Yet Another Comics Site

_____I've always had a fondness for DC's old-timers. Right at the start of my collecting days I picked up much of the early years of Roy Thomas' definitive Golden Age re-visitation, the All-Star Squadron. I also own the preceding run in the revived All-Star Comics and Adventure Comics, and the much later Justice Society mini-series and the not much longer lived Justice Society ongoing series of the early nineties.
_____Part of the appeal of these characters has always been the fact that they hail from a world without grey areas, where the heroes are good, the villains are bad, and that's pretty much the sum of it. There was never any hestitation or question of who was right and wether the hero was justified in whatever actions they embarked upon. The hero was, by definition, the hero.
_____Or at least, that was how it seemed to the readers of the day. In fact, their world was darker in many respects than the Silver Age or even the modern one, and our changing views as a society have brought things that were then taken for granted into question.
_____But these characters remained untouched by either of these factors. Those aspects of their history that were inconvenient were ignored in their initial revivals during the early Silver Age, and it is that period's unfailingly benevolent picture of the world that has attached itself to their innate goodness.
_____The sole remnants of the darker nature of their roots, the lack of ethical conflict they felt while carrying out their visions of morality and judgment, has become in current retrospectives and revivals an unwavering and unconflicted certainty that now seems eminently heroic.
_____James Robinson's Golden Age mini-series was a reminder that the Golden Age wasn't really that nice, when you come to think of it.
_____But he has also done what has never yet been done, which is to introduce failings to the GA heroes that are part of human nature. Insecurity is one of the principle ones, present in everyone from Johnny Thunder with his desperate desire to belong, to the Tarantula Jonathan Law with his self-loathing turned into hostility and violence.
_____I like the story, but I do not approve of treating GA heroes as if they were modern ones. It lowers them, and robs them of their origins in the world of the pulps, where the morality now appears all the greyer for its black and white nature.
_____In essence, I believe that Robinson missed the really interesting flaws of these heroes. But I submit he did so because we aren't wanted to see the real flaws in these heroes. Perhaps we don't want to.
_____The use of the Elseworlds umbrella partly shields the characters from their depictions here, but as with Kingdom Come there seems to be a tendency to assume that at least certain elements are canonical. This is a shame, as Robinson does a great disservice to many fine characters. I do not believe that it makes Robotman more interesting to have him depicted as an inhuman monster, or the Atom willingly blind to the evils around him. Some of the changes, the ones that emphasize the conflicts that these essentially good people would have faced (I'm thinking here of Green Lantern) do develop the characters without derailing them. You could make a case for Ted Knight's guilt, and Robinson's more detailed explorations of the character in his Starman series have done so. And the condition of Manhunter is clearly not his fault. But by and large I do not approve. Tarantula willing to hurt his wife?
_____Which brings up another point. The use of Roy Thomas' selections for key players in All-Star Squadron here is mixed. Robinson repeatedly acknowledges Thomas' work (the marriage of Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle, the new costume for Tarantula, the death of TNT in a car crash) but shows much almost no willingness to accept the characterizations Thomas presented.
_____For all that, though, I do recommend this mini-series. It is well written and has some interesting things to say, as long as it is not taken as the last word on the era from which it draws its name.
_____Well, I had quite a bit to say here, didn't I? More than I expected actually, but at least part of that is because this is my first piece to tackle the Golden Agers. On the bright side, the pre-amble for the All-Star Squadron piece your humble host NWJ will doubtless get around to eventually will now be a bit shorter.
_____That's the preamble. Here's the breakdown.
_____Part One introduces us to Robinson's darker world. We see the retirement of many Golden Agers, and the loss of innocence that accompanies the remaining ones. I've talked about this at length above, so I won't repeat myself.
_____Part Two is where the plot really begins, as Americommando gathers together heroes to support him, and transforms Daniel Dunbar into a Superman level powerhouse. The character of Manhunters also emerges as a major player here.
_____Part Three is where the plot begins to come together. Heroes begin to figure out what has happened, and a plan is made to stop it. But the characters outside that loop, Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle and Tarantula, paint a fascinating, personal tale. And, as a long-time fan of HUAC/McCarthyism based fiction, from the original JSA disbands story to The Manchurian Candidate and back to the story "Witness" in Wild Cards (and of course that doesn't mean I support the witch-hunting bastards; I just find the dramatic possibilities fascinating), I must confess that for me Alan Scott's plight steals this issue. More than any other hero, his conflict seems not an invention of Robinson but rather a tale that always existed and is merely being presented for the first time. It is the inevitable result of a truly noble soul being caught in a time when honour was a cause for suspicion, and a man who is facing for the first time an evil that he has the power to destroy but not the freedom. The final panel, where Alan's phone creates the sound effect "ring ring ring" as he stands there, haunted by what he can do, is as powerful as anything in the super-hero genre entire.
_____But in the end, I'm a sucker for epics. Read my page on them for details. And the final part of this Elseworlds is epic indeed.
_____Between the battles to take down Dynaman's supporters Robotman (who has ventured way way too far out of character, if I may say so, to even qualify as an Elseworlds variant) and Americommando (the latter being quite frankly the better scene), and the main fight itself, not a page doesn't drip with excitement.
_____Oh, and while I won't spoil the big revelation, I will say that it is doubly appropriate here, both due to the origins of these heroes during the Second World War, and the fact that it truly takes a comic book cliche and makes it both nostalgic in an odd way and truly horrific for perhaps the first time (in other words, a microcosm for this mini-series).
_____One by one, the heroes fall to Dynaman. I'm especially fond of the brief bit about the Human Bomb, while his compatriot Red Bee had an obscure continuity note as an obituary, not good drama. But to make up for it, Johnny Quick says his formula and races to battle with a smile on his face, and the big guy finally makes an appearance, and... well, pretty much every Golden Ager you can think of gets their due. The few falterings are with those characters Robinson treats as too powerless to be useful, like Dr. Mid-Nite.
_____The Golden Age heroes make their last stand, and many don't make it out alive.
_____The ending feels a bit forced, with Johnny Quick's summary of the fates of the survivors combining attempts to undo changes Robinson has wrought (Quick and Belle's early divorce, Thunder's corruption) and tie into continuity (the fate of Manhunter) that he really doesn't need in a story that has already wandered this far from the established DC Universe. But in the end, it does summarize one of the themes that was building through this series, that the Golden Age was over, and add to it... "What comes next?"