Ever since the appearance of the Seven Soldiers of Victory and the Freedom Fighters in the JLA/JSA crossovers in the Justice League of America (vol 1) title, the DC multiverse expanded further and more and more Earths, heroes and villains were being created or brought back after years of being forgotten in time. One of these characters to feature in these set of stories was Captain Marvel (now known as Shazam), who DC Comics had bought from Fawcett Comics in the middle of the 1970's. Captain Marvel and the characters that he used to feature with return, now on their own world, known as Earth-S. Not only that, but the meetings between the JLA and JSA begun to involve teams who had been present in DC Comics usually, such as the Legion of Superheroes from the 30th Century, who also feature in a multiverse crossover story. While all of these certainly sound attractive, this is part of the Justice League of America run where writers came and went incredibly quickly and due to that, you’ll see what I think are, well, definitely some questionable plots of lesser quality…
In the fourth 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:
Where on Earth Am I? /Avenging Ghosts of the Justice Society --- Justice League of America (vol 1) 123-124
Crisis in Eternity/Crisis on Earth-S/Crisis in Tomorrow --- Justice League of America (vol 1) 135-137
Crisis in the 30th Century/Crisis in Triplicate --- Justice League of America (vol 1) 147-148
Justice League of America (vol 1) issues 123-124, 135-137 and 147-148 were published in 1975, 76 and 77 respectively, with the part ones being released in October, the part twos being released in November and the third part of the second story being released in December. While the writers of these tales are all different, being Cary Bates, Elliot S. Maggin, E. Nelson Bridwell, Paul Levitz and Martin
Pasko, the artists remain the same, with Dick Dillin pencilling and Frank McLaughlin inking. I have read all of these stories in the Crisis on Multiple Earths Volume Four
trade paperback.
Where on Earth Am I? /Avenging Ghosts of the Justice Society --- Written by Cary Bates and Elliot S. Maggin with art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin
THE PLOT
On an Earth named Earth-Prime, at a comic book company named DC Comics, editor Julius Schwartz attempts to get story ideas for the Justice League comic from writers Cary Bates and Elliot S. Maggin, but when the writers fail to come up with an idea and Julius leaves the room, both Bates and Maggin create a cosmic treadmill (a device normally used by the Flash), which is present on their Earth as Flash was once stuck on Earth-Prime. However, accidently, Bates vanishes and arrives on Earth-2, where he meets numerous JSA heroes and finds out that he has these strange mental powers. Meanwhile back on Earth-Prime, Maggin also vanishes and he appears on Earth-1, where he meets Aquaman, who takes Maggin up to the JLA Satellite. To prove to the JLA that he writes a comic about them, Maggin unmasks all of the JLA heroes and while this is happening, Bates is going around Earth-2 causing troubles and committing crimes, causing the JSA to get involved, but they are easily defeated by Bates’s powers. Back on Earth-1, Maggin has told the JLA about Bates and how he can be traced due to the radiation around him which is only found in people from Earth-Prime and due to that, Maggin and JLA go to Earth-2. They find and locate Injustice Society villains the Icicle, Sportsmaster, Shade, Huntress, Wizard and Gambler, who are all trying to steal aircraft carriers. Although the JLA arrive and defeat them all, the heroes work out that the villains weren’t actually them, but instead heroes from the JSA in the villain’s costumes, plus they all appear to be dead. After Batman asks who could have done this, Bates appears and confirms that he was behind it.
After seemingly killing the JSA heroes, Bates commits crimes all over Earth-2 and is recognised by the Injustice Society as an ally. While the discouraged JLA heroes take care of crimes, Bates kidnaps Maggin and the JLA are told about this through a floating disc, which becomes a sphere holding Maggin inside. This is when the Injustice Society arrives and a huge fight between them and the JLA breaks out, with the heroes being haunted by the ghosts of the dead JSA members. It is then that the mighty and mystical hero known as The Spectre intervenes and brings the dead heroes back to life, resulting in the fight being won by the heroes and the Injustice Society defeated. In the end, Bates’s powers are removed when he and Maggin are sent back to Earth-Prime by Johnny Thunder’s Thunderbolt and the writers arrive back to their editor Schwartz, who finds their story about where they have been unconvincing.
