Sunday, August 20, 2023

Sunday Splash Page #284

 
"Carry a Big Star Rod," in JSA All-Stars #10, by Matthew Sturges (writer), Freddie Williams II (artist), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer)

Justice Society seems like the Fantastic Four. It rarely can sustain two titles, but that won't stop their respective publishers from trying whenever they think they can get away with it. And so, JSA All-Stars, started up in 2010 because Justice Society of America's roster swelled to such ridiculous proportions DC needed two books to even pretend they might use them all.

As it is, there are members of this squad that get basically no focus in the 18 issues the book ran. Wildcat's kid, who was a cat-person and I think also codenamed Wildcat, for one. I can't remember much of anything happening with Judomaster. Sand showed up with some premonition dreams and kinda hung around. Hourman was starring in a back-up feature in the book with his wife, Liberty Belle (who stayed on the other roster), and that accounted for about 90% of him doing anything. It was still just too big of a roster for Sturges to give everyone a chance to demonstrate what they brought to the table.

As this was one of those times where DC gets a hard-on for Kingdom Come, Magog was co-leader with Power Girl - for about 5 issues. Then he decided they were being too soft on criminals and stormed off to be an antisocial dick and hopefully get erased from history. But, pages wasted on a character that apparently wasn't going to stick.

The book didn't even long enough to be canceled by the New 52, as it was one of a handful of titles canceled three months earlier to clear space for various Flashpoint-related mini-series. An ignominious end if I've ever seen one.

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