Society Dame: Justice Society of America #8

Previously...

Justice Society of America #8 is written by Len Strazewski with pencils by Grant Miehm, inks by Rich Buckler, and a cover by Tom Lyle featuring Black Canary and Solomon Grundy.  The series is edited by Brian Augustyn along with Mike Gold, who edited Black Canary's miniseries, her ongoing series, and her first arc in Action Comics Weekly.  The issue is cover dated August 1991 and hit the shelves in June.

"Vengeance from the Stars Chapter 8: Battle of the Stars" opens with the heroes Green Lantern, The Flash, Hawkman, and Black Canary beset by Vandal Savage dressed as the Egyptian Prince Cheops and a trio of constellation monsters composed of energy.  Except the monsters aren't in their normal mythic form; they look like characters out of television.  And Vandal Savage isn't happy about their new appearance.  Perhaps he doesn't wield as much control over these beings as he made it seem.

Vandal Savage uses the Cosmic Rod he took from Ted Knight to command the energy monster that looks straight out of I Love Lucy to attack Green Lantern.  While Black Canary helps Alan Scott get back to his feet, The Flash speeds around the energy monsters, drawing their attention away from his friends.

The racist caricature of a Native American constellation monster starts a rain dance type of thing before attacking Flash.  Hawkman and his friend, William Wildeagle, scoff at the offensive depiction of one of William's people, and neither of them have the situational awareness to recognize Savage's hired goons creeping up on them with guns.

Eventually, the Joe DiMaggio/Babe Ruth monster nails Green Lantern with his bat, and the "I Love Lucy" monster gets a good shot on The Flash.  It takes the wind and some of his own awareness out of him.

Hawkman barely manages to get an attack on the Indian monster, but it has little effect.  As Savage's goons capture Will Wildeagle, the Justice Society members are surrounded by the constellations which change shape again, this time back to their animal forms.

Before his beasts can finish off the heroes, Savage is confronted by Ted Knight who rises from his wheelchair brandishing a newly created Cosmic Rod of his own.

While Ted fights Savage, Wildeagle disarms his captors and turns the table on the hired goons.

With a lot more practice and expertise with the Cosmic Rod, Starman is able to destroy Vandal Savage's weapon and then the tools he stole from the Gotham Museum, effectively stripping the immortal tyrant from any control over the constellations.

Then Starman turns his attention to the energy beasts and uses the power of his Cosmic Rod to batter at the three otherworldly beasts.

Starman and Green Lantern contain the monsters, the Flash destabilizes the pyramidal structure that Savage erected, and Hawkman flies into the observatory to redirect the telescope.  All of this draws the constellation monsters into the same energy portal that shoots them back up to the stars where they belong.

But what can Black Canary do in this situation?  Defense.

In desperation, Vandal Savage grabs Starman's Cosmic Rod.  Solomon Grundy grabs Vandal Savage. The result is they both end up cast into the heavens with the star monsters, and the heroes rejoice.

Ted Knight confesses that he, too, feared change and ran away from his duty with the Justice Society of America.  He doesn't want to completely forget his normal life at the observatory, but he requests to be reinstated as a member of the JSA if the others consent.  They wholeheartedly do, and the issue ends with them watching television.

That's all for this miniseries, but Len Strazewski and artist Mike Parobeck returned for a second Justice Society series a year later.  Black Canary didn't appear in that series; I think it took place chronologically after she left Earth 2 to join the Justice League of America.

Overall thoughts on this story: It was mostly good.  The different artists were a bit of a hindrance on my enjoyment.  Parobeck was stellar and Miehm was pretty good, so it was fortunate that they drew five of the eight chapters.  More than art inconsistencies, though, I think the big problem with this story is the villains are boring.  I have never cared about Vandal Savage, but this story in particular didn't make him charismatic or even very scary.  And the energy monsters attacking the heroes were both emotionless and flat, as well as repetitive.

What worked was that I like the characters in this book.  Obviously, I love Black Canary, and Hawkman is one of my favorites, although I don't like him in the yellow luchador mask he wears in this series.  I also love Starman and his connection to Dinah, and Green Lantern and Flash both have some nice interactions with her.  This wasn't a great series, but it was fun when the heroes got to play off each other.

The End

Society Dame: Justice Society of America #7

Previously...

Justice Society of America #7 is written by Len Strazewski with pencils by Grant Miehm, inks by Rich Buckler, and a cover by Tom Lyle featuring Black Canary and Solomon Grundy.  The series is edited by Brian Augustyn along with Mike Gold, who edited Black Canary's miniseries, her ongoing series, and her first arc in Action Comics Weekly.  The issue is cover dated August 1991 and hit the shelves in June.

