Comic Book / JSA (1999)

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JSA is a 1999-2006 comic book published by DC Comics. Following the "Crisis Times Five" arc of Grant Morrison's JLA (1997), it was decided to give the Justice Society of America a new ongoing. The book was initially written by James Robinson and David S. Goyer for its first five issues, before Geoff Johns would come in on issue #6 and write the rest of the comic^note Goyer would co-write the comic book with Johns until issue #51. The book went through various artists including Stephen Sadowsky, Rags Morales, Peter Snejbjerg, Leonard Kirk, Don Kramer and Jerry Ordway.

The relaunched JSA was a mix of Old Superheroes and Legacy Characters: The initial line-up of the team consists of Jay Garrick (The Flash), Alan Scott (Sentinel), Ted Grant (Wildcat), Hyppolyta (Wonder Woman), Matthew Tyler (Hourman III), Jack Knight (Starman VI), Kendra Saunders (Hawkgirl IV), Dinah Lance (Black Canary II), Courtney Whitmore (The Star-Spangled Kid), Sanderson Hawkins (Sand) and Al Rothstein (Atom-Smasher). As the comic went on, heroes would leave, join or take new identities.

A couple spin-offs would come out of the comic, including a relaunched ongoing for Hawkman in 2002, a limited series starring the new Doctor Fate in 2003 or a second ongoing with a rotating creative team, JSA Classified, in 2005.

The comic book would prove very succesful, not only putting Geoff Johns on the map but also elevating the JSA to one of The DCU's main superhero teams. The first issue was published in August, 1999, and it would last 87 issues and an annual. After Infinite Crisis, Paul Levitz wrote the "One Year Later" story arc for the last remaining issues before the team was relaunched in 2007 with a new ongoing, Justice Society of America (2007), which would last until the New 52 Continuity Reboot in 2011.

In 2024, DC launched a new JSA ongoing, written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Diego Olortegui, as part of the DC All In initiative.

Storylines and events that are part of this run

• Justice Be Done: Issues #1-5
• Injustice Be Done: Issues #16-20
• The Return Of Hawkman: Issues #22-25
• Let The Games Begin: Issues #28, 30
• Kids: Issue #29
• Stealing Thunder: Issues #32-37
• Princes Of Darkness: Issues #45-51
• Black Reign: Issues #56-58
• Redemption Lost: Issues #60-62
• Waking The Sandman: Issues #63-64
• Out Of Time: Issues #65-66
• JSA/JLA: Issues #68-72
• Black Vengeance: Issues #73-75 (Day Of Vengeance tie-in)
• In Search Of...: Issue #76
• Mixed Signals: Issue #77
• Lost And Found: Issues #78-80 (Infinite Crisis tie-in)
• My Heroes: Issue #81
• Ghost in the House: Issue #82
• Ghost Stories: Issues #83-85

JSA (1999) provides examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Power Girl and D-Bomb shared a look once, yet Lucius became obsessed with her to the point four years later he hasn’t forgotten the date and hour they met and escapes prision to meet her.
• Above Good and Evil: Mordru rationalized his crimes, which include trying to kill a baby, like this:
  Mordru: "How can you exact Justice on someone for whom morality doesn’t even exist?"
• Accidental Murder: Apparently, Alan Scott accidentally killed his college roommate Ted Musgrave while setting up a radio tower years ago. His ghost torments him during the “One Year Later” arc.
• The Ace: Mr. Terrific and Dr. Mid-Nite are both incredibly skilled inventors, successful businessmen and superb hand-to-hand fighters. Exploited when Roulette makes them have a chess match against one another where the loser will die.
• Actually Pretty Funny: After Power Girl defeats D-Bomb, she quips “Thanks for the ride cowboy”. When he replies, while buried under the rubble, “you’re welcome”, she can’t help but laugh.
• Affably Evil:
  • Black Adam is a hot-headed Anti-Villain, but he is able to respect the JSA and shows tenderness towards Atom-Smasher.
  • The Gentleman Ghost is a highwayman and criminal, but he is also well-spoken, upbeat and quippy.
• Affirmative-Action Legacy:
  • Kendra Saunders (later comics clarifying she is Cuban from her mother's side) becomes the fourth Hawkgirl.
