Broken Frontier

Since making their appearance as a team in All-Star Comics #3 back in 1940, the Justice Society has been through a lot. But through the 60 years they’ve been in existence, one thing has remained the same – they are the inspiration for all superhero teams that came after.

Carrying the legacy of the most revered superteams these days is the creative team of super-scribe Geoff Johns and artist Don Kramer.

With Geoff Johns, one gets the consummate superhero writer of this generation, who shows off his chops with the wall-to-wall action each issue usually contains. Non-stop action has been a hallmark of this book from the beginning and has continued to be. But that doesn’t mean it’s all mindless violence, mind you. Johns has also offered very entertaining stories to boot.

On his watch, Johns has resurrected Hawkman and Hawkgirl and has finally made some sort of sense as to what went down with this continuity-challenged hero in the now-classic “The Return of Hawkman” storyline. In the poignant “Out of Time” arc, the more emotional aspects of the team are examined as the original Hourman is literally brought out of limbo in very interesting fashion.

While Johns could be have been content with carrying on the heroic exploits of the group, he isn’t afraid to shake things up by blurring the lines between good and evil as evidenced by the “Black Reign” storyline. In this arc, some members of the JSA, led by Black Adam, resort to more brutal means of justice in an effort to liberate Adam’s country of Kahndaq. As a result, friends become enemies and relationships are strained.

The recent “JSA/JSA” harkened back to the old days of the book as the team time-travels back to 1950s to avert a temporal plot hatched by classic JSA villain Per Degaton. With ramifications in the present, Johns has again written a story that draws the reader in and just holds you in suspense, waiting for things to lead up to something big.

On another note, one thing that impresses me with Johns’ work on this comic is how he manages to give ample time to tell stories about the individual members of the series despite the fact that this is basically an ensemble book. While most of the action revolves around what the team does as a whole, Johns has managed to show slices of life as far as each team member goes. This is one of the more difficult aspects of the book, but the writer has a good handle on things.

Even his current co-creator has good things to say about Johns. Series artist Don Kramer says, “I've almost never had to wait for a script and he talks with me about plotting before he writes the script. Very few writers are willing to do that.”

Speaking of Kramer, following stints on the book by artists Stephen Sadowski, Leonard Kirk, with some issues by Rags Morales and Peter Snejbjerg, the relatively-unknown artist took the reins and has slowly established himself as a star-on-the rise with his work on JSA.

Boasting clean lines and a good sense of action scenes, Kramer seems to have found his groove. The artist has a knack for drawing superheroes and it shows with every page of this book. Along with Keith Champagne’s inking, the artwork on JSA has been on a consistently high level since taking over.

“I've always wanted to work in comics,” Kramer adds. “I was familiar with the characters of the JSA before I started but didn't know much of their history.”

Despite this self-proclaimed unfamiliarity with the JSA’s history, Kramer has done a fantastic job of rendering the numerous heroes the book features. Of the characters, the artist admits to enjoy drawing Hourman, Flash, The Thunders and the Thunderbolt, Stargirl and Dr Mid-Nite the most. The least enjoyable are the Hawks and Mr. Terrific because, according to Kramer, “those wings on the Hawks can be tedious as well as the lettering on Terrific’s outfit.”

Guiding Line: JSA has been a good read since its first issue and is one of the rare books that has sustained high quality for a period of time. A big part of the book’s success can be attributed to Geoff Johns’ mastery of the superhero genre and how he has kept things interesting for so long. Action junkies get their fix while traditionalists also have much to look forward to. With artist Don Kramer churning out great, action-packed artwork on a regular basis, the team has consistently made this book a favorite among the tights-and-cape crowd.