Justice League of America #80

First review in a while, and there have been big changes in my life since the last time I posted here. I'm typing this from our new apartment in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where we are currently settling in. I start my new day job here in a few days.

We were pretty limited in the amount of stuff we were able to bring over, and the packing was something of a whirlwind process. As a result, only a small stack of comics from the seemingly-endless backlog made the trip. I've got a baker's dozen comics with me...

... Plus about five graphic novels. After that, I'll have to find them locally.

In the meantime, let's start with a classic American issue: A Justice League comic from 1970.

Title: Justice League of America

Issue: 80

Date: May, 1970

Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Denny O'Neil

Artist: Dick Dillin, Joe Giella

Thanagaran bad guy Norch Lor is stealing souls with something he calls a Ghenna box, and the JLA mostly stumble around trying to stop him. Lor's motivations are a bit fuzzy here, but basically he is out to preserve souls due to some impending universal apocalypse.

He is one of those pesky villains that gives the League more trouble than he has any right to. And unfortunately, the plot is loaded with little inconsistencies, down to the effects of his Ghenna thingee. It puts some victims into a coma while it leaves others in a kind of zombie-like condition.

I did like the fact that it is Canary who finally gets the upper hand on the bad guy (with a sleeper-hold, no less!), but the plot holes here were just a bit too frequent and too large. There was also a rather tired "an unprotected person can survive for 10 seconds in space" bit, which I have seen done in at least two other comics from this general time period. And the story hinted on the cover bears little resemblance to what actually occurs.

I did like to science facts backup features which took up a couple of pages of the book.

But a bad villain and a bad weak plot don't make for much entertainment value.

Rating: 4.5/10

Justice League of America #129

Title: Justice League of America
Issue: #129
Date: April 1976
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Martin Pasko
Art: Dick Dillin, Frank McLaughlin
Editor: Julius Schwartz

Nekron is an interdimensional monster who feeds on fear and is repelled by courage. In order to defeat the Justice League, he's dosed them with something that for lack of a better term I'm going to call "apathy gas". Basically all the heroes are now unwilling to risk their lives to save others. Which is inconvenient when Nekron is using various tactics to cause massive destruction on Earth so that he can feed on the resulting fear.

Fortunately, Wonder Woman was unaffected by the apathy gas. Actually, she was never dosed with the stuff. Why? Um, apparently she'd taken the day off on the day that Nekron chose to scout out Earth's superheroes. Well, I guess it advances the plot.

Anyway, non-apathetic Diana can use her magic-lass0-of-mind-control (it's in full-on mind control mode in this story) to get the guys to do their duties willing or not. Except that there could be some moral issues with compelling people to risk their lives. Even if they would have risked their lives normally. After teasing the moral dilemma in one scene, writer Martin Pasko then proceeds to ignore it for the rest of the book.

There's also a noble sacrifice! A Justice League member actually dies in this issue. I wonder how long that ended up lasting (I can assure you it was definitely not permanent; the character is still very much around).

The whole plot is more complicated and wordy than it needs to be, but it does end up telling a decent story when all is said and done.

Interestingly, the script has Oliver Queen delivering almost-swears ("when the spit starts hitting the fan" and "what the fudge just happened?"), perhaps in an attempt to distinguish him as the bad boy of the group?

I liked the classic King Kong tribute cover with Nekron's robot atop the Eiffel Tower fighting off the League while holding Diana in one hand.

Rating: 5.5/10