  • The bearer of the Cosmic Rod after Jack Knight retires is Courtney Whitmore, who joins the Starman legacy as its first Stargirl.
  • Both Jakeem Thunder and Michael Holt, African-Americans, take the roles of Johnny Thunder and Terry Sloan, who were white.
  • Jill Carlyle is the first Crimson Avenger to be both black and a woman.
• Aloof Older Brother: Black Adam admits that he is starting to view Al as his little brother who still has a lot to learn. He is notably pretty gentle and considerate with him, contrasting how he is usually quite rude and arrogant with everybody else.
• Ancient Evil: Onimar Synn is one of the seven devils from Thanagarian myth who attacked early Thanagarian civilization thousands of years ago, before the great hero Kalmoran locked him in in an Nth metal vault for milleniae. He returns during The Return of Hawkman after being freed from imprisonment and propmtly set to conquer it and feed on its Nth metal.
• And I Must Scream:
  • The Rival spent 50 years as disembodied energy inside the Speed Force.
  • According to Doctor Fate’s Shut Up, Hannibal! speech, Mordru is fated to be trapped inside the Rock of Eternity even after the universe ends.
• And This Is for...: As he beats up Extant, Atom-Smasher claims its for the JSAers he killed.
  Atom-Smasher: "This is for Charles McNider! For Rex Tyler! For Al Pratt!"
• Arbitrary Skepticism: The JSA seems oddly reticent to accept the Gentleman Ghost as summoning real ghosts, despite having faced magicians before and one of their old members being THE SPECTRE.
• Arc Villain:
  • Issues #1-4 ("Justice be done"): Mordru.
  • Issues #7-9 ("Darkness falls"): Ian Karkull.
  • Issues #13-15 ("Hunt for Extant"): Extant.
  • Issues #16-20 ("Injustice be done"): Johnny Sorrow and the King of Tears.
  • Issues #21-25 ("The Return of Hawkman"): Onimar Synn.
  • Issues #28-30 ("Let the Games Begin"): Roulette.
  • Issues #32-36 ("Stealing Thunder"): Ultra-Humanite.
  • Issues #45-51 ("Princes of Darkness"): Mordru.
  • Issues #56-58 ("Black Reign"): Black Adam.
  • Issues #60-62 ("Redemption Lost"): The Spirit King.
  • Issues #63-64 ("Waking the Sandman"): Glob and Brute.
  • Issues #68-72 ("JSA/JSA"): Per Degaton.
  • Issues #73-75 ("Black Vengeance"): Eclipso.
  • Issues #78-80 ("Lost & Found"): Mordru and Qwsp.
  • Issues #83-87 ("Ghost Stories"): The Gentleman Ghost.
• Arc Welding: Issue #7 ties various characters like Nightshade, Obsidian, The Shade and the Shadow Thief to receiving their powers from the Shadowlands.^note Years later, James Robinson’s run on Justice League of America will pick up on this and add Eclipso and obscure Mexican superheroine Acrata to the list.
• Ascended Extra: Onimar Synn goes from just one of the seven devils of Thanagarian mythology (he was briefly namedropped in Hawkworld (1990) #14) to an Arc Villain of one of the comic's most important arcs.
• Back for the Dead:
  • In issue #1, Kid Eternity makes his first appearance in mainline continuity since his Vertigo Comics ongoing ended in 1994. He is killed as a Sacrificial Lamb instantly.
  • Ice Sickle returns in issue #60, having last appeared in Doctor Mid-Nite (1999) issue #3 five years ago. He dies in the same issue.
  • After being Put on a Bus, Matthew Tyler returns in the "Out of Time" arc only to perform a Heroic Sacrifice in the end.
  • The second Chronos, Walker Gabriel, returns in issue #70 after her ongoing comic ended in 1999. He is promptly immediately erased from history by Per Degaton.
• Badass Normal: Mr. Terrific, Wildcat, Black Canary, the Star-Spangled Kid and Starman don't have any powers.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Dr. Mid-Nite faced Johnny Sorrow knowing he’d try to use his Brown Note face to kill him. Pieter is blind, but his goggles recorded the image of his face and uses it against Sorrow later.
  • Mordru manipulates Dr. Fate into giving him his power by making him believe he is saving his wife Lyta.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Stargirl is a very idealistic and cheerful girl who practically venerates the JSA. When her family is killed by Per Degaton’s goons, she unleashed the full skills of the Star Rod, vaporizing a man’s arm and stabbing another through the chest.
