Thursday, March 20, 2008

Justice League of America #121 - Aug. 1975

sgAn unusually non-dramatic cover for a superhero comic, but still nice. But why the heck is Batman Adam Strange's best man?

The Story: "The Hero Who Jinxed the Justice League!" by Cary Bates, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Adam Strange shows up to tell the remaining JLA the bad news.

Unfortunately, before this mess can be handled, the JLA gets a distress signal to handle a strange cloud of energy that it knocking out power all over eastern seaboard.

As they get there, the cloud seems to have some sort of intelligence, as it attacks the JLA by creating cloud-like duplicates of them. Meanwhile, Adam Strange can only watch from the satellite, because he would die instantly.

You see, to be able to stay on Rann, Alanna's father Sardath has been bathing Adam in a particular kind of radiation, which keeps him on Rann but would kill him on Earth!

As Adam is mulling what to do, Kanjar Ro shows up in the satellite, basically just to taunt his old foe. Adam times it right, and grabs Ro's power wand just in time to get transported back to Rann. It's here that he uses Ro's weapon to track down some unusual energy patterns, and he finds traces of the JLA in a cave. One wave of the wand, and--presto! The JLAers and Alanna are alive again!

The JLA returns to Earth, helps the others defeat Ro's cloud creature, and Black Canary backhands Ro, knocking him out. Doomsday he ain't.

The issue ends with the JLA(plus Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman) attending the Rann wedding of Adam Strange and Alanna.

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado

Notable Moments: I like how Kanjar Ro may be brilliant, but he's a lousy hand-to-hand combatant. One slap from an Earthwoman knocks him on his ass.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another favorite of mine. Red Tornado is actually used, and used well....and I have to admit, I'm a sucker for ANY story that features ALL the members. I hadn't thought about Batman being Adam's best man until you pointed it out...more logical choices would have been Hawkman or the Flash, eh? Although I think Adam did co-star with Bats in B&B; maybe they became friends?

Anonymous said...

I have this issue, and I've always felt the figures ont he cover look like they were stretched vertically. Some very non-human (even for a comic) proportions going on here!

Bout time Adam did right by that girl!

Chris

Unknown said...

Maybe Kanjar-Ro is from a low gravity world and to him he was hit with super strength...?? Hey, I'm trying here.
Another good issue here. I wondered if the Morrison Era issues with Adam Strange was inspired by this issue?

Anonymous said...

Hey! Don't dis Dinah. Remember way back in #30 she took down Super-Woman. The lady's got some serious judo.

I thought Cary did a great job with this 2-parter. His characterization of Green Arrow and Red Tornado was terrific. And using half the JLA in #120 and the other half here gave everyone some face time.

A good story, wrapped in a poor cover. Maybe the switch from bi-monthly to monthly had them rushing to get covers, but this is ridiculous. Looks like Kanjar Ro had a secret weapon that would mutate everyone in case he got defeated. The priest/justice-of-the-peace/officiator is turning into a Conehead. Do something, Adam!

Anonymous said...

That cover is so poorly drawn, it's amazing it made it past the editors. Or maybe they were too pressed for time to do anything about it. Would be interesting to know how that got through.

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