JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #41 (1965)
by Gardner Fox & Mike Sekowsky
The perspective on the cover is kind of weird, since unfortunately The Key is not a giant.
Also, notice everyone is going by his superhero name but Martian Manhunter is using is real name.
Maybe it was too long to fit with the others?
Probably not, since he’s also called J’onn J’onzz in the roll call. Which also includes Snapper Carr, something that annoys me to no end.
We begin with the Justice League gleefully disbanding. Wait, what?
Little known fact, this is when the Atom starts his lifelong battle with alcoholism. True story.*
(*not a true story)
Man, the Justice League is just DONE with this whole business, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom:
This is all part of The Key’s plan, which involves Snapper Carr…
…because his gimmick is mind control.
Jokes aside, it IS more scientific than most fictional types of mind control. What makes it a little laughable is The Key’s insistence of linking everything to keys even when it feels really, REALLY forced.
Okay I buy this works on the human members of the League. And I’m willing to suspend my disbelief for Hawkman and Martian Manhunter: they’re aliens, but okay, they brains might be similar enough to humans for this to work. (though how the heck would The Key know!?)
How does this work with Superman!? At this point in his career he shouldn’t be affected by ANYTHING that doesn’t involve magic or Kryptonite, so WTF!?!?
I have to give props to The Key: he’s genre savvy enough to realize he’d eventually get bored of ruling Earth, and he’s made contingency plans for that.
With the Justice League disbanded, the heroes keep their usual adventures, while being completely oblivious to The Key’s goons running around.
The exception is Hawkgirl, who is the only one of the heroes shown who is still able to see the “Key-Men”.
She’s the one to figure out her milk has been spiked by Hawkman with mind-control chemicals!
Suck it Batman, who’s the world’s greatest detective NOW?
Without Hawkgirl’s help, it’s entirely possible The Key might have conquered the world… and yet she’s not an official member and she’s not listed in the roll call, unlike Snapper Carr. (???)
Ah, so this is when Hawkman discovers the secret identities of his colleagues. I’ve never been a fan of the fact that in the Justice League everyone knows everyone else’s secret identity (not literally, but almost)… but I have to admit this is pretty cool.
If Superman can see ALL of Earth except a single place that is being kept invisible… which we soon discover is the original Justice League headquarters… and if they know The Key is hiding there, what’s the point of interrogating the Key-Men?
Oh come on, why would The Key ask Green Lantern to do THAT!?
The good news is that the chemicals were spiked with Kryptonite… SOMEHOW… so that’s how they handwave the fact it affects Superman.
But if the chemicals have been rendered inert to the point the heroes are no longer mind-controlled, why are they still preventing them from attacking!?
Also, why isn’t Hawkgirl there!? She’s the one hero who is explicitly shown to have been spared from the mind-controlling chemicals, why isn’t SHE infiltrating the base!?
Even though that’s a glaring omission, I always enjoy when the Atom does his old trick about moving around through phone lies.
The Key anwering the phone is just hilarious.
Maybe, juuuuust maybe, operating the machine with literal keys was a dumb idea.
Despite having the hallmarks of a gimmick villain, so far The Key has been refreshingly original.
And then he goes on to throw weaponized keys at the heroes.
The solution is, of course, to just switch the targets.
And so we end with The Key being defeated, and Green Lantern mindwiping him to erase his memories about the secret identities.
What WAS he talking about with that cliffhangher? We don’t find out until his next appearance in issue #63: he has installed a Cosmi-Key™ in the League headquarters that will alow him to mind-control them without the stupid keyboard.
Why wasn’t THAT his first option!?!?!?
