First appearing in The Brave and the Bold #28 (February-March 1960), the original five members of the JLA (Martian Manhunter, the Barry Allen Flash, Hal Jordan Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman. Superman and Batman did appear and claimed to be League members themselves, but they weren't involved in the story) came together to fight the sinister alien starfish called Starro the Conquerer. And since then, the Justice League in various rosters has come to the DC Universe's greatest bulwark against it's nastiest threats. So, with that, let's take a look at the very first issue of their first series, which went from 1960 to 1987.
The cover is pretty cool, and one that has become kind of iconic in its own way. You have the Flash playing chess with Despero, while severa l members of the Justice League are sitting next to them, all in a trance, stiff as boards. We see Green Lantern being covered in pink energy as he's being teleported away. Uh, Despero is aware that too much pink energy is dangerous, right? It's a neat cover, I like it. Shame the modern League may not get a cover like this.
"The World of No Return!"
Writer: Gardner Fox
Penciler: Mike Sekowsky
Inker: Bernard Sachs
Editor: Julius Schwartz
The story begins with the then-Flash, Barry Allen, driving down a country road.
For someone who can outrun lightning, I can imagine that driving a car must come off as somewhat slow and boring for him. Anyway he notices a blue haze in the road that suddenly causes his car's engine to go dead. He notices that the haze is coming from a nearby house. He figures he had better investigate, and uses his ring to change into the appropriate outfit for it: the costume of the Flash.
Properly attired, the Scarlet Speedster investigates the house and finds two people surrounded by advanced technology, and with green hair. Since it's the 1960s, Barry assumes they are aliens and not just a couple of oddball techno-geeks. The two spot Flash and the woman is terrified. She thinks that Flash was sent by someone named "Despero" to capture them.
However, the elder man is a telepath, and is able to tell the girl, Saranna, that Flash is an Earthman. The two then explain to the Flash that Saranna and her father, Jasonar, fled from a planet called Kalanor. They fled to Earth, hoping they could find refuge there while developing a new weapon against Despero, the blue mist that disabled Flash's car. The mist disables anything that uses energy, which means it would render Despero's weaponry worthless.
Flash tells them the Justice League will help them free their world, and activates a signal device in his belt. The signal first reaches Wonder Woman, who is in New York City.
Wonder Woman had just stopped a lightning bolt from destroying the Statue of Liberty...somehow. Yeah, it must have been a slow day for super-crime in her neck of the woods at the time. The signal then reaches the other League members, all doing various other activities.
Jasonar shows off a rocket-like device to the Flash, saying that they can use it to travel to any dimension he desires. Flash witnesses a beam wash over Saranna and makes her vanish. Jasonar exclaims that Despero must have found them. The teleporter beam then hits Jasonar and Flash, but they don't get taken.
Flash theorizes the blue haze must have protected them from the beam. This makes a bit of a plothole. If the haze protected them from the beam, then why was only Saranna taken? The mist was coming from the house they were in, so it can be safely assumed she was exposed to it, too. How come she didn't get the immunity to the beam Jasonar and Flash did? Did the haze just not like her or something? It's weird.
Flash grabs Jasonar and takes him to a cave for safety, and then brings Jasonar's travel device to the cave. Yeah, it's a pretty big gadget, so how did Flash take it there? I suppose with his speed, he could have easily disassembled it, taken the parts to the cave, and reassembled it there. Problem with that is, this is unknown alien technology. Flash is a forensic scientist, alien tech is not his specialty. Jasonar goes to work on his anti-weapon.
Flash then goes to see if the rest of the League has heard his call. They have...but they also have a guest.
Yup. Despero himself has some to Earth. I know some people may be surprised with his look here. When most people think of Despero, they think of this.
I can understand why. You see, back in the Silver and Bronze Ages, Despero was originally introduced as rather spindly dude, as seen in this comic. However, later on, he would be exposed to something called the Flame of Pytar (if you watched the DCAU Justice League cartoon, you may be familiar with it), which would grant him his more muscular physique, make his psychic powers much stronger, and move the fin on his head to make it look more like a Mohawk. Interestingly, the Brave and the Bold cartoon's take on Despero mixed his modern muscular physique (and disdain for shirts) with the Silver Age fin.
