Crisis On Thursday, or To Grandmother's Earth We Go!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006 by Tom Bondurant @ 10:16 PM

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JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #197 (Dec 1981)

JLofA #s 195-97 (Oct-Dec 1981): It's hard to top an Apokoliptian blowout, but darned if this team-up ("Targets On Two Worlds"/"Countdown To Crisis"/"Crisis In Limbo") didn't try. Perez was winding down his tenure on Justice League of America, and he was helped a little by Keith Pollard, although you can't really tell. The third team here is the Secret Society of Super-Villains, headed by the gorilla-bodied Ultra-Humanite and including (from Earth-2) the Monocle, Rag Doll, Brain Wave, Psycho-Pirate, and Mist, and (from Earth-1) Killer Frost, Signalman, Floronic Man, and Cheetah. Ultra figures that, by removing certain superheroes from both Earths, it'll set up a cosmic chain reaction that will remove all the superheroes from one Earth -- he doesn't know which.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #197 (Dec 1981)

WHO'S THAT (POWER) GIRL: EXPLAINING POWER GIRL'S HISTORY
11-10-2005 04:37 PM by Troy Brownfield

If there’s one truism that runs through both the original Crisis on Infinite Earths and its thematic descendant Infinite Crisis, it’s that unexpected characters suddenly get a chance to shine. Granted, Power Girl’s not exactly a wallflower. She’d had significant roles in series ranging from All-Star Comics to Justice League Europe to Birds of Prey and JSA. She recently headlined the much-discussed debut arc of JSA: Classified. And of course, she graces the both variant covers for this week’s Infinite Crisis #2. Still, despite the fact that she’s a perennially minor character, Power Girl has a strident fanbase and certainly plays a crucial role in DC’s biggest project of the decade thus far. Where then did Power Girl originate, and what were some of the highlights on her circuitous path to crossover glory? (Writer’s Note: Notice that I said some of the highlights; this does not pretend to be a complete list of appearances)

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Justice League of America #195-197; JLA #207-209 (and All-Star Squadron #14-15) and JLA #219-220 (early ‘80s): While these appearances aren’t mind-bogglingly significant in the life of the character, they do represent several occasions upon which Kara interacted with the heroes of Earth-1 during the annual JLA/JSA crossovers. Most interesting is her cross-world flirtation with the JLA’s young hero, Firestorm. Writer Conway slowly built this attraction over a few years. It has enough meaning for the heroine that she goes ballistic in the early pages of #220 after Firestorm has been injured in an ambush. These are all fun stories, and it’s amusing in retrospect that, in keeping with tradition for such team-ups, most of them incorporated the word “Crisis” into their respective titles.

Topic: Mapping the Crisis on Multiple Earths TPBs
posted January 08, 2003 11:55 AM

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CRISIS ON MULTIPLE EARTHS VOL. 5 (162/168 pages)
Written by Gerry Conway; art by Dick Dillin, George Perez, Frank McLaughlin, and various
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #183-185 and 195-197

Justice League of America #183 10/80
"Crisis on New Genesis, or Where Have All the New Gods Gone?" (25 pages + cover)

Justice League of America #184 11/80
"Crisis Between Two Earths, or Apokolips Now" (25 pages + cover)

Justice League of America #185 12/80
"Crisis on Apokolips, or Darkseid Rising" (25 pages + cover)

Justice League of America #195 10/81 (27 pages + cover)
"Targets on Two Earths" (25 pages)
Poster (2 pages)

Justice League of America #196 11/81
"Countdown to Crisis" (27 pages + cover)

Justice League of America #197 12/81
"Crisis in Limbo" (27 pages + cover)

Standing Up For Superheroes (April 2001)
by Tim O'Shea

Tim O'Shea is a 33-year old desktop publisher/senior online news editor for The Comic Reader and a regular contributor to CBEM who lives in Atlanta with his wife and son. Tim, who has been reading comic books on a weekly basis since 1977, thinks he's the only rabid comic book fan who intends never to attend a convention.

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(excerpt)

Well anyway, I decided it was time to start reading these borderline gems, when I stumbled across JLA #197 ("The Final Showdown between the Secret Society of Super-Villains and the JLA," the cover brags.) It's a fun read from December 1981, Earth-2 and the legendary Justice Society roll out to confuse the continuity police once again in a tale called CRISIS IN LIMBO (a good five years before THE BIG CRISIS runs everyone's butts over). It's George Perez art so hey that's a blast to enjoy no matter the story Gerry Conway gave him to work with. I just love any panel that has The Atom nonchalantly sitting on the shoulder of Batman, as if today's version of the Dark Knight would let anyone touch him, much less sit on his shoulder (!?!). (Imagine that scene today: Ray Palmer - confused after his divorce, living in a jungle that's set afire, de-aging to the point of his teen years, then re-aging and being partnered to the point of bottom-level obscurity as a mentor to Firestorm - accidentally sits on Batman's shoulder, who responds by instinctively snapping his neck [but I'm a little off track here].)

Anyway, I get to the end of the tale and read the letter column: "I just finished reading issue #192 of Justice League of America. Stunning. This month's tale was the best of all my DCs I picked up. Centering around one member of the group (Red Tornado) and at the same time involving the other heroes was an excellent idea. Even though there were 25 pages, I thought that my reading ended too soon. Red Tornado has fast become one of my favorite heroes. It is about time that he starts acting like the hero I know he can be. As for the art, what can I say? Welcome back, George. Your pencils have been missed (although Buckler did a very admirable job in your absence). Besides being my favorite artist, you draw the best Red Tornado this side of the border (and the other side, too!) Todd McFarlane - Calgary, Alberta, Canada"

I love finding gems like this. I wonder where good old Red ranks now? This is unfair to dredge up a letter from almost 20 years ago. What I wrote in 1981 I would not want to see published today. But I only employ this example to prove a strange point about myself.

Odds are Todd McFarlane has not read a DC/Marvel superhero comic book in a very looong time. Lawsuits, merchandising and traveling with Mark McGuire's (home run) balls is the kind of stuff that occupies his days at this point in his life. I don't begrudge him this, I'm happy that company-owned books and characters are beneath him now, as the characters he creates can make him more of a profit then the income he was cheated out of when he did not own the characters. Whatever. I've never been able to read Spawn myself, but I'm glad enough people can that Todd can pay his bills and then some.

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