Although I've been reading comics for a long time, this issue predates my comics reading days (I was just 4 years old in 1960), but it's still one of my all-time favorites (I have it in more than one reprint version).
The Brave and the Bold #28 marked the first appearance ever of the Justice League of America, and some 30 years later I had the chance to interview editor Julius Schwartz and I asked him why they changed the name of the team from the Golden Age version, the Justice Society of America.
He said that they thought "Society" was too old-fashioned, but all kids knew what a "League" was, thanks to sports like the National Football League - so they went with that.
Superman and Batman manage just the briefest of cameos in this first outing as they're off on other adventures, so the job of dealing with the powerful Starro (an alien starfish) falls to Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter (with help from Snapper Carr).
It's a fun issue that would serve as the template for JLA adventures for years (and decades) to come - the heroes face danger as individuals or small groups, then join together at the end for their ultimate victory.
Snapper Carr is the obligatory kid sidekick, but despite his annoying speech pattern (to be fair, it was annoying in the '60s, too), he actually plays an important part in this story (if by accident).
Writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky are not always treated kindly by reviewers - but they managed to create fanciful, entertaining adventures with a small army of characters, stories always told with great skill and (this is much more important than most realize) they were on schedule - and there's an ability some modern creators could stand to learn.
They brought a lot of joy my way as I grew up reading these adventures, and was I glad to finally read this issue in reprint a few years after it was originally published - even though it's not actually the first adventure of the JLA.
How can that be? We'll talk about that in the next post.
Grade: A
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1 comment:
I just received a facsimile edition of this issue in my latest shipment from Discount Comic Book Service. I'm looking forward to reading it.
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