Fan of Bronze: The 80s JLA/JSA Team-Ups

[Philip Portelli]

There are also discussions about the 60s JLA/JSA team-ups and the 70s JLA/JSA team-ups so feel free to read, comment or add on to those as well!

 

JUSTICE LEAGUE # 183-185 (O-D'80): Where Have All The New Gods Gone?/ Apokolips Now!/Darkseid Rising!

By Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin (#183), George Perez (#184-185), Frank McLaughlin and Len Wein (editor).

Personal Note: George Perez is an amazing artist whose work has gotten even better over the years. Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Justice League of America and, of course, New Teen Titans have all benefitted from his contributions. Any true fan would want him on their favorite title. And he wanted to do JLA but not under these circumstances.

Dick Dillin, after drawing Justice League of America since #64 in 1968 (missing only two issues in that run) died at the young age of 51. He also had long runs in Blackhawk, World's Finest and DC Comics Presents. He was the artist of two of the first four comics that I ever read. His work improved throughout the 70s and he drew the majority of the heroes and villains of the DCU at one time or another. The news of his passing shocked the fifteen old me and was truly the end of an era. Thinking back, perhaps his passing combined with New Teen Titans #1 signaled the end of the Bronze Age, my Golden Age.

Character Notes:  By this time, Gerry Conway had added to the Justice League his own creation: Firestorm the Nuclear Man! But as he giveth, Conway also tooketh away as Green Arrow resigned because he felt he and the League weren't on the same page anymore. That and his candidate for membership, Black Lightning, didn't even want to join!

The JLA: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Firestorm

The JSA: Doctor Fate, Wonder Woman, Power Girl and the Huntress

The New Gods: Orion the Hunter, Metron, Mister Miracle, Big Barda and Oberon

The InJustice Society: The Fiddler, the Icicle and the Shade

• In the five JLA/JSA team-ups that occurred after the Earth-One Wonder Woman rejoined in #128, the E-2 WW has appeared in THREE of them. The E-1 WW, NONE!
• The story starts off quickly as the eight heroes are suddenly transported to a nearly deserted New Genesis/Supertown as Superman gives the needed exposition and gets touchy-feely with Power Girl again! Get a room, Kal!
• In a nice moment, the original Princess Diana gets a bit offended about beings calling themselves New "Gods" with a comfirmation of her own mythology and monotheism at the same time. She's a Wonder, all right!
• They forget to strap Firestorm into his stroller and he immediately wanders off!
• He bumps into a young Andy Rooney, I mean, Orion the Hunter and gets zapped.
• The others attack Orion and it takes Superman, Power Girl AND Doctor Fate to knock him out! That's powerful!
• It would have great if Orion was in his Kirby armor but he's wearing his "Super-Hero" outfit complete with mask (and he has no secret identity) and "O" insignia!
• The other New Gods appear via a Boom Tube. Actually it's Metron and the cast of Mister Miracle! So much for Kirby's vast array of characters!
• Superman brings up meeting Scott in DC Comics Presents #12 but Batman who met him three times in B&B says nothing.
• Orion uses his Mother Box to trim his eyebrows and pretty him up. He is feeling very guilty about Darkseid's death from Adventure Comics #460 (D'78). 
• We learn that Apokolipian forces have enslaved the entire population of New Genesis with the help of the InJustice Society!
• Metron transports them all to Apokolips when they (surprise, surprise) split up into teams!
• Batman, the Huntress and Mister Miracle sneak into the Imperial Palace to find out why Apokolips has renewed the War.
• Green Lantern, Doctor Fate and Oberon (and HE's here again why?) smash up the Shock Trooper Barracks searching for captives from New Genesis and they find someone big!
• Superman, Wonder Woman and Big Barda go to Granny Goodness' Orphanage to liberate the children of New Genesis, one named Petil to start!
• Granny would be the only other Kirby villain that Conway uses.
• Orion, Power Girl and Firestorm fly to the site where slave labor has built a massive machine manned by the InJustice Society that has resurrected.....DARKSEID!!

More to follow!   

 

 

[Richard Willis]

I have three comments:
(1) When you leave a job, you rarely get to pick your successor.
(2) How is it that every other planet (or space sector) gets ONE Green Lantern but Earth just keeps accumulating them. I think they had as many as four at one time.
(3) If Earth isn't the only inhabited planet in its space sector, why does every GL since Abin Sur always hail from Earth?

Philip Portelli said:

Hal never disliked John Stewart. He didn't expect the Guardians would pick John to replace him which is an odd expectation to have!

Unless he figured that the Guardians wouldn't have chosen another Earthman!

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

When it was changed to the Green Lantern Corps, you had Hal, Katma, Ch'p, Salaak, Kilowog, and sometimes Guy and John running around Earth.

Number 3 is a good question, and it brings my follow-up what other planets are in Hal's sector besides the ones in our solar system? How often does he go to them? How often have we seen him (or another Earth GL) at another planet in his sector? My best guess to your question, Richard, is that the ring finds the best candidate for the new user, and it just happens (editor's directive) to be a human male on earth. In The Last Days of Animal Man mini there was definitely a non-human GL, still from Earth though.

