JUSTICE SOCIETY: 1947 STORIES

For this weekend’s light-hearted, escapist blog post about superheroes, Balladeer’s Blog goes back to the Justice Society of America, this country’s very first superteam.

Years ago, I covered the early years of the JSA, from their first appearance in December 1940 up to their December 1945 issue, which wrapped up their World War Two tales with a look at disabled veterans. Earlier this summer I covered their 1946 stories. On to 1947.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #33 (February 1947)

Title: The Revenge of Solomon Grundy

JSA Roster: The 1st Wonder Woman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Johnny Thunder, the 1st Flash, 1st Hawkman, 1st Green Lantern and 1st Atom

Villain: Solomon Grundy

Synopsis: When a storm happens to free the simple-minded monster Solomon Grundy (think of the Hulk), he wants revenge on his usual foe the Green Lantern. Grundy trashes JSA headquarters after arriving there and not finding the Lantern or any of the other team members there. He then leaves to continue his rampage.

The Justice Society members battle Solomon Grundy at a newspaper building, a home near a farm, and at a cliffside house. The monster is then suckered in to helping a group of gangsters pull off bank robberies by pretending they know where the Green Lantern is hiding from him. 

While Grundy has been hunting him, the lone Green Lantern has been using his Power Ring to trail the monster and at last catches up with him. The other JSA members arrive during their battle to help take on Solomon Grundy.

After the team defeats the rampaging monster, they imprison him on the moon to keep the Earth safe from him. Grundy’s undead form never needs to eat, drink or breathe, so this solution is workable. 

I would substitute: Batman for Johnny Thunder.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #34 (April 1947)

Title: The Wiles of the Wizard

Villain: The Wizard (1st ever appearance)

Synopsis: A magically powered supervillain calling himself the Wizard shows up at Justice Society headquarters and challenges them to try stopping his upcoming crime spree.

The JSA members clash with him at a high society party he is trying to rob, ruin a financial fraud racket the Wizard is running, stop him from stealing experimental devices from two labs, and thwart his hijacking of a fur shipment.

For the final battle, the Wizard conjures up several monsters to take on the JSA, but the heroes prevail over them, too. The cornered Wizard then dives into a vat of acid to teleport away, leaving the Justice Society wondering if he was killed or managed to escape.

I would substitute: Superman for Johnny Thunder.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #35 (June 1947)

Title: The Day That Dropped Out of Time

Villain: Per Degaton (1st ever appearance)

NOTE: Because DC eventually retconned Per Degaton into being a Nazi supervillain, my revisions in the JSA’s World War Two era stories depicted him as the Nazi villain in a few stories. 

Synopsis: Laboratory worker Per Degaton uses a time machine to alter history so that he and his private army, which he kept secure outside the time stream, could conquer America.

Naturally, the JSA manages to stop the villain’s plan and restore things to normal, with the U.S. free from his control and his army defeated. 

I would substitute: Hourman for Johnny Thunder. 

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #36 (August 1947)

Title: Five Drowned Men

JSA Roster: The 1st Wonder Woman, 1st Batman, 1st Superman, 1st Flash, 1st Green Lantern, 1st Hawkman, plus Dr. Mid-Nite  

Villains: The Black Rider, Mister X, the Wrecker, the Grim Marauder and Professor Philpotts 

NOTE: This is the very first published story in which Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman appear together. * Also, this Mister X is not the same Mister X who fought the JSA in an early issue.

Synopsis: Six vacationing friends from college find the enchanted hidden river called Koehaha in the Colorado wilderness. Five of them seem to “drown” in the river’s waters but are actually transformed into supervillains by the Koehaha.

The sixth member avoids this fate and warns the Justice Society when his old friends run amok committing crimes. Our heroes stop the transformed men from their series of gold robberies, jewel thefts, the destruction of the nation’s skyscrapers, the looting of archeological relics and the kidnapping of a political candidate.

