With this second compilation of the JSA’s
series of today, we get more
than one story involving a dark menace that has to be fought against as
bravely as possible, and also, the debut of the new Dr. Mid-Nite,
Pieter Cross. That’s double the darkness (for the better, not for the
worse), and the bonus is Mid-Nite, of course.
The new gathering of the JSA continues onwards, with a grand gala
opening of their new headquarters in New York City being held, and
Star-Spangled Girl the one to cut the ribbon for the opening
celebration. But no sooner have they taken the time to celebrate, than
who should crash the party but Black Adam, the Captain Marvel
archnemesis who’s been a thorn in his side more than enough times, and
is now attacking the JSA downtown as well. Fortunately, he’s defeated
by Hourman, who finds a way to paralyze his powers through time travel.
But that’s just the beginning of what goes on here. As seen in the last
TPB, Todd “Obsidian” Rice, Alan Scott’s son, whom he bore with the late
villainess, the Thorn, has apparently gone off the deep end, and his
twin sister, Jennie-Lynn “Jade” Hayden, who’s had something of a
telepathic bond with him, is the first to sense that he’s lost his
mind. And as the JSA soon find out when they trip to Minneapolis,
Minnesota, where he lives in the same area as the abusive adoptive
father he grew up with, he’s gone off the deep end, enveloping the
city’s citizens and even some of the JSA themselves, in a form of
shadowy effect, putting them under his control. This is due in part to
the influence of Ian Karkull, an evil scientist whom the Justice
Society first knew in its early days, who’d been turned into a
shadow-like being himself, who’d teamed up with Todd to take over the
country, though as it turns out, Karkull hadn’t really had any
influence over him, and he then slays Karkull to death.
Black Canary manages to escape from Obsidian and Karkull’s clutches,
and is saved from an army of shadow-infected citizens of Minneapolis by
the new Dr. Mid-Nite, Pieter Cross, a native of Norway, who now takes
up the role vacated by the original one, and who helps to save some
citizens and the rest of the team from Obsidian’s dark influences. And
in the end, who is it who saves the day but Alan Scott, who recites the
marvelous GL oath he spoke whenever he recharged his own power ring
back in the Golden Age. But alas, all is not well for Obsidian, who,
along with his adoptive father, who tries to stop him, ends up
disappearing into some strange realm or otherworldly dimension. Thus,
Alan goes back to New York City feeling perhaps even more defeat than
he has victory, since now, as it appears, his son is lost.
And that’s not all. Following an issue in which Wildcat has to deal
with the newly organized Injustice Gang, which consists of Johnny
Sorrow, the son of the original Icicle, the daughter of the original
Tigress and the Sportsmaster, and even a onetime enemy of Alan’s called
Blackbriar Thorn, the JSA must now face off against two dangers: one,
the terrorist gang of Kobra, which has slain Atom Smasher’s mother when
setting off a bomb in an airplane she was on, and two, the hero turned
villain named Extant, that being Hank Hall (no relation to Hawkman and
Hawkgirl), the former Hawk of the Hawk and Dove duo, who developed the
power to manipulate time itself, and went berserk during Zero Hour and
slew several members of the JSA, including the original Hourman, Rick
Tyler. This is where the new Mr. Terrific, Michael Holt, comes into
play, and helps to save Sand from the Kobra leader’s clutches by using
his cool orb-like gadgets to move and conceal him from the enemy. And
Atom Smasher, well, he is mad as hell, and when the Kobra leader
attempts to flee, Al Rothstein grows to such big size, and almost
crushes the terrorist’s bones when capturing him. It’s certainly a very
understandable feeling, and I liked it when Black Canary told the
villain that he had no idea how much it pleased her to shackle him when
putting him on the plane on which they left the island, which was set
to explode.
But then, they’ve got to face off against Extant, and are joined by
Metron, a being who may be from the time of the Legion of Super-Heroes,
and also, believe it or not, the original Star-Spangled Kid, Sylvester
Pemberton, who, thanks to one of Extant’s manipulations of the
timestream, has caused him to reappear as a kind of anomaly. And being
an entity with time shifting abilities, as Extant’s got here, this is
no easy feat to pull off. Luckily, Dr. Fate manages to create some
decoy duplicates of the JSA members, which fool Extant while they enter
the amulet dimension of Kent and Inza Nelson again, where they take the
time to reorganize and figure out how to defeat their time-tugging foe.
Hector Hall finds out an answer when entering the black shrouded prison
in which Mordru was sent, to ask him. And that key to Extant’s defeat,
is the female Dove who replaced Hank’s brother in the role of his
crimefighting partner, back when he was Hawk.
With that, they are able to defeat Extant, in an exciting scene taking
place in several different timelines, and, when he escapes, in an
attempt to try and continue his menacing elsewhere in time, Atom
Smasher and Metron work out a plan to switch him in the exploding
airplane with Al’s mother, which leaves him to get blown up, and Al’s
mother is saved.
It’s a very exciting story involving two adversaries with their own
dealing of darkness, and the writers, when presenting Pemberton out of
time, even make some clever nods to the pre-Crisis era, when he tells
about how he’d been on his way to a meeting of Infinity Inc with Power
Girl and Huntress, and then found there being a different team that
didn’t include them. As anyone familiar with Bronze Age history knows,
PG and Huntress first began as Earth-2 female takes on Superman and
Batman, and today are written differently.
And Al’s saving his mother is something you don’t normally expect to
see, when you think about how most superheroes feel it’s not good to
interfere with history and time. That proved to be quite an interesting
surprise.
The artwork, again, is brilliant, and Black Canary is splendidly drawn,
and quite effective in her part here.
So enjoy this double dose of darkness, which is quite entertaining
indeed, I must say.
JSA: Darkness Falls TPB