JSA #12 review

Now here’s a cover, from Leonardo Romero, that promises classic adventure with the Justice Society of America, and that’s what we get inside. This issue is the culmination of the story that’s been weaving through this series for the past year, and it gave me the grins.

If you’re just joining us, the Injustice Society of America have been gathering mystical objects needed to raise Elder Gods. And now they’re on the verge of success, the barrier between worlds is weakening and horrors are beginning to enter our world.

Some heroes, though, are in position to tackle the problem. In Greenland, a group of JSA members are fighting their way through to the magically powered machine opening the gate between realities. They have to get past the ISA’s minions, and then the villains themselves. Along the way, Jesse Quick has her first meeting with the new Kid Eternity.

The ghostly teen, who can’t recall who she was in life, has taken to the hero game like an Atlantean to water since finding she can step into the spirit realm and borrow abilities from the more settled Dead. And while the strongest speedster is briefly unsettled by the reference to dad Johnny Quick, there’s no time to ask questions, there’s a fight to be won. And things start to look up when unexpected help arrives.

Inside the ISA’s citadel, though, the JSA’s advance team are in trouble, and psychic pain from the Elder Gods soon spreads to the their teammates and the Reserve.

But you know what? The JSA prevails, the incursion by the elder gods is prevented and the ISA routed.

Key to the success is some useful knowledge passed on from recently deceased Wildcat Ted Grant.

And finally, an epilogue.

There’s more, with the return of another classic member, but we won’t see their story for six months as the book shifts into long flashback mode. But that’s a story for next month, for now let’s concentrate on how successful this issue was.

Pretty successful, I’d say. There are lots of good moments, and while there are undoubtedly deus ex machina elements, I can’t resist a big cavalry arrival. Writer Jeff Lemire obviously loves his new Kid Eternity, but needs to be careful of using her as the font of all secret knowledge, ever able to come up with just the right power and pass on game-changing info… wavy unseen dialogue gets very old, very fast.

The teamwork is a joy to see, and the juggling of the membership at the end freshens things up. There’s some nice humour amid the drama, primarily a scene in which Wildcat Yolanda Montez calls out a villain on their melodramatic ways, but watch out for Mr Terrific bigging himself up, as ever, followed by a comment from Black Canary.

Lemire’s dialogue works, and I was pleased to see some omniscient narration, more of this would be great. It’s a shame we didn’t get a double-sized wrap-up, but Lemire manages to ensure things don’t seem too rushed.

He’s helped by the expansive art of Diego Olortegui, who handles dozens of characters without ever reducing anyone to faceless blobs, a common thing in comics today. The Elder Gods look wonderfully eerie, and the use of angles to show the sheer size of monstrous tentacles is very smart. The facial acting doesn’t falter and the panel-to-panel storytelling is clear but never dull.

Luis Guerrero adds vibrancy and atmosphere with intelligently chosen and applied colour combinations, spooky glows a speciality. Steve Wands also adds a bit of colour to his word balloons where it makes sense, including a creepy green…

So that’s the first year of this JSA run finished. I need to read it in a one-er, see how it stands up, because as a monthly serial it’s often been frustrating. There have been lots of excellent moments, but the overall story has been too sprawling, too unfocused. The ISA have been around the whole time but Wotan and Johnny Sorrow apart, the members have felt like bit players, rarely even named… I still couldn’t tell you who the anti-Sandman is.

The art, though, most of it by Olorteguo, has been stellar throughout, and I hope he’ll be back after the upcoming JSA Year One series-within-a-series, written by Lemire and drawn by the excellent Gavin Guidry.

I’d prefer the mini to be its own thing, as I’m itching to see where the JSA of 2025 goes next, but hey, at least the book is continuing. That’s a definite win.