"Maybe you were too tough for the JUSTICE SOCIETY... but, mister, now you've got to fight the SUPER SQUAD!": JSA All-Stars

During Justice Society of America vol. 3 (see item #44 below), a particularly stupid subplot saw the JSA breaking up into two distinct teams: the original JSA relocated to Happy Harbor to keep doing their thing, while a group of offshoots led by Power Girl but instigated by Magog formed the "All-Stars," which were supposed to be proactive and militaristic. The result was an eighteen-issue spin-off series called JSA All-Stars published from 2010 to 2011,* written by Lilah Sturges (then known as Matthew) and mostly illustrated by Freddie Williams II. (Flashpoint and the New 52 would kill it off.)

Like... why? If the twenty-first century JSA has worked at all, it's worked when it's been about the team's long history, its "legacy." The All-Stars undermine this by siphoning the legacy characters away from the original ones; the team mostly consists of younger heroes like Power Girl, Hourman, Cyclone, King Chimera, Wildcat II, Damage, and Stargirl. These characters are mostly interesting when contrasted against the older heroes. On top of that, the whole instigating incident is quickly rendered pointless when in Justice Society of America Annual vol. 3 #2, set between issues #3 and 4 of JSA All-Stars, Magog leaves the team! Thus the new proactive, militaristic JSA groups loses the person who makes them proactive and militaristic. So why did they split exactly? (Power Girl herself actually lampshades this with a conversation in the Power Trip collection.)

Once you move beyond that supposedly-unique-but-pointless team set-up... there's not much to this. There are three big story arcs, plus a couple smaller stories, and all of them left me cold. A lot of "big" action—gods returning, people jumping timelines, journeys into other dimensions—but nothing that ever seems clever or interesting, nothing that elevates the title above fairly generic superhero punch-ups. There are good characters on this team... but who is Stargirl when she's not part of the real JSA? Who is the Rick Tyler Hourman away from his wife? (More on him later.) This overlaps with Amanda Conner's Power Girl, and the character here has basically nothing to do with the character there other than costume. At one point a sorceress joins the team, and no one ever even bothers to explain who she is or where she is from. (I think Victorian England? Would have been nice to know.)

The one good issue is probably the Blackest Night epilogue, where everyone mourns the death of Damage. Unfortunately, it makes you realize more was done with him in one issue after he died than in six issues where he was alive.

Freddie Williams is a competent artist, and I seem to remember enjoying other work by him, but nothing from this title sticks out positively in my memory. There is a funny bit where a villain is using what is clearly the TARDIS console and control room from Doctor Who... and Williams (coincidentally, one assumes) draws the villain looking like Jodie Whittaker!

from JSA All-Stars vol. 2 #9
(script by Jen Van Meter, art by Travis Moore & Dan Green)

The one thing that does kind of work is the Liberty Belle and Hourman back-up, The Inheritance. Set before the team split up, this covers the adventures of the married couple as they travel around the world to track down a powerful artifact, competing against but sometimes working with Icicle and Tigress. It appears in ten-page installments from issues #2 to #11. It's kind of hard to follow at times—one has the feeling no one involved knows how to tell a story in ten-page chunks—but it's fun. I like Jen Van Meter's work on JSA Classified a lot, and it's good to see her writing these two villains again, and she does great by the superpowered power couple as well. Travis Moore acquits himself well on pencils, and it's always great to see the dependable Dan Green on inks. I don't know if these were collected, but it probably would have made a nice 100-page collection (maybe throw in the Liberty Belle/Hourman stories from the Justice Society of America 80-Page Giants), but I suspect no one other than me would buy it, alas.

This post is forty-eighth in an almost concluded series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 Years. 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)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930) ["Man-God!" (1976)]
    
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)
21. Armageddon: Inferno (1992)
22. Justice Society of America vol. 2 (1992-93)
23. The Adventures of Alan Scott--Green Lantern (1992-93)
24. Damage (1994-96)
25. The Justice Society Returns! (1999-2001)
26. Chase (1998-2002)
27. Stargirl by Geoff Johns (1999-2003)
28. The Sandman Presents: The Furies (2002)
29. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book One (1999-2000)
30. Wonder Woman: The 18th Letter: A Love Story (2000)
31. Two Thousand (2000)
32. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Two (1999-2003)
33. Golden Age Secret Files & Origins (2001)
34. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Three (1999-2003)
35. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Four (2002-03)
36. JSA Presents Green Lantern (2002-08)
37. JSA #46-87 (2003-06)
38. JSA: Strange Adventures (2004-05)
39. JSA Classified (2005-08)
40. JSA: Ragnarok (2020)
41. Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper (1989) [Catwoman: Year 2 (1996)]
42. Wonder Woman: Past Imperfect (1997-2002)
43. Batman/Wildcat (1970-98)
44. Justice Society of America vol. 3 (2007-11) [reading order]
45. Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant (2010-11)
46. Terra (2007-09)
47. Power Girl: Power Trip (2005-10)

* I think of this as JSA All-Stars volume 2, because there was also an eight-issue miniseries of that name published 2003-04. But sources like the DC wiki on Fandom call that first series JSA: All Stars (note the colon and lack of hyphen) and thus consider this one JSA All-Stars volume 1. I don't buy this; I don't think minor tweaks like this are traditionally held to represent a distinct title. If they were, we could count the 1983-86 The Omega Men and the 2005-06 Omega Men each as a volume 1 because of the lack of the definite article on the second... but, indeed, the DC wiki calls them Omega Men vol. 1 and Omega Men vol. 2, not The Omega Men vol. 1 and Omega Men vol. 1.