The seemingly innocent sixth man, Calvin Stymes, is revealed as the real mastermind, who knew what the Koehaha River would do to his friends, whom he wanted to discredit and then kill. The Justice Society confronts him and the other villains at the river, where he winds up crushed under a boulder during the battle.

The five transformed men are subjected to the Koehaha River’s waters again and are restored to normal.

Superman then uses a mountaintop to block the river from flowing on the surface anymore, keeping it subterranean.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #37 (October 1947)

Title: The Injustice Society of the World

JSA Roster: Dr. Mid-Nite, Johnny Thunder, the 1st Flash, 1st Hawkman, 1st Wonder Woman, 1st Green Lantern and 1st Atom 

Villains: The Injustice Society *1st team appearance* Brain Wave, the Wizard, Per Degaton, Vandal Savage, the Gambler and the Thinker

Synopsis: The Wizard assembles fellow JSA villains Brain Wave and Per Degaton as well as Green Lantern’s foes Vandal Savage and the Gambler, rounding out the team with Flash’s foe the Thinker. Calling themselves the Injustice Society they go into action.

With the Justice Society failing to stop them, the villains bust out criminals from prisons across the country, forming an army of conquest numbering in the millions. The Injustice Society use android duplicates of American military and political figures to complete their takeover of the United States.

They seize Washington D.C. and capture the entire Justice Society. Green Lantern manages to free his teammates and they defeat and arrest the villains in this new battle. 

I would substitute: Starman for Johnny Thunder.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #38 (December 1947)

Title: History’s Crime Wave

Villains: Animated wax figures

NOTE: This story is the original Black Canary’s very first appearance with the Justice Society.

Synopsis: When Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, the Atom, Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Flash and Johnny Thunder visit a wax museum they remark on an exhibit about historical villains. The exhibit includes Nero, Attila the Hun, Goliath, Genghis Khan, Cesare Borgia and Captain Kidd.

The JSA members remark that those baddies wouldn’t stand a chance up against heroes like them. A museum employee becomes VERY disgruntled over that comment and goes on to make and animate additional wax sculptures of those historical villains.

The employee sends the wax creations on a murder spree, prompting the puzzled Justice Society to go into action to stop the killings. Dr. Mid-Nite fails to stop Nero, the Atom is defeated by Goliath, Flash falls to Captain Kidd, Green Lantern to Cesare Borgia, and Hawkman to Genghis Khan.

Each hero was then murdered by the historical figures they lost to. When Johnny Thunder is outfought and killed by Attila the Hun, the superheroine called Black Canary happens by. With his dying breaths, Johnny tells Black Canary to go to JSA headquarters and join forces with Wonder Woman to stop the murderous villains.

The Canary does so, then she and Wonder Woman rush around in her invisible plane claiming the dead bodies of each slain superhero. Wonder Woman then flies herself, Black Canary and the corpses to the Paradise Island laboratory of Wonder Woman’s reformed foe Baroness Paula von Gunther.

The Baroness uses her super-science, boosted by Paradise Island magic to revive the dead JSA members. The heroes all return to the U.S., thank Black Canary for her help then go into action without her.

The JSA clash with the historical villains again, realize they are wax and destroy them. The “explosive wax” they are made of then blows up each fragment, subduing the Justice Society members.

When they come to, they are in the museum employee’s waxworks being encased in thicker and thicker layers of wax. The wax worker does a Villain Rant explaining his motives to the captive heroes.

A wax figure of Lucrezia Borgia enters the waxworks, frightening the villain. Lucrezia turns out to be the Black Canary in disguise. She had secretly been following the JSA for their rematch with the historical figures and then followed the museum worker back to his lab.

Black Canary frees the Justice Society members and defeats the wax worker. The grateful and impressed JSA welcome the Canary as their newest member.

I would substitute: Wildcat for Johnny Thunder.

FOR MY REVIEW OF THE 1960s TEAM-UP STORIES OF THE JUSTICE SOCIETY AND THE JUSTICE LEAGUE CLICK HERE.

FOR MY EXAMINATION OF CANADA’S GOLDEN AGE SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE.