Justice League of America - Issue 21
Featuring the twin menaces of dimension-hopping crime trios and foundational crises
The Justice League (aka the Justice League of America, aka the JLA, aka Justice League International, aka Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)) is a collection of the DC Universe's greatest heroes (and also Green Arrow).
I talked about why I love the JLA in this piece here. Now I’m breaking down each and every issue of the comic book, from their very first appearance, with Atom-sized summaries. Enjoy!
Oh, bloody hell! Strap in. Here we go. This is the big one. The two-part crossover with the Justice Society of America. Over the course of DC comics publishing history, their go-to move has been to thrust their heroes into various Crises (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Crisis on Earth C-Minus, Final Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Identity Crisis, Dark Crisis, Crisis on Kris Kristofferson, etc) and see what happens. And this issue here is where it all began - Crisis on Earth-One. Despite the convolution these crossovers would eventually embrace, this first so-called crisis is a simple enough story. A trio of villains who have embarrassingly taken to calling themselves the Crime Champions (Felix Faust (master of magic), Chronos (master of time) and Dr Alchemy (master of outdated scientific principles)) inexplicably announce to the JLA they’re going to commit some crimes, but then disappear just as they’re about to be caught? Why? Because they’ve teamed up with another trio of criminals (The Wizard, The Icicle and The Fiddler (a villain name from a more innocent era)) from the parallel world of Earth-2, on which the Justice Society of America reside. The respective villainous trios then swap Earths, which somehow allows the Earth-2 villains to defeat the Justice League. Humiliated beyond belief (I mean, for goodness sake, The Icicle is basically just a nefarious chest freezer), they contact their JSA counterparts for help. This is sufficiently mortifying that the issue ends, but is also to be continued, so that they have a month or so to gather themselves!
Fun With Comics!
MVP
It’s Superman, who, despite teaming up with Green Arrow, still has the common decency to pretend that Ollie is contributing to this crook pursuit. ‘Oh, yes, mate. Thank goodness that your little trick arrows are here to help augment my flight, super-strength, invulnerability, heat vision, super-speed, super-breath, x-ray vision, super-hearing, super-ventriloquism, …’
Top Panel
Having said that, Green Arrow does speak for all loyal readers when he embraces the absence of Snapper Carr from this issue.
Villain Cryptic Crossword Clue
This villainous trio rips cocaine? Hmm. Wild. (5, 8)More JLA adventures next Wednesday!