Fractured Society

Justice Society of America #33

The Justice Society is still under attack by a small army of supervillains, and the traitor who almost killed Mr. Terrific has finally been revealed — the guy who was initially accused, the All-American Kid, who’s better known as Kid Karnevil, one of the psychos Bill Willingham introduced in his “Shadowpact” series. The bad guys are putting up a pretty good fight until Dr. Fate casts a spell that makes all the villains blissfully happy. Kid Karnevil hands over Obsidian to some mysterious somebody, but gets taken down by a healed-up Mr. Terrific. And the rest of the Justice Society finally decides on a solution to the ongoing disagreements about whether the JSA should be a school for new superheroes or a military organization — by splitting the group into two new teams.

Verdict: Man, I don’t know. Good action, nice spotlight moments for King Chimera and Dr. Fate, nice to see Kid Karnevil still running around the DCU, but I just can’t buy that they’d split the team just cause Magog’s being a jerk.

JSA All-Stars #1

And this is the first issue spotlighting the Justice Society’s military-themed squad. The new team takes down a bunch of communist robots, then regroups at their temporary headquarters, a ranch in upstate New York. Rex Tyler, the original Hourman, is the team’s technical guru, Stargirl is upset about getting uprooted from the old team, and Power Girl tells her she’s there because all of the younger members of the squad respect her. Magog puts everyone through a bunch of pseudo-military training, Cyclone and King Chimera have a moment, and Sand gets one of his yearly single-page cameos. Later, the team gets attacked by a high-tech strikeforce — there’s a big fight, Stargirl gets kidnapped, and we finally find out who’s been ordering supervillains not to attack her, and why.

Verdict: Again, I’m still not sold on it yet. For one thing, the art is incredibly… eccentric. Chunky and blocky and sometimes downright ugly. And the more I see Magog acting like a military commander, the more it bugs me. In his old life, David Reid was just a lance corporal in the Marines. Does he even have the skillsets to be a decent drill sergeant? Aside from that, though, more excellent action, pretty good dialogue, and it’s nice to see the return of the villain on the last pages.