Justice Society of America #1-4
Originally released in 2006
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Dale Eaglesham
I've read a few golden age Justice Society comics, but I don't know much about how they've developed since the 1940s. I'd heard good things about Geoff Johns' run with the team, and the cover art by Alex Ross helped.
Even from these early issues, it's clear that the Justice Society feels like one big family, with an emphasis on "big". There are twelve members to start with, and more join as time goes on. The team is made up of a mix of old and new members - from the Golden Age roster, there's Jay Garrick as the Flash, Alan Scott as Green Lantern, and Ted Grant, a.k.a. Wildcat.
The newest members of the team are Starman, who has powerful cosmic abilities but is somewhat insane, Damage, the son of Al Pratt who has dangerous energy powers, and Cyclone, granddaughter of the golden age Red Tornado. Cyclone is a huge fan of the Justice Society, particularly its youngest member Stargirl, and she's extremely talkative to the point where she can alienate people by going overboard.
While the team originally comes together to serve as examples and teachers for a newer generation of heroes, a more personal reason quickly rears its head. Someone is murdering the family of Justice Society members in increasingly brutal ways. A hero named Mister America finds out who's responsible, but doesn't live long enough to tell anyone, though he manages to make his way to the Justice Society's headquarters.
This could have been intended to be a mystery, but I don't think it was written that way; there aren't many clues until the big reveal, unless there was something that I missed. As the Justice Society splits up to track down possible targets, Wildcat is introduced to a son that he never knew that he had.
With twelve members to start with and more added as time goes on, the focus is spread pretty thin in these first four issues. Out of the characters, Wildcat (as an older member with no legacy characters as of yet) and Cyclone (as the newest member) feel like they get the bulk of the focus.
Cyclone's bond with Stargirl is pretty sweet, as Stargirl tries to step in and take on more of a mentor role now that she's not the newest member. Meanwhile, Wildcat struggles with trying to connect to his son, or whether or not he should do so; he had a son before, but that son died, so he's reluctant to start a family or anything of that nature.
A group of villains calling themselves the Fourth Reich, consisting of racist lunatics like the White Dragon and the Captain Marvel villain Captain Nazi, are targeting the JSA family members, but they're merely pawns in a greater scheme. They're Nazis, so seeing them get pummeled is satisfying, especially after they spent their time targeting defenseless people, mostly women and children.
The mastermind makes himself known to Wildcat and his son, wanting to kill the active Justice Society members himself. It's the immortal caveman Vandal Savage, who has some entertaining monologues as he reflects on what he's seen over the millennia.
His reason for carrying out this plan is absurdly petty - the Justice Society were the start of the point where he no longer became the driving force of history, so he wants to kill them all (and their families, in the hope that nobody will pick up the torch), wait a century or so for them to be forgotten, and then steer the course of history once more.
Even though this mystery is solved, others are brought up. Starman is a babbling madman, but he hints that he comes from another world - specifically the world of the comic Kingdom Come, an alternate future from a series that was drawn by Alex Ross.
With so many characters, I feel like I'd need a deeper understanding of DC's history to really get into this series, and a lot of the team fades into the background at times, making it hard for me to get to know some of them. Still, these issues do a good job at establishing the core message behind the team, and presumably the series as a whole.
Cyclone makes for a good viewpoint character, which makes me feel a little disappointed about her portrayal in the Black Adam movie in hindsight. (She was part of the Justice Society in that movie, but she didn't get to do much, and she wasn't as excitable as she is here)
While the Justice Society isn't as well-known to me as its silver age counterpart, the Justice League, the series does a good job at making me care about the viewpoint characters despite that lack of familiarity. It lacks the sort of ridiculousness of the golden age comics (where the Spectre and Doctor Fate can casually resolve seemingly every single threat that the team comes across), but it's much more heartfelt.
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