Ray Palmer and Jean Loring's Wedding

[The Baron]

I posted this on FB, but I wanted to get people's thoughts here, as well.

I remember reading this as a kid, and thinking, "They must have had to come up with a lot of backstories as to how they knew each other in their 'civilian' lives."

Also, are Linda, Shayera, Diana and Dinah all bridesmaids? Did Jean not have any sisters, female cousins or close female friends?

[Philip Portelli]

There was a guide to the wedding picture in JLA #157 so readers knew it was Captain Comet! 

Commander Benson said:

The Grand Comics Database entry on this issue indicates that the fellow between and behind Aquaman and Barry Allen is Adam (Captain Comet) Blake.

This can be derived from not just from the fact that Captain Comet was a honorary JLAer (DC SPECIAL # 27 [May. 1977]), but also from Comet's participation in the Atom's search for Jean (who'd gone guano-crazy, again) that ran for the last half of 1977, in SUPER-TEAM FAMILY # 11-4.

The gimmick was the Tiny Titan teamed up with various heroes over his four-issue quest for Jean. In SUPER-TEAM FAMILY # 13 (Nov., 1977), it was Aquaman and Captain Comet's turn in the barrel. Presumably, this is the connexion which put Adam Blake at the nuptials.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Captain Comet also started working with the JLA in Secret Society of Super-Villains, also in 1977.  In the January 77 issue, Green Arrow says "Whoopdie-Doo! So what are we here for... to vote him into the JLA?" Which might be why Hawkman unilaterally decides to make Comet an honorary member, simply because they'd been working together for a while by that May issue. 

[ClarkKent_DC]

Eric L. Sofer said:

It's Ray's side of the family.

Kara knows Jean Loring from Super-Team Family with The Flash and Supergirl.

As for back story... I remember my wedding, and nobody cared about how my friends and family knew each other. Yeah. some were acquainted and some weren't - but who cares why Diana Prince knows Barry Allen? Not as if any of the guests are going to think, "Hey! These guests all look like the Justice League!" And really... who's so famous in the Justice League that someone would wonder about their relationship to Ray Palmer? Bruce Wayne? Carter Hall? I think that's just natural.

The Baron said:

Dunno, the few weddings I've been to,  "Oh, how do you know so-and-so?"  came up  a fair amount,.

In a similar but far less festive vein, Love & Capes did a bit with a superhero who had fallen in the line of duty, and his fellow heroes held two memorial services for him -- a public one in which they appeared in their civilian identities with carefully crafted explanations of how they were acquainted with the deceased at the ready for any relatives or other people who would ask, and a private one in which they were in full costume and could grieve fully and honestly.

On the other hand, in a different storyline, the one in which Abby Tennyson (the Lois Lane figure) gets married to Mark Spencer (the Superman expy), Paul Delacroix (the Batman stand-in) says he can't be the best man because there would be too many questions raised as to why a billionaire business mogul would be that close a friend to a mere accountant. But at the wedding, Paul uses a device to render himself invisible so he could be at Mark's side -- even if only the two of them would know it.

[Richard Willis]

Commander Benson said:

.....the Atom's search for Jean (who'd gone guano-crazy, again) that ran for the last half of 1977, in SUPER-TEAM FAMILY # 11-4.

Some lawyers are scary. A crazy lawyer is really scary.

Rob Staeger said:

In the January 77 issue, Green Arrow says "Whoopdie-Doo! So what are we here for... to vote him into the JLA?" Which might be why Hawkman unilaterally decides to make Comet an honorary member, simply because they'd been working together for a while by that May issue.

or in reaction to Green Arrow's remark, since they had an ongoing animosity in those days.

[Eric L. Sofer]

Super-Team Family was edited into a new direction with the Atom storyline, in that heroes without their own titles would be getting 3 - 4 issue storylines, teaming with other pairs of heroes, interspersed with other single issue stories (e.g., STF #15 - The Flash and the New Gods.) The next hero due for team-ups was J'onn J'onzz.

I learned this from the DC Phone Hotline - 800-223-7760. That was a one minute taped message of current DC Comics projects and coming features. Had STF continued, that would've been next.

Commander Benson said:

...The gimmick was the Tiny Titan teamed up with various heroes over his four-issue quest for Jean. In SUPER-TEAM FAMILY # 13 (Nov., 1977), it was Aquaman and Captain Comet's turn in the barrel. Presumably, this is the connexion which put Adam Blake at the nuptials.....