JSA: Strange Adventures #4

November 15, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: All in Color For a Dime

His offer to humanity rejected, Lord Dynamo attacks!

Writer: Kevin J. Anderson
Breakdowns: Barry Kitson
Finishes: Gary Erskine
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Peter J. Tomasi
Cover Art: John Watson
Publisher: DC Comics

Lord Dynamo had a simple offer to mankind – medicine, technology, art, music… enough to advance the human race immeasurably. And all he wanted in return was Green Lantern’s ring and Starman’s cosmic rod. Mankind was ready to give it, too, until Johnny Thunder made an impassioned plea to save his friends. He won. He convinced them.

But Lord Dynamo doesn’t take rejection very well.

I’ve really enjoyed this series. The Justice Society of America in World War II is one of the most fertile storytelling environments in comics and Kevin J. Anderson has done a fine job with these characters. He knows them, he understands them, and he’s doing interesting things with them.

This is clearly Johnny Thunder’s series, with the book focusing on him and his job as the JSA historian and his aspirations to be a writer. If there’s one flaw in this issue, it’s how Anderson sets up a lot of the drama around the fate of a certain character. Look, this story takes place in the past and it’s not an Elseworlds. We know the fate of these characters already. There’s not that much drama to be had there.

Kitson and Erskine do pretty good work on the artwork, although not quite as strong as Kitson does when he does full pencils himself instead of just breakdowns. John Watson’s cover, however, is simply beautiful. He captures all of the characters in a dark moment for them. I’d hang this cover on a wall.

I’m really digging this title. I can’t wait to see where it goes. And I hope Anderson has a few more classic JSA stories in his future.

Rating: 8/10

JSA: Strange Adventures #2

September 13, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Ray Guns and Bug-Eyed Monsters

Lord Dynamo makes an intriguing offer to the people of Earth – and Johnny Thunder prepares to chronicle it.

Writer: Kevin J. Anderson
Pencils: Barry Kitson
Inks: Gary Erskine
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Peter J. Tomasi
Cover Art: John Watson
Publisher: DC Comics

The second issue of this World War II-era Justice Society adventure wasn’t quite as strong as the first, but it gets saved by a very good twist at the end.

Johnny Thunder has a new job – the official chronicler of the JSA in the pages of Amazing Stories magazine. As he’s having a story conference with the “real” writer he’s paired up with, a zeppelin of Nazi cyborgs swoops in for the attack, and the JSA goes on the offensive.

It sounds like a goofy premise, and the story itself is kind of goofy as well. Fun, but still goofy, and the fight scene in the first half of the book is a bit clichéd, but later Lord Dynamo, the evil genius who planned the attack on the team, makes the people of the planet Earth a very tempting offer. What he offers to Earth gives you a pretty good idea of his origins (if he’s telling the truth), and what he asks in return is pretty clever, something that can really be milked in future issues and propel the story forward.

Barry Kitson is great, one of the best superhero artists working in comics today, and on projects like Empire he’s shown a lot of skill at science fiction concepts as well. (I am literally giddy that he and Mark Waid will be taking over Legion of Super-Heroes in a few months.) This is a book that combines Kitson’s strengths – Anderson has created a very good mixture of old-fashioned superheroics and classic pulp fiction sci-fi elements, and if there are better artists to get that feeling across, I just don’t know who that is.

I didn’t quite love this issue as much s I did the first, but Anderson redeemed himself towards the end and he should be able to go even further in the next four issues. The JSA in World War II, when done right, is some of the most fertile storytelling ground in comics, and there’s lots of room here to grow.

Rating: 7/10

JSA: Strange Adventures #3

August 14, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…

Johnny Thunder has a new job –to tell the world the exploits of the Justice Society!

Writer: Kevin J. Anderson
Pencils: Barry Kitson
Inks: Gary Erskine
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Cover Art: John Watson
Publisher: DC Comics

Any time we delve into the World War II-era adventures of the Justice Society of America is a good thing, and acclaimed science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson does a nice job setting up a really clever series. Johnny Thunder is a fan of pulp magazines, such a big fan that he’s been writing up the adventures of the JSA and submitting them to Amazing Stories only to meet with rejection after rejection… until the editor sees his sales slip and thinks the real-life tales of the JSA may be just what the magazine needs to win their audience back.

Meanwhile, a few nasty characters in Gotham City try to take over the airwaves of a APEX radio, unaware that Green Lantern is the engineer there. GL and Starman take on the villains in a dandy little fight sequence sure to satisfy people who get a little bored by the middle segment.

Not that I expect anyone to be bored – the idea of Johnny Thunder trying to write pulp science fiction is a hysterical one and Anderson executes it very well. He peppers the comic with references to real magazines and real writers, which helps to ground it a bit, but also gives the issue the same sort of flair that many of the current Julius Schwartz DC Comics Presents specials have.

Barry Kitson is one of the most solid superhero artists out there, and he does a fantastic Justice Society. From the nasty monster they fight in the early sequence of the book to Green Lantern and Starman’s fight, this is a energetic comic, made even better by fantastic coloring work by Hi-Fi.

Some people may not care to delve back into the Golden Age, but I’m not one of them. I love stories like this, I love the classic Justice Society, and I love the fact that Anderson and Kitson are doing them so well in the first issue of this miniseries.

Rating: 8/10