DCU Comic Book Reviews

JSA #60

Redemption Lost, Part I

June 2004

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Tom Mandrake & Don Kramer

Inks by Tom Mandrake & Keith Champagne

Cover by Ethan Van Sciver

Synopsis

In Portsmouth, in 1930...the Roger Romaine (aka the Spirit King) runs into the St. Johns Catholic Church, but is followed by Jim Corrigan (aka the Spectre), who seeks vengeance and sends the Spirit King to hell.  Today...Dr. Mid-Nite fails to save a bullet-riddled patient in the operating room.  Elsewhere, Rex Tyler (aka Hourman) leads the Flash and Green Lantern on a succession of attacks on various villains.  At St. Johns Catholic Church, Hal Jordan (aka the Spectre) exacts vengeance on a woman for murdering her husband by sending her to hell.  At the JSA Brownstone, Mr. Terrific and the Atom attempt to find a way to reach the timepoint, the place where Rick Tyler is being held.  Just then, Green Lantern tells them of trouble in Portsmouth:  Dr. Mid-Nite’s assistant, Ice-Sickle, has been found dead.  As the rest of the team searches for the killers, Dr. Mid-Nite goes to church to pray for his friend.  Mr. Terrific joins him.  Suddenly, the Spectre crashes into the church, telling the others that “they come.”  They are told that those damned to eternal suffering now belong to the Spirit King!

Review

One of these days I’ll actually figure out how Johns is able to do it.  There is just sooo much going on in this issue (and indeed most issues of the JSA) that it is amazing that at no point does this issue feel like its compressed or the storytelling is cluttered.  Not only are all of the JSA characters are accounted for, but the various storylines are touched upon and expanded.  Really, this is mostly Dr. Mid-Nite’s story and a nice scene with him operating and thinking back to his mother, but we see some of Hourman’s current plight and how this is being fixed as well as the Spectre dealing out his brand of vengeance.  Plus, we get a great conversation between Mr. Terrific and Dr. Mid-Nite in the church talking about being heroes and the nature of religion and vengeance.  The curious part is that there is exposition in this scene (mostly around the new Spectre and the thing with the Flash) but it doesn’t come across that way.  Okay, maybe a little, but it doesn’t stand out that badly. 

It was an ice touch to include Tom Mandrake (who was part of the original Spectre book that starred Jim Corrigan) doing the art chores for the first part of the story.  The JSA is a book that stresses the importance of legacy with its characters so it was nice to see the creators and editors reachign back into the DC legacy for this issue.  Well done.  -- Review by MRB