DCU Comic Book Reviews

JUSTICE SOCIETY of AMERICA #36

Memoir, Part One of Fatherland

April 2010

Written by Bill Willingham

Pencils by Jesus Merino

Inks by Jesse Delperdang

Cover by Jesus Merino

Synopsis

Twenty Years Later, Mr. Terrific tells his memoir, starting with the moment of the original assault and the death of Alan Scott.  Now, The JSA prepares to turn over Kid Karnevil to the military.  Elsewhere, Liberty Belle kisses her husband goodbye and runs off to the JSA headquarters.  Along the way she is stopped by Baroness Blitzkreig.  Meanwhile, Captain Nazi leads his group on the attack.  Kid Karnevil tells the JSA that he will escape.  Mr. Terrific orders the team to make sure it doesn’t happen.  After Alan Scott says goodbye to Dr. Fate, who leaves the team to study how his powers work, he is killed by a bomb placed in a wooden box, the wooden shrapnel killing him.  Then, the Shadow of War takes out Jay Garrick.  The rest of Captain Nazi’s team attack.  Twenty Years Later, Mr. Terrific admits the Nazis scored some devastating hits, but the JSA then did what they always did:  fight back. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I really don’t know what to say about this.  It has nothing to do with the quality of the book.  What I can’t quite get my head wrapped around is the basic plot, which shows Mr. Terrific in the future describing how things got that way.  I understand the concept.  What I can’t quite grasp is the fundamental belief that this is a good idea.  I mean, we are talking about a shared universe, one that continues on and on and on.  This story essentially contradicts that idea, creating the so-called final days of the world and the heroes.  The two don’t work together.  You can’t have a universe that continues onward, but write a story that shows its end.  Trying to resolve that conflict and you come up with the resolution of the story:  Mr. Terrific finds a way to restore the timeline so that the future we see will never happen.  Knowing how it ends kind robs the tension or drama out of the story.  We know the death of Alan Scott means nothing; he’ll not only be back, but his death never actually happened.  At the very least deaths in the comic universe happen, even if they are undone, but this story will make it so it never happened.  Now, one could argue that it is the journey that matters the most and they would be right, which is why I don’t know what to say.  Taken as it is, this was a very intriguing, interesting story.  What we saw of the future was compelling enough that I would like to see more of it.  The way Alan died was smart, preying on who he is and his weakness to wood to take him out.  And the villains, while stock Nazis, it does fit a group of heroes that were born during World War II.  Plus, they were amusing but also dangerous.  S, yes, there is a lot about this story that I liked.  It was entertaining.  I am just wondering if it can continue that way or if it will devolve as Willingham gets closer and closer to the end that we know is coming. 

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