• Big Bad: Mordru is the JSA’s most persistent foe.
• Big Damn Heroes: Dr. Mid-Nite saves Canary in issue #7 from an army of shadows summoned by Obsidian.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Nabu initially appears as the Big Good, but turns out to have hidden Lyta and the Nelsons inside his amulet because he didn’t want anyone influencing Hector other than him.
• Black and Nerdy: Michael Holt is African-American and the supergenius Mr. Terrific.
• Body Surf:
  • As always, the Ultra-Humanite has a knack from moving his consciousness from body to body. This time, it’s on Johnny Thunder. Later deconstructed when it’s revealed he has body jumped so much it has began to affect his psyche, including not remembering his real name or original body.
  • Mordru, as an Energy Being, requires a soul to incarnate inside. Issue #46 has the massive reveal that he manipulated Hawk into becoming Monarch so he’d be easier to possess, all part of his plan to impregnate Dove and use their superpowered son as an avatar.
• Brain in a Jar: The Ultra-Humanite’s true form.
• Brain Uploading: A magical variation comes when Johnny Thunder fuses his dying soul with the Thunderbolt genie.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The villain of the “Lost and Found” arc initially appears to be an evil Jakeem Thunder, but he is actually just possessed by Qwsp.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Jakeem Thunder is 15, although young enough to pass for 12, but is very bossy, grumpy and sardonic. As seen in flashbacks, Courtney used to be equally bratty, although by now she has mellowed out a lot.
• Brown Note Being: Johnny Sorrow’s face appears to be invisible, but whatever lies behind his mask instantly kills anyone who looks at it.
  Johnny Sorrow: "To paraphrase Socrates – 'I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them I might blind my soul altogether.'"
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Ian Karkull returns in issue #7 published in 2000. His previous appearance was in All-Star Squadron #3, in 1984.
  • Inside Fate's Amulet, Hector meets previous hosts of Dr. Fate who had been dead for years, including Linda and Eric Strauss (last appearance in Doctor Fate (1988) #24) and Kent and Inza Nelson (last seen in the Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! event).
  • Nite-Lite and Ice Sickle, last seen in Doctor Mid-Nite (1999) #3, return in issue #60. For Ice Sickle’s case, it’s Came Back For The Dead.
• Bus Crash: Kestrel, a Hawk and Dove villain, and the Gray Man, a Justice League International villain, are killed by the Dark Lord off screen. They were respectively last seen in 1991 and 1987.
• C-List Fodder:
  • Mordru’s rampage includes the deaths of C-list superheroes Kid Eternity, whose biggest claim to fame was having a three-issue miniseries written by Grant Morrison, and Jared Stevens, the brief '90s Anti-Hero successor to the Doctor Fate mantle.
  • At the end of the "Black Reign" arc, Eclipso kills Nemesis, a rather obscure character that had debuted in JSA annual #1.
• Call-Back:
  • The first issue has Al bring up Nuklon’s mohawk from his time in Infinity, Inc..
  • When Shiv attacks the Star-Spangled Kid, she quips that this time there’s no robots to help her, a reference to Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E..
  • Dr. Mid-Nite is seen giving condoms to prostitutes during a Crossover with Hawkman (2002). This was part of his introduction in the first issue of his debut miniseries.
  • Father Creamer mentions having seen The Spectre destroy entire countries, which happened back in John Ostrander’s run on the character.
• Call-Forward: At one point, Dr. Fate shows Mordru a vision of the heroes he'll fight in the future. Readers will recognize them as the Legion of Super-Heroes.
• The Cameo:
  • Daniel/Dream of the Endless appears in Sand’s dream on the first issue, implied to be related to Wesley dying that same morning. He shows up again to accompany his parents’ souls to the Dreaming in issue #80.
  • After being locked inside the Amulet of Nabu, Hector briefly meets various hallucinations of the previous hosts of Nabu (Inza Kramer, Eric and Linda Strauss and Jared Stevens) and Kid Eternity.
  • The Legion of Super-Heroes cameo in issue #51 when Fate shows Mordru a vision of the heroes he’ll have to face in the future.
• Card Carrying Evil:
  • Onimar Synn proudly calls himself a villain.
