All-Star Comics #24 - "This is Our Enemy!"

While All-Star Comics #24 is cover dated as the "Spring Issue" of 1945, some research shows that it was on newsstands in mid-February of that year. Of note on the cover is the fact that there is no "DC" logo, instead replaced with the logo for "All-American Comics."It seems a real-life split between DC (aka National Comics) and All-American left several issues beginning with this #24 to be published solely by All-American. That meant that former DC properties were not available for use and changes had to be made to the team roster.

That would account for why Starman is suddenly no longer a part of the team, nor is The Spectre. Instead, we have characters from All-American's stable of heroes joining the team, Wildcat and Mr. Terrific. This issue also marks the return of The Flash and Green Lantern, who had previously left the team to focus on their own solo adventures.

Mr. Terrific makes his only appearance as a JSA member in these pages. Wildcat will make just one more.

The story itself is heavily drenched in American war propaganda, and according to comics historian (and beloved writer) Roy Thomas, the story for this issue had originally been planned as "Dreams of Madness," a tale that will come to light later on in All-Star Comics #30. As it started to become evident that the war would be ending sooner rather than later, that meant "This is Our Enemy," a story that relied so much on the backdrop of WWII and fighting Germany needed to get out as soon as possible or not at all.

It involves a young man named Dick Amber, who is friends with Carter Hall, otherwise known as Hawkman. Dick has been drafted into the U.S. Services, but while he admits he loves the country he lives in, he does not believe in the U.S.'s involvement in the war. For this reason, Hawkman invites him to the Justice Society meeting, where they hope to convince Dick of the necessity of warring with Germany.

As the JSA sits around looking for a way to make their case to Dick as to why he should support the war, the Conscience of Man (remember her?) is once again awakened in her other-dimensional realm and takes an interest in this situation.

Hey everyone! Remember me?

She sends Dick and the members of the JSA along with him, through time, to experience life as a member of the German people throughout various times in history. The point, of all of this, is to 'prove' to this young man that the Germans have always been a war-hungry and monstrous people and that is why he should be in favor of going to war.

 
When the JSA accomplish this, the Conscience of Man fades away, and Dick Amber is more than ready to go to war.

We won't quibble over the atrocities and horrors that occurred in World War II. Those are evident.

There are moments when the JSA specifically mentions Hitler and his desires, which certainly works for the story at hand. However, as the tale runs its course, young Dick Amber is made to see that Germans, in general, have always been either war-hungry, blood-thirsty, backstabbing, or ready and willing to follow orders at the drop of a hat. It's just odd reading. I will say, though, that it's sort of disconcerting to see characters that would become such tried-and true heroes in the comics universe such as Alan Scott, The Atom, etc, trying to convince a young man that he is wrong for not wanting war and then using the entire tale to tell that man (and the young readers) how foul, vicious, bloodthirsty and war mongering an entire race is. It's a product of its times, of course, but I think you would be very hard-pressed to find something like that today.

Coming up Next, the JSA solves the mystery of "The Forgotten Crime"...

All-Star Comics #14 - "Food for Starving Patriots"

At the latest meeting of the Justice Society, the group's chairman, Hawkman, is taking the bull by the horns and pushing the group to make it their next mission to deliver food to patriots fighting back in Nazi-occupied countries. It doesn't take much convincing over the two page introduction for the other JSA members to get on board, and soon, each member is given a stash of "food capsules," containing a complete dinner that can be made real with a supplementary solution. Think of it as a precursor to dehydrated food.

And so, with these narrative words, there mission begins:

"Thus from 'the land of the free and home of the brave' the gallant members of the Justice Society hit the danger trail...a trail that will lead them thousands of perilous miles over war-torn and famished Europe!"

While not directly tying into this story, just for background, it's important to note that as anyone read this tale back in late 1942, in the real world, the year had already seen Japanese-Americans relocated to concentration camps, German air raids against cathedral cities in Britain, mass murders via gassing at Auschwitz, the Battle of Stalingrad, and orders by Hitler to execute any captured British commandos. That was the summer and fall leading up to when this story was likely in the hands of readers.


Hawkman finds himself in France, where he finds patriots trying to fight back against their Nazi oppressors, and offers them plenty of food to fill their stomachs as they resist the German invaders.

In Poland, freedom fighters are hoping to prey upon superstition and are dressed in the chain-link armor of their forefathers in the middle ages. Too tired to go on with their attempts, Starman gives them an energy boost with a few of the food capsules, and a little help with his anti-gravity rod.

A convoy of Nazi trucks roll through the stone streets of Holland as a cloaked figure moves near them, offering directions that send the trucks downward into the Zuyder Zee, a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands.

