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Post by rberman on Oct 20, 2019 6:02:21 GMT -5
JLA #162 “The Creation Conspiracy!” (January 1979)Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: The JLA spend several pages establishing that “RNA Compound One” has been stolen from a secret S.T.A.R. Lab. Zatanna gets zapped by the empty canister. Zatanna realizes that her memory has been tampered with. She considers it an egregious “violation.” Quite a different attitude toward the “forced amnesia” topic than we’ve seen in another recent issues, when she or Green Lantern doled out amnesia quite flippantly to villains and heroes alike. Half of the JLA contend with a giant octopus in Florida. Why do all of Green Lantern’s foes come equipped with a “yellow aura” for protection? Then at an underwater base, those same heroes are defeated by a single energy blast from “The Shark,” an old Wonder Woman foe. He plans to use RNA Compound One to make an army of giant bugs and critters. You can tell the panels on this page were rearranged by the way the “17” page number appears in the middle of the bottom margin. The heroes break free and shove all the mutated monsters back in the mutation chamber, sending them so far forward in evolution that they loop back around to primitive form. The same as in “Altered States” or that Action Comics where Superman went so far into the future that he ended up back where he started. Meanwhile, Red Tornado, Elongated Man, and Zatanna are following the trail of her missing memories. They visit the attic in her dad’s house, where photos don’t match her childhood memories. Then at her childhood house itself, Red Tornado is severely wounded fighting a spirit. My Two Cents: In this issue, Gerry Conway does two things that I love. First, he offers a continuing story about Zatanna, picking up where last issue left off with Zatanna’s new look and attitude. Second there’s an honest-to-goodness B-plot. With this many characters, I’d much rather have them split up doing different things in different combos rather than the clichéd “gather pieces of the bleah bleah bleah from all over the world” that they’ve done so many times. I suspect Conway was playing off of competition like Legion of Super-heroes, Avengers, and X-Men in this respect. There’s an action plot involving The Shark and a character development plot with Zatanna, pulling her father Zatara in as well. I hope to see more of this going forward. Speaking of character development, Red Tornado is quite solicitous of Zatanna. This cannot be a coincidence, considering the relationship between their analogues The Vision and Scarlet Witch in The Avengers.
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Post by tarkintino on Oct 20, 2019 10:46:53 GMT -5
JLA #162 “The Creation Conspiracy!” (January 1979)Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. Well, its only a problem when it happens to a hero... While I thought that was a mildly interesting plot device, its just so nonsensical, since no one can sell the notion that there's an arbitrary evolutionary point, and once reached (or breached), like a video game at its end, you are sent back, or "reset" to the starting point. I groaned when reading the issue for the first time, as it was clear Conway just thought, "hey...Marvel did it, but who's gonna know about it over here?" Comics fans do read more than one publisher's work, so this would be as glaring a rip as Hyperion was of Superman (and/or Thomas's Squadron Sinister being a rip on the JLA). If it was more of an in-joke / wink, it would come and go, but playing similar character as that of their comepetition….just no.
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Post by rberman on Oct 20, 2019 18:06:39 GMT -5
Zatanna realizes that her memory has been tampered with. She considers it an egregious “violation.” Quite a different attitude toward the “forced amnesia” topic than we’ve seen in another recent issues, when she or Green Lantern doled out amnesia quite flippantly to villains and heroes alike. Well, its only a problem when it happens to a hero... Meltzer lifted many elements of Identity Crisis on this late 1970s run of JLA, including: Doctor Light learns the JLA's identities in "The Great Identity Crisis" (#122) A League wracked by internal conflict (#142 and following) In particular, a League stressed by secrets known only by an inner cabal (#144): JLAers get their memories erased by one of their own. (#148) Villain learns secret identities of JLA, so they wipe his memory. (#154) Unstable Jean Loring, always a hair's breadth away from snapping (#157): The Secret Society of Super-Villains switches bodies with some of the JLA (#166-168). Per Metzler, they learned the JLA's identities as a result, and so they needed their minds wiped.