    Onimar Synn: "The vast majority of history’s grandest villains didn’t think of themselves as such. I harbor no such illusions. I am perverse. A sadist. I have had thousands of years to reflect upon this."
  • Todd Rice has given up all pretensions of still being a hero and proudly calls himself a villain.
    Hawkman: "I once looked at you like a nephew. A cousin to my own son, Hector. And now you’re part of the evil that has taken him away from me."
    Obsidian: "Part of the evil? I am the evil!"
• The Chessmaster: Mordru, who manipulated Hawk and later Dr. Fate into helping him with his plan of incarnating into a son of Order and Chaos and obtain absolute power.
• Christmas Episode: Issue #55 takes place during Christmas.
• Clownification: As part of the Joker's Last Laugh Crisis Crossover, every title had to face a villain infected by Joker Venom. In the JSA’s case, Courtney and Jakeem had to fight Solomon Grundy.
• Co-Dragons:
  • During the "Princes of Darkness" arc, Eclipso and Obsidian serve as this for Mordru.
  • Black Adam is the leader of Black Reign, and his dragons are Alex Móntez, Nemesis, Northwing and Atom-Smasher.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Issue #9 brings up Starman being caught in “horrors and darkness”, referencing the concurrent "Grand Guignol" arc of his ongoing where Opal City was engulfed under a shadowy dome by Richard Swift.
  • When Stargirl brings up the theory that Liberty Belle’s powers derive from the Spirit of America, like Uncle Sam of the Freedom Fighters. She then somberly adds that everyone knows what happened to them. The Freedom Fighters had been killed by the Secret Society not long ago in the first issue of Infinite Crisis.
• Continuity Porn: Onimar Synn? He's not an original character. He was mentioned once in a throwaway line about Thanagar's devils in Hawkworld (1990) #14 all the way back in 1991. The run revisits this and actually features Synn in the flesh, as a key player behind Hawkman's resurrection.
• Cool Old Guy: The Flash, Sentinel and Wildcat, who founded the OG Justice Society of America.
• Cool Big Sister: Hawkgirl, and later Power Girl, are this for Courtney.
• The Corrupter: Eclipso slowly makes Alex Montez succumb to evil, leading to his untimely death.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: According to Eclipso, Wotan staring at her cleavage caused the Spectre to ran him across a giant cheese grater until being minced.
• Create Your Own Villain: Back when he was Sandy the Golden Boy, Hawkins accidentally caused Johnny Sorrow's sub-space gun to malfunction and teleport him into another dimension. This would lead to Sorrow coming back as an immortal Brown Note Being much worse than he was before.
• Crossover: "Black Reign" is one between JSA (1999) #56-58 and Hawkman (2002) #23-25, both titles written by Geoff Johns.
• Dark Horse Victory: Who wins the vote of JLA chairman between Sand and Hawkman? Mister Terrific.
• Death Is Cheap:
  • Hector Hall is resurrected as the new Doctor Fate at the start of the comic, after Dream killed him in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (1989).
  • Carter Hall comes back as Hawkman in issue #22 following his banishment to limbo in 1996.
  • Dawn Granger is revealed to be alive in issue #45, having been put under a concealment spell by Mordru to appear as Lyta Hall.
  • Lyta Hall is revealed to be alive inside Nabu’s Amulet in issue #58. She escapes it in Hawkman (2002) issue #25.
  • Rex Tyler is brought back from the time bubble Matthew placed him in. The latter's sacrifice allows Rex to safely come back to the present, although as a Retired Badass.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Part of the Society must travel to 1952 to convince the original Justice Society to retake their mantles after Per Degaton disgraces them on the McCarthy trials. We’re shown some of the the usual problems of the era, like widespread segregation and casual racism or cigarettes being considered harmless.
• Discontinuity Nod: Issue #67 has Power Girl mention Kara Zor-El, who at the time had barely just been reintroduced, being Superman’s real cousin, unlike Karen or “that angel”. After Supergirl (1996) ended, Linda Danvers’ exploits as Supergirl were immediately declared not canon.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Sanderson Hawkins develops the power to transform into a sand creature able to travel through Earth’s fault lines in issue #5.
• Dramatic Unmask: Issue #45 ends with Dr. Fate unmasking himself and revealing Mordru underneath.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Kid Eternity and Fate are unceremoniously murdered in the first issue.
