April 1961: How the JLA Grew

Arrowcar, Arrowplane, Arrowcave, Arrow Signal. For every “Bat-This,” Green Arrow had an “Arrow-That.”

Copybat though he was, Green Arrow could introduce some improvements. For example, the Arrowcar launched Green Arrow and Speedy into the air spectacularly with its ejector seats. I used to wonder why the Batmobile wasn’t similarly equipped with Batapults.

“Green Arrow is certainly in the tradition of Batman, a costumed crime fighter with no super-powers, but with a lot of technological gimmicks,” observed comics historian Michael E. Grost.  “Unlike Batman, Green Arrow’s world is not grotesque or bizarre, and Green Arrow is not an alienated figure.”

Green Arrow and Batman were, however, similar enough that they could easily trade enemies. Take the Clock King, for example — a Green Arrow opponent in World’s Finest 111 (Aug. 1960) and a Batman villain a little later on TV, played with gleeful scenery-chewing gusto by Viennese character actor Walter Slezak, decked out in a showy black cape and a top hat with a clock on it.

In both his incarnations, the Clock King trapped the superheroes inside giant hourglasses.

But even though I wasn’t clamoring for Green Arrow to join the JLA when that event happened in Justice League of America 4 (April 1961), the prospect did excite me for another reason — it proved that the membership of such superhero groups could change. That opened up all kinds of possibilities for the imagination.

That was almost as exciting as what we’d learn later in Flash of Two Worlds (Flash 123, Sept. 1961) — that there existed another, earlier version of this superhero group, with some parallel characters and others we’d never heard of.

The mind reeled — or at least this child’s mind did.

The JLA adventure began trillions of miles out in space.