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Post by rberman on Oct 20, 2019 18:15:34 GMT -5
Speaking of character development, Red Tornado is quite solicitous of Zatanna. This cannot be a coincidence, considering the relationship between their analogues The Vision and Scarlet Witch in The Avengers.I groaned when reading the issue for the first time, as it was clear Conway just thought, "hey...Marvel did it, but who's gonna know about it over here?" Comics fans do read more than one publisher's work, so this would be as glaring a rip as Hyperion was of Superman (and/or Thomas's Squadron Sinister being a rip on the JLA). If it was more of an in-joke / wink, it would come and go, but playing similar character as that of their comepetition….just no. Tom King winked at this recently as well. In 2016, he wrote a mini-series in which the Vision's attempt to raise an android family in the suburbs goes horribly wrong. Then earlier this year in Heroes in Crisis, he had Red Tornado plan the same thing, with the implication that it will go down the same way.
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Post by rberman on Oct 21, 2019 7:30:12 GMT -5
JLA #163 “Concert of the Damned” (February 1979)Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: Just as Zatara begins to explain himself to the JLA, they get news of an ambush: Green Arrow has been attacked in his apartment by Anton Allegro, who summons demons out of his magical accordion. Then Allegro runs off to murder a symphony conductor and his former manager. Green Arrow provides backstory of his previous encounter with Allegro years before, when Allegro got caught in a super-battle and was deafened. This is not a recap of a previous comic book. The JLA catch up with Allegro at his ex-manager’s house and get soundly trounced by his sonic creations. His next stop is his ex-girlfriend’s house. Batman replaces her with a robotic body double that bears Allegro’s wrath. But even Superman is unable to capture the villain, so his accordion must be magical indeed. How can they stop him? In the B-story, Zatanna’s father Zatara recounts the presumed death of her mother Sindella in a car crash. Zatara lately had a vision in which the spirit of Sindella warned him away for unclear reasons. My Two Cents: Again the A Plot/B Plot structure works well, giving everybody something to do. Zatanna’s sexy new bodysuit (One part Power Girl, one part Dracula) is said to have been what her mother used to wear. That is very strange. Were they aiming for Vampirella/Lilith? Allegro’s deafness is an important revenge motivator for his character. But Conway and Dillin sometimes forget about it, as in this scene when Allegro chats with his ex-girlfriend. He’s not reading her lips since he is facing away from her. Wake up, Mr. Editor!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2019 12:35:34 GMT -5
JLA #163 “Concert of the Damned” (February 1979)My Two Cents: Again the A Plot/B Plot structure works well, giving everybody something to do. Zatanna’s sexy new bodysuit (One part Power Girl, one part Dracula) is said to have been what her mother used to wear. That is very strange. Were they aiming for Vampirella/Lilith? Allegro’s deafness is an important revenge motivator for his character. But Conway and Dillin sometimes forget about it, as in this scene when Allegro chats with his ex-girlfriend. He’s not reading her lips since he is facing away from her. Wake up, Mr. Editor! I find your description of Zatanna's costume amusing and head on! I'm deaf and hard of hearing ... the Editor goofed in a big way and I just can't believe you've point it out and I do remember reading this issue and I did not see that at all until you've pointed out this grievous error here. Thanks for sharing it.
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Post by badwolf on Oct 21, 2019 16:50:35 GMT -5
The Secret Society of Super-Villains switches bodies with some of the JLA (#166-168). Per Metzler, they learned the JLA's identities as a result, and so they needed their minds wiped. I love this SSOSV story and look forward to discussing it.
Maybe it's too soon to mention it, but I think the only identity they might have been likely to recognize would have been Bruce Wayne.
