But the Royal Flush Gang struck me as a rare misdeal by writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky. People dressed up like playing cards never seemed like they should be much of a menace when pitted against the immensely formidable Justice League of America.
This playing-card pack was the creation of the portly Prof. Amos Fortune, who had attacked the Justice Leaguers’ “luck glands” (?) in Justice League of America 6 (August–September 1961). Fortune turned his childhood criminal cronies into the Royal Flush Gang in Justice League 43 (March 1966), and played the same cards again in Justice League 54 (June 1967).
The latter issue actually has an intriguing setup, with Hal Jordan mugged, hospitalized, comatose and close to death. Only his invisible power ring (which had a standing order to automatically protect him from mortal harm) was keeping him from death — temporarily.
Also on the plus side was Sid Greene inking Sekowsky, a team that produced what I regard as some of the best-looking issues of the JLA in the 1960s.
By then, you could see from DC’s promotional page that the company was hearing Stan Lee hot on its heels, coming up fast from behind. The whole “what’s up Tiger Lily” tone of their pitch for this issue is a somewhat strained imitation of Lee’s breezy, cheeky editorial voice.
The Martian Manhunter was then slowly being eased out of the DC universe. His solo feature would soon be discontinued (House of Mystery 173, May–June 1968). And the Manhunter would appear only twice more in new JLA adventures before issue 71, when Denny O’Neil would banish him to outer space with other surviving Martians.
The JLA always seemed a bit deflated for me after J’onn J’onzz left. In retrospect, it was one of those milestones marking the end of the Silver Age.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteI think the *concept* of a gang composed of face cards from a classic deck of cards was cool, but the execution never made them into anything approaching cool. They were pretty much the DC version of Marvel's Circus of Crime. Prime candidates for filler issues.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteDC seemed to have a much greater affinity for elaborately themed or gimmick-driven villains. In the case of Flash's rogue's gallery, that worked out spectacularly well. For other superheroes....not so much.
I remember thinking how silly Hi-Jack in the Secret Society was. He had a gun that shot....playing cards. To what avail?
ReplyDeleteChad Vaughn wrote:
ReplyDeleteThey look great though, and that's half the battle, maybe more.
Bruce Kanin wrote:
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Both issues were lousy, as well as the villains. If the remains of my pubescent memory serves, these second tale featured a lot of the Queen’s buttocks.
As for poor J’onn, one of my favorite superheroes, he should’ve found his way to Marvel, as DC done him wrong.
Eduardo Duran wrote:
ReplyDeleteEven the Joker called them copycats when he confronted them in issue 5 of his 70’s comic.
Salvatore Marlow wrote:
ReplyDeleteI guess the Royal Flush Gang just wasn’t suited for the job. 🤣
James M. Benavides wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe animated series version of these guys was excellent; particularly the finale with Ace.
Rod Mollise wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe League has changed a lot over the years. That is one of its strengths. The Royal Flush Gang? Over the years they evolved from a rather silly idea into a very credible bunch of bad actors. 😉
Joel Finkle wrote:
ReplyDeleteThey were always effective in the animated series
Adam Strom wrote:
ReplyDeleteMy nine year old brain really liked the Royal Flush Gang. And I enjoyed their revival in the “Timm-verse” Justice League.
George Daniels wrote:
ReplyDeleteBruce Kanin, completely agree. The Royal Flush Gang even sounded like something out of Don Knotts comedy western. J'onn ranked right up there with Hawkman as my all-time favorite JLA members.
Bill Harrington wrote:
ReplyDeleteBruce, I suspect that J’onn’s banishment had other issues behind it: his powers were similar to Superman, and Supes was now one of the JLA stars; and he had additional powers that made him difficult to write around.
But really, they just failed to see his potential.
As with Jack of Hearts over at Marvel, one HAS to wonder how artists felt about drawing these characters with HOPELESSLY complex and detailed costume elements. . . Same for the colorists, for that matter. . .
ReplyDeleteMichael Christiansen wrote:
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you about how the JLA and the DCU in general changed without J’onn J’onzz around!
Mark Mills wrote:
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten all about Amos Fortune. Doubt if he'll show up in the movies
Bob Ruprecht wrote:
ReplyDeleteVery informative summary and agree completely re Sekowsky/Greene and the fate of J’onn J’onzz. 👍👍
Vincent Mariani wrote:
ReplyDeleteAs far as JLA artwork goes, I was okay with the first couple of dozen Sekowsky/Sachs efforts, and agree that when Greene took over the inking, the artwork improved after the original duo began turning in too many lackluster pages. But, throughout the Silver Age, bad JLA artwork outweighed the good. Problematic Sekowsky was supplanted by stiff Dillin, inked at first by Greene, followed by a series of inkers unable to jack up Dillin's ungainly pencils. At least, that's ow I see it.
Gene Popa wrote:
ReplyDeleteSekowsky must have regretted those intricate costume designs, which he had to draw repeatedly throughout the book. No wonder he put the last two in white unitards. 🙂
Cheryl Spoehr wrote:
ReplyDeleteI am glad that someone else feels the exact same way that I did about the "Royal Flush Gang"...first,there was the name."Winning hand" might have been better...if you EVER say "flush" to pre teen boys...you will regret it. I did like the way they had maintained a friendship over the years,from punk days to adulthood. That was very good, as was their seeing their fat but smart friend as the leader. The fact that these ordinary small-time crooks COULD TAKE ON THE WHOLE JLA AND ALMOST WIN shows what kind of world these comic books presented. I like the idea that someone could be just a regular "I hate my job" kinda person, then have super powered adventures (straight or crooked) with nothing in-between, that was what I liked. I also knew who the leader would be,even tho they challenged us to guess... it seemed obvious. Always liked Amos Fortune. But they have gone to the well too often, how many different forms of occult energy are there? Starman gets his from the stars, the costumes of the Royal Flush Gang give them very ill-defined powers... then there are the auras used by Kanjar Ro....geez,how many weird energies are there? Fox created a world whose "science" is like in Futurama "Really, this is the most unscientific "science" I have ever seen!" ...too little too late. And I totally agree about the loss of J'onn J'onzz, very much an anchor of the early silver age, now less then a filler...and the whole superhero idea would collapse soon.... the "Royal Flush Gang" marked an end to my idea of what D.C.comics should be...sigh....
Daniel R Brazee wrote:
ReplyDeleteI preferred later versions where 10 was a cute girl. They really didn't need two big guys who look almost identical and honestly the justice league are way too powerful for them.
Edward Lee Love wrote:
ReplyDeleteI think I've mentioned before, I like the idea of the Royal Flush Gang. There aren't may themed villain groups other than the henchmen of a mastermind. But they didn't seem really consistent in how they were portrayed and who the team members were. This happened a couple of times with certain villains, each appearance they seemed like a different character.
Michael Barham wrote:
ReplyDeleteGood luck glands? I remember briefly pondering this in my mind, reading JLA #6 as an 8 year old…then just going with it.