Too Terrific

JSA #42
Written by David Goyer and Geoff Johns
Pencils by Leonard Kirk
Inks by Keith Champagne

Love that cover. It popped out at me on the stands at my local Comics Plus several years ago and I still find it eye catching today. I didn't know who either of the Mister Terrifics were on the cover, but I immediately wanted to find out. In fact, I wasn't all that aware of the Justice Society as a concept, save for an appearance during Grant Morrison's "Crisis Times Five" arc over in JLA.

When I pitch my non-comic reading friends on the team, I usually like to describe them as a team of Captain Americas, a collection of WWII-era heroes displaced in time and doing their level best to adjust to the modern world as well as mentor younger heroes. By this point the JSA series was on its fourth year, continuing to draw in new and old fans alike with its mix of legit golden age heroes and their descendants. Throughout the work both Goyer and Johns did on the title (and James Robinson for one arc before them), there was a real effort to make the JSA into something the Justice League was not: a family.

Along with family values and a reverence for the past, the JSA also engaged in a lot of time travel. Issue #42 is smack dab in the middle of one of these affairs, with Hawkgirl, the current Mr. Terrific, and Captain Marvel lost in time after pursuing the tachyon-abusing criminal known as Black Barax. They find themselves in 1944, teaming up with the original Mr. Terrific as well as the Freedom Fighters.

The Freedom Fighters are a bit like the JSA in that they're a collection of golden age heroes that are meant to represent "the greatest generation". They embody everything we whipper-snappers will never understand. And their leader is a literal version of Uncle Sam with size-changing powers.

Aside from the fun cameos, this issue is all about the interaction between the two Terrifics. Terry Sloan, the golden age Terrific, is a masked vigilante who uses his physical prowess and guile to fight crime on the home front. He's an up-and-at-'em, two fisted man of action in the Doc Savage mold. The twenty-first century Mr. Terrific is Micheal Holt, a grim stoic driven by the death of his wife. Holt adopted Sloan's philosophy of "Fair Play" and took it to the streets, trying to reach urban youth by giving them someone in the white bread JSA they could identify with. Holt is a pretty cool evolution of a golden age concept dropped into modern times.

Stories like this one were what Goyer and John's JSA was all about. These generational heroes would meet in other arcs, and each time I walked away with a new appreciation for older comics. Heck, the JSA might have been my gateway to checking out DC's archive editions, which reprint actual comics from the period. I'd been an avid reader of Batman, Superman, and JLA, but titles like this and The Flash (which Johns was also writing at the time) turned me into a fan of the broader DC Universe.

Thanks for reading and follow on Twitter at @ChrisBComics