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Post by rberman on Oct 21, 2019 17:14:11 GMT -5
The Secret Society of Super-Villains switches bodies with some of the JLA (#166-168). Per Metzler, they learned the JLA's identities as a result, and so they needed their minds wiped. I love this SSOSV story and look forward to discussing it. Maybe it's too soon to mention it, but I think the only identity they might have been likely to recognize would have been Bruce Wayne.
Meltzer didn't say how the secret names were known, just that it happened somehow. Maybe access to JLA files?
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Post by badwolf on Oct 21, 2019 22:18:10 GMT -5
I love this SSOSV story and look forward to discussing it. Maybe it's too soon to mention it, but I think the only identity they might have been likely to recognize would have been Bruce Wayne.
Meltzer didn't say how the secret names were known, just that it happened somehow. Maybe access to JLA files? Ah yeah true...why didn't I think of that??
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Post by zaku on Oct 22, 2019 1:17:30 GMT -5
Meltzer didn't say how the secret names were known, just that it happened somehow. Maybe access to JLA files? Ah yeah true...why didn't I think of that?? Google Images? Facebook accounts?
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Post by rberman on Oct 22, 2019 7:20:34 GMT -5
JLA #164 “Murder by Melody!” (March 1979)Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: Anton Allegro broadcasts his magical music to television sets all over the world, turning listeners into mindless zombies. As if TV didn’t do that already! Zatanna protects the JLA from hearing the music by creating sound-canceling earmuffs. The JLA find a forbidden book of dark magic in Allegro’s apartment. Using the book, Zatanna channels Black Canary’s super-singing into a musical spell that shatters Allegro’s incantations. He’s captured and sent to jail. Now time for “How I Met Your Mother.” Zatara recounts long ago when he got wounded in Turkey fighting King Inferno, and Sindella, a white blonde woman (odd!) came to his aid, and something “far stronger than love” passed instantly between them. Next issue this will be dubbed the “fatal attraction” between her people and regular humans. The JLA travel to Turkey, and Zatanna, playing Allegro’s magic accordion, reveals an invisible city. The city elders have her mom Sindella captive, and wouldn’t you know this is the exact day that the city elders need Zatanna to replace her mother as their civilization’s power source? My Two Cents: Conway has done the old “These two seemingly unrelated stories are in fact the same story” trick, merging Zatanna’s story with Allegro’s. I don’t mind. It feels earned, considering that Zatanna’s story unfolded in the background over several issues. Zatanna’s arrival in this Shangri-La on this propitious day is overly coincidental; there’s no reason that Allegro should have gone on his rampage exactly when they did. I’m less enthusiastic about retconning Zatannta’s origin. Up until now, she was a legacy character, carrying on her father’s Golden Age tradition of backward magic. But now it seems she’s equally magic on the side of the side of her hitherto unknown mom.
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Post by rberman on Oct 22, 2019 23:53:43 GMT -5
JLA #165 “A Mother of Magic” (April 1979) Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: The JLA rush to defend Zatanna and free her mother Sindella, but they’re easily cut down by Highlord, wielder of the Optic Gem of power. Let’s put all the spellcasters in the same jail cell! That way, Zatanna can snap her mother out of her trance. Mom delivers exposition about how she was trying to protect her family from the dangers of this city, etc. Zatara just stands there like a useless lump this whole issue. The rest of the heroes are trapped in a magic cell. Wonder Woman’s magic lasso can penetrate the walls, so she casts blindly and ropes a warden who has the keys to let them out. Score! Zatannta’s mom sacrifices herself to free her family and return the enemy soldiers to their original inorganic condition. Green Arrow had previously noticed that the soldiers showed no “fatal attraction” to humans, so they must not be real people themselves. Lettercol: Bob Rozarkis announces that Julius Schwartz is being replaced as JLA editor by Ross Andru. That will last until Len Wein takes the editor’s chair in issue #176. My Two Cents: It’s a decent end to Zatanna’s origin story, which I’d never read before. Conway is doing well with both characterization and plots that don’t hinge on splitting the JLA up into small squads. Apparently Sindella’s sacrifice has driven the evil leaders of the Secret City into hiding but not ended their threat entirely. I think? A TV scientist says that the people of the Secret City belong to Homo Magus, a different species from mankind. Very X-Men of them. But as with Homo Superior, they aren’t a legitimate separate species, just a subspecies since they can mate with Homo sapiens and produce fertile progeny.
