jaydeebee
07-31-2008, 03:55 PM
Just can go home again...sort of, unless you're Power Girl.
But if you're a fan of DC's Golden Age heroes and of DC's Earth-2, then you definitely CAN go home again for the price of buying this week's best pick JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA ANNUAL #1!
If you're a regular reader of DC's Justice Society of America, then you know that at the end of issue #17, the smiling god-thing "Gog", who is curing all the world's ills, sent Power Girl "home", wherever that is.
The story begins on Earth-2, not an Earth-2, this is THE Earth-2, the home of DC's Golden Age heroes, very much exactly as fans will remember it. This is the universe represented in the All-Star Comics revival of the 1970's, in All-Star Squadron and in the first Infinity Inc. series.
As the story opens, the Huntress, Helena Wayne, is searching through Gotham City for the man who has ruined her life, the Joker. Right here is where I realized how much writer Geoff Johns and the artists, Jerry Ordway & Bob Wiacek love these characters. The scenes with the Huntress look like something lifted directly out of her series which ran as the back-up feature in Wonder Woman during the early 80's.
Suddenly, the sky turns red and there is a commotion and the Huntress makes the startling discover that Power Girl has returned to Earth-2, after many years absence.
Enter the Justice Society Infinity, which is the combined JSA and Infinity Inc. Here again Ordway demonstrated his fondness for the characters as they appear exactly as we remember them from the Infinity Inc. series from the 1980's. We learn that Power Girl and the E2 Superman (and Lois Lane) disappeared from this Earth after the great Crisis, and that since the end of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, that the Justice Society had not been able to contact any of the parallel earths, leading them to believe that they were the sole survivors of the Crisis.
After bringing the Justice Society up to speed on New Earth where she has been and the fate of the original Superman, she attempts to fit back in to her lost home and finds it difficult and soon she suspects Earth-2 is not really her home world at all. But in the meantime, she reconnects with her old friend the Huntress on a mission to nab the Joker, who is now a toxic dying old man, but still maniacal.
Soon afterwards, PG learns that her suspicions are true, that she is indeed not home. Then story is to be continued in the next issue of Justice Society of America, which is a bit of a disappointment, but the rest of the issue is so good, that I didn't even mind.
There are some continuity problems with the issue, but not enough to distract from the enjoyment of the issue, chiefly these are that Power Girl refers to herself as Kara Zor-El rather than Zor-L, the proper spelling. Also the presence of the Huntress and Robin, who died at the end of COIE is troublesome, and the reader is left with the uneasy feeling that this Earth-2 will turn out to be merely a creation of Gog rather than the "real" Earth-2. But all of that aside, for a DC multiverse fanatic like me, it's a treat that is all too rare in today's climate.
Justice Soiecty of America Annual #1 represents the best of the pre-Crisis DCU. Much like the Alex Ross series; Justice, this book harkens back to a time before variant covers, sweeping crossovers, dark and gritty "heroes" and speculators.
Some might complain that parallel earths is a confusing concept, frankly I think that argument is a load of crap. Justice Society of America Annual #1 is a fun comic, chocked full of good writing and solid artwork, and there is nothing confusing about that at all! :D
But if you're a fan of DC's Golden Age heroes and of DC's Earth-2, then you definitely CAN go home again for the price of buying this week's best pick JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA ANNUAL #1!
If you're a regular reader of DC's Justice Society of America, then you know that at the end of issue #17, the smiling god-thing "Gog", who is curing all the world's ills, sent Power Girl "home", wherever that is.
The story begins on Earth-2, not an Earth-2, this is THE Earth-2, the home of DC's Golden Age heroes, very much exactly as fans will remember it. This is the universe represented in the All-Star Comics revival of the 1970's, in All-Star Squadron and in the first Infinity Inc. series.
As the story opens, the Huntress, Helena Wayne, is searching through Gotham City for the man who has ruined her life, the Joker. Right here is where I realized how much writer Geoff Johns and the artists, Jerry Ordway & Bob Wiacek love these characters. The scenes with the Huntress look like something lifted directly out of her series which ran as the back-up feature in Wonder Woman during the early 80's.
Suddenly, the sky turns red and there is a commotion and the Huntress makes the startling discover that Power Girl has returned to Earth-2, after many years absence.
Enter the Justice Society Infinity, which is the combined JSA and Infinity Inc. Here again Ordway demonstrated his fondness for the characters as they appear exactly as we remember them from the Infinity Inc. series from the 1980's. We learn that Power Girl and the E2 Superman (and Lois Lane) disappeared from this Earth after the great Crisis, and that since the end of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, that the Justice Society had not been able to contact any of the parallel earths, leading them to believe that they were the sole survivors of the Crisis.
After bringing the Justice Society up to speed on New Earth where she has been and the fate of the original Superman, she attempts to fit back in to her lost home and finds it difficult and soon she suspects Earth-2 is not really her home world at all. But in the meantime, she reconnects with her old friend the Huntress on a mission to nab the Joker, who is now a toxic dying old man, but still maniacal.
Soon afterwards, PG learns that her suspicions are true, that she is indeed not home. Then story is to be continued in the next issue of Justice Society of America, which is a bit of a disappointment, but the rest of the issue is so good, that I didn't even mind.
There are some continuity problems with the issue, but not enough to distract from the enjoyment of the issue, chiefly these are that Power Girl refers to herself as Kara Zor-El rather than Zor-L, the proper spelling. Also the presence of the Huntress and Robin, who died at the end of COIE is troublesome, and the reader is left with the uneasy feeling that this Earth-2 will turn out to be merely a creation of Gog rather than the "real" Earth-2. But all of that aside, for a DC multiverse fanatic like me, it's a treat that is all too rare in today's climate.
Justice Soiecty of America Annual #1 represents the best of the pre-Crisis DCU. Much like the Alex Ross series; Justice, this book harkens back to a time before variant covers, sweeping crossovers, dark and gritty "heroes" and speculators.
Some might complain that parallel earths is a confusing concept, frankly I think that argument is a load of crap. Justice Society of America Annual #1 is a fun comic, chocked full of good writing and solid artwork, and there is nothing confusing about that at all! :D