Justice League of America #105-110

Justice League of America #105-110

Originally released in 1973

Written by Len Wein

Art by Dick Dillin

I chose these Justice League issues because I know the Red Tornado is a major member of the team, but I don't know much about him.  When it comes to the early Justice League stories, the team started off with seven members - Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter.  Within the first thirty issues or so, Green Arrow, the Atom, and Hawkman join the team as well.

In the seventy-plus issues since, not much has changed as far as the line-up goes.  Wonder Woman was replaced with Black Canary (who was originally from Earth-2, home of the Golden Age/WW2 heroes), while issue 105 has the Elongated Man replacing Martian Manhunter, who left the team a few issues beforehand.  Considering that Martian Manhunter has similar powers to Superman along with psychic powers and shape shifting, while Elongated Man can stretch (but not as well as Plastic Man), it doesn't feel like a fair trade. (Though maybe these changes were made to increase the tension)

As a result, the team consists of nine white men and one white woman, with only one woman being on the team at a given time.  It doesn't seem fair to judge the line-up using today's standards, but even by the standards of the time, it feels off, like there's an editorial mandate to make it so the team can only have one woman and no minorities on it.  The Avengers have met criticism for not having many minority members (Kurt Busiek's run from the late 1990s pointed out how the Avengers only had three or four black members despite its massive roster), but compared to the Avengers or Len Wein's own X-Men relaunch roughly two years later with Giant-Size X-Men #1 (which introduced Storm and included Sunfire and Thunderbird), the JLA line-up seems surprisingly limited and unrepresentative of the population, especially since over ten years have passed since the team began.

I definitely prefer Len Wein's writing over what I've read of Gardner Fox's.  Wein's Justice League stories tend to follow the same format as those early Justice League stories (a threat is happening at three different places throughout the world, so the Justice League splits into three teams to travel to those locations before converging on the mastermind), but the characters feel like they have personalities of their own. (from what I've read of Gardner Fox's Justice League stories, the dialogue between League members feels interchangeable, like any hero could say another hero's lines, aside from the occasional cultural reference such as "Great Hera!")

Out of the established Justice League members, Green Arrow is the stand-out.  He has shades of Hawkeye (being argumentative at times, with Hawkman seemingly being his favourite target), but when Hawkman announces that he's leaving the League because he's been called away from Earth, it's clear that Oliver will miss his winged teammate.

The Elongated Man's addition to the team is overshadowed by the Red Tornado joining an issue later.  It seems like Len Wein was trying to give the JLA its own version of the Vision, who had been created in 1968.  Much like the Vision, he's a red-faced android who wants to understand humanity.  Both have a tendency to be dramatic in their quest, though the Red Tornado has some comedic elements like when he tries to apply for a job.

The Red Tornado was originally from Earth-2 before being sent to Earth-1 (the main DC Earth) in an incident where the Justice Society and the Justice League believed that he died.  However, during a regularly-occurring meeting between both teams, Red Tornado sneaks on-board the universe-hopping device, wanting to return to his home.

Naturally, this takes representatives of both teams to Earth-X, a universe where the Nazis won World War 2.  This mostly serves as an excuse for heroes from all three Earths to beat up Nazis, which I'll gladly accept.

Also, Red Tornado punches Hitler in the face, which earns him points in my book.

Issue 110 is a Christmas special, where the death of Santa Simpson leads to the Justice League falling into a trap by the Justice League villain known as the Key.  After the Justice League's attempt at imprisoning the Key in the Fortress of Solitude was deemed "unconstitutional", the Key was sent to an ordinary prison, where it was discovered that he had less than a year, maybe a few months, to live.

He's aiming to kill as many Justice League members as he can before that happens, which is why he leads them into the trap with the risk of a city being destroyed if they don't comply.  Hal Jordan tries to help out, but...

...okay, that was just embarrassing.  As Hal's knocked unconscious, John Stewart steps in for this story. (I'm not sure what happened to Guy Gardner)  It seems as though the Key has killed the Justice League members one by one, only for them to turn up alive and well, thanks to a person whose involvement is so obvious that Batman is kicking himself for not guessing it.

The Phantom Stranger!  I barely know who he is, but he feels like a Deus Ex Machina, since his involvement in just about every story that I've seen him in so far has him showing up to save the heroes from a seemingly fatal or inescapable situation.  I'm not sure if he'd get any comics of his own (as his name suggests, it seems like they'd try to keep him as mysterious as possible), but I want to get an idea of what he's like when he's not pulling off-screen rescues out of nowhere.

I found these to be more entertaining than the older Justice League stories, though I was surprised to see how little had changed from the first Justice League comic to issues that were released over ten years later. (it feels like they could have had more than one woman on the team at the same time, at least - if Wonder Woman wasn't available due to events in her own series, Zatanna first appeared in 1964, so she could have been included)  It's a stark contrast from the Avengers, where all of the founding members had left the team by the sixteenth issue, and the line-up changed dramatically within the first ten years.

For the new members, I found Red Tornado a lot more interesting than Elongated Man, though it likely helps that these issues took the time to flesh Red Tornado out a bit, whereas the Elongated Man was mostly just used to beat up villains. (though it was interesting to learn that the Elongated Man is seemingly the only DC hero at this point with a publicly-known identity)  These issues of JLA were relatively simple, though that's arguably part of their appeal.  It's a bunch of straightforward adventure stories for the most part, and some days, you just need that.