MY THOUGHTS
Okay, while this is definitely one of the silliest JLA/JSA crossovers of them all and it features writers and creators in the story in a major way, I can’t hate this story, despite it being far from the best crossover. I guess the best thing about this story has to be its sense of fun. There are numerous twists throughout the story and while they aren’t so shocking, I do get some enjoyment out of some of them. The main plot itself is pretty regular and it doesn’t feel particularly special, but the choice of characters is certainly special. This story is unique in its way of casually introducing the writers of the story, Cary Bates and Elliot S. Maggin along with editor Julius
Schwartz. For this reason, it is certainly different and while it isn’t the ideal plot for a yearly JLA/JSA crossover, there is certainly some fun to be had. Apart from that, while this isn’t its first appearance, it is good to see an early appearance of Earth-Prime, which later becomes a much more prominent part of the DC Universe and multiverse. Not only that, but we do get some, well, proper villains in this tale, those being in the Injustice Society, who are pretty good as villains, even if they are only really there to be defeated and they don’t do anything too important to the plot.
However, looking past the fun and silly aspect of this story, there are parts which either doesn’t make sense at all or just plain unneeded. For instance, the way that both Maggin and Bates get to both Earth-1 and Earth-2 respectively is just nonsensical. Sure, the cosmic treadmill itself is pretty bizarre, but it’s just the way that the two writers just casually decide to rebuild it, like it is that easy. Not only that, but I find that this story is strangely paced. Apart from the, albeit, good and impactful ending of part one, this story doesn’t need to be two parts. Most of the second part of the story is either Maggin walking around on his own a bit sad or the JLA randomly helping the people of Earth-2. Also, the ending of the story is pretty unfinished to me. Bates went around Earth-2 causing so much destruction and in the end, they just let him go back to Earth-Prime. The JLA didn’t know that he didn’t have these worlds on Earth-Prime, so for all they know, they could have been sending a criminal back to his home world to cause them pain. As I said earlier, the Injustice Society do feel a bit pointless in this story, but I guess they are just there to make the story feel a bit more familiar to readers. Oh, and lastly, the Spectre. Although I like the character of the Spectre, here he feels kind of like a last minute add to the story and I really think that he should have featured in part one, rather than make his first appearance in this story midway through part two.
Although I love Dillin’s art and with nearly all inkers he looks great, here he is inked by Frank McLaughlin, an inker who isn’t terrible, but he adds either way too many lines or rough random areas of detail, which kind of ruin’s Dillin’s art. Of course, like always, the storytelling is on point, but it just would have looked so much better if the story was inked by Dick Giordano, just to make the storytelling shine even more with some great art.
Story: 4/10
Art: 8.5/10
Crisis in Eternity/Crisis on Earth-S/Crisis in Tomorrow --- Written by E. Nelson Bridwell and Martin Pasko with art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin
THE PLOT
On a new Earth named Earth-S, a brutal ruler named King Kull, the Lord of the Beast Men, steals the Rock of Eternity from its guardian, Shazam, but luckily a witness to the event named Mercury escapes alive and he visits Earth-1 to get the JLA, Earth-2 to get the JSA and Earth-S to get Shazam’s Squadron of Justice, consisting of Spy Smasher, Bullletman, Bulletgirl, Mr Scarlet and Pinky, the Whiz Kid. Mercury, from the knowledge given to him by Shazam, tells the heroes to defeat the allies of King Kull and (like always) all the heroes split up to take out the villains. The Superman of Earth-1 with the Wonder Woman of Earth-2 go off to fight Blockbuster and Queen Clea of Atlantis, but the heroes are captured by King Kull. Meanwhile, the Earth-1 Green Arrow and the Earth-S Spy Smasher fight the Penguin and Ibac, but like the other heroes, Green Arrow and Spy Smasher are captured by King Kull. However, the four captured heroes, those being Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and Spy Smasher locate a flying vessel of sorts, making King Kull angry as his plans to destroy the Earths are being defeated as the heroes managed to take out the allies of King Kull.
While Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Bulletman and Bulletgirl go on their way to fight their villains, a kid named Billy Batson reads out a news report and afterwards, he realises that he can no longer become Captain Marvel due to the Rock of Eternity no longer being controlled by Shazam, making him worried that the Marvel family is now gone forever. Meanwhile, the Earth-2 Batman and Robin with the Earth-S Mr Scarlet and Pinky fight the Joker and the Weeper, resulting in Batman speaking only gibberish, but luckily, the heroes aren’t captured by King Kull. Back to Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Bulletman and Bulletgirl, they find their villains to be Doctor Light and the Shade, who are defeated, and Batman gets his voice back, making King Kull get angrier as he is being taken closer and closer to defeat.
On Earth-1, both Green Lanterns, both Flashes, Mercury and Ibis fight the gigantic and strong Mr Atom, but during the duel, the Green Lanterns pick up an unknown power
source, which the two heroes track to Brainiac, who is defeated by the heroes after they find out that he is creating a strange aura around Mr Aton. The Green Lanterns return to the fight with Mr Atom, which is won by the heroes. After Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and Spy Smasher escape, all of the hero’s team up to try and get to and fight King Kull, who is still in possession of the Rock of Eternity. However, this isn’t for long as Johnny Thunder’s Thunderbolt manages to reclaim it, resulting in Billy Batson and his friends to become Captain Marvel and the Marvel family again. With the Marvel family, the JLA, the JSA and the Squadron of Justice, the heroes easily defeat King Kull and he is held in magical chains by the Earth-S heroes and in the end, all of the heroes return to their respective Earths and homes.
MY THOUGHTS
For those who read my posts regularly, you may notice that I try to put in a decent amount of detail about the story. Well, here you may have noticed that I have been a bit lazy. That is because plainly put, this story is sh*t. Before getting to all of that, there are only two things I like about this story. Firstly, I like the expansion of the multiverse, with Earth-S now existing and secondly, it is good to see a range of villains from different Earths. A notable example of this is the Earth-2 Joker appearing, which (continues after image)
is definitely different as we usually only see the Earth-1 version.
However, this is by far the worst of all of the JLA/JSA crossovers. For starters, the plot is incredibly tiny, and I have no clue for why DC decided that this story must be three parts. Even two parts would probably be too long. I think that the whole plot really needed to be rewritten in order. I mean, this story was meant to introduce the Fawcett heroes and while I’m not a huge fan of those characters, Bridwell could have made a plot that incorporates these characters more. I mean, the main character that is being newly introduced is Captain Marvel, who first appears in his heroic form near the end of part three… massive opportunity wasted! Instead, we are introduced to characters like Bulletman, Bulletgirl and Mercury, all of whom are incredibly dull, boring and have no character at all, making all of their dialogue plain and as if any character could be speaking their lines. Speaking of dialogue, this story is simply overly wordy and due to that, this story becomes so dull to read and is certainly a chore. It doesn’t help how the plot in all three parts is exactly the same, with heroes fighting villains, all of whom don’t have any connection to King Kull, the most generic and cardboard villain in comic history. I mean, think about it, what the well would Blockbuster or the Penguin have to do with King Kull, some intergalactic supervillain. These are just some random villains and speaking of which, Kull’s plan has no background to it and what I mean by that is it is so generic and due to that, his whole character doesn’t feel like anything memorable. I’m sorry, but this story doesn’t do anything for me. I know some may think I hate this story due to Captain Marvel, or Shazam as he is now known as, but I read those Geoff Johns Justice League Shazam backups from the New 52 and I quite liked that because of its depth of character, interesting story and all around decent plots. Here we get a hollow frame of a story that just comes across as a failed marketing plan to promote Captain Marvel and his family. I guess what I really learnt from this story is to avoid all E. Nelson Bridwell like the f*cking plague. This story has such limited concepts and the plot is so small that I’m shocked this managed to become a three-parter due to its lack of content, let alone its quality.