• Eldritch Abomination: The King of Tears comes from another dimension, it requires avatars to manifest into reality and looks like a giant insect covered with tentacles and eyes. Like Sorrow, anyone who looks at it dies of shock.
• Enemy Mine: The dystopia that the Ultra-Humanite created is bad enough that Icicle choses to ally himself with the JSA.
• Energy Being: Mordru is one. The reason he looks for a soul is that he is just a sentient magic pattern and thus needs mass to be focused.
• Evil Counterpart: The Rival is this to The Flash.
• Evil Costume Switch: The superheroes brainwashed by the Ultra-Humanite all wear black and grey versions of their outfits.
• Evil Old Folks: The Spirit King fought the original JSA and is the man responsible for killing the first Mister Terrific. He later returns to torment the Spectre, with his actions leading into Hal giving up on trying to become the Spirit of Redemption.
• Fanservice: Issue #32 opens with Power Girl in her underwear being examined by Pieter. Lampshaded when she wonders if the whole point of the test was just to get her naked.
• Face–Heel Turn:
  • Obsidian seems to finally have given into the dark side, becoming a full-on Card-Carrying Villain obsessed with plunging the world into an eternal night, although it's later revealed that his villainy was a result of continued exposure to the Shadowlands, combined with his declining mental health. By issue #52, he is slowly recovering with the help of his family.
  • After becoming jaded with the JSA's lofty methods, Atom-Smasher eventually joins Adam's Black Reign and becomes a terrorist/freedom fighter willing to use lethal force to liberate Khandaq.
• Faux Affably Evil: Mordru is cruel, sly and manipulative, but pretends to be civilized and well-spoken.
  Mordru: "I’m impressed, woman. But I’m tired of this game. Please die now."
• Fish out of Temporal Water: After being mortally wounded in battle, Hourman switches places with his dad so he can be frozen in time in the timepoint. Rex has to take some adjustments to living in the present day, like learning that Sandy the Golden Boy is now Sand.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Mostly Played for Laughs. Mr. Terrific don’t believe in a higher power, despite being in a team that had the Spectre as a founding member, who also was the one who gave Michael the idea of becoming Mr. Terrific, and his predecessor being killed by a sorcerer from Hell.
• Flying Brick: The powers of Hyppolyta, Captain Marvel, Power Girl and Black Adam.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In issue #72, the JSA phases through a time knot heavily implied to be Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Power Girl is notably affected by it. This foreshadow’s Power Trip (2005), the comic that would address her messy continuity and reinstate her backstory as a Kryptonian from Earth-2.
  • A cross title one. After trying to steer the Spectre from the Spirit of Vengance to the Spirit of Redemption, Hal's fight against the Spirit King shows that his softer hand had the unforseen consequence of weakening his hold on the damned, thus allowing for the Spirit King to use them as his undead army. This makes Hal return to the Spectre's original role of punishing sinners, setting up his portrayal in Green Lantern: Rebirth.
• Future Badass: The identity of the mysterious Starwoman who helps free Stargirl and Ted Knight from an asylum is Patricia Whitmore, who at the time is just a baby.
• Genius Bruiser:
  • Mr. Terrific is both one of the smartest men in the world and also a martial artist.
  • D-Bomb appears as just a muscular thug initially, but is shown to be pretty sharp, partaking in puzzles, crosswords and other mind games and keeping a strict track of his diet.
• Godzilla Threshold: The fight against Johnny Sorrow is so tough that Black Adam chooses to join the JSA and help them. Subverted when he decides to remain on the team afterwards.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Compared to his pals Flash and Sentinel, a speedster and the channeler of the Starheart, Wildcat is just a very skilled boxer.
• Goofy Print Underwear: D-Bomb wears Power Girl-themed underwear.
• Grand Theft Me: In issue #32, it’s revealed that Johnny Thunder’s brain has been switched with that of the Ultra-Humanite.
• Grandfather Paradox: Exploited by Terry Sloane, who threatens to commit suicide so his descendant, Barax Black, won’t become a supervillain. What’s better is that he was bluffing.