Miehm previously pencilled the Black Canary-focused second issue of the series, which looked pretty great.  That bodes much better for this issue than the last chapter by Tom Artis.

"Vengeance from the Stars Chapter 7: The Return of the Justice Society" opens with Green Lantern Alan Scott and Black Canary happening upon the nefarious Vandal Savage and his undead henchman Solomon Grundy just before they destroy the heroes' compatriots, Hawkman, the Flash, and William Wildeagle.

At the sight of Green Lantern, Solomon Grundy loses what little remains of his mind and rushes to attack.

The Flash uses his super speed to catch Black Canary before she hits the hard ground.  Green Lantern uses his power ring against Grundy, but the magic has little effect, so he calls the Scarlet Speedster back for reinforcements.

Nice of Black Canary to be able to mock the damsel in distress trope as--while she is the least powerful person in the area--she was also the first one to step up and throw down against Grundy.

Meanwhile, inside the Mt. Pride Observatory, a manually and emotionally battered Ted Knight watches his old friends battle valiantly and perhaps futilely against the power of Vandal Savage.  The same power that crushed Ted.  He thinks back to the glory days of the Justice Society of America, before the team broke up and members went their separate ways... before Ted retired his Starman duties to focus on astronomy.

But now, Ted sees that he was wrong to walk away from the responsibility of being a hero.  And for the first time since the first issue, he stands upright in defiance.

Outside the observatory, Vandal Savage is struggling with the damaged Cosmic Rod he stole from Ted while the rest of the heroes try to subdue Grundy.  Hawkman grabs the not-so-gentle giant and lifts him into the air, only to drop him from a great enough height that Grundy leaves a crater in the earth when he lands.  Green Lantern knows, sadly, that's not nearly enough to keep Grundy down.

As the four heroes (and Wildeagle) close in on Vandal Savage, they come under fire from Savage's hired guns, the same hoods who robbed the Gotham Museum and fought with Black Canary back in issue #2.  The boys finally arrive with the stolen loot and Savage dives into their car.  He throws a hook around Grundy and drags the brute back to the observatory where an energy force field goes up, preventing the Justice Society members from following them.

Inside, Ted Knight is frantically working to construct a means of fighting Vandal Savage with spare parts, when the ancient evildoer tosses Ted's own Cosmic Rod at him and demands Ted fix it.  Then Savage takes in the stolen relics from Ancient Egypt: tools, he informs the men, that will grant him total control over the energy monsters he creates and the power to rule the world.

Outside, the four heroes recap the events that brought them to this point.  Realizing they will soon be faced with three different energy monsters when none of them could even defeat just one, they decide to storm Mt. Pride and stop Savage before he can attack.  But they still have the force field to contend with.  William Wildeagle suggests using his ancestor's tomahawk, a wooden weapon that Hawkman used to some success in his battle with the giant woman.

Hawkman throws the tomahawk against the force field, causing a massive energy spike.  Or maybe it has nothing to do with the tomahawk and everything to do with Vandal Savage making a dramatic re-entrance in his best pharaoh fashion.

Savage goes on to monologue about how the monsters went into the modern world to steal "the powers that drive the modern age: electricity, radio and television waves, and atomic power."  He also boasts that he is Cheops, returned to greatness once again.  Hawkman takes issue with that claim because he's a reincarnated Egyptian prince himself and knows who Cheops really was.

Then things take an... interesting turn, when Savage unleashes the three constellation monsters in their true form, which appear to be three television celebrities.

Simply solid issue with some great action beats from Black Canary and The Flash.  It's great to see the heroes working together as a team and interacting rather than fighting electric giants one-on-one.  It's also great to see Ted Knight get his balls back and start to resist the crippling influence of Vandal Savage.

And Miehm's art is without question better than Artis' work on the last issue.  It's not always clean but it is dynamic and energetic.

Come back Thursday for the final chapter of Justice Society of America...

Society Dame: Justice Society of America #6

Previously...

Justice Society of America #6 is written by Len Strazewski with pencils by Tom Artis, inks by Frank McLaughlin, and a cover by Tom Lyle featuring Black Canary and Solomon Grundy.  The series is edited by Brian Augustyn along with Mike Gold, who edited Black Canary's miniseries, her ongoing series, and her first arc in Action Comics Weekly.  The issue is cover dated August 1991 and hit the shelves in June.

