by Sean McQuaid

n unwritten rule of 5% modern comics is the principle of

safety in numbers; that is, super heroes and their ilk have a habit of forming teams in ever-increasing droves. Eminently practical reasoning, when you think about it:why risk life and limb when you can pursue bad guys in the relative se- curity of a crowd of superpersons? The concept also makes good financial sense: why risk money on the appeal ofsome lone char- acter when you can provide a gang of heroes more likely to attract a wider variety of readers? That was the ques- tion asked by young artist- editor Sheldon Mayer in 1940, when he created the Justice Society of America. The JSA were the world’s first super team, and the model from which all the modern super teams were developed. Super teams like the Justice League, the Avenge’s, the titans, and the X-Men are among the most popular and suc- cessful comics in publication, and that being the case one would expect the JSA to be thriving; however, the JSA’s recent revival in their own title has proven less than profitable. The book has an appealing cast of classic characters and entertaining scripts, but suffers fatally from blatantly cartoony artwork and a nostalgic sen- sibility that sometimes strays into self-indul- gent corn.

The JSA first assembled in All-Star Com- ics #3, dated Winter 1940. It was a time when superheroes were still a relatively new idea. Superman had sparked the concept’s popularity when he exploded onto the scene in 1938, and the trend gathered steam in 1939 with the ap- pearance of such masked mystery-men as the Crimson Avenger, the Batman, and the Sand- man. DC comics, publisher of the biggest names

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like Superman and Batman, expanded its pub- lishing with the new ‘‘All-American’’ line, whose titles included All-American Comics, Flash Comics, and others. Early on, All-Ameri- can editorial boy genius Sheldon Mayer hit on the idea of publishing a book that would show- case the top heroes of the DC and All-American lines under one anthology title:thus was born All-Star Comics, but Mayer’s innovation didn’t end there. With the book’s third issue he intro- duced the Justice Society of America, the world’s first super team and the cream of the DC/All- American crop. Theassembled heroes included: the Sandman, a gas-masked, cloaked, gas-gun wielding Green Hornet derivative who was in actuality bored playboy Wesley Dodds; the Hourman, mild-mannered chemist Rex ‘‘Tick- Tock’’ Tyler whose Miraclo pills gave him a sixty-minute charge of superhuman. strength

and speed; Doctor Fate, a golden-helmetel mystic who'd been tutored in the magic arts b) an Egyptian sorcerer named Nabu; the Spectr’ amurdered police detective who returned to tt? earthly plane as a near-omnipotent ghos!! avenger; the Atom, a diminutive chap who took up costumed crimefighting after having trained to the peak of athletic perfection to fend off b# bullies; the Green Lantern, whose magic ri when charged at the lantern from which he todh his name, enabled him to mystically affect a matter and energy save wood; the Hawkmat' reincarnated Egyptian prince who fought ¢

with ancient weapons and with the wings ‘Nth metal’’ harness that enabled him to! and the Flash, a scientist who accidentally ™ haled a weird combination of chemical vap that gave him the ability to move faster that ‘the rapidity of thought’’, let alone a speeditt