Like I mentioned before, Dillin isn’t at his best when inked by McLaughlin and while the storytelling is still masterful and interesting, the finishes and detail look rough, messy and just so unfitting for a great penciller like Dick Dillin.
Story: 0.5/10
Art: 8.5/10
Crisis in the 30th Century/Crisis in Triplicate --- Written by Paul Levitz and Martin Pasko with art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin
THE PLOT
One day, the JSA meet with the JLA on Earth-1 after fighting and capturing the Psycho Pirate. However, just when all of the heroes are chatting and bonding together, a huge magical hand appears and grabs all of the heroes and takes them forward in time one thousand years from their year of 1977, to 2977. When they arrive, they find that the hand that took them to the future belongs to Mordru the Magician, who although the heroes have never met, Superman identifies him as a villain of the Legion of Super-Heroes, a team that Superman was a part of when he was Superboy. After Superman and Doctor Fate try to escape using their powers, but fail, Mordru traps all of the heroes in a sphere. The villains explain how he captured five Legion of Super-Heroes members, known as Legionnaires, after he sent other Legionnaires out to obtain three mystical artefacts to release the Demon’s Three, those being Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast, but the Legionnaires didn’t return. Due to this, Mordru seeks the help of the JLA and JSA. To give the heroes more of a reason to find the artefacts, Mordru captures Green Arrow and Black Canary and holds them hostage. Afterwards, the remaining JLA and JSA heroes go off to rescue the five Legionnaires. The Earth-2 Hawkman and Doctor Fate and the Earth-1 Superman travel to a far-out planet and find Sun Boy and Wildfire while also finding the Silver Wheel, an artefact that Mordru needs. Meanwhile, the Earth-1 Batman and both Green Lanterns find Brainiac-5 and Princess Projectra trying to negotiate with a colony of aliens who own the Green Bell, another artefact that Mordru wants. Luckily, Batman and the Green Lanterns arrive and by using pesticide to drive away the inhabitants of the planet, the Green Bell is recovered. Meanwhile, Earth-2 heroes Flash and Power Girl use their vibratory powers to end up in a strange dimension where strange creatures live, but they luckily manage to recover the Red Jar, the last artefact needed by Mordru. After the heroes are freed the villain gets all of the artefacts, the heroes try to fight Mordru, but they fail as the Demon’s Three are all summoned. Just as Mordru sends the JLA and JSA heroes back to their time, the demons knock out Mordru and Green Arrow and Black Canary are still left in their
prison, which is now being filled with sand.
While Green Arrow thinks to himself about his oncoming death, the Legionnaires escape their prison, but they are instantly put under control by the Demon’s Three, who then argue about how they will rule the world. Due to their conflicting ideas, the three split up and they are each given a superhero team they will use for their own evil needs. While Abnegazar easily controls the Legion of Superheroes, Rath and Ghost summon the Earth-1 and Earth-2 heroes back to the 30th Century and they control the JSA and JLA respectively. All three of the teams fight each other, a fight which will decide the toughest and most powerful of the Three Demons. While this is going on, the Earth-1 Green Lantern finds and releases Green Arrow and Black Canary from their prison. Sometime during the fight, Black Canary comes up with the idea that if all of the heroes reach a stalemate of sorts, it could force the Demon’s Three to fight each other, which could in turn result in the villains being defeated. After a lot more fighting, the three teams appear to be defeated, which luckily does cause a fight between the demonic villains and thanks to Doctor Fate’s magic powers, the heroes defeat the Demon’s Three and after they say goodbye to the Legion of Superheroes, the JLA and JSA travel back into the past using a cosmic bubble they are held in by Green Lantern along with Superman’s super speed and flying.
