Justice League of America #23

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #23 (1963)
by Gardner Fox & Mike Sekowsky

The Sekowsky art on Justice League is… not that great… but I really like the transparency effect of Queen Bee’s wings against the logo. You don’t see that kind of thing often in the Silver Age.

And speaking of things you don’t see often: who places a giant fake crown on a skyscraper!?!?

These “drones” attack the guards with pretty absurd weapons. The reactions are almost as hilarious as the guns themselves!

Meanwhile the Justice League is busy celebrating Snapper Carr “passing his exams”.
Snapper is a great character post-Crisis, but I really have to wonder: did the readers seriously like him? Because I find him insufferable and completely unnecessary.

Riveting.
When not only Superman and Batman, but also Silver Age AQUAMAN don’t bother to show up… you’re really, really lame.

The JLA is informed about the robbery and somehow decide it’s more important than eating cake (shocking, I know).
At least they’re pretty fast, because by the time they arrive the drones are still there!

I know shapeshifters are written a little differently these days, but Martian Manhunter can’t stretch his arm without copying Elongated Man? Seriously!?

Martian Manhunter takes out the fire by throwing opals and blowing with his super-breath.
Leaving aside the idea that this could possibly work… couldn’t he just take out the fire with the super-breath he’s already using!?!?

The rest of the team is trying to stop a different batch of drones that are robbing another building. And they have similarly absurd weapons.
Again, just like with Martian Manhunter, this is utterly unnecessary! If the weapon makes the Flash run in reverse… couldn’t he just walk backwards towards them!?!?

The drones disappear before they can loot the place, and we are introduced to Queen Bee with some fanservice, 1963 style.

Forget about Martian Manhunter, is Green Lantern a shapeshifter too? Either that or his ring allows him to break his own spine without repercussions!!!

I’ve said it before and I stand by it: early Green Arrow sucks. THIS is the extent of his contribution:

So all the robberies have been thwarted… but the heroes are mysteriously drawn towards Queen Bee.

Which she does by making them attracted to cancer radiation.

And this was just the PROLOGUE, because Queen Bee’s plan was to enslave the Justice League to steal something for her.

Queen Bee, whose real name we find out is Zazzala (seriously?), has planted a bomb in the center of the Earth that will blow it up.
Not only she can do that, but it turns out Martian Manhunter’s “super-vision” can see through he entire planet!!! Okay could they POSSIBLY make even more of a Superman ripoff at this point!?

Okay, Queen Bee’s plan requires a ridiculous amount of backstory, so be ready.
Basically there was a scientist on her planet that made an immortality serum but was too old to take it, so he decided to hide it on a Venus-like planet.
I like that the backstory is so boring that the infodump is mixed with completely unnecessary details about what Queen Bee is looking at while she talks.

Let me get this straight. This guy discovered the secret of immortality but, instead of sharing the process with other scientists to possibly use it on other people, he decided to:
1) set up a test to find a person worthy enough of immortality
2) hiding on an extremely deadly planed
3) die
Ladies and gentlemen, we finally found a scientist with a WORSE scientific ethic than Jor-El!!!

So the team is dispatched to the planet to recover the treasures that will reveal the secret of immortality. And what do you know, the team is split into different mini-teams, definitely didn’t see that coming in a Garner Fox story.
At least the planet’s dangers make a lot more sense than the absurdity of the Doctor Light story.

Well, relatively speaking of course.

Wait, was Sekowksy ripping off himself by using Volcano Man in Metal Men #35?

Martian Manhunter defeats this thing with lava’s only weakness: magnetism. (WTF!?)

I take back what I said about the threats on this planet making sense.

Though I have to admit the solution on how to track the teleporting glacier is neat. I still can’t believe I just wrote the words “teleporting glacier”, but the credit is due.

This means Queen Bee now has all the vials and can become immortal.
And she waits to drink the serum until AFTER she’s brought the JLA back to Earth, AND after she’s deactivated the bomb… because let’s be honest, Queen Bee is an idiot.

Okay I like how they troll the villain, but… what kind of sense does THIS make!?
Won’t Green Lantern’s aura disappear the moment his ring runs out of energy? Or couldn’t Queen Bee go past it by using a yellow hammer? And considering the absurd weaponry she’s used so far, she really can’t find a way to open those vials!?

And so we end with a plug to publicize the Atom fighting Doctor Light in his own book, plus naturally the most important plot of this story: will the Justice League eat cake?

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Interesting letters: I am 99% sure this guy either grows up to be a serial killer or a jackass.

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Historical significance: 4/10
Queen Bee is a recurrent villain, but not THAT recurrent.

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Peak Silver Age stuff all the way through.

Does it stand the test of time? 2/10
This was rough. Queen Bee has potential but she doesn’t get to do much… a lot of the story follows the heroes deal with relatively minor threats, and at this point the Gardner Fox formula has become rather predictable. Even the backstory of the immortality vials is rushed through with an infodump.
Characterization is nonexistent, the heroes are basically interchangeable, Snapper Carr continues to be a waste of panels, and the artwork is… well… less than stellar to say the least.

Ridiculous Flash feat of the day

Martian Manhunter power of the day

How close is this to the modern character?: 3/10
The Silver Age version of the character doesn’t have all that many appearances.
There are actually multiple characters named Queen Bee which have nothing to do with Zazzala: a minor Batman villain, and more prominently the queen of the fictional country of Bialya that was a recurrent villain in both Justice League International and Justice League Europe.
But Zazzala was brought back in Grant Morrison’s JLA with a much-needed redesign; she actually DOES look line an alien insect-woman now, and she was a legitimate threat.

 

And she uzzzzed to talk like thizzzz, something that feelzzzz ezzzzzztremely Zzzzilver Age but that wasn’t really a thing back then.
I really like this version, but I do admit the zzzzpech pattern gimmick could get old fazzzzt.

And in the “New 52” timeline there was a Queen Bee leading H.I.V.E. (terrorist enemies of the Teen Titans and basically the DC equivalent of Marvel’s A.I.M.)
She was CLEARLY inspired by the Morrison version; I haven’t read any of these stories so I don’t know if this is supposed to be the alien or if it’s a completely different character.