The last issue that Tom Artis drew for this series was the Hawkman-centric issue #4.  That was a shame because I love Hawkman, but Artis' art was pretty lifeless and boring.  This time it's even worse, which sucks because this chapter focuses on Black Canary and Green Lantern fighting in the sky.  But, as we'll see, Artis' art is boring and awful.

"Vengeance from the Stars Chapter 6: Danger Flies the Skies" opens with Black Canary slowly regaining consciousness, pleading with her husband, Larry Lance, to let her sleep ten more minutes.  Then her eyes open fully and she realizes she is dangling high in the sky in the taloned clutches of a giant energy bird, the latest form of the constellation monster Sagittarius.

Green Lantern, caught in the bird's other talon, tells Canary to shut up so he can concentrate.  Real nice, Alan, coming from the crime fighter who can fly if the bird drops you!

Green Lantern struggles and manages to free his left arm from the talon.  He doesn't use his free hand to escape, though, just scratch his nose.  Black Canary tells him that the bird is also carrying a box full of stolen Egyptian relics from the Gotham Museum, and while she's recapping events from issues #2 and #3, a crop-duster soars nearby.

This is no random airplane flying near the bird's path, though, this "borrowed" crop-duster happens to be piloted by Doiby Dickles, the buffoonish cab driver that took palled around with Green Lantern before usurping his feature in All-American Comics.  Dickles flies close enough to tell Green Lantern he brought the special item, but the bird takes notice.  Sagittarius swoops down to attack the crop-duster and Doiby leads it on some fun little aerial acrobatics that make Black Canary nauseous.

Well, they should have been fun aerial acrobatics, but Tom Artis' layouts and panel construction are so flat that the motion and energy of the stunts is lost.  Anyway, Doiby gets out of the pilot's seat and hands Alan Scott the green power lantern.

Sagittarius doesn't like this at all and dives down toward Doiby who is trying to regain control of the plane.  Green Lantern uses this time to speak the oath that powers his magic ring.

Alan creates an energy projection to pluck the bird's hind feathers, causing Sagittarius to drop Green Lantern and Black Canary.  Green Lantern creates a green parachute for Dinah, allowing her to settle gently on Doiby's plane while Alan turns around to combat the bird monster.

Meanwhile, on the ground below, Vandal Savage's henchmen watch the fight in the sky while Solomon Grundy rages about wanting to kill Green Lantern.  The henchmen use reverse psychology on Grundy to get him to pick up the fallen box of Egyptian loot and put it in another plane.  Then they take off for New Mexico and the Mt. Pride Observatory where their evil master awaits.

Back in the sky, Green Lantern tries to cage the bird with his power ring but it doesn't work.  The bird is too powerful and it shoots energy beams out of its eyes that knock Alan unconscious.  He begins to fall, but the ring keeps his descent slow and steady.  But that puts him in danger of Sagittarius' beak and claws.

Doiby flies the plane near the bird and releases its tanks of insecticide smoke in Sagittarius' face.  The monster is distracted enough fro Black Canary to climb out onto the plane's wing and catch Green Lantern.

Black Canary brings Alan around and asks if he can absorb the monster's energy using his lantern and he thinks it's a great idea.

Green Lantern flies out again, but this time when Sagittarius fires its deadly eye-beams, Alan catches them with his green power lantern and siphons the monster's stolen energy.  Weakened, the bird flies off.  Green Lantern and Black Canary are able to follow the bird, sending Doiby off on his own to hopefully die a horrible death.

The heroes follow Sagittarius to the Mt. Pride Observatory where their friend, Ted Knight, works.  Sagittarius disappears into the massive antenna relay that has been constructed around the observatory.  As the heroes get closer, they find Vandal Savage gloating over the half-conscious forms of Hawkman and The Flash.  They witness William Wildeagle shoot Ted Knight's Cosmic Rod out of Savage's hand, but then Solomon Grundy sneaks up on Wildeagle.

After the awesomeness of Mike Parobeck last issue, it really sucked to endure Tom Artis' pencils in this issue.  They're not terrible on their own, but they don't compare to Parobeck or Rick Burchett or Grant Miehm.  And the greatest problem is the uninspired panel construction and layout.  Every page is based on a six panel grid.  Occasionally, two panels will merge into one or he'll give us a splash, but they're never anything impressive.  I don't know if he was trying to emulate the simplistic style of Golden Age comics.  I also don't know why this eight issue series needed four different artists.  Either way, this issue suffered.

It's also not the best story.  It's just as formulaic as the rest; the aerial combat with the energy monster really isn't powerful enough to take up two thirds of the book, and the last two pages cover stuff we already know.  Plus, Doiby Dickles is lame.  All in all, this isn't a great way to lead into the final two issues of the series, but they should pick up.

