This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog resumes looking at the Justice Society’s revived series in the 1970s.
ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #70 (February 1978)
Title: A Parting of the Ways
Justice Society Roster: Wildcat, Star-Spangled Kid and the 2nd Huntress (Helena Wayne)
Villains: Strike Force
Synopsis: With most of the Justice Society leaving the team after the events of the previous issue, only Wildcat and the Star Spangled Kid are on hand to deal with a crime wave launched in Gotham by the new villains called the Strike Force.
Those villains are helmeted criminals known by numbers instead of names and led by the mysterious Number 1. Strike Force has over a score of members, and they wield high-tech weaponry and equipment.
Wildcat and the Kid are captured when they try stopping the villains from robbing a bank.
The Huntress, daughter of Earth-Two’s Bruce Wayne and the late Selena Kyle, saves the two heroes and joins the Justice Society.
ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #71 (April 1978)
Title: The Deadliest Game in Town
Villains: Strike Force
Synopsis: Wildcat, Star Spangled Kid and the Huntress continue their war with the Strike Force. Meanwhile, some superheroes who recently resigned from the Justice Society consider returning to the team.
When the three active JSAers finally defeat Strike Force and unmask Number 1, he turns out to be Arthur Pemberton. Arthur is the nephew of Star Spangled Kid, whose secret identity is Sylvester Pemberton III.
Arthur Pemberton, the son of Sylvester’s older brother, has been running the Pemberton family companies and has gone from unethical business practices to outright criminality.
ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #72 (June 1978)
Title: A Thorn by Any Other Name
Justice Society Roster: Wildcat, Power Girl, the 2nd Huntress, original Flash and original Green Lantern
Villains: Thorn, the original Huntress and her husband Sports Master
Synopsis: Power Girl, Flash and Green Lantern return to the Justice Society to stand alongside Wildcat and Huntress. Star Spangled Kid leaves the team to take over his family’s companies in his secret identity now that his nephew is going to prison for heading the Strike Force.
Thorn, one of the greatest yet most neglected supervillainesses of the Golden Age, returns, allied with Sports Master and his wife, the supervillaness who originally used the Huntress nom de guerre. Wildcat is fatally poisoned by one of Thorn’s weapons and lies near death.
NOTE: Thorn was a female scientist who controlled plant life and used many plant-oriented weapons long before Poison Ivy came along. Thorn was a Golden Age foe of Flash.
Flash, Green Lantern and Power Girl search for the still at-large Thorn to obtain a cure for Wildcat. Meanwhile, in Justice Society headquarters, the original Huntress attacks the new Huntress in a fight to the death for “rights” to the Huntress name.
ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #73 (August 1978)
Title: Be It Ever So Deadly
Villains: The Original Huntress, Sports Master and Thorn
Synopsis: At the Justice Society headquarters, the new Huntress pushes herself to her limits but prevails over the original Huntress. Power Girl, the original Flash, and the original Green Lantern defeat the Sports Master and Thorn, then have the latter provide a serum to save Wildcat’s life.
NOTE: Thorn was really the split personality of Green Lantern’s wife.
An ancient Egyptian entity called the Master Summoner “summons” Dr. Fate and informs him about a menace so powerful that Fate will need to gather every past and present JSA member to save the world.
ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #74 (October 1978)
Title: World on the Edge of Ending
Justice Society Roster: Dr. Fate, Hourman, Power Girl, Sandman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Star Spangled Kid, Johnny Thunder, Starman, 2nd Huntress, the original Superman, original Flash, original Green Lantern, original Robin, original Hawkman, original Atom and the original Wonder Woman (Diana Prince-TREVOR)
NOTE: This was the final issue of All Star Comics. The Justice Society’s 1979 adventures would be presented in the pages of Adventure Comics.
Dr. Fate assembles every Justice Society member that he can. Wildcat is recovering but is still unable to join the coming fight. The Spectre has relocated to Earth-One and is unavailable. The original female Red Tornado is still believed dead but is really living under a new identity in the Federal Witness Protection Program. I don’t know where Mr. Terrific is.
The Master Summoner sends the Justice Society forth to try to save Earth-Two from the bizarre threats unleashed by the mysterious menace. In the end, Dr. Fate pieces together the fact that the Master Summoner himself really IS the menace and he has been playing them all for suckers.
Fate improvises a strategy that lets the JSA defeat the Master Summoner once and for all.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Vol 1 #159 & 160 (October & November 1978)
Titles: Crisis from Yesterday and Crisis from Tomorrow
NOTE: These two issues presented the 1978 meeting of the Justice Society and the Justice League.
Justice Society Roster: Dr. Mid-Nite, Star Spangled Kid, Dr. Fate, the 2nd Huntress, original Flash, original Superman and original Wonder Woman (Diana Prince-TREVOR)
Justice League Roster: Elongated Man, 2nd Superman, 2nd Hawkman, 2nd Batman, 2nd Flash and 2nd Atom
Villains: Lord of Time, Jonah Hex, Miss Liberty, Enemy Ace, the Black Pirate and the Viking Prince
NOTE: This crossover story presented the first meeting between the 2nd Batman and the original Batman’s daughter the 2nd Huntress. He envies the original Batman for getting to be retired and for having a daughter, something he has always wanted.
Synopsis: The Justice League’s old enemy the Lord of Time plucks Jonah Hex and the others listed above from their long-ago places in the time stream. He then grants them super-powers and pits them against the JLA and JSA.
JUSTICE SOCIETY AND JUSTICE LEAGUE CROSSOVERS 1963-1969 HERE.
THE JUSTICE SOCIETY’S WORLD WAR TWO-ERA STORIES HERE.
FOR CANADA’S 1940s SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE.
OTHER DC SUPERHEROES OF THE 1940s HERE.
Balladeer's Blog 
Those were great comics, weren’t they?
Yes they were, with nice artwork!
DC et al missing out on a ready made group of supervillains – Trunk the Hipnoman, Blydenman the Blunderer, Disnal the Perverter, Gaytes the Omniscient, Musko the Pirateeer, Putinman the Plunderer; fem villains like The Squadron individually and as a united force for evil; Perilous Peloseye, Hillaree Hellforce, Witless Warrin, Horrible Harrus, Gretchid the Wiley, and on and on. A fine challenge to the storyboarders to come up with heroes to hold these villains in check. I believe I might frequent the pulp-lit store to see the results.
Hey, great ideas! Even if DC and Marvel don’t want those characters Bullwinkle and Rocky should be able to handle them! Always good hearing from you, buddy!
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Logged, thank you!
Another interesting comic book review. I mentioned already that I don’t have any interest in comic books but this sounds really intriguing to me. Batman is easily my favorite superhero of all time. I think what makes him so special is that he’s a human prone to face damage. I adore Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. For instance, I particularly loved the third movie in the series “The Dark Knight Rises”. It brought the franchise towards a satisfying conclusion. Not a perfect film but I really loved it. If you’re a fan of the hero, then this film is a must-see. Here’s why I recommend it:
Thank you very much! Those three Batman movies were very well done!