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Well, it certainly has taken me a while to get around to writing the final chapter in my rundown of my list of favorite comics. It’s high time to finish off this list, as I have recently obtained another one of my three most sought-after comics. But more on that later. On with the list... Number 1: Last Days of the Justice Society of America Special #1
(DC Comics, 1986)
Okay, I will admit that having this book at the top of my favorites
list will likely prove to be a head-scratcher for comic fans and
non-fans alike. This issue was an instant favorite for me when I
got it on my 13th birthday back in 1986 and it has remained at the top
of my favorites for close to two decades. The tale is set in the
immediate aftermath of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and the overall purpose behind the book was to firm up the legacy of Earth-2
heroes (including the JSA and Infinity Inc.) so that it was in step
with DC’s post-Crisis continuity. This 68-page issue has it all, including
prominent appearances by most of the heavy hitters in the JSA. How many
comic books would begin a story with a quote from Nietzsche?
Well, this one does! In the story, the JSAers must travel back to
the final days of World War II to wrest the Spear of Destiny from the Nazis. When the Spear is used to trigger the cataclysmic battle of Ragnarök,
the JSA must travel to another plane in search of a way to stave off
the end of the world. Upon their arrival, they find the gods and
goddesses of Norse mythology preparing for an epic battle which will
surely mean the end of Earth.
Dr. Fate melds each JSA member with a Norse god or goddess and the JSA
then engage the advancing hordes of Surtur, Loki and the Serpent of
Midgard in a fierce and brutal battle. The JSA remain joined with
the gods and goddesses in a seemingly infinite battle to hold the evil
forces at bay and the Nazi attempt to destroy the world by releasing
the forces of Götterdämmerung is thus thwarted, allowing the Red Army
to smash the remaining German resistance back on Earth. The
capture of Berlin is even noted in the tale with a comic-art rendering
of Yevgeny Khaldei’s famous photo of a Red Army soldier raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag.
Although the war ends on earth, most of the JSA remain trapped in
limbo, engaged in an infinite “Ragnarok cycle” in which the JSAers
continue to die and rise again in an endless battle with their foes.
There
is a bit of bonus material in this issue, including
an introductory/supplemental text by writer Roy Thomas ("An Epilegomena
to 'The Last Days of the Justice Society'") and some vintage
Golden Age artwork featuring the JSA. Whew! What a comic
book!
“Last Days” was written by Roy Thomas who is, in my opinion, one of the
best writers to have ever written for DC. The issue’s artwork by
Ross and Gustovich is very good as well. I had hoped to include a
few more scans of panels from the issue, but the printing quality was
not so good and my scans don’t really do the artwork the justice it
deserves.
“Last Days” didn’t exactly stitch up all the holes in
post-Crisis/Earth-2 continuity. In fact, the JSA returned to
action just a few years later by popular demand. But the story
chronicled in “Last Days” has been revisited several times in the pages
of multiple DC series since 1986.
I have read a lot – and I do mean a lot
– of comics over the course of nearly three decades and I have enjoyed
many classics from the Golden and Silver ages in this time. I
won’t deny that I have some sentimental attachment to this particular
comic book, but in my opinion, it holds its own with many of the
“classics” of the medium. I can’t imagine that I will ever find a
story that will take the place of “Last Days of the Justice Society on
my “Wall of Fame.”
About
5 or 6 years ago, I bought a few full longboxes (and maybe a short box)
from a local comic shop owner who was going through a hard time and
looking to liquidate some of his inventory. One of the boxes that
I picked up
contained a decent chunk of the guy's "S" titles, so I ended up with
huge batches of comics like Superman, Steel, and Star Trek.
Included in the "S" box were quite a few issues of DC's Starman — the Jack Knight incarnation — from the mid to
late 1990's. I ended up with over 30 issues from this series and
although I had never read any Starman stories in the past, I had heard a
lot of good things about the title. Back when I bought these, I
was working nights and I was feeling a little burned out back
then. It was a nice escape to read 2 or 3 issues of Starman
during my dinner break. I really liked the Starman stories, but
my interest in comics was waning back then, so once I read all of what
I had on hand (or what I thought was all of them), I more or less
forgot about them for a while. Wile I was going my collection this past weekend, I found a few later
issues from the series along with an annual and a special Secret Files and Origins issue
that I had never read. Reading these "lost issues" was an absolute blast.
My favorite Starman picture, taken from
Secret Files and Origins #1
On Monday, I stopped in a local comic shop and picked up issues 0 and 1
of Starman, as these two were among the missing issues in my
collection. With all the Starman books I had read, I was still a
bit foggy on his origin and it was good to go back to the beginning and
fill in some of the blanks. Incidentally, these two issues were
among some of the best I have read of this title. As a side note,
the copy of #1 that I recently snagged looks like it's been autographed by
Starman co-creator James Robinson...and given the price I paid for it,
I am guessing it was a bit underpriced. But who am I to complain?
Having read thousands of comics, I can honestly say that I think that
the Jack Knight version Starman is really one of the better comics
series ever produced. Jack is the ultimate reluctant hero,
sporting a bunch of tattoos and a Hawaiian shirt as his own unique
superheo "uniform." The series ultimately unified the
multifaceted, multigenerational history of the "Starman" name and
legacy. Along the way, old heroes and villains were resurrected
and reinvented in stories that stretched through time and space in
grand and thrilling stories. The supporting cast featured complex and
intriguing characters such as the Golden-Age Starman (along with quite
a few other Starmen), Solomon Grundy and The Shade in a wonderfully
complex series of fantastic tales.
I have read some rumors that DC is flirting with the idea of bringing
the Jack Knight version of Starman out of retirement as part of their
ongoing weekly series, 52. I'm not reading 52 these days, but DC has
piqued my curiosity once again.
Number 1: Last Days of the Justice Society of America Special #1 