Come back Monday for the next chapter of Justice Society of America...

Society Dame: Justice Society of America #5

Previously...

Justice Society of America #5 is written by Len Strazewski with pencils by Mike Parobeck, inks by Rick Burchett, and a cover by Tom Lyle featuring Black Canary and Solomon Grundy.  The series is edited by Brian Augustyn along with Mike Gold, who edited Black Canary's miniseries, her ongoing series, and her first arc in Action Comics Weekly.  The issue is cover dated August 1991 and hit the shelves in June.

"Vengeance from the Stars Chapter 5: Double Star Rising" begins with the fastest man alive, Jay Garrick, alias The Flash, rapidly assembling an energy detecting geiger counter out of spare parts.  He grabs the device and rushes across the American military base to where Hawkman is being treated for injuries sustained last issue.  The base doctor suspects Hawkman has a concussion, but Hawkman refuses any further treatment now that Flash is there and ready to roll.

A boyish-looking enlisted soldier tells Hawkman that a Native American named William Wildeagle is outside waiting for him.  Wildeagle is the friend of Hawkman's archaeologist alter-ego, Carter Hall.  When Hawkman and Flash greet him outside the base hospital, Wildeagle makes it clear that he knows who his friend is, mask or not.

The three of them head off running and flying to New Mexico, which happens to be home to the Mt. Pride Observatory, where Ted Knight works.

Knight isn't in very good shape right now, though, as he's been tortured and enslaved by Vandal Savage.  The immortal evil-doer has taken over the Observatory and reconstructed the outer facade to look more like a pyramid; the observatory now siphons every type of energy to fuel the Cosmic Rod he stole from the former Starman, Ted Knight.

Savage reminds his hostage, Ted, that soon he will be joined by his old Justice Society colleagues, Green Lantern and Black Canary.  But when the phone rings, Savage learns that The Flash and Hawkman are still alive and coming for him.

Meanwhile, somewhere between here and there, Hawkman realizes maybe he should have let the doctor do a more thorough examination.

Flash tells the others they're close to Mt. Pride and Hawkman wonders if the crazy star monsters are connected to Ted Knight's work.  With some amount of dread, Flash suspects there is, indeed, a connection.  He gives the geiger counter to William Wildeagle and asks the man to catch up on foot while he and Hawkman approach the observatory, which now seems to be glowing.

When they approach, the sky is lit up by the female energy monster that Hawkman squared off against last issue.  The giant is standing around the scaffold of the pyramidal observatory, feeding energy into or from the structure.  Flash and Hawkman concoct a plan to trip the monster into the scaffolding, hoping it will ground her and shut off the power.

They run and fly around her until she contacts the scaffold, but it doesn't draw energy from her.  It juices her up.  Also, the dog monster that Flash fought in the first issue returns, and then changes back into the giant humanoid with a club, so now each of the Justice Society members has an energy giant with which to contend.

Hawkman is nearly battered by one of the giants; his reflexes and fighting ability are still a bit shaky from the concussion.  Flash manages to trip one monster into the other in an attempt to get his friend to safety, but when he tells Hawkman to leave, they notice that physical contact between the giants caused a power disruption.

Hawkman reasons that the monsters' weakness is each other and the heroes spring back into action to stop the beasts.  This time, with a plan.

The energy giants collapse into each other and dissipate.  Inside the observatory, Vandal Savage snarls a curse at this setback.  He grabs Ted Knight's Cosmic Rod and propels himself through the skylight.  Ted is only too glad to be rid of Savage, and begins working on something as soon as his captor is out of sight.

Outside, Vandal Savage makes his presence known to Hawkman and The Flash and takes them out of the fight just as quickly with the energy of the Cosmic Rod.  As he gloats over the stunned heroes, however, a gunshot rings out over the desert and a rifle slug knocks the rod out of Savage's hand.  William Wildeagle comes down the path holding a rifle trained on Vandal Savage, telling the villain to surrender.

Wildeagle doesn't realize, though, that Vandal Savage's monstrous servant has returned.

The first four issues of this series were pretty good, but man this one was so much better.  A lot of that credit can be attributed to Mike Parobeck, whose art was so classy and distinguished that it still saddens me that the man died so early in his comics career.  He made solid gold of books like Elongated Man and Batman Adventures, and I know he would have been very successful today if he'd survived.

