Broken Frontier

Return to the days of old with the first twenty Justice League of America stories from 1960-1963!

The most recent installment in DC’s new line of affordable, black and white reprints makes available a large chunk of work from some of the most legendary names in comics– Gardner Fox, Murphy Anderson, Mike Sekowsky, and more. In reading these early JLA stories it becomes clear that all involved had formulas for handling such large-scale team action while churning out pages for perhaps half a dozen other comics. Despite the formulaic nature of these stories, though, Gardner Fox and the others managed to keep the challenges to the superhero team interesting– mostly due to use of a lot of action.

There is a lot to be found between these pages for fans of comic book history and continuity. Here are the first appearances of a number of classic villains such as Dr. Light, Starro, Amazo, Despero (what was it with all those names ending in ‘O’?) and others. There are original versions of JLA stories that were later retold to fit into DC’s post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity as well.

Modern audiences are liable to look on these stories with a rather critical eye. The pseudo-science used here was somewhat shaky for its time and all of the scientific discoveries made in the past forty-five years make it ridiculous to modern readers. Still, there is much to be gleaned about the era from this. For example, the number of times atomic bombs or "strange radiation" were used in these stories reflect the attitudes toward infant and mysterious atomic research. Admittedly, these stories are less sophisticated. There is much that is old-fashioned and comes across as silly by today’s standards. In its defense, though, these writers were aiming for an audience of children and young teens, not adults. Despite this there are also ideas and themes that modern writers are still tapping today– betrayal of the League by one of their own, a League member mind-controlled and forced to attempt to kill his teammates, mistaking alien actions for hostile intent, and more.

DC has done an excellent job with this reprint series. The lines and inks are clear and sharp with no part of the image lost. The reader can also see that all of the men whose pencils graced these pages had a solid sense of human anatomy, as well as the way people move and the mannerisms common to almost all of us.

The paper quality is also a cut above. It is thick and sturdy and has a slight finish to it that gives the book a professional look and feel. The pages are also reproduced at the Silver Age size, rather than being cut down or blown up, so the images one sees are closest to the way they originally appeared.

If there is any downfall to the collection it is, actually, the lack of color. Unfortunately, so many of these stories of fantastic adventures were also once fantastically colored. Green Lantern trapped on a world where everything is yellow is now Green Lantern trapped on a black and white planet. Dr. Light encasing Green Arrow’s Arrowplane in a cocoon of different colored bands of light are instead, merely a series of black and white rings. Even such things as the costumes of the Flash and the Atom lose much of their visual interest without the bright colors. Considering the amount of story contained in the volume for the price, however, concessions have to be made. Even if there were full color trade paperback reprints of these stories they would cost more and the reader would get fewer pages for the price.

The Showcase Presents Justice League of America is a slice of nostalgia for some who grew up on these stories. For others born years later, though, this collection provides insight into the history of society, pop culture, and comic books. As the saying goes, "you cannot know where you are going until you know where you have been."