JUSTICE SOCIETY: 1950 AND 1951 STORIES

For this weekend’s light-hearted, escapist blog post about superheroes, Balladeer’s Blog looks at the 1950 and 1951 issues of America’s very first superteam in comic books – the Justice Society. These are their final Golden Age stories. 

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #51 (February 1950)

Title: Invaders from the World Below

Justice Society Roster: The 1st Wonder Woman, Dr. Mid-Nite, 1st Flash, 1st Black Canary, 1st Green Lantern, 1st Atom and 1st Hawkman 

Villains: The Diamond People (should be Diamonoids)

Synopsis: In Civic City, a geyser erupts from nowhere and a nearby lake drains underground, leaving it bone dry. The Justice Society are deployed to both locations to save lives at those disaster sites.

After that, the government briefs the team about a top secret project which has been drilling deep down into the Earth. A scientist named Charles Crillion advised against doing this because he theorized the existence of a race of diamond-hard beings who would view the drilling as a hostile act.

The Diamond People apparently have reacted the way Crillion predicted, using their seismic technology to cause the geyser and the draining of the lake. The government sought advice from Crillion, but he has been abducted by the Diamond People.

In the days ahead, the Justice Society members clash with armies of Diamond People, whose hard bodies protect them from nearly all damage and who use gem-rays against their foes. After causing multiple earthquakes and multiple volcanoes to erupt in populated areas, the subterranean people begin constructing their own city above ground.

Charles Crillion is sent to JSA headquarters, to advise humanity to surrender. The Diamond People used their technology to turn Crillion into a diamonoid himself, as they plan to do with those few humans they deem worthy of living.

Broadcasts from the Diamond People follow, but luckily Justice Society observations of Charles Crillion’s altered body reveal a weakness of the Diamonoids. The beings are vulnerable to certain sonic vibrations which can shatter their bodies.

Our heroes improvise ways of using such sonic vibrations against the invaders, forcing them to retreat back under ground, presumably for good since humanity now knows their weakness. Earth science eventually restores Charles Crillion’s body to normal, too.

I would substitute: Superman for the Atom. 

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #52 (April 1950)

Title: The Secret Conquest of the Earth

Villains: The Four Kings

Synopsis: The Justice Society is summoned to the site of an archeological dig in the jungle. In a cavern that has been sealed away for an untold amount of time, the glass-encased bodies of four men with crowns have been discovered.

Archeological opinion is that these are the legendary Four Kings whose powers of mind control let them rule the entire planet in the distant past. By unknown means they were defeated and imprisoned in suspended animation.

The Four Kings escape their glass prison and battle the JSA. Our heroes are defeated and left in the re-sealed cave as prisoners while the kings set forth to once again take over the Earth.

By the time the Justice Society members overcome their telepathic restraints and escape the cave, each of the Four Kings have conquered part of the Earth by mesmerizing entire populations. The four separate kingdoms have begun wars of expansion.

Our heroes fight the armies of the Four Kings around the globe. One King has taken over South America but the Justice Society nips his plan to invade North America in the bud.

The King who has taken over Europe has already launched his war and has been helping his army by using his powers to make opposing troops march into bodies of water to die. This war, too, is stopped by the JSA.   

A third King is attempting to plunge the entire Middle East into war, but once again, the Justice Society is able to avert Armageddon. The fourth King has seized America but his planned campaign is thwarted by our heroes.

All four Kings escaped but the JSA traces them to their new lair, where the villains have forced their enthralled underlings to gather nuclear materials and construct missiles. The Four Kings plan to start a nuclear war and then conquer what’s left of the world in the aftermath.

Dr. Mid-Nite devises a plan which our heroes successfully use to defeat and destroy the Four Kings, thus saving the Earth.

I would substitute: Dr. Fate for Green Lantern.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #53 (June 1950)

Title: The Gun That Dropped Through Time

Villain: Eric Pomar and the Swanley Gun

Synopsis: At a convention for inventors a scientist named Alvin Swanley is murdered and an obvious scapegoat is being railroaded by the courts.

The Justice Society members get involved and learn that no other scientists have been able to figure out what the invention that Swanley brought to the convention does. Deeper investigation shows that the device functions as a “time chute” down which the weapon that killed Swanley was likely tossed.

The time chute leads the JSA to discover that even the weapon was invented by the murder victim. That Swanley Gun is so futuristic it can even let its wielder take on our heroes. The Justice Society goes on a chase through time, having to try to take the gun from historical figures like Tamerlane, Attila the Hun and Spartacus to prevent the course of history from being changed.

In the end the Swanley Gun falls into the hands of Queen Atlantea of ancient Atlantis before it was submerged. This battle finally ends with the gun in our heroes’ hands.   

Back in 1950, the scapegoat for Alvin Swanley’s murder is cleared when the real killer, Erik Pomar (at right) is exposed. He killed Swanley and has been plundering his assorted high-tech inventions.

Pomar uses the advanced weaponry he just stole against the Justice Society, but he dies during the battle. 

I would substitute: Hourman for the Atom.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #54 (August 1950)

Title: Circus of a Thousand Thrills

Villains: The Circus of Thrills

Synopsis: The police call in the Justice Society when crime waves that have struck throughout the nation can be traced to a traveling circus called the Circus of a Thousand Thrills. Our heroes visit that circus at its current location.

