look genuinely more impressive. It’s not the best but is certainly looks better than what we saw previously.
Story: 4/10
Art: 6/10
VERDICT
Overall, these first four JLA/JSA team ups are pretty good. While I think that the first team up and the story featuring the Crime Syndicate are both excellent and memorable, the story featuring the Earth-1 Johnny Thunder is pretty bizarre and isn’t as good as those stories before it. Also, the Anti Matter Man story is pretty bad compared to the others, even though the Anti Matter universe becomes a much bigger part of the DC Multiverse much later on. Still, these stories are incredibly iconic, and they are right to be remembered. Let’s just hope that all the rest of team ups between the two teams are just as good as first few…
Stories: 8/10
Art: 5/10
Highlighted Character: Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson, as he is probably the most interesting character throughout all of the stories)
Next Review: Crisis on Multiple Earths Tales Part Two (Justice League of America (vol 1) 55-56, 64-65, 73-74, 82-83). Written by Gardner Fox and Dennis O’Neil with art by Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin, Sid Greene and Joe Giella. Expected to be published by 10/11/2019.
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