Staying on the art for a minute: Hawkman is one of my all-time favorite heroes, but I have never, ever liked this version with the Mexican wrestler-looking luchador mask.  Hawkman's helmet is one of my favorite pieces of art design, so it sucks to see him reduced to such a commonplace cowl.  That said, this is probably the best it has ever been rendered because Mike Parobeck just rocks the design in every way.

What else makes this issue stand out is that finally, finally our heroes have someone to talk to besides themselves and endangered bystanders.  Sure, Hawkman and Flash can be solo acts, but this series is called Justice Society of America; let's see the team work together already!  And they do--really, really well!  I also think it's fun that Strazewski put these two heroes together for the first team-up given that they co-headlined Flash Comics in the 1940s.

Come back Thursday for the next chapter of Justice Society of America...

Society Dame: Justice Society of America #3

Previously...

Justice Society of America #3 is written by Len Strazewski with pencils by Mike Parobeck, inks by Rick Burchett, and a cover, once again, by Tom Lyle.  The series is edited by Brian Augustyn along with Mike Gold, who edited Black Canary's miniseries, her ongoing series, and her first arc in Action Comics Weekly.  The issue is cover dated June 1991 and hit the shelves in April.

"Vengeance from the Stars Chapter 3: Dead Air" begins with Alan Scott addressing the nation from the anchor desk on GBC News.  He informs the viewers that Gotham City and indeed most of the country is experiencing power outages.  This scene puts us at the same moment where issue #2 began, except instead of watching the scene on TV from the perspective of some looters, we're now in the studio with Alan Scott and his production staff.

Unexpectedly, the power goes out in the studio which shouldn't be possible with the emergency generators running.  Scrambling around in the dark, one of Alan's crew tells him something is sucking power from the generators as well as the broadcast signal.  Alan tells his crew to get on the problem and fix it, but they're startled by a brilliant light in the sky outside.  Rushing to the window, Alan and his crew see the giant shimmering image of Sagittarius in the Gotham skyline.

Alan orders the crew to point some cameras on that thing so they can show it on TV as soon as they're able to broadcast.  Then, he slips into his office and speaks the oath of the Green Lantern.

Green Lantern flies out and scans Sagittarius, discovering that the giant energy monster is feeding off the local power, including the broadcast signal from the GBC television studio.  To get the monster to stop, Green Lantern gets its attention, which causes it to lash out at him.  It wrecks the studio's antenna and slaps the Emerald Knight across the sky.

Down below, we catch up on the climax of last issue's story with Black Canary making one last charge against Solomon Grundy.  Grundy is distracted by Green Lantern in the sky, but Dinah doesn't get a chance to take the giant out before the museum robbers knock her out.

This is the same scene as last issue, basically, except now Mike Parobeck is drawing it, so, y'know, score!  As the hoods carry Black Canary to their car, they're almost stopped by Alan Scott's producer and cameraman, but Charlie, the producer, is a lot more interested in filming a tussle between super powers in the sky than a woman in fishnets.

Green Lantern throws a massive energy punch at the giant.  Charlie dispatches Alan's personal assistant, Johnny, to go back to the studio and make sure they're broadcasting this fight live... and to get him and the cameraman some coffee.

As the battle continues, Green Lantern finds something familiar about the form this monster has taken.

Green Lantern tries to remove Sagittarius' weapons, but it leaves him vulnerable to a counterattack.  The monster swats him into a high-rise window.  As the glass rains down on the street below, Charlie revels in the chaos that his camera is capturing and only wishes the technology to broadcast in color was possible.

Someone else wishes the battle could be shown in color and that's the mysterious villain who has unleashed these energy monsters and caused all this destruction.  He is called by the leader of the museum robbers and told they captured Black Canary.  We learn this villain is Vandal Savage and he orders the robbers to bring Canary and Green Lantern--once Sagittarius has defeated him--to Savage's hideout at Mt. Pride Observatory.

Vandal Savage holds the Cosmic Rod and uses it to torment his slave, the former Starman, Ted Knight.

Savage ignores Ted and watches the battle on TV, revealing that Ptolemy introduced him to the power of the celestial constellations centuries ago.

Green Lantern fears his battle with the archer isn't going well and needs to stop it; he casts a green energy straightjacket on the humanoid form that only binds it until it transforms into the shape of a giant eagle.  The bird knocks Alan through the signal antenna, taking the footage off the air and infuriating Charlie down on the street.

Green Lantern cages the monstrous eagle, but then must decide what to do with it.

