Justice Society of of America is a team of superhero characters from the DC universe. With a mixture of older superhero characters, mixed with a younger influx. Essentially giving you characters that many familiar with DC will know such as Flash (the original), Dr Fate and Hawkman among others.
This graphic novel packs in a serious amount of storylines, each almost deserving of their own review. The graphic novel is compiled from individual comics that tie into a larger arc or flow together.
Cleverly the comic book doesn’t paint a picture of everyone getting on, but a team and individuals with issues, their own and some with each other. That they are human after all, even with great abilities. Due to the amount of time these characters have been around, it gives the writers the ability to add to the depth and connections of these characters.
Though this graphic novel touches upon many different subjects it firmly belongs to the hourmen. The original, his son and the future version who is an android. The original had died, but due to the future hourman and subsequently his son, has been given a chance to live and fight the fight again, if only until an opportunity arises to save his son. What save his son? Yes that hourman is seriously injured, which was a result of a fight more thoroughly covered in a preceding comic book, which luckily you don’t need to read to enjoy this graphic novel, but would enrich your enjoyment.
Those familar with the Zero Hour story arc will also enjoy the tie-in with the JSA’s fight with Extant. Personally I also enjoyed reading about the newer JSA characters such as Dr Mid-Nite, the new Mr Terrific and Sand.
Also expect an appearance from the Spectre, not the original, but the Hal Jordan version. Many reading this will be familiar with Hal Jordan, or soon will be due to Hal Jordan once being Green Lantern, which has been made into a movie starring Ryan Reynolds. In this graphic novel Hal Jordan is actually the Spectre.
Reading this review you could get the impression the graphic novel is complex and worth avoiding if not familiar with the JSA. Yes familiarity would help and provide a more enriched reading experience, but why not jump straight into a very well produced JSA graphic novel?
A fine JSA graphic novel produced in 2004 and a great addition to my graphic novel collection.
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