• Happy Ending Override: Throughout The Spectre (2001), Hal Jordan tried to turn the Spectre from a tool of punishment to one of redemption, and ended in a hopeful note that such task was possible. In the "Redemption Lost" arc, it's revealed it was All for Nothing because the Spectre become more lenient had the unforseen effect of loosening his grip on the souls of those he damned, and leads to the Spirit King and an army of souls to break out of Hell and attack the mortal plane. By the end of the arc, he is forced to go back to being a punisher of the guilty despite Father Creamer trying to convince him otherwise.
• Hero Killer:
  • Extant, formerly the superhero Hawk, is responsible for the deaths of the Golden Age Atom, Dr. Mid-Nite and Hourman.
  • The Spirit King killed Terry Sloane, the original Mr. Terrific.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Matthew Tyler, the Hourman of the 853rd century, dies taking Rex’s place as the Hourman who died fighting Extant so both father and son can return to the present.
• Heroic Suicide: Upon realizing Eclipso is overtaking him, Alex chooses to jump to his death to stop the demon from possessing him.
• Hidden Depths: Hourman appears as a cold, unfeeling machine dictated by logic, but #11 mentions how scared he was when Rex Tyler died in his arms.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Johnny Sorrow is defeated when Pieter Cross shows him a recording of his face.
• Hope Spot: During the "Injustice be done arc", it seems that Hal Jordan will be able to defeat the King of Tears like Jim Corrigan did decades ago. The second he steps into the field, the King devours him to the bone.
• Humanoid Abomination:
  • Johnny Sorrow's body and face looks invisible, but when he removes his mask, anyone who stares at what's under it immediatly dies. He gained these powers after being sucked into an Eldritch Location and rebuilt by the King of Tears and its kind.
  • Mordru is an immortal Paradox Person and Energy Being who requires to incarnate inside hosts to have a physical effect on the world.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Green Lantern recognizes that Ted Musgrave’s ghost isn’t the real Ted because he is willing to use violence, while Ted used to be very apprehensive.
• I Am Not Your Father: A minor reveal in issue #50 is that Arion isn’t Power Girl’s grandfather, as Retconned in Power Girl (1988).
• Kick the Dog: Per Degaton takes time to slowly erase happy memories from Rex Tyler’s life, like his only friend or the first girl he kissed, before killing him.
• The Klan: While in 1952, Mr. Terrific briefly must fight the Ku Klux Klan. They’re portrayed as arrogant, illiterate Boisterous Weaklings whom Michael even admits to enjoying beating up more than he should.
• Knuckle Tattoos: D-Bomb has “Power Girl” tattooed on his knuckles.
• Legacy Character:
  • Hector Hall is the fifth Doctor Fate.
  • Kendra Saunders is the fourth Hawkgirl.
  • Courtney Whitmore is the seventh bearer of the Starman mantle.
  • Jakeem Williams is the second owner of the Thunderbolt genie.
  • Rick Tyler and Matthew Tyler are the second and third Hourman.
  • Dinah Lance is the second Black Canary.
  • Pieter Cross is the third Dr. Mid-Nite.
  • Michael Holt is the second Mr. Terrific.
  • Jill Carlyle is the third Crimson Avenger.
• Light Is Not Good: Onimar Synn has pale skin and wears white clothes but is a sadistic Soul Eating demon.
• Logical Weakness: Jakeem has to be able to speak to summon the Thunderbolt’s power, which means things like having his vocal chords severed by Mordru or the Gentleman Ghost strangling him with a rope remove him from the battlefield.
• Loophole Abuse: Upon hearing that Hourman is fated to die fighting Extant, Rick Tyler choses to battle Extant himself so he can spare his father’s life. And in the end, it’s Matthew Tyler who dies fighting the supervillain.
• The Lost Lenore: Hector Hall wants to improve his magic to save his wife Lyta, who was in a coma after the events of The Sandman (1989). In reality that was Dove, with the real Fury being trapped inside his amulet.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Zig-Zagged. While Hector Hall’s soul is his own, his body is actually the offspring of Hawk and Dove.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Upon being stabbed in the eye by Kendra, Eclipso/Jean Loring just comments how it’s “a bit uncomfortable”.
• Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Degaton’s plan is to ruin the JSA’s reputation in 1950 to make sure they won’t inspire future heroes to take up their mantles and that the Society is never reformed in the future.
• The Man Behind the Man: The reason why Brainwave Jr. is acting so erratically? Mr. Mind has burrowed inside his brain.