Meanwhile, Solomon Grundy is on the street fuming that his enemy is out of reach.  The hoods still have Black Canary and they're trying to calm Grundy down, too.  They fail, of course.  Solomon Grundy rips a telephone booth out of the street and hurls it into the air.  It slams into Green Lantern's back, the wooden frame penetrating his force field.  Green Lantern falls, but only so far before the magic of the ring protects him and lowers him down at a gentle floating pace.

Free of distraction, the energy creature rips the signal antenna off of the GBC tower.  The hoods want to put Green Lantern in the car with Black Canary, but Solomon Grundy doesn't want to wait for his revenge.  He throws the men aside, but before he can bash the heroes, the eagle swoops down and picks up Lantern and Canary in its talons and carries them off.

Grundy is left howling in disappointment as the tag reveals that next issue will focus on Hawkman.

So far, each issue of this series has spotlit one member of the team in a more-or-less continuous battle taking most of the story.  So far, Strazewski's formula hasn't faltered, but it does seem to be wearing a little thin by this third time around.  What saves this chapter from being boring and repetitive is Mike Parobeck's outstanding artwork, and the power of Green Lantern.

I wasn't much of a fan of any iteration of Green Lantern until Geoff Johns' Rebirth miniseries, and after that I loved Hal Jordan more than any.  But since then, the more I see and read of him, the more I really love Alan Scott.  It's almost not fair to compare them because they're such different characters, despite having the same name and essentially the same power.  But there is a stateliness to Alan Scott, a refined gentlemanly quality that really sets him above his peers in the Justice Society.

Come back Thursday for the next chapter of Justice Society of America...

Society Dame: Justice Society of America #2

Previously...

Justice Society of America #2 is written by Len Strazewski with art by Grant Miehm and a cover, once again, by Tom Lyle featuring Black Canary and Solomon Grundy.  I forgot to mention it last time, but this series is edited by Brian Augustyn along with Mike Gold, who edited Black Canary's miniseries, her ongoing series, and her first arc in Action Comics Weekly.  The issue is cover dated May 1991 and hit the shelves in March.

"Vengeance from the Stars Chapter 2: The Sack of Gotham" begins with Alan Scott addressing the public, not in the guise of Green Lantern but in his role as managing editor of Gotham Broadcasting Channel.  He informs the public of the intermittent power outages all across the country even as the television we're watching is boosted from a store by looters taking advantage of the blackout in Gotham.

The looters are pretty confident that Gotham's police force is overworked this night and there is no one who can catch them in the act of stealing.  They are, of course, wrong.

The first of the criminals, Rocco, comes at Black Canary with a switchblade; she breaks his arm.  The other two try and attack her together; she uses their own force against each other and puts them down.    She leaves the three looters tied to a telephone pole, and then as she's getting back on her motorcycle, a distress call comes over the police radio frequency.

Police report a burglary at the Gotham Museum, then the cop on the radio begins screaming in terror and firing his weapon.  At her current location, Black Canary isn't far from the museum so she heads out on her bike.  By the time she arrives there, the lights have gone out in the city again, but her ride's headlight illuminates an overturned police cruiser in front of the museum.

Inside the museum, the first thing Black Canary sees is a security guard whose neck was broken.  She follows the killers' trail into the Ancient Egypt wing of the museum while mentally noting her like of living things like flowers and her dislike of dusty, dead things like everything in this museum.

She sneaks up on a group of criminals standing around a display of the Crown of Cheops.  The leader says this is the relic they're supposed to bring back to their Master; he smashes the display case with a pistol.  That's when Black Canary makes her presence known.  She draws their attention (and gunfire) and then kicks over a sarcophagus, causing two of the shooters to scatter or fall.

With some more fancy footwork and a pun ("Does your mummy know you do this?" Hilarious...), she takes down the leader of the crew.  Two of them trap her behind a model of a pyramid; she sneaks inside and then pops out when they don't see her, managing to clobber them both.

She walks over to the Crown of Cheops to try to figure out why the crooks were so interested in it.  She knows the relic is too well known to be sold after they made off with it.  A glance at the item description on the display case mentions that Cheops was somewhat of an astrologer for his time and is believed to be one of the first worshipers of celestial beings.  Hmm... that sounds a bit like what the mysterious Master is interested in.

That's when Black Canary is spotted by another hood... and Solomon Grundy!

Yes, Grundy calls her "Bird Lady" and the other hood refers to her as "The Lady Crime Fighter".  Pretty impressive, huh?

When Grundy throws a priceless relic at Black Canary, hoping to kill her, the other hood slaps him and warns him not to damage anything of value in the room.  Grundy slaps the man back, only he carries enough force that he probably killed the guy.  Then Grundy stalks the prone Black Canary, ready to pounce on her.