In the Funhouse of Mirrors, the JSA face high-tech death traps like the Marvel villain Arcade uses. Naturally, the heroes survive the traps and set out to arrest the circus members as they pull off their latest crimes.   

Circus of Thrills criminals are nabbed by Justice Society members in the act of stealing a priceless painting from a cruise ship, using circus animals to steal furs and jewels from opera patrons, and robbing a museum.

Next, the circus’ mastermind, the Man with a Mechanical Brain and its 9 feet tall strongman are arrested while stealing a miniature orchestra. It looks like all of the Circus of Thrills criminals will go free when several witnesses can give each of them alibis for the time the crimes were committed.

Hawkman reveals that each of the circus members have an identical twin sibling, who provided the crooks with their alibis by pretending to be them at other locations. The circus members and their twins all fight the JSA with military-issue weapons but are defeated. 

I would substitute: Sandman for Dr. Mid-Nite.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #55 (October 1950)

Title: The Man Who Conquered the Solar System

Villains: The People from the Green Star

Synopsis: When UFOs are sighted near the home of prominent scientist Elwood Napier, who then disappears, the Justice Society is called in to investigate.

Napier left behind a recording stating that he was abducted and taken to Jupiter by aliens from the (fictional) Solar System of the Green Star. He included instructions for how the JSA could use their powers to build an interstellar vessel like the kind used by the Green Star aliens to come and rescue him.

Arriving on Jupiter our heroes save the giant humanoids who live there from the Green Star aliens. (It’s a 1950s comic book. Just go with it.) The JSA learns from the Jovians that Bakeelu, leader of the Green Star people, plans to conquer Earth’s entire solar system.

Bakeelu’s study of Earth showed him that our planet had too many superbeings to risk a war with, so he had his forces abduct Earth’s most brilliant scientist, Elwood Napier, to help Green Star scientists build a weapon powerful enough to simply destroy Earth completely.

The Justice Society flies to Mars, where, in the Red Jungle region, Bakeelu is having the superweapon constructed using Martian primates as slave labor. The JSA clashes with the Green Star aliens and the red primates.

Bakeelu eludes them and fires his weapon after it is completed. While Bakeelu was distracted by commanding his forces in battle against the Justice Society, our heroes adjusted the aim of the weapon to instead destroy the home planet of Bakeelu and his armies, not Earth.

The Green Star aliens leave our solar system for good, and the JSA free Elwood Napier and take him with them back to Earth. 

I would substitute: Starman for Green Lantern.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #56 (December 1950)

Title: The Day the World Ended

Villains: The Chameleon Race

Synopsis: The people of 31st Century Earth are peaceful and too meek to deal with the invasion of a race of shape-shifting aliens called the Chameleons. The aliens, led by Knelo, have been plundering and ravaging the world at will.

Scientists of the 31st Century use time-travel technology to pull the Justice Society into the future to save Earth from the merciless Chameleons. Our heroes are eager to help and launch a series of attacks on the aliens.

The JSA triumphs over the aliens and their advanced technology in every battle, but Knelo escapes every time by impersonating assorted Earthlings. At length Knelo and his remaining forces demand that the nations of 31st Century Earth surrender or face destruction.

Instead, in one final battle, the Justice Society defeat all of the Chameleons and alter their space ships to take the aliens 1,100 Light Years away from the Earth. Our heroes are sent back to the 20th Century with the gratitude of the 30th.

I would substitute: The Spectre for Green Lantern.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #57 (February 1951)

Title: The Mystery of the Vanishing Detectives

Villain: The Key

NOTE: The Justice Society went out on a low note with this bland, low-stakes adventure which was their last appearance during the Golden Age. 

Synopsis: Four great detectives from around the world are abducted while investigating baffling crimes. The JSA takes action and learns that the kidnappings were all masterminded by an international criminal organization led by a costumed supervillain calling himself the Key.

In London, our heroes solve the Key’s brilliant bank robbery which he and his gang pulled off. The underlings are beaten and arrested, but the Key escapes. In Paris, the Key had led his gang in stealing the stone gargoyles from Notre Dame Cathedral. Again, the JSA solves the crime and nabs all the crooks except the Key.

In the fictional Middle Eastern nation of Kasdan, the Key and his thugs stole the Emir’s golden birthday present. Once more the Justice Society catches all the criminals except the Key himself before they can flee in their escape sub.

Back in the U.S. our heroes solve the theft of a tycoon’s priceless work of concept art and capture the thieves, but not their boss the Key. Next, the Justice Society locates the abducted detectives and exposes the Key as Inspector Drew Dawes, who pretended to be one of the kidnapping victims to hide the fact that he himself is the Key.

The Key tries to escape again, but ultimately chooses to jump to his death rather than be captured by the JSA. 

I would substitute: Batman for Dr. Mid-Nite.

NOTE: And that was it for the appearances of the Justice Society of America until 1963 and the very first crossover with their younger counterparts on an alternate Earth – the Justice League of America.

In February of 1976, DC Comics revived the JSA series in the pages of All Star Comics, resuming the numbering with #58. 

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.