Tag: Mekanique

It was, as the saying goes, the end of an era.

A quarter of a century earlier, in the pages of Flash #123 (cover-dated Sept. 1961) Barry Allen, the Fastest Man Alive, had been transported to an alternate reality where he discovered Jay Garrick, the comic book hero who had inspired Barry to assume the costumed identity of the Flash, actually existed. “Flash of Two Worlds” established the premise of Earth-One and Earth-Two, with Barry and his fellow crime fighters in the Justice League of America existing on the former, while Jay and his teammates in the Justice Society of America dwelled on the later, having adopted their costumed identities two decades earlier.

The rest of the JSA soon came out of retirement, and in the pages of Justice League of America #21-22 (Aug. to Sept. 1963) the full line-ups of the two teams joined forces for the very first time. “Crisis on Earth-One!” and “Crisis on Earth-Two!” by writer Gardner Fox, penciler Mike Sekowsky, inker Bernard Sachs & editor Julius Schwartz inaugurated what would become the annual Summer team-ups of the JLA and JSA, a practice that would continue uninterrupted for the next 23 years.

But all good things must come to an end. In 1985 DC Comics made the decision to wipe out all of their alternate realities in the 12 issue mega-crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, and in the ashes all of their characters would exist on one single, solitary Earth. Ostensibly this was because DC believed that readers found the multiple earths concept confusing. And while Crisis did lead to the acclaimed reboots of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman by John Byrne, Frank Miller and George Perez respectively, it also meant that Earth-Two no longer existed… in fact had NEVER existed. The JLA and JSA would no longer be crossing the dimensional barrier to meet each other. And now that both teams existed on the same Earth, the decision was made to write the JSA out of existence, seemingly for good.

And so, as the Summer of 1985 rolled around, the final JLA-JSA team-up saw print, a two-part story that ran in Infinity Inc. #19 and Justice League of America #244. The first part, “Last Crisis on Earth-Two,” was written by Roy & Dann Thomas, penciled by Todd McFarlane, inked by Steve Montano, lettered by David Cody Weiss and colored by Anthony Tollin & Adrienne Roy, with cover inks by Tony DeZuniga. Part two, “The Final Crisis,” was written by Gerry Conway, penciled by Joe Staton, inked by Mike Machlan, lettered by Albert De Guzman and colored by Gene D’Angelo.

Many of the previous JLA-JSA team-ups had seen the two teams facing world-threatening menaces. But as this tale was set right in the middle of Crisis on Infinite Earths, which saw the fate of the whole of reality itself hanging in the balance, the Thomases and Conway instead conceived a much more personal story.

Central to this story was World War II hero Hank Heywood, aka Commander Steel, who originated on Earth-Two. As I recounted in my recent look back at the first year of All-Star Squadron, Steel had been created by Conway and artist Don Heck in 1978. Steel, The Indestructible Man had lasted only five issues before becoming one of the victims of the DC Implosion. Four years later Thomas worked a number of pages by Conway & Heck from the unpublished Steel #6 into All-Star Squadron, and then resolving the cliffhanger ending himself, with Commander Steel joining the All-Stars.

Another four years later, in All-Star Squadron #50, the Commander was transported from Earth-Two to Earth-One, setting up the character to once again be utilized by Conway in the pages of Justice League of America. Conway’s stories had the now-middle aged Heywood transform his grandson Hank Heywood III into a modern-day version of Steel and bankroll the so-called “Justice League Detroit” version of the JLA which Hank the Third joined.

Infinity Inc. #19 sees Commander Steel return to Earth-Two for the first time in four decades, accompanied by Mekanique, a robot shaped like a golden woman. The Commander approaches Infinity Inc, a team of young heroes made up of the sons, daughters and proteges of the Justice Society, requesting their help. He claims that a group of villains on Earth-One have become a new Justice League as part of a secret plan to conquer the world. The Commander requests the Infinitors’ aid in defeating this evil League. Although skeptical, the young heroes agree to accompany the Commander and Mekanique across the dimensional barrier. Meanwhile, the mystic Dr. Fate informs his teammates in the JSA about the impending cosmic calamity of the Crisis.

Arriving in Detroit on Earth-One, the Commander provokes Infinity Inc into attacking his grandson Steel and the other members of the League. The Infinitors quickly realize that something is very wrong, but events are moving much too fast for either side to halt the fight. The Martian Manhunter is able to spirit away the rest of the defeated League members, except for Steel, who is captured by his grandfather and Mekanique.

Justice League of America #244 opens with the League fleeing to the team’s now-defunct satellite headquarters. Realizing that the Infinitors come from Earth-Two, the Martian Manhunter hopes to travel to that parallel world to ask the JSA for help. Zatanna’s magic is able to reactivate the teleportation equipment, and the team transports over to the other Earth.