MY THOUGHTS
Out of all three stories that I’m reviewing here, this is by far the best. For somebody for hasn’t read many stories with the Legion of Super-Heroes in, I found their characters pretty easy to get into thanks to the excellent story that Levitz and Pasko supply. For starters, the plot itself may begin similarly to previous JLA/JSA crossovers, but it is told in such an interesting and great way and not only that, but the ending of part one has numerous twists and shocks as opposed to just one, making the impact of the story much larger and the whole thing is much more memorable. While the second part is slower and has much less plot, it is great to see coverage of the Demon’s Three villains, who while I found them irritating in their original story and in Morrison’s JLA run, here they work well and there is some comedy with them. Their way of speaking to each other and although they are part of a group so to speak, it is clear that they hate each other and due to that, their characters feel incredibly unique and pretty stupid, but in a good way. The other villain of the story, that being Mordru, is certainly interesting and he is a threatening villain that, for once, makes logical choices as opposed to one like, I don’t know, King Kull. For example, he is such a clever villain as he takes all sorts of precautions such as locking up heroes in cages to persuade other heroes to do his tasks. For once in the JLA stories, we have a villain who uses his brain. One of the aspects which certainly works well and, in this story’s, benefit is that both issues were longer length, with each part being nearly forty pages. This is great as the pacing of the story is done in such a fantastic way that the story never ever feels dull or boring, particularly in the first part. While the method of defeating the Demon’s Three is certainly a bit of a misguided risk, it does make sense and it meshes perfectly with the characters from the Demon’s Three. While the 30th Century and the Legion of Super-Heroes doesn’t sound like a logical idea for a JLA/JSA setting, I think that it works perfectly well and not only that, but it is a great way to introduce JLA fans to the Legion. Sure, the previous story featuring Captain Marvel could also perform that task, but at least this story has a great plot with excellent characters, making this story sort of multipurpose due to its way of introducing readers to the Legion of Super-Heroes while entertaining them with great plot. Also, a highlight has to be the scenes from the point of view of Green Arrow, which really adds a new viewpoint to this story while providing some great dialogue scenes featuring the archer.
Apart from all of that, I think my main problem with this story has to be the second part, particularly in its pacing. To me, the first part is perfect as it features a perfectly balanced mixture of dialogue and fighting scenes, making it interesting and fun. However, the second part just feels like a huge fight to me and while having some great moments, it just isn’t as greatly paced as the first part. Apart from that, I find Black Canary’s risk to take out the Demon’s Three a bit too, well, risky. Yeah, this is a stupid comment, but it does seem like a massive stab in the dark to take out some pretty dumb demons.
I repeat, McLaughlin doesn’t do Dillin service. Just saying.
Story: 8.5/10
Art: 8.5/10
VERDICT
Overall, these three JLA/JSA crossovers are pretty mixed. While I find the story featuring Cary Bates and Elliot S. Maggin just about below average, the Captain Marvel story is abysmal and flat out tedious. However, the Legion of Super-Heroes story is very good and as opposed to the other stories, it features a great story along with a set of incredibly interesting villains. While this is definitely a weak point for the JLA/JSA crossovers, to me, the quality of the stories certainly goes up due to a regular writer, even if it is Gerry Conway. That being said, it is just a shame that McLaughlin, a messy and dull inker, is kept inking the dynamic pencils of Dick Dillin…
Stories: 4/10
Art: 8.5/10
Highlighted Character: Mordru
Next Review: Crisis on Multiple Earths Tales Part Five (Justice League of America (vol 1) 159-160, 171-172, 183-185, 195-197). Written by Gerry Conway with art by Dick Dillin, Frank McLaughlin, George Perez, John Beatty, Romeo Tanghal and Keith Pollard. Expected to be published by 08/12/2019.
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