All-Star Comics - Omega And Alpha!

And then it came to an end. With the Crisis On Infinite Earths (much more on that later) the woeful decision had been made that the Justice Society of America was redundant and so could properly be disposed of so that comics could march forward stalwartly into a new age. Dopes!

Roy Thomas seeking to control the demise since he could not prevent it concocted a wild story which served as something of an oddball bookend to 1979's DC Presents special which had related the previously unrevealed origin of the JSofA. In this wild tale drawn by the talented David Ross and inked by Mike Gustovich the Justice Society finds itself again confronting head on the might of the Third Reich and the devious Adolph Hitler.

To forestall defeat, they allow themselves to be transformed into avatars for the Norse Gods who then enter into an eternal conflict with the great demons of Nordic myth. Thus they are locked away in this version of Valhalla, neither really dead nor really alive, apart from the larger DCU but forever  (in the imagination at least) fighting the good fight.

It was a noble effort, but alas an unsatisfying one, at least for this reader.

Years passed.

Eventually though DC decided to bring them back. It takes place as part of one of the more woeful crossovers called Armageddon. In one of the off-shoots of that story line called Armageddon: Inferno sundry heroes are assembled to battle an other-dimensional threat called Abraxis across four time periods. The battle goes poorly and the Spectre decides to call out some heroes who already exist outside time, the Justice Society of America. They are brought in and battle the villain on his home turf and defeat him. They are then rewarded by being brought back into the DC Universe with the henchmen of Abraxis himself taking their places battling the Nordic gods.

Though the artwork on this storyline is spotty in places, the  JSofA chapter is drawn nicely by Dick Giordano though the story is terribly wonky.

So knocking off the Justice Society was proven a bad idea. That didn't mean DC wasn't done trying to do it though. More later. 

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With Two Magic Covers!

It was pretty big news in 1973 when DC Comics decided to revive the long-dormant Captain Marvel franchise. Ironic in that it was DC which sued Fawcett Comics and contributed to the demise of the one character in the Golden Age who truly challenged Superman's supremacy at the newsstands. Getting original comic artist C.C. Beck to do the art chores was a real coup, despite the necessity to change the name of the book to Shazam! because of Marvel's own  Space-Born Super-Hero who had debuted five years earlier.

As can be seen in this original artwork, the debut cover though offered up a tantalizing blend of how Beck's seemingly simple, but nonetheless elegant style would distinguish itself from the normal DC house look, exemplified on the cover by the addition of a handsome Nick Cardy Superman. Given the famous feud between the characters, it's a gracious turn to have the Man of Steel welcome Earth's Mightiest Mortal to the DCU.

Many years later in 1987, after the Crisis had made a hash of DC's continuity, an attempt was made to revive Captain Marvel yet again. This time the approach was to forgo the vintage Golden Age look, a tactic long abandoned in the Pre-Crisis days too, and offer up an edgy Marvel, a darker Marvel.

For that work, Roy Thomas was joined by Tom Mandrake, an artist pretty much ideal for this approach with his strong dramatic flair. The reboot didn't click and later was all but expunged when Jerry Ordway took over the character and redefined the entire Marvel Family for the 90's, a redefinition which to my mind was the best which has been done with the characters since their reemergence onto the market in those halcyon 70's days.

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