I've been a bit Marvel-centric these past two posts, which is unusual, since even in my initial postings, I have outlined my slight inclinations towards the DC Universe. (Again, excluding most of the New 52. And also the uninspired animated features inspired by such "grand changes". Lemme put it this way: if you can even screw up a Batman story in "Batman and Son", and mess with your prime company cash cow, maybe the current status quo isn't working as well as you'd like...) As I have mentioned in the Teams episode of the suspended GGTMComics podcast, my absolute favorite comic book team is the Justice League of America. Like all superhero teams, they all have their various iterations. But at least up until the first Crisis... and the well-deservedly forgotten Detroit team era... while some JLA members shifted around, they did remain consistent. And for a boy who grew up loving the "Super Friends" animated adventures, and was fascinated by the "Super Powers" figure line, it would stand to reason that even later in my collecting life, my JLA fond spot would be the so-called "Satellite Era" from about 1970-mid-80's. (Because not even outer space wanted the "job squad" the Martian Manhunter was stuck with... Only in Detroit...)
Wet. Fart. Noise.
Now compare that to the general majesty of the Satellite Era League:
How can you beat this line-up? Admittedly this picture is a bit off-representation: J'onn J'onzz was pretty much MIA for the most part, Firestorm was introduced to the team in the early 80's, I'm not seeing the Atom in that picture... along with Hawkwoman. (Yes, she was a substitute member, since... nepotism wasn't allowed on the team. Personally, I would've rather have chosen Shiera Hall to be part of the team over her wet-blanket of a husband Carter. And that's not just because of the hotness of redheads...) But you still have a lot of familiar touchstones: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash. This team also gave us our first taste of "social crusader" Green Arrow... with a great goatee and better costume.
This team also gave us the Earth 1 introduction of Black Canary... and by proxy giving her those sonic cry powers! I also associate this era for a few other grand highlights:
- Some of the best Justice Society of America crossover stories in the history of the team
- A near-consistent run by Dick Dillin as series artist... Who I feel doesn't get enough recognition as a solid contributor to the series' legacy
- A legitimate shift from the interchangeable personalities of the Gardner Fox written JLA to members having their own voices. Maybe not always the most sensible... (Let's not talk about the time Batman had feelings for Black Canary, despite her being attached to Green Arrow for a brief string of stories)... but you couldn't mistake one character for another
That being said, I don't look at this period with completely rose-tinted glasses, and can recognize certain faults:
- Unless they were fighting the "big gun" villains for certain stories, a majority of their tales featured largely forgettable threats
- When Wonder Woman went through her de-powered phase for a stretch of time... yes, Black Canary was there to fill in the feminine gap of the team, and that just sounded TERRIBLE... a lot of the adventures were pretty much "sausage fests"
- As much as I enjoy Zatanna, her JLA tenure did her NO FAVORS for fashion. Give me a top hat, alluring magician's costume, and fishnets over... Whatever the heck this is:
- Red Tornado... Ah... If there's one scapegoat I have for a lot of this period, it's directed towards "Reddy". Basically, take the Vision, but give him serious competency hang-ups, a bit of a whining streak, and an apparent competition with Zatanna over who had the worst outfit, and you have a character that while I recognized his contributions to the team, he was FAR from my favorite member.
That all being said, I think this period of the JLA can be best described as occasionally goofy, but still very much GRANDIOSE. This was the team that felt like it was the primary defense against any threat no single DC hero could tackle on its own. Hell, another bonus of this period was that it was part of the 70's "100 Page" initiative, so in those issues, you got an original story, plus some neat JLA and JSA reprints for the page count! And it was also in this period that we got one of the greatest anniversary issues ever written in comic-dom:
... But that's another story for another blog entry!
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