Meanwhile, at the Mt. Pride Observatory, former Starman Ted Knight is still a captive slave of the mysterious Master.  Said Master tells Ted that the Flash failed in his attempt to stop Orion last issue; Orion has siphoned off energy from all the nearby power plants, plunging the nation into darkness.  The master holds Ted's Cosmic Rod and throws down a fake wig, revealing that he was the alleged crazy man prophesying doom during the observatory's grand opening.

Ted Knight, stuck in a wheelchair, can only despair as his captor uses the Cosmic Rod to fire a burst of energy into the sky that transforms into the shape of Sagittarius.

Back in the Gotham Museum, Black Canary taunts Solomon Grundy as he moves in for the kill.  She has the advantage of speed and knows how to keep him off balance, but only for so long.  She tries to club him with ancient weapons and relics, but that doesn't have much effect on Grundy other than ticking him off.

However strong Grundy is, however invulnerable, Black Canary is a master of martial arts and she expertly redirects his size and momentum, flipping him into one wall after another.  At last he makes a dive for her and she manages to propel him right through a second story window and down to the alley below.

Pumped up on the thrill of victory, Black Canary goes down to the alley, brimming with confidence over her rout of the feared Solomon Grundy.  Of course, her over-confidence proves her undoing as Grundy wakes up and throws her into a wall.  (This fight reminded me of the duel between The Viper and the Mountain in a season 4 episode of Game of Thrones, though thankfully it didn't end nearly as horrifically as that.)

Even after she's thrown into the wall, Black Canary has enough of her strength and smarts to counter attack before Grundy crushes her head like a piece of fruit.

As Black Canary climbs to her feet, she's lit up by the headlights of a police cruiser driving down the alley.  She doesn't see Solomon Grundy get up until it's too late; he hurls her across the alley into the wall again.  The cops get out of the car and open fire on Grundy, but their bullets have no effect.  He knocks over the squad car and sends the police running away for backup.

Black Canary stands up and challenges Solomon Grundy to another round, but the monster is distracted by the vibrant light shining in the sky above them.  Black Canary tries taking on Grundy, but she's knocked unconscious by the revived gang she fought inside the museum.  Naturally, I mean, Black Canary always gets knocked unconscious!

The leader tells his boys to pack Black Canary away in a crate with the rest of their stolen loot.  Meanwhile, in the sky above Gotham City, Alan Scott--now dressed as Green Lantern--defends his television studio from Sagittarius.

Yeah, so this issue is basically one long Black Canary fight scene and it kicks all kinds of ass.  We see her take out the looters on the street pretty easily.  She has to be a bit more crafty and rely on her environment when she takes on the armed robbers in the museum.  Then she must call on all her wits and reserves to hold her own against the supernatural might that is Solomon Grundy.  Given how absurdly outclassed she is, Black Canary handles herself remarkably well against Grundy.  This is the kind of Black Canary action that proves her quality and worthiness to the ranks of Justice Society of America.

My favorite moment is when she has already been clobbered, she has broken ribs, and Grundy just sent two police running for their lives after they emptied their guns at him.  She doesn't cower; she doesn't call for backup.  She stands up Solomon Grundy and challenges him yet again.  Earlier in the issue, the wounded cop warned her not to go in the museum by herself but she did anyway, because she is a hero and she's going to fight evil no matter what.

Come back Monday for the next chapter of Justice Society of America...

Society Dame: Justice Society of America #1

The Golden Age heroes known as the Justice Society of America had, for decades, been located on a parallel plane of existence known as Earth-2.  After the continuity-altering events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, however, all these parallel Earths were collapsed into one world with one long history of super-heroism.  Now, the JSA had been active around the time of World War II but faded from glory to allow a new generation of heroes like Superman and the Justice League to step up as modern day champions.

Black Canary--one of them, anyway--was a member of the Justice Society starting in All-Star Comics #38 and continuing on until that book was first cancelled in the early 1950s.  In 1991, DC released an eight-issue miniseries called Justice Society of America that sort-of picked up where the second run of All-Star concluded in the late '70s.

Justice Society of America #1 is written by Len Strazewski with art by Rick Burchett and a cover by Tom Lyle.  The issue is cover dated April 1991 and hit the shelves in February.  In the interest of full disclosure: Black Canary does not appear in the first issue of this miniseries but it's still a lot of fun so join me, will you?