Realizing they have been tricked, the Nazis take the robed figure and throw them into a jail cell. Apparently, they never bothered to take the hood off of their prisoner, or they would have discovered it to be The Atom, who got himself captured in order to find other prisoners and freedom fighters in need of food.

The Atom - super hero, mental child abuser.

Once the Dutch Patriots are fed, and those imprisoned are set free, The Atom helps the Dutch in their secret mission to get maps and plans to the British air troops, and by tale's end, a few Nazi hangars are targets of the British bombers.

Dr. Fate has Hitler on edge after an old woman finds his name in tea leaves, and it sends ol' Adolf into a tizzy.

As Hitler becomes more paranoid about the presence of the supernatural Dr. Fate in Germany, the good doctor is working on freeing men who are held captive in one Germany's concentration camps. I believe this is the first time in All-Star Comics (and this issue is from late 1942) that we've seen the presence of the very real concentration camps where so many were taken under the Third Reich, and scores were killed.

Dr. Fate breaks into one of these camps and feeds its starving prisoners. However, instead of setting them free, he instead develops a plan with those prisoners forced to work on Nazi weapons to sabotage their work.

Why a being with the power of the universe at his fingertips didn't eradicate the concentration camps and teleport everyone to safety remains a bit of a mystery.

When some Nazi troops uncover the sabotage (and Dr. Fate who stuck around to oversee it, apparently), a fight ensue, with Fate easily overpowering the Nazis, and taking them far, far away.

Yet, somehow, carrying all the prisoners OUT of the camps never occurred to him. Apparently when you have all that magic power, you overlook the obvious sometimes.

Dr. Mid-Nite, meanwhile, finds himself in Norway, where peering through a window, he comes across a site that unnerves him.

Dr. Mid-Nite goes to Toy Fair.

Searching for the leader of the Norwegian Underground Army, and when he shows the leader and his followers the food capsules, they quickly take Mid-Nite into their confidence and show them his invention of a missile that always finds its mark, even when a submarine or ship moves out of range. His family fearful that he will be killed if he tries to get his inventions to the Allied Nations, the Underground Army Leader, also known as Eric, has remained in oppressed Norway with his inventions.

That is until Dr. Mid-Nite convinced the man to leave the country for the sake of the war, leaving his family and wife behind. You're probably wondering how this type of ultra-sensitive news will be broken to Eric's wife and children. Dr. Mid-Nite's solution? By owl.

The weirdest Dear John letter ever.

So, leaving his family behind in an oppressed country, with food capsules, Eric sets sail with Dr. Mid-Nite to lands far away.

On a hidden airplane hangar somewhere south of Brussels, the grim and ghostly figure of The Spectre haunts the skies , and when he comes across an execution attempt by some Nazi soldiers, he springs into action, growing to gigantic proportions and scaring the bejeezus out of the Axis soldiers.

While he delivers food capsules to the starving people of Belgium, The Spectre spends much of this tale just stepping back, hoping to "inspire" the local people that they, too, can rise up against their oppressors and do their part "in the good fight."

And step back he does, watching as the humans control their own destiny on this one.

Oh, Johny Thunder. With a mission to feed the Czech Patriots, he's already off to a bad starts when he stops the first person he meets and asks them if they know where the Patriots are. And that person just happens to be a uniformed Nazi soldier.

How'd this guy get in the Justice Society again?

Through his own dumb luck (isn't that always the way with Johnny), he stumbles into a restaurant that has closed because they have no food to serve. So, Johnny breaks out one of his food capsules to tide himself over, to the amazement of the starving restauranteur, who quickly seizes the meal, just as some Nazi soldiers want to seize him...AND the food.

However, it is through this stroke of luck that Johnny discovers the Czech Patriots, who have been hiding out under the restaurant, making plans to strike against Nazis.Johnny's plan for the patriots is to "pretend" they're having accidents when around the Nazis (i.e. tripping, bumping into them, etc), and pick-pocketing any plans the Nazis may have on their person. Johnny then summons his magic Thunderbolt to have those plans delivered to the RAF.

The plan goes fairly smoothly until a raid on the Czech Patriots' headquarters by the Nazis. In order to calm his nerves, Johnny lights a cigarette, and the Nazis suddenly surrender. Once the Nazi's are trussed up, Johnny learns why - he was lighting his cigarette while standing next to the highly flammable material used for incendiary bombs.

A Nazi Captain is experiencing haunting dreams that involve Sandman, along with his sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy. This is the first time Sandy's made an appearance with the JSA, and personally, I prefer my Sandman stories solo. Then again, I prefer my Sandman in gas mask and trench coat instead of yellow and purple tights, so what are you going to do?