Back in Detroit, in the bunker headquarters of the new League, the Commander and Mekanique are attempting to “reprogram” Steel. The Commander, ranting that “my generation was tested by battle, forged in the furnace of war,” believes his grandson is too “weak,” too in love with life to be an effective hero, and seeks to “fix” this problem.

The JSA teleports into the bunker while the Commander is in mid-tirade. Horrified at what has become of their former colleague, the JSA steps forward to stop the Commander, only for Mekanique to attack them. The Commander flees, but he is halted by the League and the Infinitors, who have joined forces. Fury, the daughter of the Golden Age Wonder Woman, frees Steel, who confronts his grandfather.

Suddenly the brawl is interrupted by a massive storm caused by the Crisis. The three teams quickly rush outside where they work together to save the citizens of Detroit from this cosmic calamity. And, as this worldwide catastrophe unfolds, back in the bunker Steel, tears in his eyes, is finally able to defeat his deranged grandfather.

And thus ends the last JLA-JSA team-up of the pre-Crisis era. While there was a lot of potential to the story by Roy & Dan and Gerry, it definitely felt rushed. As with a number of the other JLA-JSA stories that saw print from the early 1970s onward, when a third team was added into the mix each year, there were a heck of a lot of characters floating around, and two issues just did not give the story the necessary room to breathe. Justice League of America #245 was also a Crisis crossover, and it would have been perfect to use for a third chapter to this story. Instead, JLA #245 sees Steel hurled forward a billion years into the future where, on a devastated post-apocalyptic Earth, he becomes embroiled in a feud between the League’s old enemy the Lord of Time (no, no, not that guy… it’s THIS guy!) and his ambitious heirs.

“The Long Road Home” is a good story. And since the character would be senselessly killed off a year and a half later during the Legends crossover event, in hindsight it’s nice that Conway wrote a Steel solo adventure. But given the significance of “The Final Crisis” being the final annual Summer crossover of the JLA and JSA, it really would have been a good idea to allot that story a third issue, and then have “The Long Road Home” appear in #246 instead.

Nevertheless, this is still a decent two-parter. As I recounted in my All-Star Squadron post, since last December I’ve been working on assembling complete runs of both that series and Infinity Inc. and as such I was able to see how this storyline fit into the bigger picture.

Roy & Dann Thomas introduce the enigmatic Mekanique in their half of the story. Then, in the second part, when Conway has the JSA arrive, they immediately recognize her, with Hawkman telling his teammates “The tricks this robot used on the rest of you four decades ago won’t work now…” setting it up for Roy Thomas to then show the heroes first encountering the metal woman during World War II in upcoming issues of All-Star Squadron. Roy & Dann then continued that storyline in the follow-up series Young All-Stars, before finally bringing the whole thing to a close a couple of years later in Infinity Inc. Annual #2.

The artwork on these issues is really good. Infinity Inc. was future Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane’s first ongoing assignment, beginning with issue #14. At times I’ve found McFarlane to be somewhat overrated, and later on I feel it was unfortunate that his interest shifted away from drawing comics to manufacturing action figures, collecting baseballs and fighting with Neil Gaiman over the rights to Angela. But looking at McFarlane’s penciling on Infinity Inc. in the mid-1980s, it’s very clear why he became so popular so very fast. He utilized a lot of very interesting, unconventional layouts and storytelling techniques that at the time must have really grabbed the attention of readers.

McFarlane’s work prior to Infinity Inc. was on several back-up stories for Steve Englehart’s creator-owned series Coyote, and his work there had some wonky anatomy and perspectives, which I guess you inevitably find in a lot of pencilers who are just starting out. Given that, I strongly suspect that regular Infinity Inc. inker Tony DeZuniga was performing a fair amount of corrections of McFarlene’s pencils during their run. Guest inker Steve Montano no doubt did the same thing on this issue.

I’m mostly familiar with Montano’s work inking Rod Whigham on Doc Savage for DC in 1989 and then over both Jim Valentino and Kevin West on Guardians of the Galaxy at Marvel in the early 1990s.  I liked the line quality Montano brought to all three of those pencilers. He also does very good work over McFarlane on this issue. There are some pages in Infinity Inc. #19 by McFarlane & Montano that remind me very much of George Perez’s dynamic, detailed work.

Justice League of America #244 is guest-penciled by Joe Staton. I cannot think of a more appropriate artist to give the JLA-JSA team-ups a send-off. Staton was the penciler of the JSA feature in All-Star Comics and Adventure Comics between 1977 and 1979, as well as penciling the team’s origin in DC Special #29, co-creating and penciling the adventures of The Huntress (the daughter of Batman and Catwoman on Earth-Two) and penciling a three issue Power Girl adventure in Showcase. In other words, Staton is considered by many, myself included, to be one of the definitive JSA artists, and I’m glad he got to draw one of their final pre-Crisis adventures. It’s also cool to see his depictions of the Infinitors.