"Vengeance from the Stars Chapter 1: Beware the Savage Skies" begins with the grand opening of the Mt. Pride Observatory in New Mexico.  The year is 1950 and the observatory is surrounded by reporters covering this momentous day for science.  But the press isn't alone; an angry old protestor barks and bellows messages of doom and gloom.  The old picketer warns the press liaison to "beware the savage skies," just like the title of this issue.

The press liaison passes the mic over to the observatory's new director, Ted Knight, better known as the costumed adventurer Starman.  Security moves in to eject the old picketer from the area, but Ted shows patience and compassion on the old man and asks what he's rambling about.  The picketer insists the end of the world is near and hands Ted a rolled-up chart before muscling his way past the cops and reporters.

That night, Ted returns to the observatory with the old man's star charts in hand.

Ted spies an unusual star formation that turns into a constellation of an ancient, beautiful woman.  The constellation then begins to move turns its stellar focus on the observatory.  The star-being smiles at Ted and destroys the lens of the giant telescope, causing damage to the observatory... and to Ted.

One week later, Jay Garrick, the scarlet speedster known as The Flash, runs to Mt. Pride to meet with Ted Knight.  Before Ted even hung up the phone, The Flash had sprinted across the country to the badly damaged observatory.  Ted confides in his friend that he made contact with something in space that he believes has shut down power stations all around the American Southwest.

Ted points Jay in the direction he thinks the star monster went, while revealing something shocking about his current state after the attack on Mt. Pride.

Jay is crushed to see his friend in a wheelchair and promises he'll help by tracking the monster to Boulder Dam.  When the Flash leaves, we discover that Ted Knight is a virtual hostage for a powerful man who lurks in the shadows, someone who has reduced the once great Starman to calling him master.  And the master has another servant, someone large who beats Ted at the master's whim.

The Flash arrives at Boulder Dam where he talks to the plant manager about the attacks on power stations.  Before long, the dam comes under attack from a giant barbarian-looking creature that seems to be composed of and feeding on electricity.

The Flash zips around the giant, dodging his stomping attacks and trying to lead him away.  He anticipates the giant using his club to strike, but not that the club will unleash a barrage of energy that knocks Flash off his feet.

The plant workers bring a truck loaded with cables for the Flash to grab and run around the energy monster.  With the workers holding the cables, Flash wraps them around the monster, trapping him in an isolated part of the plant.  At the workers' suggestion, the Flash tries to ground the monster by slamming him against one of the metal towers, draining his stolen power.

Meanwhile, back at the dark observatory, Ted Knight and his captors watch what looks like a young Walter Cronkite on CBS tell the nation about the crisis at Boulder Dam and the possibility of losing power across the country.  Ted cannot contain his excitement that Flash seems to be beating the energy monster, but his Master isn't concerned.  He dispatches Ted and his other servant to their individual assignments.  And the servant is revealed to be Solomon Grundy.  Left alone, the mysterious master uses Starman's Cosmic Rod to destroy the television set.

Back at Boulder Dam, Flash and the plant workers are rejoicing that the energy monster has almost grounded out and they'll be able to drain him completely any moment.  But then the monster changes shape from a barbarian man to a massive dog.  The dog monster pulls down the cables and frees itself from the trap.

The workers flee the seen in terror as local police arrive, but the monster is too powerful.  Flash runs around trying to save cops and workers as the dog causes more damage to the system.  He comes up with another plan to overload the monster's power, but before he can enact his scheme, the monster hurls part of the tower at some workers.

Jay Garrick is knocked unconscious as the power goes out from Boulder Dam all the way to Gotham City.  The issue ends with To Be Continued! Next: Black Canary.

Most of this story is one extended action sequence with Flash running around a giant energy creature and that could easily get boring and repetitive but it never does and that's because of Rick Burchett's outstanding artwork in this issue.  Without any of the snazzy visual effects that modern Flash artists use, Burchett keeps the pulse-pounding pace and intensity of Flash's battle expertly rendered.

I've talked about my affection for Starman in previous posts, so it's great to see Ted Knight in this story even if he has been laid low and reduced to a slave for the shadowy arch-villain of the story.  As a reader, we have to believe that Ted will either be rescued, or even better, he'll rise up on his own to resist his captors.

My favorite part of this issue, though, is how the civilian plant workers come to help Flash fight the monster.  It would be easy to characterize them as fearful in the face of such power, or just flat out ignore them, but Strazewski shows them as selfless and heroic in their own right.  It creates, by association, a sense of blue-collar-man-of-the-people heroism for Jay Garrick, and harkens back to an older, more communal time period that feels authentic.

This is a fun story and a great opening chapter for a series I'll be reviewing twice a week.  Come back this Thursday for the next chapter of Justice Society of America...