Justice Society of America #47

           I really like this series, especially the recent issues. The whole terror wins idea has been brilliant, it had intellectual value, a tone of character development, and it was a very good read. The entire series in general has been great. It made number four in my top five ongoing series of 2010. Not only was that based on the terror wins arc, but the winds of war arc was also fantastic. Overall I've been very happy with this series.
          In this issue Man Hunter (while stopping a robbery) sees something about the JSA on TV. People were debating whether Super-Heroes are good for the world, or bad. Then she sees the Flash make a statement about how bad the crime is in monument point. Dr. Midnight goes to see Alan Scott, but he's not there any more. Then Flash brings him to Lightning and tells him that Dr. Fate took her soul and is protecting it, but her body is dead. Dr. Chaos then tells Mr. Terrific to release Scythe, and that he knows his IQ is dropping. Then Dr. Midnight and Wild Cat confront Dr. Chaos who says that he has a device that will kill a certain number of randomly selected people. But the Flash runs and takes the device, but then Scythe comes in and the comic ends.
         I have one problem with this issue, for some reason whenever I read a JSA comic they always find a way to get rid of Dr. Fate. This thing with Lightning gets him out of the picture so that Guggenheim can focus on Mr. Terrific and the Flash like he usually does. Guggenheim is a good writer, but I would like it if he took some risks and wrote some stories that had Dr. Fate as the lead. He's an incredibly interesting character that always seems to get shoved aside. I do see how Guggenheim could have Dr. Fate in this new soul place and so the main characters are him and lightning, but judging just on the covers of upcoming issues it looks like Guggenheim is going to stick with Green Lantern.
       I enjoyed the rest of this issue thoroughly. Dr. Chaos is a great villain, and so is Scythe, and the way Dr. Chaos interacts with other members of the JSA is great. I even like Mr. Terrific's loss in IQ, otherwise this would be a short and boring series, he would trace Dr. Chaos and put him in prison and then we would all move on to the next arc, but because he is becoming "dumber" the arc is much better. It prolongs parts of it, and adds other parts.
      This was another great issue, but the series would be much improved if Dr. Fate was in it more, opposed to his usual one page appearances, followed by people talking about where he went and why.





Grade: 9/10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Justice Society of America #46

          I love this series. It was number four on my five best ongoing series of 2010. It reflects the superheroes history from around the 1940's to present day. You have old fashion heroes like Jay Garrick, and Alan Scott, and then you have newer, and more modern characters like Mr. Terrific, and Lightning. It also shows how superheroes have evolved with time. In the 30's they fought thugs, from the 40's to around the 60's the fought armies, and now most superhero plots have to do with terrorist attacks of some kind, and that brings me to the synopsis.
        In this issue Mr. Hogan solicits the help of a man called Dr. Chaos. Dr. Chaos hands Mr. Hogan a box and says open the box at ten O'clock and press the button. The Justice Society of America, and others like Blue Devil, are stopping the looting going on in Monument Point. Alan Scott is coming to terms with his condition. Because he is spending all of his energy controlling the Star Heart, so his body can't heal itself. The other members of the JSA are concerned about Jay Garrick. He's not eating or sleeping, just rebuilding. Someone sends a death threat to the new mayor, saying "Lightning gets struck at 9:55. Oh. And the mayor dies if every other super, doesn't leave monument point by 10:00. "
Obsidian goes to where the Flash is holding Scythe, and demands to see him, so that he can kill him. Lightning (who is guarding the door) won't let him in. The Flash arrives, and Lightening collapses. Mr. Hogan opens the box and presses the button, and the mayor dies. It also appears that Lightning dies to.
         This series is consistently great. This comic deals with Superhero history, and has a compelling story about Alan Scott and Jay Garrick. I was beginning to wonder where Obsidian was, and now he had the perfect reaction, he was written very well. I do wish that Obsidian would play a bigger role in this arc, because he's a very interesting character. I would also like to see a bit more of Dr. Fate, but I understand that if his character was big in this arc, there would be a lot of jumping around from scene scene, and would be hard to follow along. With the appearance of Blue Devil, I hope that maybe, Blue Devil will join the JSA. Blue Devil always looked like a cool character, that could have many interesting stories about him, but he's never really in the spot light.
          Besides the lack of Obsidian participation I had no problem with this issue. I would like to hear more about Alan Scott, but that didn't bother me much. So overall this is a must buy. The arc has been great, the series has been great, and I hope it stays this good in the future.





