All Star Comics #3 introduced the Justice Society of America, the predecessor to DC Comics’ modern Justice League (Of America/International/3000/etc). The members of the JSA were:
-
The Flash (Jay Garrick)
-
Green Lantern (Alan Scott)
-
Hawkman (Carter Hall)
-
Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson)
-
Hour-Man (Rex Tyler)
-
The Spectre (Jim Corrigan)
-
Sandman (Wesley Dodds)
-
The Atom (Al Pratt)
You may know some of these characters, if you haven’t read Sandman Mystery Theatre you definitely should, if you haven’t watch the DC animated special The Spectre you definitely should. Read Hawkman at your own risk, I liked The Savage Hawkman.
I am often thinking about the JSA because I think the characters are awesome, and I am always thinking about a DC team that isn’t the Justice League (not out of hatred I just have very particular taste when it comes to the JLA). The JSA had a pretty large cast for a book of its relatively small actual content, in addition to those already listed were added: Wildcat, Mr. Terrific (not the one from Superman 2025), and Black Canary (not the one you know).
The last JSA run that I picked up completely blind and started reading was NEW 52’s Earth-2, which I dropped after 4 issues. It didn’t feel like it cared at all about what came before and kept only the names in an almost IP-scheme feeling way.
I recently watched a video on the 90s doctor fate which was pretty fun and enlightening
(https://youtu.be/ERDs5v35esY?si=RgO6STible0ezEcc) but it turned some gears in my brain thinking about the JSA, the video author makes what I felt was a very true assertion that you don’t need to re-do or reboot the JSA because their concepts are timeless.
My issue with the idea that the JSA doesn’t need to change is that they are not resident’s of Earth 2 anymore, and so certain things just don’t hold water for me. The first being the most obvious which is the matter of the Flash. Those who know, know that The Flash of Two Worlds is basically the point of origin for all modern Capeshit multiversal/dimensional shenaniganry, and it is a fun issue and a fun idea at the scale it was executed at by Fox, Schwartz, Giella and Infantino (the Murderers Row of guys who worked on a story you didn’t know you knew) which establishes that Barry Allen calls himself The Flash because he loved to read Flash Comics as a kid during WW2. It also establishes Earth-2 as a separate place and concept. Jay was a sort of mentor that he could access now and again when he really needed him, but it kept Jay “retired” because they weren’t printing Jay Garrick comics. He has been forcibly unretired into being “the slow guy” on the Flash team, which is ignominious considering he is the wellspring of the entire Flash thing. Maybe I am being uncharitable as most Flash authors respect him as the grandpa of the Flash Family- but he’s still slow and doesn’t know as much about being a Speedster as Max Mercury who was retrofitted into the role that seems to have been molded for Jay but whatever.
The second major agitation being Alan Scott being called Green Lantern. It can’t be like the Flash where he did it because he literally looked up to Jay as his comic book Superhero (taken away by combining the worlds btw, “Fuck You, The Reader.” - DC Comics Editorial), Hal Jordan didn’t have a choice in what he was called its literally what the job title is. It’s a neg but I think that sort of thing matters and should be addressed. I think its fine to have Alan Scott powered by the Starheart and call him Sentinel and he keeps the costume without the Lantern symbol. It makes more marketing sense anyway considering Jade is the most interesting thing about him since Hitler died.
My agita today then is that I think ideally the denizens of Earth-2 should stay there. There will be immediate screaming and gnashing of teeth at this: “What about Superman and Batman, I LOVE Power Girl (You don’t even wanna know what I think about that) you can’t take her away!” and so I say “fine”, but how do you square this industrial press of circles that is reconciling the two worlds after repeated Crisis’ establishing that things both are and are not, and the more they aren’t the more they are, until they aren’t and then of course they are?
You DO have to redress the JSA. And everything else, but “everything else” is a different goatfuck for a different post.
So you have to introduce some sort of timeline, which immediately dates everything going forward, and puts you in a separate pickle because you cannot give up properties like Batman and Superman to the narrative grave. So you actually do nothing, which is saying that everything exists all at once and not at all and you sell mediocre comics forever until the end of time and remake the same movies about the same shit and refuse to engage in things that would allow a parallel series of stories to be told like deep investment into animation, visual novels or community sourced and editorially guided light novels. Instead you do nothing and I’m writing articles on Wildcat.
Wildcat: Ted Grant, a champion heavyweight framed for murder by his ringside guys goes on the run as a vigilante, inspired by: Green Lantern Alan Scott. Cool. Let’s think about a guy like Wildcat for a second.