I'm getting off topic. Enough about Despero changing his look more often than a runway model, let's get back to the comic! Despero explains that he has the League under a trance thanks to his psychic powers. Despero explains that he read Saranna's mind to learn that the Flash planned to gather the League to take him on...but how did he know where the League were? It's not like Saranna was aware of where the League met up regularly. Heck, she didn't know who the Flash was! I'm going to assume Despero's psychic abilities allowed him to detect the minds of the League, and that was how he was able to find their meeting place.
Despero's psychic powers allowed him to easily defeat the League, but he can't use them on Flash, as the blue haze still is protecting him...again, Saranna was exposed to haze too, presumably. Why was she not protected, then? So he takes another tactic: he makes like Matthew Broderick's character in WarGames...and play a game.
Despero's game is a strange one, using a chessboard and a deck of cards. You move a figure to a square, then draw a card from a card pile. If the number on the card matches the square your figure is on, then you lose. It's an odd game, but there is a twist. Flash moves the Batman piece, then draws a card. The card matches the square, so Flash lost. Despero think that since Flash lost, Batman gets transported to another dimension. Flash then does it with other members of the League, but keeps losing. Flash realizes that Despero must be rigging the game somehow.
Flash ultimately loses the game, and Despero uses Jasonar's dimension-hopping ship to send Flash to another dimension, silently witnessed by Snapper Carr, the League's then-teenage sidekick. Carr stows away on the ship, hoping he can help. Meanwhile, where did the Leaguers go? Well, Wonder Woman found herself on a world of dinosaurs.
I'm thinking Despero transported Wonder Woman to Jurassic Park. She flees from a group of dinosaurs, and lassoes a pterodactyl in an attempt to escape. However, the pterodactyl is not in the mood to play taxi. It decides to take out its Amazon straggler. Diana takes the other end of her lasso and uses it to...lasso a tree. The pterodactyl swoops down, but it ends up headbutting the tree, knocking out the flying beast and possibly giving it a concussion.
Wonder Woman goes from one peril to another, finding herself in a tar pit like the La Brea ones. Despite her best efforts, Wonder Woman still sinks deeper into the pit. Must be some tough tar. Luckily, help does arrive for the Amazing Amazon.
Yup, Superman is here to save the day...where was he when Wonder Woman was battling the dinosaurs? Eh, maybe he just found her. The two head for a cliff where Superman spots Batman and Martian Manhunter on another planet thanks to his telescopic vision. The two start to leave, but the Man of Steel suddenly feels rather weak. The Amazing Amazon discovers there is a chunk of Kryptonite on a nearby cliff. ...How did that get there? Anyway, Wondy grabs the Kryptonite and tosses it away.
As they go find their teammates, we focus next on Aquaman and the Hal Jordan Green Lantern. The two of them have ended up on a planet that is mostly ocean.
Convenient for Arthur Curry. However, there is a problem. There's a giant lens in the sky using sunlight to make the water boil and evaporate. The lens is yellow, so Hal's ring is useless against it. Where did this lens come from, and what is its purpose? Did Despero have this thing made? And if this is a deathtrap, it's not much of one. The lens is not covering the entire planet, just a small spot that is constantly moving. The water vapor will cool down and come back to the ocean as rain. It's a lazy deathtrap.
GL and Aquaman try to leave, but the planet has a convenient belt of yellow radiation surrounding it. Hal tries to relieve the problem by creating a green iceberg, but it's a Band-Aid. Hal comes up with an idea. He has Arthur summon a bunch of alien octopi. Hal uses his ring to bring the octopi to the lens, and the octopi cover it in ink. Since the ink is black, Hal can now use his ring to force the lens into the sea. Arthur discovers that the sea has an alien race of mer-people in it, and they're pretty happy to see the lens go.
