Comic Info
Comic Name: Justice Society of America (Volume 2)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Bill Willingham/Matthew Sturges
Artist: Jesus Merino
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2010
Justice Society of America (2) #29
Reprints Justice Society of America (2) #29-33 (September 2009-January 2010). When the Justice Society discovers their base watchdog Obsidian has been nullified and they are targeted by a group of supervillains put together to destroy them, the JSA realizes that they could have reached the end days. The danger of the villains outside the team might not be the only threat. Within the team is a growing rift about how the team should be handled and what the goals of the JSA are…but someone in the team might not be just what they seem!
Written by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges, Justice Society of America: The Bad Seed follows Justice Society of America: Black Adam and Isis. The collection features art by Jesus Merino who takes over for James Robinson who was writing and illustrating the book’s last story arc.
The Justice Society has always been about family…to a ridiculous point. First you have to believe that all these characters are descendants (or have descendants) that are superhuman and the second factor you have to consider is that they are good. In Justice Society of America: The Bad Seed, it comes back to bite the JSA big-time.
There are two storylines going in the collection. The one storyline involves the mysterious attack of a group of supervillains who have been hired to hurt the JSA but not to hurt Stargirl. The question of why isn’t really resolved in this volume. You have the characters getting in repeated fights with minimal success, but both times, the throw-down is ended by Dr. Fate (which seems a bit like a cop-out to me the second time).
Justice Society of America (2) #30
The second storyline involves betrayal within the JSA which leads to two different ideologies. The storyline is a bit of a Columbo-esque mystery. You already know who attacks Mr. Terrific, but you have to question why. It leads to a rift between the JSA who believe in the inherited “family” aspect of the team vs. Magog’s view that the JSA is like a mini-army. Magog is painted as kind of the destroyer in the book, but he’s generally right throughout the course of both stories.
Geoff Johns’ run on JSA was a great run. He managed to capture the fun and experience of an ’80s team comic and combined it with slightly more modern storytelling techniques. Willingham and Sturges did amazing things with Fables, but it feels like they are just kind of finding their feet here. The problem is that the comic book market is awful tough and creators don’t have a lot of time to hook their readers without the threat by publishers to shut them down. Justice Society of America has direction, but it needs to really be focused…and I hope it will happen. Justice Society of America: The Bad Seed is followed by Justice Society of America: Axis of Evil.
Related Links:
Justice Society of America: The Next Age
