First off, my apologies to Randy Jackson. He's been reviewing a lot of Showcases and Essentials lately, and doing a great job, but I want to try to do this one. In 1981, I really was looking forward to All-Star Squadron (AStSq) because I grew up reading Golden Age reprints and those wonderful JLA/JSA team-ups of which I have some interest in. But instead of reprints or elderly super-heroes, we would be seeing the Justice Society and their peers in the early 1940s in their prime! Believe it or not, the concept of the flashback story or retrocative continuity (retcon) was rarely used for the JSA. And, more times than not, they had to take a back seat to the contemporary JLA.
Roy Thomas was in his element here. Though his style was verbiose and often self-explainatory, he was clearly enjoying himself and thus the readers did too. The art was ably done by Rich Buckler and Adrian Gonzales but it's inker, and later penciller, Jerry Ordway that stood out.
We saw Hawkman in his original helmet, the Atom in his first outfit, the Sandman in his Simon & Kirby garb and Doctor Fate in that strange half-helm acting more like Superman than a sorcerer. Then there is Superman, questioning his origins and his weaknesses. Unfortunately besides Hawkman, the Atom and to a lesser extent, Doctor Mid-Nite (Thomas' favorite JSAers), the rest of the First Super-Team got pushed to the background in favor of the core Squadron members. Johnny Quick finally got a personality. Too bad it was Hawkeye's. Robotman's tragic situation was show without getting too maudlin. Liberty Belle was revived to balance the roster, despite some unexplained powers from unbelieveable sources, a Thomas trademark. The Shining Knight was corny, out of date and utterly heroic and even the Tarantula returned to the spotlight.
Roy also gave us the new Firebrand, the sister of the original but with flame powers, so she'd be, y'know, useful! He also reintroduced Steel the Indestructible Man, rechristianed Commander Steel, a sentimental favorite of mine. Other characters used were Plastic Man and Phantom Lady. All-in-all it was an exciting, well produced series, using its World War II setting to a great advantage. It allows Thomas to give the book a high-ranking supporting cast featuring Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill!
My only quibbles is that they do not reprint the three Justice League stories that crossover into it and the lack of color in this relatively later series is distracting but Ordway's impressive inking still shines!
I highly recommend this to all!
Reprints Justice League of America #193, All-Star Squadron #1-18 and All-Star Squadron Annual #1
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The series didn't quite click with me, but I kept looking in on it partly because of the covers. I still think many of them spectacular.
Here are some points that might be of interest:
Roy Thomas reportedly suggested "All-Star Squad" when All-Star Comics was revived in the 70s and those involved wanted to give the team the title was going to feature a new name. As I recall the story, it was rejected because of the initials. The team ended up being bannered as "Super Squad" for a few issues.
The race between Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern in the All-Star Squadron preview insert derives from the cover of Comic Cavalcade #1.
The Gerry Conway/Don Heck Steel pages in ##8-9 were from the unpublished Steel, the Indestructible Man #6, which was included in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2. If my memory isn't playing me false, the link to Baron Blitzkrieg's origin was Thomas's. The damage-to-his-face origin was established when the Baron debuted in Wonder Woman's feature in World's Finest Comics ##246-247, which at that point was telling stories about the Earth Two, WWII-era Wonder Woman. The instalment in #246 was by Conway and Heck, that in #247 by Conway and Jose Delbo.
Steel was apparently renamed (this is my inference; I've not read it anywhere) after a Canadian hero called Commander Steel. The Digital Comic Museum has a few of the latter's adventures in its "DCM Archives and Collections" section. One of these can also be seen here.
The background of the Nuclear story in #16 was explained by Roy Thomas in this Alter Ego article.
Apparently, a story in which Robotman had to prove his humanity in court appeared in Star Spangled Comics #15. Robotman was one of Jerry Siegel's creations or co-creations. The initial star of Star Spangled Comics was the Star Spangled Kid, and I was surprised to learn recently that the first six issues of the title carried two or three stories starring him and Stripsy, rather than just one, along with a few other features. With #7 Simon and Kirby's "The Newsboy Legion" was introduced and became the new cover feature, the Kid was reduced to starring in one story per issue, and Robotman debuted. In 1948 the latter's feature was moved into Detective Comics, and ran there until 1953. I've seen the instalments drawn by Jimmy Thompson highly praised. Who wrote those I don't know.
The villain from All-Star Squadron #18 is from the Simon and Kirby "Sandman" story in Adventure Comics #75, but presumably there's a footnote to that effect in the issue. He appeared on the older issue's cover.
As I recall, according to one of Thomas's letters pages it was his intention that Hawkman should appear in some form in every issue, as he was the only member of the JSA to appear in every issue of the Golden Age All-Star Comics (until it became All-Star Western). Thomas didn't manage it, as an intended Hawkman head was accidentally omitted from one issue, but that's from a point after the period covered by the Showcase volume. To make up for it, Thomas ran the omitted head on a letters page.
I did read this a few weeks ago. I thought it was a collection of professionally executed, if pedestrian stories. That doesn't mean it was bad, just that nothing here knocked my socks off. It's a decent collection, but I wouldn't particularly call it essential in any way.
I just reread the original comics (up to 20, and including the JLA crossover), and I have to say, I love them as much as I ever did. Maybe more, since I really recognized them as relics of a bygone era, rather than just comics I bought when I was a kid. I don't think we'll ever see their like again, in attention to period detail, comics history, and sheer plot density.
I wish it had run for hundreds and hundreds of issues. I love the book -- particularly the pre-Crisis adventures, before Roy had to make adjustments for continuity's sake.
The bit where FDR interrupts Churchill's shower and Churchill says he has nothing to conceal from the President of the United States is a version of an anecdote I've seen retailed about the two. Whether it's true I don't know.
I should note that the Baron Blitzkrieg story is set earlier in the war than the Wonder Woman story in which he originally appeared, in which [spoiler warning] he captured Churchill.
I never thought of Jerry Ordway as a "Neal Adams" type though he's certainly has a very realistic and clean style.
Now that I think about it, I can see Roy's initial All-Star line-up as a parallel to his earlier LIBERTY LEGION:
I remember him mentioning he wasn't using most of the main heroes (Flash, Green Lantern, etc.) because he didn't want to confuse people. I started only getting issues that had special guest stars (like when the Marvels showed up.)