I imagine they found the lens more of a nuisance than an outright danger. They claim they spotted a pair of other Earthmen on a nearby planet. The two look and discover it's Batman and J'onn J'onzz. The aliens also provide the two Leaguers a sub that with GL's ring, can be used to escape the planet and find their comrades.
The scene then shifts to Batman and J'onn J'onzz finding themselves on an alien city, a loud countdown heard in the air.
They get a telepathic message explaining the countdown is a "countdown of doom". When it reaches zero, a missile will hit the planet's sun and causing the world, Narx, to be consumed by the destruction. Narx has no weapons to blast the missile, and they can't evacuate the planet because Despero has put a sentry tower on the planet to shoot down any escape rockets. Naturally, J'onn and Bats are horrified by how far Despero is going to go to destroy them.
J'onn takes care of the sentry tower while Batman goes with a Narxian to prepare a rocket to go after the sunkiller missile. J'onn wrecks the tower by using his Martian powers to dig out the tower's foundation, making it sink into the ground. The Martian Manhunter then goes to destroy the tower from within, but it is guarded by a being made of flames. And fire is the Martian's Kryptonite.
Batman's rocket flies towards the missile, and he literally nudges it with the rocket, causing it to create an orbit around the sun. Back on Narx, the flame warrior prepares to kill J'onn, but is saved by a strange wind...who turns out to be the Flash. Using his power to vibrate into other dimensions (This was how he discovered Earth-2 and met his Golden Age predecessor, Jay Garrick, in "Flash of Two Worlds"), Flash got himself here and saw the tower collapse. The two heroes find a dimension-travelling ship, which they can use to get back home. They return to the surface and find the other Leaguers arriving.
Back on Earth, Despero is searching for Jasonar and his anti-energy weapon, while being watched by a hidden Snapper Carr. Meanwhile, Jasonar is testing his new device.
Jasonar is thrilled with the results, as now his people have a fighting chance to take down the pink-finned tyrant. Despero spots Jasonar, and makes a grab for him. Snapper goes to sock the tyrant, but Despero uses his psychic powers to freeze Carr in place. Or so he thinks. Turns out Carr was faking it, and he blasts Despero with the anti-energy device, which somehow freezes him in place.
Snapper feels a bit down about not being able to save the League, but they run into the cave. Jasonar takes the frozen tyrant back to Kalanor where I'm sure he'll never bother anyone again. Especially the Justice League. As Jasonar leaves, Carr wonders why Despero's psychic abilities didn't affect him. Flash theorizes there must have been some of the blue mist from the testing of Jasonar's device remaining. Carr was exposed to it, so he was protected. Yeah, totally not convenient or anything.
This issue...is a bit of a tough one to judge. When you look at it from a modern standard, it does have a LOT of problems. Sarenna is forgotten, and created a bit of a plot hole thanks to her kidnapping, and the story is a bit dependent on plenty of convenience. It doesn't hold up in many ways. Despite this, though...it's a not a complete disaster. It is neat seeing the League members having to use some creativity to get out of their traps (The GL/Aquaman one is especially creative), and Despero is a great villain. It is a fun story, if you can put the problems aside.
Some of the problems with this issue could possibly be blamed on the format. Fox clearly only had so many pages to work with, and it does seem that this story could have been much better if it was given more room to be expanded upon. If this was done today, it probably would be a multiple-issue story, each issue focusing on the Wonder Woman/Superman, Green Lantern/Aquaman, and Batman/Martian Manhunter team-ups with the Flash in the background trying to save his teammates. It does feel cramped in spots because of this, like Fox had to resolve things quickly to get to the next beat.
One really great thing I liked about this issue? Mike Sekowsky's take on Despero. He gives him a smug, punchable face. You want to see the League punch this guy in the mouth. It's a shame that they didn't get to.
Do I recommend this issue? Well...if you are interested in the Justice League's early history, it is worth a look. There are certainly better JLA stories, though. Including battles with Despero. But I still think it's worth a read. It's their first issue, and it's worth that at least, considering what they will eventually become. Next time, we stick around in the DC Universe as we check in on the origins of a Vigilante...
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