Wildcat has never had a solo run, and was introduced I believe in 1942 and is in comics all the time, the ultimate B-Team dude. That would be fine, except he is STILL billed as one of the best hand to hand fighters in the fiction. That is obviously nonsense though, I read a million comics a year about one of the seemingly infinite people that has trained with the League of Assassins who is the worlds most lethal this, or the most talented that. I like Cassandra Cain, but isn’t her whole thing that she is like 8 years old and can fight Batman? Isn’t Damian the same thing?
This led me to ask a single question: Who have any of these guys beat in a fight? I actually do not know. I know that the Justice League wins in the end, I know that Batman triumphs over the Joker, but the one Batman beats up Joker scene that has stuck with me is I think from Hush where he almost kills him, its the one time it seems like he hits him with the intent to hurt him, which is how you win fights. Maybe there is some interference from authors or comics code trying to audit the amount of “violence solves problems” in comics, but this stuff is a hundred years old, we have the benefit of enormous oversight over previously published material (less as of the time of writing, Rest in Peace readcomicsonline) and an idea that these characters are at the core tongue in cheek and very rarely if ever truly written for children anymore, because children cannot afford 6$ an issue at a comic book store conveniently located never less than 30 minutes away and half filled with Games Workshop poison.
The best Wildcat I have found and read is Batman/Wildcat, which includes Catwoman/Wildcat. These are about Wildcat fighting guys until he fights Batman. This is a microcosm of any character with a martial arts journey at this point. You can be really good but eventually we have to publish something where you don’t beat Batman. So ultimately, you can’t be a guy that fights. That resume just doesn’t get you hired anymore in the world of beating guys up in inventive ways anymore. There are a few ways I see that you could solve this problem:
-
Simple, Kill The Bat.
-
Refocus the Batman around the moniker of “The Worlds Greatest Detective” more singularly.
-
DC-K.O. but actually.
Of these, I think I prefer #2. What I mean to say by this is just to take a step back from treating Batman AND everyone around him as eternal 5-tool players. Without going on too much of a tangent about Batman, I will say that this opens doors for other characters who are competing with characters like Batman for the limelight. Lets say you take this opportunity and are granted the ability to write a Wildcat run, guaranteed like 8 issues or something.
You have here an opportunity to write American Baki. (if you aren’t aware of Baki, go look.) Write some original villains, they don’t have to be costumed, it doesn’t have to be 1938, its whatever, Earth-2 isn’t a thing so do whatever you want, Ted Grant was born in 1995 like Batman. This comic should be about Ted winning fights. You as an author might have to do some research into boxing, which is insanely easy if you just have Grok or something, like this:
| Discipline | Origin | Era | Main Focus | Key Characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classical Pugilism | England | 18th–early 19th century | Punches + some grappling | Bare-knuckle, very raw. Allowed throws, trips, and grappling. |
| London Prize Ring Rules | England | 1838–1867 | Bare-knuckle striking + grappling | Famous bare-knuckle prizefighting era. Fights could last dozens of rounds. |
| Bare-Knuckle Boxing (Modern) | England / USA | 19th century–present | Punches only (no gloves) | Modern regulated bare-knuckle (e.g. BKFC). No grappling. |
| Queensberry Rules Boxing | England | 1867–present | Punches only | The standard modern boxing rules. Gloves, 3-minute rounds, weight classes. |
| Savate (Boxe Française) | France | 19th century–present | Punches + kicks | Elegant, technical kicking with shoes + boxing punches. |
| Savate Combat (French Kickboxing) | France | 20th century–present | Punches + kicks (full contact) | Harder, more aggressive version of Savate. |
| American Kickboxing | United States | 1970s–present | Punches + kicks | Created as a full-contact sport. Heavy emphasis on boxing techniques. |
| Bartitsu | England | 1898–early 1900s | Punches, kicks, cane fighting | Mixed style combining boxing, savate, and jujutsu. |
| Whitechapel Bare-Knuckle / Street Pugilism | England | 18th–19th century | Punches + dirty fighting | Rough, unregulated street fighting style. |
What if the Wildcat run was about him betrayed by his management for money offered by a cabal of skilled fighters trying to manipulate the crop of prodigy fighters in the world, encountering and beating everyone important in the schools of the canon of Western stand up fighting and its sort of noir and gritty and he is gaining a reputation from fight to fight because he fighting in a literal Catsuit to disguise his identity because he doesn’t want to tarnish his good name any further, and that was why he is considered the best Stand-Up fighter in the DC world, and why Black Canary who trains under him would be on equal footing with Batman, and better than Green Arrow. What if that.
Put him in Hub City, or Opal City or Ivy Town and not Gotham and give somewhere else some character, have him travel to Gateway or Fawcett, use the world you have and stay away from real life places, that is the realm of your competitor from uptown.