Grade: 10/10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Justice Society of America #44

          I know I haven't reviewed a Justice Society of America for a while, but that's because I skipped the whole "Star Heart" thing. If you look back on my archive of reviews you will see Justice League of America #45 which I absolutely hated. Coincidently it was the lead up to the whole Star Heart event, so I skipped the whole arc. However, before that arc, there was an arc about the Fourth Reich, and I loved that story line, so that's why I didn't just drop the Justice Society all together.
       In this issue Jay Garrick announces that he will retire soon because he had just been elected mayor in his town. But Alan Scott won't let him. Mean while Mr. Terrific keeps taking IQ tests and his score is gradually falling. Then the entire JSA  is called into battle because some super powered terrorist breaks out of a CIA prison in Afghanistan. Green Lantern goes to arrest the man/thing but the terrorist ends up knocking him down. Thats when everything breaks. Dr. Fate puts Green Lantern in a hospital, and the rest of the team beats the terrorist, but in doing that they destroyed the city, and then we find Green Lantern is paralyzed from the hips down.
        I'm just going to say right out front that this is a great issue and I would conceder it a must buy. The writing and story were both great, and the art was "iffy" at first but then improve ten fold. I really loved the idea of the terrorist winning. It pretty much took 9/11 and threw it into a comic book. Now something like that could have easily been overdone or underdone, but Marc Guggenheim did it perfectly, so that you can see the resemblance, and still have it be a good story. I'm not really a fan of the fact that Mr. Terrific's intelligence is going down, because that would just ruin the character, and this is one of those moment where I'm just waiting for them to fix it. It's kind of like a "made you look" kind of thing. It happens more than I would like. Besides that my only other complaint is not using more of the JSA members, like Dr. Midnight. Especially him, because I really think that having a medical person around during the time where Alan Scott gets paralyzed would have been better. Actually that's what I thought was going to happen because Dr. Midnight is even on the cover of the comic. I'm very exited for the rest of this arc, especially because the end of this issue leads to so many more opportunities. Now the world is going to turn against the JSA and even though I've seen that before, combining that with the terrorist winning and you have a really good arc.
            Like I said before this is a MUST BUY.






Grade: 9.5/10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Action Comics #888

            Alright, Nightwing is stuck in the phantom zone, Jax-Ur (Vohc)  has released a copy of Rao, and the world is fighting the fake god. In this issue the JSA and Wonder Woman are fighting Rao, while Flame bird is taking on Vohc. After a while of mindless brain bashing, you see Nightwing in the Phantom Zone, he dresses himself in robes, which are amazingly cool, and I had really hoped that Nightwing would become his own hero in and  that would be his costume, but instead he finds Nightwing bonds with him, and becomes totally bad a*s. My description of the synopsis does not do it justice, it is amazing, I loved this comic. It could just be because I am a complete sap for Alan Scott, and Jay Garrick, but this story was just good. I was slightly disappointed about two things, one is that Nightwing changed his uniform from his robes, and two is that when the JSA first came out Dr. Fate was there, and he was never featured again in the comic, and Dr. Fate fighting a "God" would be so awesome, but I didn't even notice this until I finished the comic, so I would still recommend the comic.


Grade: A-
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Justice Society of America: Blackest Night

The Justice Society of America faces it's biggest challenge when former (and deceased) members of the Justice Society return and cause mayhem. Allot of the story is a personal vendetta with Power Girl and Lois Lane of Earth 2. Usually I would not like this but they played it just the right amount and just the right amount of time. Featured in these three issues was another personal vendetta which I would have liked to see more of. Between The Liberty Bell and her father Johnny Quick. Some Black Lanterns when they arose told their previous loved ones that they love them. Johnny Quick did this too. They all turned against them. (Example: Lois Lane turned against Power Girl.) Johnny Quick never did turn against his daughter, which I thought was confusing. Even the reincarnated Mr. Terrific was evil. But Johnny Quick Died (again) telling his daughter that he loved her. Their were four major sections of the story.

1) Power Girl/Lois Lane

2) Johnny Quick/Liberty Bell

3) Fighting in the streets

4) Mr. Terrific, Dr. Fate, Dr. Midnight, Green Lantern/Sentinel and the Star Spangled kid making a bomb to defeat all the black Lanterns at once.

I know in a previous post, I said there was rarely any art in a comic that I would call better than average. This is one of those occasions. The way they drew the Black Lanterns was absolutely perfect, and on the cover the artist did something that made it all look very clean and nice. Which allot of artists can't do.

Grade: A

buy at www.mycomicshop.com