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Post by rberman on Oct 24, 2019 5:40:44 GMT -5
JLA #166 “The Long Way Home” (May 1979)Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: Unusually, this story starts with a wrap-up of the previous issue rather than a new tale. The JLA attend Sindella’s funeral, at which the citizens of the Secret City absorb her spirit into their own. Despite last issue’s emphasis on the “fatal attraction” between Homo sapiens and Homo magi, not one of the JLA get pair-bonded with any of the numerous people they meet. I guess the whole “evil leaders with magic powers” element of the Secret City is just being dropped, as is the city's need for a power source in Sindella's absence. The Secret Society of Super-Villains, led by Earth-2 villain The Wizard, transports up the JLA Satellite, slugs Red Tornado, uses the JLA computer to locate a mystic artifact in an Israeli museum, and then transports down to steal it. The heroes chase the villains but are handily defeated. The villains then give exposition about a serious problem they are facing. They’ve just come from some inter-dimensional prison, and a fragment of their souls is stuck there. They need to change bodies with somebody quickly, or they’ll perish. The JLA’s bodies will do nicely… My Two Cents: This issue continues a story that was aborted before it could be told. In 1977-78, Gerry Conway was also writing the short-lived (15 issue) Secret Society of Super-Villains book at the same time as JLA. He had just added Blockbuster and Professor Zoom to the team in issue #12, as seen below. During issues #13-15, The Wizard took his super-villains first to Earth-3 and then to Earth-2. That story had not concluded when the series was canceled with issue #15 (July 1978), but apparently Conway envisioned the villains getting stuck between dimensions, with this JLA story picking up at that point. Still, it’s nice to have villains whose villainy is only the means to a selfish end: in this case, saving their lives. I read the second part of this story long ago but never the first part before now. Story space in this issue is down to a mere 17 pages. This issue of JLA contains a full page ad for itself. Slightly unnecessary! The advertising blurbs are placed so as to make prone, helpless Wonder Woman even more prominent in the advertisement than she is on the cover. Seems to be a trend. New DC publisher Jenette Kahn was experimenting with all sorts of different price/cost combinations such as the ad-free Dollar Comics. Industry analyst James Brancatelli ran a series of analysis editorials in adult-oriented Warren Magazines titles like Eerie and Vampirella. He repeatedly predicted that the “DC Explosion” would fail due to market oversaturation, and that Kahn would quickly be ousted. He was right about the first half of that. Kahn survived and oversaw a creative renaissance at DC in the 1980s, but she proved powerless to change the underlying cultural tides which saw comic book readership slip and slip further. The artifact was taken from a museum in Jerusalem. Apparently it’s not OK to mention Jesus by name, but Conway works in a reference anyway.
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Post by badwolf on Oct 24, 2019 14:45:08 GMT -5
But Wizard, this is the bronze age...oh, I see what you mean.
I've never read this first part of the story; I didn't know there was a reason for the body swap other than "being villainous."
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Post by rberman on Oct 24, 2019 16:09:37 GMT -5
But Wizard, this is the bronze age...oh, I see what you mean. I've never read this first part of the story; I didn't know there was a reason for the body swap other than "being villainous."
I was in the same boat as you. I had read the second and third parts of this story but not the first, until recently. Here is The Wizard's exposition bridging the plot gap between the final issue of Secret Society of Super-Villains and this issue of JLA. I assume some of this was supposed to be in an issue of SSoSV that was never produced due to cancelation.
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