Staton is inked by Mike Machlan, an artist who sadly passed away earlier this year. Machlan has previously inked Jerry Ordway on both All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc., so he also had a connection to these characters. I really like the collaboration between Staton and Machlan on JLA #244, and now I wish they could have worked together more often.

Taking a quick look at JLA #245, it’s the first issue by incoming penciler Luke McDonnell, who would remain on the series thru the final issue, #261. As I’ve noted in the past, I find McDonnell to be a really underrated artist. I like his shadowy, atmospheric style. Machlan also inks this issue, and the combination of McDonnell’s gritty pencils with Machlan’s slick, polished finishes works very well.

Last month DC released the third and final volume of Crisis on Multiple Earths collecting together all of the JLA-JSA annual team-ups. All, that is, except this one. It feels like an odd omission. Perhaps DC excluded Infinity Inc. #19 and Justice League of America #244 because those issues were recently collected in both Justice League: The Detroit Era Omnibus and Crisis on Infinite Earths Companion Deluxe Edition Volume 2? I don’t know. But it really sets off my comic book collecting OCD!

Well, if you pick up the three volumes of Crisis on Multiple Earths and then want to get this final JLA-JSA story it isn’t too difficult to find the two issues. Infinity Inc. #19 can be a little bit pricey due to both the early McFarlane artwork and it containing the first appearance of Dr. Beth Chapel, who a couple of issues later became the new Dr. Mid-Nite. I’ve seen it going for up to $25.00 on ebay, although I was able to find a copy at Midtown Comics a few months ago for only five bucks. As for JLA #244, I got it for $2.50, which was definitely a good price. So neither issue is going to set you back significantly if you look around a bit.

While it would definitely be great if DC released All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc. into collected editions, assembling runs of the actual comic books does enable you to read the letters pages and see what readers thought of these stories in real time, and to also read the informative responses & text pieces from Roy Thomas.

Infinity Inc. #24 features readers’ reactions to #19. Carleton K.Brown of Springfield MA writes in to say “Longtime fans may feel that this final team-up ends the tradition with more of a whisper than a bang…” which seems a fair assessment, although he does echo some of my own thoughts, stating “low-key stories can be done well, too.”

Kevin Wohlmut of Saratoga CA finds it unbelievable that Commander Steel, previously depicted as a brave war hero in All-Star Squadron, is now being written as “insane!” Thomas responds with the following information:

“As the creator of the hero for the STEEL title of the late 70s, it was Gerry’s decision to handle him in a certain way when he returned, so the answers to any of your questions will appear (if at all) in upcoming issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA.”

Obviously it’s tricky to ascribe real-world rationales for the actions of fictional superheroes written by multiple authors. But if I had to venture an explanation for the Commander’s behavior in this two-part story, I would say he could be suffering severe PTSD.

Shortly after enlisting in the army in late 1939, Heywood was critically injured by fifth columnists, necessitating the risky experimental procedure that transformed him into the cyborg Commander Steel. Some months later while on a covert mission to occupied Poland the Commander was captured by the Nazis and spent the next two years being tortured by them in a prisoner of war camp. He was then brainwashed by Baron Blitzkreig, who tried to use him to assassinate Roosevelt and Churchill. A few months later the Commander was transported to Earth-One, a reality in which he didn’t even exist, and cut off from family & friends had to rebuild his life from the ground up. And then his son Hank Junior died in Vietnam, leaving it to the Commander to raise his grandson, who he tried to remake to replace his dead child.

In other words, the guy has a lot of issues… and I’m not talking comic books!

In his letter Kevin also expresses disappointment at Jade’s “instant recovery” in Infinity Inc. #19 after being felled by Mr. Bones’ cyanide touch just an issue earlier. Thomas replies that JLA #244 was written & drawn before Infinity Inc. #19, and that he forgot to tell Conway not to include Jade in that issue, necessitating Roy & Dann having her make a speedy return to good health in the first chapter.

Both of these instances of a less-than-smooth hand-off for both characters & story from the Thomases to Conway are proof positive of the often-rocky creative process that occurs when working within a shared universe.

Along those lines, as someone who has really gotten into the Justice Society of America within the last several years, I definitely agree that the destruction of Earth-Two, the derailing of Roy Thomas’ long-term plans for All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc., and the near-complete disappearance of the team for a decade and a half (minus their brief return in the early 1990s) was very unfortunate. I’m glad that in 1999 DC finally decided to bring them back in a big way. That led to the two teams’ long-overdue first official post-Crisis team-up in the graphic novel JLA / JSA: Virtue and Vice released in 2003.

The JSA’s continuity unfortunately got super-wonky once again during The New 52 in 2011. But I hope that when the current much-delayed Justice Society of America miniseries finally reaches its conclusion (whenever that will be!) we might once again start seeing new JLA-JSA team-ups.