Richard Willis said:

I have three comments:
(1) When you leave a job, you rarely get to pick your successor.
(2) How is it that every other planet (or space sector) gets ONE Green Lantern but Earth just keeps accumulating them. I think they had as many as four at one time.
(3) If Earth isn't the only inhabited planet in its space sector, why does every GL since Abin Sur always hail from Earth?

Philip Portelli said:

Hal never disliked John Stewart. He didn't expect the Guardians would pick John to replace him which is an odd expectation to have!

Unless he figured that the Guardians wouldn't have chosen another Earthman!

[John Dunbar]

Not just Earth, they're all from America!
 
Richard Willis said:

I have three comments:
(1) When you leave a job, you rarely get to pick your successor.
(2) How is it that every other planet (or space sector) gets ONE Green Lantern but Earth just keeps accumulating them. I think they had as many as four at one time.
(3) If Earth isn't the only inhabited planet in its space sector, why does every GL since Abin Sur always hail from Earth?

Philip Portelli said:

Hal never disliked John Stewart. He didn't expect the Guardians would pick John to replace him which is an odd expectation to have!

Unless he figured that the Guardians wouldn't have chosen another Earthman!

[Henry R. Kujawa]

Rob Staeger:

"Oh, man, Ernie Colon's lettercols were bizarrely antagonistic, weren't they?"

What I remember was, instead of publishing letters and then responses, he ONLY published brief excerpts of letters, and often spent most of the pages promoting other work he edited that had nothing to do with the book you were holding. I just remember thinking, "What kind of letters pages are these anyway?"

In the last couple weeks, I just ran across a pile of work he did for BANK STREET CLASSICS that appeared in BOYS' LIFE magazine intermittently.  All of them are 16-page adaptations of "classic" stories in comics form.  Colon did a pile of them, while later adaptations had art by Dan Spiegle, then Mike Vosburg.  (The coloring on these tends to be so over-powering, it's a good thing they had credits listed, otherwise, I might not have a clue who did the line-art.)

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I remember a little of that, too, but what really stands out to me is the episode in one Flash letercol where he berated a kid who didn't like Infantino's art -- this kid was probably about 12 -- telling him he had no taste. (That's how I remember it; it's been a few years since I've read it.) It was harsh enough that in the next issue, he came back and apologized.

***AWK-ward!*** 

I love Colon's art, actually -- more and more, the more I see of it. But from the evidence in the letters columns, his people skills were zilch.

[Richard Mantle]

Guys, not necessarily the right place to say this - but it's discussions like this entire thread that has prompted me to join up. - oh, and possibly buy all the tpks discussed here!

 

 

[Henry R. Kujawa]

My 1st exposure to Ernie Colon was a story he illustrated in the very 1st issue of EERIE I ever bought,  #33 (May'71).  Amidst Jack Sparling, George Roussos, Kenn Barr, Larry Todd (who also did the cover painting), Richard Corben and Pat Boyette, (my 1st exposure to ALL of these guys, I think), Colon's art stood out as the most twisted, sick DEMEMNTED S*** in the whole magazine!  (Steve Skeates wrote the story-- heehee.)

He's never been a fave of mine, but over the decades, I have come to appreciate some of his work, on certain projects.

Speaking of editors, here's a strange one.  That issue has 3 editors listed-- Jim Warren (who was also the publisher), with Archie Goodwin ("associate editor") and Nicola Cuti ("contributing editor").

[Henry R. Kujawa]

A sample of Ernie Colon's work from 1990...

Gulliver's Travels

[Philip Portelli]

Thank you for the compliment, Richard! Please feel free to add on to any of the stories here!
 
Richard Mantle said:

Guys, not necessarily the right place to say this - but it's discussions like this entire thread that has prompted me to join up. - oh, and possibly buy all the tpks discussed here!

 

 

[Richard Mantle]

Thanks for the welcome Philip.

Will this thread loop back to the 'team-up' collections that I see advertised on Amazon etc ? Or is there a seperate thread for them? I'd be fascinated to know peoples thoughts on those adventures - which I presume start back in the 60s again...?

[Philip Portelli]

On the top of this page are links to both the 60s and 70s JLA/JSA team-ups. Many people here have added to my inane comments, so don't be shy about contributing!

[Figserello]

 I'd seen his work in DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE, where he did what I felt was one of the BEST adaptations I'd ever seen of a TV show to comics form.  (He illustrated the entire Tom Baker run, and the early Peter Davison stories.)

 

I think Dave Gibbons did all the adaptions of the 5th Doctor too, and gave up when they finished.  The large Panini collections of these strips are well worth having, and I'm in the middle of enjoying some of them these days.  There are two books for the complete 4th Doctor strips, 1 book for all the 5th Doctor strips (The only fifth doctor adventures I've consumed in full...) and 4 books for the complete 8th Doctor strips where they took advantage of not being so tied to continuity and where they followed up some loose ends from the TV movie.  The 8th Doctor might be my favourite.

 

Apologies for wandering so far off the topic....