BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #166

As we mentioned yesterday, this issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA was the first in the title’s long history not to be edited and overseen by Julie Schwartz. Julie had innovated the series in 1960 and had stayed with it for 19 years. But for the first time, somebody else was at the wheel. That somebody was Ross Andru, a longtime artis who’d been hired on by DC as an editor. Ross was there to shake up Julie’s long-running series such as THE FLASH, in an attempt to modernize them to appeal more to the tastes of people in 1979. His tenure at DC wasn’t all that long, and it was fraught with difficulties as I understand things. (Organization wasn’t one of Ross’s strengths, it turned out.) But he definitely made an impact on the titles he took over. As a reader, I had no idea that this transition had taken place, as on the surface of things, this looked just like every other issue of JLA that I’d ever read.

This storyline got a second lease on life decades later, when novelist Brad Meltzer used it as key backstory in his status-quo-toppling IDENITY CRISIS series in the early 2000s. For myself as a reader, this was an exciting story because it picked up on dangling plot threads from one of my favorite cancelled titles of the era, SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS. As that book reached its end, the Society had journeyed to Earth-2 in an attempt to defeat the Justice Society of America by taking its members down one by one. But that had remained an unfinished cliffhanger since then. Now, we got a bit of a resolution, albeit one that was tossed off in a couple of panels. But that still pleased me. And I was invested in the Society members as a villainous group, so having them back and taking on the JLA was of immediate interest to me.

On the surface, this issue looked very much like the ones that came before it. It was written by Gerry Conway, who’d taken over the book in issue #151 and would continue to shepherd it for years to come, and illustrated by Dick Dillin, who’d come on with issue #64 and remained in place right up to his unfortunate passing after completing #183. So it was a title that still displayed some of the consistency of creative vision that DC had been known for, even if Dillin’s work wasn’t always to the tastes of every fan. But this had been the look of the title since I had started reading, so everything seemed on the surface to be “right”. This is what JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA was supposed to look like and read like.

The story opens picking up on the events of the prior issue, as the League attends funeral rites for Zatanna’s lost mother Sindella. Meanwhile, the Red Tornado, who had been left behind on JLA Satellite monitor duty is growing restless. But suddenly, the transporter tube activates all by himself, and Reddy is floored almost instantly by the arrivals: the Secret Society of Super-Villains. They don’t bother to kill Reddy (despite Professor Zoom wanting to) because they have more pressing problems: the Society had fled from Earth-2 into a void in which they spend half a year trapped, and even though their bodies have escaped it, their souls are still trapped there, and will expire shortly. That is, unless the Society can get their hands on a mystic artifact that the Wizard knows of and transplant their souls into new bodies. So that’s what they set off to do.

But the Society’s unauthorized use of the transporter tube sets off an alarm, and this brings the JLA running back. They’re able to see to the Red Tornado’s wounds and Zatanna is able to use her magic to identify the intruders as the Society members. Batman is able to divine the Society’s location based on them having left the Satellite’s computer banks tuned to the image of the statue that they’re seeking–nice job, world’s greatest detective! So the team transports down near Tel Aviv, where they trace the statue to a nearby archaeological dig site. The reason that it’s been moved is, frankly, nonsense, and Batman swiftly deduces that the head of the dig, Raban, is actually the Wizard himself in disguise.

But this just leads to the Society members leaping out of concealment and hurling themselves at the Leaguers, determined to defeat them. As the fight scene begins, the Wizard implores his comrades in mysterious fashion not to kill any of the League members, which seems on the surface to be an odd thing for him to say. Even so, the Society’s sneak attack works, and they’re able to defeat their Justice league opponents in the space of a page or two. But now the Society’s real job begins.

Having already taken possession of the needed Griffin statue, the Wizard begins to cast the spell needed to save the villains’ souls from oblivion by implanting them into the bodies of the defeated Leaguers. And as the issue comes to a To Be Continued close, that’s exactly what happens! Now, the Wizard, Blockbuster, Professor Zoom, the Floronic Man and Star Sapphire are for all intents and purposes Superman, Batman, Green lantern, Zatanna and Wonder Woman!

And this issue also included a new installment of the weekly Daily Planet promotional page, which included as usual a new short comic strip from cartoonist Fred Hembeck. It’s another dopey gag, but fun nonetheless.