The Nazi Captain has every right to be fearful of his dreams, as even as he awakens, Sandman and Sandy have derailed a Nazi train, and brought food capsules to freedom fighters in Greece

Here's where Sandman's plan gets a bit...weird. After publicly derailing the train, and beating their way through Nazi soldiers, Sandman and sandy tel the Nazi Captain that they have decided to switch allegiances.

Yes. Yes they are fooling you.

And in roughly four panels, with very little persuasive word, Sandman and Sandy have somehow convinced the Nazis that they've switched sides. With no challenges put forth to test their allegiances, they're accepted into the fold, so much so, in fact that with a mere friendly wave, they bid the captain adieu and ask him to send out a message via the Propaganda Broadcasting Office.

Surprise, surprise. The message was really a coded message that let American Intelligence Officers know where an invasion was taking place so that they could stop it. Oh, and Hitler makes an appearance before the chapter's end:

Their individual missions completed, the Justice Society reconvenes, and gives themselves a large round of back patting, except for Johnny Thunder, who's starving and decides to gorge on food capsules, leading to this bizarre exchange with Wonder Woman:

So, not only do they now let her be a full-fledged member of the group, but they also make her watch over the most useless member of the organization? Sheesh, they might as well have made her Den Mother.

Of course, all those food capsules are useless without the solution to make the food solid, which then inspires this brilliant move by Johnny Thunder:

And with that, this JSA adventure comes to a close.

On a historical note, a running theme throughout each story in this issue was the "RAF Bombers," either in mention or action as the planes took down Nazi hangars. In case you're wondering, the RAF stands for Britain's Royal Air Force. If this issue is dated for Dec 1942 - Jan 1943, it likely was on newsstands some months before, at which point, in the real world, the Allies had agreed upon a strategy where Americans would bomb during the day and the RAF at night.

Next up, something I've been looking forward to - the JSA's first encounter with a full-fledged super-villain -"The Brain Wave!" Stay tuned...

All-Star Comics #13 - "Shanghaied in Space"

Hitler is pissssed. Not because of the effort of the U.S. Forces on the ground, but because he says the Justice Society are always around every corner, thwarting his plans. With that in mind, he brainstorms with other Axis leaders to come up with a plan to do away with the JSA for good.

I'm not quite sure that the Germans and Japanese were ever in this close proximity during the war years, but, what the heck, we'll let it go- just check out that beautiful Jack Burnley artwork.

Just when Hitler's about to pull his hair out with frustration, a German engineer enters with an idea - he has developed rockets that he believes can launch the JSA members into Space, and out of the Axis Powers' hair for good.

Pleased with the idea, Hitler orders an infiltration of the JSA Headquarters, where the heroes are to be knocked unconscious, loaded into the rockets and launched into space.

Historical side note: While this issue is cover dated October-November 1942, it is safe to assume that, like most comics since their inception, the actual release date of these books is months before the cover date.

That means this issue probably came out some time in the Spring or Summer of 1942, months and months before this real-life incident happened:


October 1942 saw the first successful launch of an A4 rocket at Peenemunde, Germany. The rocket flies 147 kilometres wide and reaches a height of 84.5 kilometres and is therefore the first man-made object reaching space.

Talk about life imitating art. Grant Morrison might appreciate the true-life manifestation of that.

Each JSA member finds themselves stranded on a different planet, with each chapter introduction giving the reader a tidbit of knowledge about hat particular planet. For example, we learn Saturn is "very light in weight due to the gases that form her outer atmosphere, 16,000 miles deep."

The tales are all pretty cut and dry. Hawkman helps a race of people on planet Saturn, who look very much like people of Earth, but ride giant birds.

Fancy that, he speaks bird-tongue

The Sandman lands on Uranus (cue cheap laughs here), which houses a race of beings made of pure crystal.

The king has been disturbed by dreams of "Kafta, the Evil One," who looks to destroy the planet's people with his poisons. How, oh how is the Sandman going to defeat this evil being of Crystal?

Sure. That works.

Meanwhile, Dr. Midnite has landed on Neptune where he is greeted by beings that appear half human and half plant-like. He's also the first Justice Society member to run into trouble understanding these other races.

Math - bringing interplanetary races together since 1942. Keep your nose in your books, kids.

The planet's people are in a panic when Dr. MidNite arrives, as they have been plagued by what they know only as "The Red Death" and fear that their lives are doomed. That is, until the blind hero drops a little reality bomb on them, along with an antidote:

Jupiter - "bigger than all the rest of the planets put together, including our Earth. Its gravity is three times that of the Earth..." Starman finds this out the hard way when he crash lands there.

