JSA #17 explodes with the momentum of last issue’s cliffhanger: the Ultra-Humanite has revealed himself as the big-bad orchestrating everything. The murder of Alan Scott’s friend, Gordon, the faulty materials used to develop Gotham’s subway system, the head of the conglomerate Starco, and the ringleader of the precursor to the Injustice Society. It’s Year One Part 5 and things are getting crazy. Everything seems to have a parallel to today’s world, which keeps things interesting and fluid. The stakes are high, as a young America teeters on the edge of war and still doesn’t entirely seem sure which side it’s going to fall on, but they don’t feel as high compared to the last arc. That’s fine, but it feels more classic than iconic.
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The subtitle “Year One” carries a lot of weight at DC. It’s usually signals a safe place for newcomers to jump in to get in on the ground floor, or it’s assumed to be a definitive story for years to come. In what I assume is the penultimate chapter of this arc, I think it’s doing an admirable but not exceptional job of measuring up to those two expectations, definitely compared to earlier chapters. Let’s break down why.
It’s genuinely fun to see such established characters in their younger, more vulnerable years. Jay Garrick lacks confidence, Alan Scott is clearly hiding a huge part of himself, Al Pratt is compensating for his size, and every other hero has their own baggage they’re bringing to their first real team up. This is not the group of elder statesmen and women we’re used to seeing in modern times, and that’s a good thing; it’s a proper, literal treatment of Year One as a moniker.
The problem is that the story itself is kinda just paint by numbers. There’s nothing definitive about it so far except that we’re being told this was absolutely how it happened for the first time.
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That’s fine and all, but when you look at other Year One’s we’ve gotten over the years, there’s nothing special about this outing. It’s just the next story in the line, not the first story of these characters I want to grab off the wall to share with friends who know nothing about the JSA.
Not that everything has to be a home run. This book is a solid double from an extremely competent creative team. It was exciting to see the prelude for the next story happen as a sort of preemptive epilogue, but the reveal of the two new cast members joining the team going forward was undercut when I remembered that… they already appeared on this team in the finale of the first arc, the Ragnarok story, so some of the wind was taken out of the sails already.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m not enjoying this story, because I am. It’s nice seeing JSA characters in a period-book and learn the first thoughts of their fellow team members. Jeff Lemire is clearly having fun writing these characters and I’m having fun reading them. Couple that with gorgeous art by Gavin Guidry and colors by Luis Guerrero, and this is a very pretty book to read.
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The parts of JSA #17 are greater than its sum. There’s a clear distinction between the past and present of these iconic characters – they feel familiar but act like young, naive versions of themselves. The art makes you feel like you’re looking at the past, and the story itself feels like what you want a fun, Golden Age conspiracy to be. All that said though, as we approach the final chapter it feels more like it’s going through the motions than fighting its way to the top of my read pile.
I’m hoping things really ramp up for the finale and we get more of a tease about what to expect next with new(ish) blood added to the team, but right now, the ambition for a Year One story just feels a little lighter than I would have hoped. It’s a solid and entertaining read, but not an outstanding one that lives up to the name it’s invoking.
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