Science's Less Accurate Grandmother: JSA Presents Green Lantern by Steven T. Seagle, Tony Bedard, Junior Thomas, John K. Snyder III, Dennis Calero, Staz Johnson, et al.

14 November 2022

JSA Presents Green Lantern by Steven T. Seagle, Tony Bedard, Junior Thomas, John K. Snyder III, Dennis Calero, Staz Johnson, et al.

JSA Presents Green Lantern

Collection published: 2008
Contents published: 2002-08
Acquired and read: August 2022

Writers: Steven T. Seagle, Tony Bedard, Junior Thomas

Artists: John K. Snyder III, Dennis Calero, Staz Johnson/Mike Norton, Rodney Ramos/Jack Purcell, Allen Passalaqua

Letterers: Todd Klein, Travis Lanham, Jared K. Fletcher, Rob Leigh

This slim collection contains three stories (four issues originally, one double-sized) about Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern. One is a "retro" story, set in 1944; the other two feature him in the present day, a bit ahead of where I am at with my reading otherwise, with the events of Infinite Crisis and 52 coming in between. (I left off with JSA #45, published April 2003; the first present-day issue collected here was published June 2007.) It seems many developments await Alan Scott, but most noticeably he became director of and then quit the government black-ops organization Checkmate, and his daughter Jennie-Lynn "Jade" Hayden has died.

The first story is "Brightest Day, Blackest Night," which tells the story of Alan's first run-in with Solomon Grundy in the Slaughter Swamp outside Gotham City. Nazi agents crash a passenger airplane in the swamp to get their hands on an inventor aboard it, as well as his invention, but run afoul of an angry Grundy. Green Lantern comes to the rescue, aided by his romantic interest, reporter Irene Miller, and taxi-driving sidekick Doiby Dickles. The story seems designed to show off the painted art of John K. Snyder III, which is brimming with atmosphere, and captures well both the brutality of Grundy and the majesty of the Green Lantern. Unfortunately, the art isn't consistently great at storytelling: though I thought on the one hand, the body language of Irene really brought her to life, on the other hand, there were times it was just completely unclear to me what was happening. That the scientist had a niece also on the plane who also survived the crash was something the illustrations only seemed to intermittently depict, for example.

The art does a good job of capturing the light/darkness interaction.
from Green Lantern: Brightest Day, Blackest Night (script by Steven T. Seagle, art by John K. Snyder III)

The second story, "Johnny Mimic," is the best in the volume. Johnny Mimic is a criminal with an uncanny ability to recreate heists; Alan apprehended him back during the Golden Age, but let him go if he promised to be good—and he did. But decades later, the Super Human Advanced Defense Executive want Johnny to help them figure out a heist, and if Alan can't convince him nicely, S.H.A.D.E. will do it by force. The three-way tension between Alan, Johnny, and Father Time (leader of S.H.A.D.E.) is well done, and the story is genuinely surprising in terms of both what had happened and what goes on to happen. Johnny is not an actual preexisting character, but feels like one. The story does a strong job of playing Alan's optimism off the more cynical tone of contemporary comics. This is a solid, perfectly executed done-in-one comic with good moments of charm. Unsurprisingly, it's written by Tony Bedard who's good at this kind of thing in general, and Dennis Calero handles the art well.

Like Johnny Mimic's wife, I am always up for a bit of Green Lantern charm.
from JSA Classified #25 (script by Tony Bedard, art by Dennis Calero)

The final story is "Giving Thanks"/"Ghosts of Christmas Past"—you might not be surprised to realize it takes place across the holiday season, going from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Alan battles perennial JSA villain Vandal Savage, who taunts him by seemingly bringing Jade back to life. It's a bit plodding at times (the battle went on too long with the same character beats repeated again and again), but the final ten pages or so really shined, as Alan must make a tough decision, and then we follow the emotional fallout of it. I get that she wasn't really there, but Jade felt very generic here, not the well-rounded character that Roy and Dann Thomas created in Infinity, Inc. Anyway, it's fine. I remember not liking how Jade was killed off in the Infinite Crisis Companion; I'm curious to find out if she has any kind of meaningful role in JSA before that point, or if she's brought back just to be killed as so often happens with minor female superheroes.

This post is thirty-sixth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers issues #46-87 of JSA. Previous installments are listed below:

All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)

The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)

All-Star Squadron (1981-87)

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)

Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)

America vs. the Justice Society (1985)

Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)

Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]

Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)

All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)