Historical significance: 7/10
Hawkman and Hawkgirl discover everyone’s secret identity. Not sure it ever becomes particularly important, but that’s something.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
This wasn’t half bad! Despite having all the criteria for being a forgettable gimmick villain, The Key doesn’t really fall for the usual tropes until the very end, when he resorts to weaponized giant keys. But other than that, he’s very clever and definitely a real threat. I was particularly impressed by his technology; while the fact that he operates his machines with keys is utterly ridiculous, the pseudo-science he uses for mind control is refreshingly plausible for Silver Age DC.
There are problems, though, particularly in the last act. Not having Hawkgirl participate in the finale, despite her importance in the story, is a glaring omission. Plus it’s when The Key really turns into a stereotype.
Still… get a better artist (I seriously don’t like Sekowsky) and work out a few things in the finale, and I can see most of this stuff still working today.
Ridiculous Flash feat of the day
Admittedly, more like “how the heck does Snapper Carr survive this feat of the day”.
Martian Manhunter power of the day 
How close is this to the modern character?: 8/10
The mind control aspect is all there, including the mind-bending drugs, but mercifully the key obsession has been slightly downplayed.
They Key was ALMOST imprisoned in the Fortress of Solitude in his second appearance, and considered dead after issue #110 in 1974.
He returned only to be stuck as a dwarf for a while (don’t ask), until he was restored to his original state by Zatanna in issue #191 in 1981.
He has a few cameos here and there, but he effectively disappears completely… until Grant Morrison reintroduces him in 1997 on the pages of JLA.
It was a GREAT re-introduction, although I really don’t care for that look.
That’s the last time I read a story with The Key.
From what I can tell, he still looks like that.
The aftermath to this issue. Scene: the next meeting of the JLA.
BATMAN: So let’s review how the Key managed to mind control all of us. He sought out Snapper Carr, an underage, non-powered individual without a secret identity whom anyone can find in the phone book, mind controlled him, then got him to spike our punch bowl with mind control chemicals. Does this suggest any weakness in our security, one that we could easily remove? Anyone?
GREEN LANTERN: I could use my ring to make our punch bowl unspikeable!
BATMAN: I don’t think it works that way.
GREEN LANTERN: Perhaps if I said Volthoom?
BATMAN: (sigh) Anyone else?
FLASH: Perhaps if I vibrated at super-speed, I –
SUPERMAN: That’s your answer to everything.
FLASH: That’s because it always works!
J’ONN J’JONNZ: With my Martian Breath, I could…
BATMAN: You’re the only one here with more powers than Superman, J’onn. Why is it always “Suck” or “Blow” with you?
SNAPPER CARR: (snickers)
BATMAN: Silence, you.
WONDER WOMAN: Could someone please give me a hand? I seem to have gotten myself tied up in my lasso again.
BATMAN: Knock it off, Diana. It hasn’t been the Golden Age for a decade now. (sighs) All right. I guess it falls to me. I propose we remove the obvious weak link in our organization by means of expulsion. Do I have a seconder?
AQUAMAN: (runs out of the meeting room, wailing that no one loves him)
BATMAN: Argh. I wonder if the Doom Patrol is hiring?
Snapper Carr was included in the JLA Roll Call on the splash page because he’s a member of the Justice League. Hawkgirl wasn’t because she isn’t (at the time). It’s that simple.
While I am generally supportive of Gardner Fox’s JLA stories, he repeatedly committed one continuity violation. He did it in this story, too.
Mort Weisinger established, and often iterated (most prominately in a lettercol answer in Action Comics # 290 [Jul., 1962]), that even when exposed to the baleful effects of green kryptonite, Superman does not lose his invulnerability to the things he’s normally invulnerable to. (That’s one of the reasons why a bullet made of green k cannot penetrate his body—another fact Unca Mort established many times.)
Ergo, the presence of kryptonite in the Key’s psycho-chemicals should not have made the Man of Steel susceptible to their effect.
Fox often resorted to arming his villains with kryptonite-influened weaponry. That’s the only way he could script his plots without having Superman defeat the menace by page two. I get that, but it still didn’t conform to the pertinent details of the Superman mythos.