Review: Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 by Roy Thomas et al.

DC's JLA/JSA / Earth-One/Earth-Two crossovers were an annual tradition from 1963 to 1985; several years ago, I read the Crisis on Multiple Earths trade paperbacks which collect them in their entirety... except that in classic DC fashion, they stopped publishing them when just one volume more would have collected them all! As I neared the 1985 crossover in my reading of Infinity, Inc., I realized that I ought to bung in the two before it and thus get the experience of what that nonexistent volume 7 would have been like...

Unfortunately, they're not the series's best work, even allowing for the fact that I was never particularly wowed by most JLA/JSA crossovers to begin with. Each one has the germ of a good idea, but it isn't really realized. I really enjoyed reading part one of Crisis in the Thunderbolt Dimension!, where Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt goes berserk and begins attacking the heroes of Earth-One in the midst of the annual JLA/JSA team-up. The writers do a pretty fun pastiche of how these things usually go; as it often is, the best part is when the members of the two super-teams are just chilling on the JLA satellite before things begin to go south, as we get to see (for example) Firestorm moon over Power Girl. Part one is credited to both Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, but I would guess that they plotted it together and Conway wrote the actual script; Conway was responsible for what were in my opinion the best of these crossovers (see volumes 5 and 6).

You wouldn't need the credits, however, to know that part two is entirely the work of Roy Thomas, because everyone immediately begins speaking in continuity and exact dates, telling each other things they already know and/or don't need to know.

• "It's Sargon the Sorcerer-- another who was born on our Earth and later migrated to this one."
• "I left the world of my birth for this one, in 1950."
• "Before you wandered onto the scene in 1947, Black Canary."
• "And who took his place in spring of '48? A certain wig-wearing wonder we all know-- called the Black Canary!"
• "The Wizard's idea, I'd guess. He's the one who dreamed up that 'patriotic crimes' caper in the late 40's, remember." "I don't-- because I was retired back then."

from Justice League of America vol. 1 #219
(script by Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway, art by Chuck Patton & Romeo Tanghal)

It's not just the dialogue, though; the entire story is constructed around explaining how Black Canary could have debuted in the 1940s but still be young enough in the 1980s to date Green Arrow (and was still drawn the same) while most of the other JSA members had aged. This is an okay thing to explain, but the actual explanation is so convoluted it beggars belief. Apparently, Dinah (Black Canary) and her husband Larry had a daughter also named Dinah, but she was cursed with a sonic scream, so she was transported into the thunderbolt dimension, where she aged normally but was comatose, and Dinah and Larry had their memories wiped of her! Like, what!? But wait, there's more when Larry died and Dinah moved from Earth-Two to Earth-One, Dinah began to die of radiation poisoning, so Superman detoured into the thunderbolt dimension and switched the consciousnesses of the mother and the daughter, so the mother has actually been in her daughter's body since 1969, as the daughter remains trapped, comatose, in her mother's radiation-ravaged body in another dimension! Only Dinah had no idea this happened to her. So much for informed consent! What is all this? It's terrible. Like, c'mon Roy, just say she got zapped with a youth spell. (Indeed, during his run on All-Star Squadron, Thomas would establish that many JSA members had had their aging slowed.) It's a terrible idea, and it makes for a terrible story. There may have been some JSA-related downsides to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, but one of its upsides was the new generational history for Black Canary that was developed.

from Justice League of America vol. 1 #232
(script by Kurt Busiek, art by Alan Kupperberg)

I felt that Family Crisis! started strong, with narration from an unknown narrator testing some of the heroes of Earths-One and -Two during their annual team-up. The whole thing is about a scientist whose mind gets taken over by an alien conqueror, but also his family was involved. Part two devolves into a pretty generic punch-up, though, and the family thread never really takes off, unfortunately.

The last JLA-JSA team-up actually took place during Crisis on Infinite Earths. As JLA-JSA crossovers go, there's not much to it; the JSA barely features in favor of Infinity, Inc., but Infinity, Inc. barely matter to the story: it clearly slots into and partially resolves an ongoing story in Justice League of America. There's not much to it outside of that. In the first part, some aspects of Infinity, Inc.'s recent "Helix" three-parter (#16-18) are tied up, and then Commander Steel (also a star of All-Star Squadron, just forty years younger) comes to ask Infinity, Inc.'s help against what he claims is a bunch of renegades using the name of the JLA. They travel to Earth-One and fight the JLA (now in its "Detroit" phase). Then in part two, the JLA goes to the wrecked satellite to use its transmatter to get help from the JSA, and everyone whales on Commander Steel-- who doesn't like how his grandson Steel or the new JLA have turned out-- together. (Commander Steel is aided by Mekanique, the robot from the future who would also bedevil the All-Star Squadron.)

It's mostly a couple fights. The most effective part is the segment where the JLA drift through the wreckage of their old satellite headquarters, which is atmospherically written by Conway and atmospherically pencilled by the ever dependable Joe Staton.

I look forward to reading this story in its JLA context when I get around to reading my Justice League: The Detroit Era Omnibus in its entirety, but as the final JLA/JSA team-up, it's a whimper. The JSA are barely in it, and I feel like there was some mileage in teaming the upstarts in Infinity, Inc. up with the upstart new version of the Justice League, but Thomas and Conway get nothing out of it; they barely interact meaningfully. How would these two group of youngsters remake an old tradition?

I'm glad I read these, but I feel like the last few JLA/JSA team-ups were victims of the concept's success. Because the concept had been so popular, it had spawned ongoing Earth-Two stories in All-Star and Infinity, Inc.-- but that meant those series were carrying the weight of Earth-Two, resulting in the last few crossovers being largely inconsequential side shows that couldn't do much of note.

Crisis in the Thunderbolt Dimension! originally appeared in issues #219-20 of Justice League of America vol. 1 (Oct.-Nov. 1983). The story was written by Roy Thomas (#219-20) & Gerry Conway (#219), pencilled by Chuck Patton, inked by Romeo Tanghal (#219-20) & Pablo Marcos (#220), lettered by John Costanza (#219) and Cody (#220), colored by Gene D'Angelo, and edited by Len Wein.

Family Crisis! originally appeared in issues #231-32 of Justice League of America vol. 1 (Oct.-Nov. 1984). The story was written by Kurt Busiek, illustrated by Alan Kupperberg, lettered by Ben Oda, colored by Gene D'Angelo, and edited by Alan Gold.

The Last JLA–Justice Society Team-Up! originally appeared in Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #19 (Oct. 1985) and Justice League of America vol. 1 #244 (Nov. 1985). The story was written by Roy Thomas (#19) and Gerry Conway (#244), pencilled by Todd McFarlane (#19) and Joe Staton (#244), inked by Steve Montana (#19) and Mike Machlan (#244), co-plotted by Dann Thomas (#19), colored by Anthony Tollin (#19) & Adrienne Roy (#19) and Gene D'Angelo (#244), lettered by Cody (#19) and Albert De Guzman (#244), and edited by Roy Thomas (#19) and Alan Gold (#244).

This post is the ninth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers issues #11-53 of Infinity, Inc. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)