Starman finds that the planet is occupied by beings that, due to the cold and lack of oxygen, must wear rustless metal clothing, with their internal organs encased inside. In other words, he stepped out of the rocket and was greeted by this:

Starman fights off a giant fungus menace that plagues the planet and is sent on his way with the help of these mechanical men. And all show in once again beautiful art by Jack Burnley.

"Mars - the red planet...its canals, and varying colors, of green and rust, suggest vegetation, irrigated by the melting polar cap..." is our introduction to the next chapter, as the tiny hero known as The Atom crash lands on the red planet.

The Atom, much like Sandman did on Uranus, has to help a race of beings living on the planet who are being threatened by one of their own to poison their water supply. The Atoms' given a tiny boost in his heroic abilities thanks to the atmosphere of Mars.

The Spectre has crash landed on the planet Pluto, which the tale tells us "is four billion miles from the sun - so distant is it, that the sun looks like a mere star" (which it is).

It's still a bit of a stretch that The Spectre could even be knocked unconscious in his spirit form by the knockout gas used in the beginning of the story in order for the Nazi's to place them all in rockets. He's a ghost, after all, and ghosts don't require oxygen. It is explained away as thus:

Once on Pluto, The Spectre finds a city far beneath a well on the planet - where resides a group of people living in fear from "the furred men," which turn out to be other human-like creatures dressed in parkas. The parka-men are more warriors than the peace-loving civilization in the well. However, a few punches from the Supernatural Spectre and the threat of his re-visiting the planet "every now and then" to check in prompts a peace treaty.

The planet Mercury - "the one nearest the sun - incredibly hot, its surface temperature is enough to melt lead or tin," which is why Johnny Thunder is having a helluva time trying to keep cool as he finds himself crashing toward the planet.

His magical Thunderbolt fills him in on the attempt by the Nazis to shanghai the JSA, and Johnny tries to just make a go of the hand he's been dealt.

Manifest Destiny.

Somehow Johnny manages to not notice the Spider that is the size of the building, and walks right into its clutches. The arachnid takes Johnny home to show to its mate, but the pair are scared off by a giant ant-eater. Yes. A giant ant-eater.

Johnny actually befriends his spider captors when he and the Thunderbolt lure the giant ant-eater into quicksand, freeing the giant spiders to live their lives in peace. Johnny begins to think that he should start studying the Spider civilization if he's going to be stuck on that planet forever. It apparently never occurred to him that his magic thunderbolt, with the powers of a genie, might be able to get him off the planet whenever he wants.

Wonder Woman, meanwhile, finds herself rocketing towards the planet Venus, which apparently is inhabited by a race of flying women with wings. Pulled out of the crashing rocket by these women, Wonder Woman tries to return the favor.

Sheesh. That's a bit presumptive, isn't it?

Okay, so maybe she was right. The women are being attacked by a race of warriors who are capturing and killing their men. Being a peace-loving planet, the women possess no weapons, and have no idea on how to fight back. Apparently, neither does Wonder Woman.

Yikes.

Quick history lesson for you folks who may not know - Wonder Woman's creator, William Moulston was not only the inventor of the lie detector, but was pretty obsessed with S&M, thus his fascination with bondage and domination that is on display in many of his early Wonder Woman stories.

The men of Venus try to fight back, but the dandies are crushed by the sheer strength of their attackers.

It looks like its up to Wonder Woman to save the entire race, and she does so in quick fashion, and under the power of her might and her magic lasso, the warriors submit. Bound by chains, the leader of the Venusians tells Wonder Woman that they will work to make the men loving and peaceful.

Each member of the Justice Society has made it back to Earth, each thinking they were the only one launched into space. This descends over several panels into a game of one-upmanship as everyone tries to be the biggest hero in the room.

"You should have been on Uranus!"

Following the government's leads to the spies who launched the JSA into space in the first place, the heroes take out Hitler's cronies and send him a message via radio.

But, wait. This adventure is not over. Wonder Woman has done a lot for the JSA. The power of the gods flow through her and she's easily the most powerful member of the team, and the JSA feel it just isn't right to have her be only an "honorary member." What to do?

Wa wa waaaaa

That's not all, though. Meanwhile, in Germany...

Alas, Hitler never did learn his lesson.

This tale was later adapted/updated in a multi-chapter arc of back-up stories beginning in the series All-Star Squadron #52 some 40+ years later by JSA Superfan Roy Thomas. The story is retold with a more "modern science" behind it, and the JSA are explained to have been stranded in 'hyper-space' as opposed to the actual planets we all know and love. I have not actually had the chance to read this updated version, but hope it will make it into the first or future editions of DC's collected Showcase Presents All-Star Squadron edition.