In All-Star Comics 10 (April-May 1942), Justice Society members used a time-ray to travel 500 years into the future to secure a defensive weapon. The Gardner Fox script cleverly placed some individual superheroes in futuristic settings that offset their powers.
Hawkman, for example, finds that everyone in the future can fly with Buck Rogers-like belts.
“But I AM the Hawkman,” he protests.
“And I’m George Washington,” replies a futuristic flying cop.
Starman must fight without his gravity rod, and the shorter-than-average Atom confronts a race of sky-dwelling giants.
“This is the first of three All-Star issues in which the Atom has solo adventures where he appears diminutive, foreshadowing the hero of the same name who would debut in 1961,” observed Roy Thomas in his All-Star Companion Vol. 1.
Green Lantern and the Flash are now honorary members because they have their own solo titles, but make cameo appearances to guard America’s scientific team while the full-time members “time out.”
No need to fret about time paradoxes in 1940s comic books. The Justice Society’s provide the Allies with a futuristic force beam that no bomb could penetrate, a gift that should have shortened the war considerably.
Yet oddly, it did not.
But in February 1942, the month that All-Star Comics 10 appeared on newsstands, an Allied task force of 14 vessels was defeated by a 19-vessel Japanese task force in the Battle of the Java Sea, with 2.300 sailors killed.
And in the so-called “Battle of Los Angeles,” more than 1,400 anti-aircraft shells were fired at some unidentified object over LA, and a wartime blackout of Southern California was ordered in consequence.
Early in the war, Americans were worried, and they had reason to be. One of the jobs of popular culture was to give them hope, which is just what All-Star 10 did.
Vincent Mariani said: While crude, there is a nice Art Deco poster quality to that cover.
ReplyDeleteMark Engblom wrote: The custom of the members with solo books being shifted off of active JSA duty seems crazily counter-intuitive by today's marketing standards. We're used to popular characters somehow being able to not only hold down one (or more!) solo books, but fully participate on a team as well! I wonder if that original policy had anything to do with that era's standards of modesty, in that too much attention on one person is never a good thing? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteAs for that ad, it's always amused me that someone completely forgot to give Hawkman pants...unless that's a summer outfit I know nothing about. 😉
Mark Englbom said: Maybe "All-Star" was considered the type of launching platform DC's "Showcase" would become during the Silver Age.
ReplyDeleteI think the only JSA-er to be present throughout the entire run was Hawkman, which writer/editor (and JSA Ur-Fan) Roy Thomas made sure to replicate in his "All-Star Squadron" series.
Rob Felber said: I believe Hawkman was also destined for his own magazine but was shut down due to paper rationing during World War 2.
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