JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #29 (1964)
by Gardner Fox & Mike Sekowsky
I’ve been covering a lot of Marvel villains, so let’s switch back to DC Comics for the evil version of the Justice League… the Crime Syndicate of America.
As tradition for any “Crisis” storyline, the Justice Society also shows up.
We begin with a parallel between Earth-1 and Earth-2, reminding us there is a Flash for both worlds…
…and then we switch to Earth-3 in its first appearances, showing that it doesn’t have a Flash: it has the evil Johnny Quick.
That’s a bizarre decision. As Flash readers certainly know, Johnny Quick was the OTHER Golden Age speedster from DC Comics. Unlike the Jay Garrick Flash, Johnny Quick basically skips the entire Silver Age and will become relevant only later.
Kind of weird since he was created by Mort Weisinger himself.
The Johnny Quick of THIS story has absolutely nothing to do with the Golden Age character, other then being a speedster.
Earth-3 is absolutely bonkers, especially when it comes to its history that basically works backwards (WTF!?).
The gimmick of Earth-3 is that there are no superheroes there, only supervillains.
Green Lantern and Wonder Woman have direct counterparts in Power Ring and Superwoman; they SEEM to be exactly the same people, but we are not told their secret identities.
Those three are what you would expect from the “evil version of the hero” trope. But Superman’s equivalent takes it to absurd lengths, because Ultraman gets new powers every time he touches Kryptonite!!!
I suspect Earth-3 doesn’t have as much Kryptonite as Earth-1, otherwise he’d have more powers than Composite Superman and Martian Manhunter combined!!!
And speaking of Earth-1, Ultraman gets the random power to see it.
This gives the Crime Syndicate the idea to attack Earth-1, under the suggestion of Batman’s equivalent: the supposedly super-smart Owlman.
Yep. This guy is the dark version of Batman. THIS GUY.
Surprisingly enough, nearly half of the Justice League doesn’t show up for this issue. I guess having ten superheroes face off against ten supervillains was considered unworkable?
No wonder Gardner Fox never wrote a Legion story!
Although he MIGHT have found space for another hero/villain pair if he dropped Snapper Carr from the story, since he contributes nothing.
Owlman’s genius move is to switch places, so that the heroes don’t fight their counterparts.
Flash is the first one to get into action, fighting the absurdly wide Ultraman.
However, Flash is overpowered enough to deal with Ultraman quite easily.
And he would win easily if Ultraman didn’t have an ace up his sleeve: the magic word Not Shazam Volthoom.
The same happens with Batman fighting Johnny Quick.
Superman has a harder time against Power Ring, because his powers (unlike Green Lantern’s) are magic.
He also lacks the weaknesses of the other Green Lanterns!
Superman wins by sucking…
…but at this point you’ve probably figured out the formula.
The last fight is between Wonder Woman and Superwoman, and it’s one of these instances where it’s very easy to forget Silver Age Wonder Woman couldn’t fly.
And neither can Superwoman, meaning this whole fight completely breaks the laws of physics.
Superwoman may look like a Wonder Woman complete double, but she’s secretly more awesome because she can transform her lasso into A FREAKING DRAGON!!!
Which turns out to be useless because Garner Fox never breaks his own formula.
And finally there’s Green Lantern, who is having trouble against Owlman because of his greatest weakness: being a moron.
Just kidding, that’s actually the best moment of the story: Owlman has hypnotic powers! That was admittedly well played.
But again: Gardner Fox will never break the formula.
Okay, it’s time for the secret of the story: WTF is “Volthoom”!?!?
Soo… the Crime Syndicate has won, right? They even get a whole page dedicated to showing off how they can kick all kinds of JLAss!
But instead of ruling Earth-3 or Earth-1, the Crime Syndicate decides to invade Earth-2 FOR NO REASON.
However the Justice Society is aware that Ultraman is looking at them (WTF!?), so Doctor Fate decides to play deus ex machina.
Which means this just turned into a two-part story.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #30 (1964)
by Gardner Fox & Mike Sekowsky
Based on the previous issue, I’d much rather trust the Justice Society to handle this.
That’s not going to be easy, thanks to the Crime Syndicate’s bulls##t magic word.
Sooo… why exactly does the Justice League get a regular title instead of the Justice Society?
I guess because maybe Black Canary was too hot for the Comics Code.
The Justice Society is all over the place when it comes to how powerful its members are.
There’s Black Canary with no powers, Doctor Mid-Nite who can see in the dark, Hawkman who can fly, and Starman who can TURN METEORS INTO NUKES.
And who can turn his weapon into FREAKING ANTIMATTER!!!
Soo… the Justice Society has won, right?
Well, you might have noticed that every time a member of the Crime Syndicate was defeated someone was boasting that the opposite was actually happening.
And it’s again thanks to their bulls##t magic word!
OH COME ON!!!
This is just stupid: they can pick and choose what happens if they say or don’t say the magic word!?!?
So far the story has alternated between being meh and being insultingly stupid. And then, all of a sudden, Gardner Fox remembers he CAN write and the Justice League suddenly goes back to act like a team!!!
Then Superman defeats Ultraman by giving him so many powers that he can’t even move.
HOW DOES HE KNOW THIS COULD HAPPEN!?!?!?
Similarly, Flash defeats Johnny Quick by making him run so fast his brain can’t keep up.
Green Lantern defeats Power Ring… by punching him. Despite the fact that both have the most powerful weapon of their respective universe.
To be fair, that’s not particularly more complex than how Wonder Woman wins.
I can’t decide if the way Batman defeats Owlman is very clever or very stupid.
The Crime Syndicate is not out of absurd plans, because SOMEHOW they rigged the prison they set up for the Justice Society to blow up BOTH Earth-1 and Earth-2 if they are ever freed.
This basically goes nowhere because the Justice Society is freed four panels later.
And so we end with the Crime Syndicate being exiled in the space between dimensions, together with a bunch of warning signs.
Soooo… the Crime Syndicates were clearly wanted criminals on Earth-3, but the Justice League just exiles them without any form of due process.
And why exile them between dimensions? Can’t Superman just send them to the Phantom Zone?
Interesting letters: wait wait wait, someone actually liked Snapper Carr!?!?
Most of the letters in issue #29 is dedicated to the backlash of a previous letter bashing Snapper, with most of the new letters praising him.
Mercifully, someone else still hates him.
Historical significance: 01\7
The Crime Syndicate is a recurrent threat, mostly requiring a team-up between the JLA and the JSA. Earth-3 is not as developed as the other parallel universes; the only main addition will be the revelation that Lex Luthor is a good guy here.
Silver Age-ness: 01\01
Does it stand the test of time? 01\0
There are good moments in some of the fights, but overall this was pretty bad. As it’s typical for this era of the Justice League, there is no characterization whatsoever… but usually Gardner Fox comes up with weird worlds or situations or crazy ways to use superpowers, so he’s typically at least entertaining. But this was hard to get through!
The whole “Volthoom” deal was just stupid. So this guy gives Power Ring his magic weapon that can do anything, but his name is ALSO a magic word that can do anything!? What kind of sense does THAT make!? The whole deal feels so random that the eventual victory feels unearned.
How close is this to the modern character?: 01\8
The Crime Syndicate is not exactly complex; some details will later be adjusted, but for the most part they are already in their final form.
They will stick around until Crisis, where they will die at the very beginning.
New versions of the Crime Syndicate have popped up in various continuities; it’s hard to resist “let’s do Evil Superman do evil stuff”, I guess.
The pre-Crisis version, or rather Ultraman specifically, explicitly popped out in the PHENOMENAL Animal Man run by Grant Morrison.
