Justice Society of America #1
Published by: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Dale Eaglesham
Inker: Art Thibert
Colorist: Jeromy Cox
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Covers: Alex Ross & Dale Eaglesham
Assistant Editor: Harvey richards
Editor: Stephen Wacker & Eddie Berganza

39 pages
3 out of 5

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Premise: Three months after World War 3, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman convince Green (Alan Scott) Lantern, The (Jay Garrick) Flash, and Wildcat to put together a new Justice Society to give young heroes a “moral compass”.

Synopsis:

It’s three months after WWIII (does this have anything to do with Infinite Crisis? Do I really need to read that?). The DC3 (Supes, Bats, and WW), convince the three remaining original members of the Justice Society to put together a new group. What follows is a series of recruiting visits highlighting each of the new members. Meanwhile, the subplot brews when Mr. America’s family is killed and he tracks down the parties responsible.

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Review:

I know I complain a lot about first issues setting up the premise and not making with the action. This is not the case here. Johns gives us about a page of premise, then jumps right in with the Mr. America story, which is then interspersed with the JSA recruiting drive. As a result, there’s actually something going on while we’re getting acclimated to the cast and surroundings. Sure, the page count was bumped up a bit, but we got action with our intros, and that’s pretty sweet.

That being said, I’d still like to know a little more about the events leading up to this point. Someone coming into any issue, especially a first issue, should be able to implicitly know what’s going on due to some over-reaching mythology that’s been established for at least 50 years (i.e. Batman does what he does because he witnessed his parents killed in cold blood), or we should be let in on the little secrets. I don’t know anything about WWIII except for the picture on the first page of the JSA running away from an explosion. My question is, am I supposed to be clued in because of something that has happened recently in the continuity, or is everybody out of the loop at this point?

I know. I’m never satisfied.

Overall, it’s a good read, and I’m interested to find out what happens next. I’ve always felt as though I never paid enough attention to the golden age heroes. Maybe there are going to be too many changes here to get a decent feel, but I’ll give it a go.