To me the Justice Society of America has always been a kind of period piece, tied inexorably to its 1940s heyday.
Much of this comes from the JSA’s periods of exile. For about ten years, and most of the 1950s, the JSA might not have been forgotten, but the new versions of its members were, in effect, supplanting it. The arrival of the Justice League made this explicit, and cemented a sort of Earth-1 bias that (I will freely admit) colors my perception of the Golden Agers. As a kid in the ‘70s, I read about one team in Justice League of America and/or the other in the revamped All-Star Comics (and later, Adventure Comics), but even then I had the impression that the JSA was just an alternate version of the JLA.
Still, I enjoyed reading about the Justice Society on Earth-2, and liked the fact that many of them had come out of retirement. It was a different perspective than that of Earth-1, where the super-people were all fairly well-established. On Earth-2, even though the Justice Society had its own history, it had to find its place in the world again. The JSAers were on their second act, and the JLAers seemed to always be in their first.
In that respect, it was appropriate for so many Earth-2 heroes to take prominent roles in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Superstars of the Silver Age like the second Flash and Atom were on the periphery, and Hal Jordan appears nowhere in Crisis’ twelve issues. The JLA Satellite has been virtually gutted, the old League is gone, and “Justice League Detroit” has taken its place. In fact, those three or four of you who know me well are probably tired of hearing it, but at no point in COIE is the original JLA (including successors Wally West and John Stewart) reunited. I’m not even sure that more than three of the original seven appear together at any given time. Accordingly, for most of the Crisis, the JSA is the preeminent team, with Superman, Green Lantern, Doctor Fate, and the Flash featured pretty heavily.
That all changed, though, once the Crisis ended. Most of the JSA went into Limbo, where it stayed for some six years. Not long after the JSA disappeared, the JLA gave way to Justice League International, and thereby solidified the League’s role in global affairs. Accordingly, when the JSA came back in 1992, once again it had to find itself, this time without Golden Age versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. That didn’t last long, with Zero Hour killing off most of the original members, wrecking Hawkman, and demoralizing the Flash and Green Lantern.
The just-ended JSA series spun in various degrees out of both JLA and Starman, and in its early issues also had a sense of “getting the band back together.” However, this time the team drew from a wider pool of members, emphasizing the legacy aspect of the Justice Society. In this way, it was at least superficially reminiscent of Grant Morrison’s reunion-of-names approach to his first JLA lineup, but it made for a unique group — almost a support group of people inspired in one way or another by the Golden Age heroes, and connected by those inspirations.
And that might have been enough to sustain my interest, if not for the awareness that the new Justice Society would always be in second place to the Justice League — especially the heavy-hitter JLA established by Morrison. I hate to sound like a snob about it, but there it is. The Justice Society was the Justice League of its day, and that day appears to have passed.
For a while, though, in the wake of Infinite Crisis, it looked like the Justice Society would once again be on top, and might therefore give the ex-Leaguers cause to wonder, for a change, whether the world needed them. Instead, the new Justice League of America series so far shows the Big Three conducting a fantasy-football draft, having decided among themselves that the world does need a Justice League, just because, and by the way the JSA appears to have been disbanded again.
If that’s the case — that DC-Earth has been without a Justice League and Justice Society, and the JLA is set to reunite first — once again it puts the JSA in the position of having to justify its existence. Thinking about the new Justice Society series a couple of weeks ago, I wondered whether the book wouldn’t be better off emphasizing the relationships between the characters, who after all have come together primarily through their shared inspirations. It wouldn’t necessarily be the bwah-ha-ha-ha schtick of Justice League International, and it probably wouldn’t look too much like Gail Simone’s upcoming Tranquility book. In fact, I’d like to see something more of that ol’ Robinson Starman in the new Justice Society, and particularly the former title’s ability to view its characters as people trying to live up to their (or their predecessors’) Golden Age reputations.
Again, it all comes back to the Golden Age for me with regard to the JSA. For decades, these characters have been defined primarily by Being Old, or at least Being Older; and I suspect fans like me have gotten out of the habit of seeing them any other way. Even the newer versions are still reminders of their Golden Age roots, with the Justice League being what’s happening now.
Earth-1 snob that I am, DC still shouldn’t treat the Justice Society that way. Disbandings and reorganizations might goose sales, but they’re no way to run a super-team. I’d like to see Geoff Johns and company reinvent the Justice Society with emphasis on the “social” side of things. Unlike the Justice League, the Justice Society has transcended its all-star roots and developed into an ad hoc extended family, with each member honoring a particular ancestor. Throw in a few period-piece arcs showing the original group in its prime, and that to me would justify its existence pretty well.
October 5th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
I kind of like the idea of an old-style gentlemen’s club, the kind where the club members sit in big leather chairs, smoke pipes, and discuss the Peninsular War, only for superheroes. (Unfortunately, this would mean that about three-quarters of the membership, at least, would be out of place.) But if the new JSA series could adapt that kind of idea, somehow, for the characters it has, then that would be pretty cool. Unless it’s just me.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
No, that’s kind of what I was thinking too, with the comfy chairs and the pipes and the harrumphing. I don’t think the younger folks would be out of place — they just wouldn’t have the first-hand Peninsular War experiences.
October 5th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
The JSA are redundant. If there’s any reason to keep them in continuity it’s as inspiration for the JLA.
Otherwise just retire the golden age characters to a life of inactivity at the JSA gentleman’s club so their heirs could come into their own.
Attatching a new personality to 60 years of continuity is a death sentence.
October 5th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Now, making the JSA a period piece would be a step in the right direction! There’s a “New Earth”, and some shifting of continuity. What better way to show it than from the begining, with the characters that started it? Hell, you can even make it sepia-toned. Being also-rans to the JLA does both teams a dis-service. They should show these characters in their prime.
October 10th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
I would love a historical JSA book which shows off the new continuity.
I don’t believe the JSA book was relegated to second banana though. After Morrison’s run on JLA ended, JSA became not only the best team book but DC’s best hero book period and sales exploded as the tpb’s kept piling up. Meltzer won’t last forever on JLA and JSA with Johns’ consistency will reassert itself as the top dog among the DC books.
Zero Hour really screwed up the JSA though and Dan Jurgens should be punished accordingly.
October 12th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Got to say I disagree pretty much with the whole “Earth 1″ bias–I’ll take JSA over the “going nowhere cuz they all have their own books” JLA any day. Besides, no matter how you slice it, the JSA was here first and remanin the best as they have always been. My biggest regret was that the killed off the wrong Superman at the end of IC. But, hey, that’s why I go by “the Old Geezer.”