Justice Society of America #20 (DC – Johns / Ross / Eaglesham)
It’s the Justice Society of America vs. the Justice Society Infinity of Earth-2 with the fate of Power Girl at the center of it all! Meanwhile, Starman struggles with his returned sanity as he embarks on his true mission in our time period – one that will have vital consequences for the Crisis of the 31st century!
While this issue didn’t really move the “Gog” storyline along at all, it did close out the Earth-2 arc, thankfully. Really, is anyone out there excited about Justice Society Infinity or Earth 2 at all… if there is, please let me know!
The huge “a-ha” here is from Starman, turns out the unstable ADD superpower from the future is way more pivotal than anyone ever thought. Starman will tie JSA into Final Crisis through the Legion of Three Worlds.
His uniform, which was designed by three Brainac-5’s (thus the connection to the Three Worlds book), working together, is nothing less than a map to the multiverse and shows the ebb and flows of all of the dimensional matter. This plays into what Starman’s true purpose is and will have to be major in was is coming up with Final Crisis.
Or at least I hope, Final Crisis feels so messed up at this time that the creators involved are probably going to need some pretty big shovels to help the fans get back onto the bandwagon. I sort of feel bad for the monthly DC writers trying to have their overall storyline connect to a Grant Morrison “high-concept” project that fans are still trying to make heads or tails out of. Talk about a rough task-at-hand.
Justice Society of America has a history of being such a solid book, but in the last few months it’s been bogged down and so convoluted with different stories and B-, C- and D- level characters. I just can’t wait for the series to get back down to business in a post-Final Crisis, post-“Sequel to Kingdom Come”, post-Earth-2 scenario. Come on Johns, cut the fat and the “big events” and get back to the awesome character-driven stories that we all know you can do. I know Alex Ross is involved here (and while Ross’s stories and art is iconic) but for my money, Johns is still the storyteller to beat and he is the reason I am still getting this book.
Issue Grade: B+