• The Medic: Naturally, Dr. Mid-Nite, with Terrific occasionally helping.
• Minidress of Power: Unlike her daughter, who wears a Leotard of Power, Hyppolyta's Wonder Woman outfit has a skirt.
• Ms. Fanservice: Initially, Black Canary, who wears a very tight Spy Catsuit that lovingly highlights her curves. After she quits, the role goes to Power Girl, who sports a prone to Clothing Damage Leotard of Power with a cleavage window.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: Since Captain Marvel doesn’t share his Secret Identity with the rest of the JSA, his relationship with Stargirl attracts the attention of Jakeem and the Flash, who worry about a grown man beginning a relationship with a teenager.
• Money Fetish: Despite being dead, the Gentleman Ghost keeps collecting "pretties" for the sake of it.
• Mood Whiplash: One issue begins with Stargirl having breakfast after a hard night's crime fighting, talking with her step-dad, arguing with her brother and saying hi to her little sister. Then a bunch of Red Morgue assassins burst into the room and kill everyone but Courtney.
• More Hero than Thou: The Hourmen fought over who got to die to produce a Stable Time Loop.
• Mystical White Hair: Hector Hall, who sports white hair and a white beard, becomes the new bearer of the Dr. Fate identity.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The JSA painting from the first issue is the cover of All-Star Comics #3, where they debuted.
  • During their battle with Extant, Alan briefly adopts the costume he wore in Kingdom Come.
  • The new Crimson Avenger brings up that the original one, Lee Travis, used to be a hot-blooded Anti-Hero who gunned down criminals before he got a sidekick and a more traditional superhero spandex. This brings to mind his portrayal in Sandman Mystery Theatre, where his violent methods are contrasted with the Sandman’s more subdued, pacifist approach.
  • During the JLA and JSA’s Thanksgiving dinner, Batman asks Pieter, who is on monitor duty, if there’s any troubles from Earth-2. Back in Pre-Crisis, the JSA resided in Earth-2.
  • Earth-2 Lois refers to Mister Mxyzptlk by his Golden Age spelling, Mr. Mxyztplk.
• Neck Snap: Black Adam breaks Eclipso’s neck like this. As a heavenly host, it only slows her down temporarily.
• Necromancer: The Spirit King attacks Hal Jordan with an army of the people the Spectre has killed over the years.
• No Equal-Opportunity Time Travel: When trying to follow Terry Sloane back in 1952, Michael and Jakeem run into some complications due to being African-American in Segregated America, like being forced to ride another wagon in trains.
• Not So Above It All: Hawkman is usually rather serious, but during Thanksgiving dinner he is seen stealing food from the kitchen like a little kid.
• Old Superhero: Wildcat, Sentinel and the Flash, even with their extended lifespans, still look to be well into their sixties, but that doesn't make them any less badass.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Unlike Mordru, who wants to remake reality to his own specifications, Eclipso just wants to destroy everything and everyone.
• One-Man Army: Wildcat manages to fight off Count Vertigo, Tigress, Blackbriar Thorn, Golden Wasp, Geomancer and Icicle while injured.
• OOC Is Serious Business: A sign of how shaken up he is by the Spectre almost murdering Atom-Smasher? Black Adam apologizes for his actions.
• Outliving One's Offspring: In issue 25, Jay Garrick mentions to Michael Holt that he and his wife Joan adopted a son after learning they couldn't have biological children, only for their adopted son to die two weeks later of pneumonia.
• Oxymoronic Being: Hector Hall, in his current form, is actually Hector's soul inside the son of Hank Hall and Dawn Granger, the superhero couple Hawk and Dove. Since they're respectively avatars of Chaos and Order, the child is supposed to have massive magical power, which explains Hector's affinity for magic and the reason why Mordru is so obsessed with possessing his body.
• Paradox Person: After trying to scramble his timeline, Hourman finds that Mordru’s nature as a time traveller means his timeline has no beginning or end, and he will never be born or die.
• It's Personal: When Michael Holt finds a ghost replica of the accident that killed his wife, he takes it very personally.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Director Bones is a rather sketchy individual. During the Identity Crisis (2004) tie-in, he offers to have the DEO perform an autopsy on Sue Dibny’s corpse, which Elongated Man refuses, preferring Michael Holt and Pieter Cross to handle it. When the government insists on doing it, Bones is considerate enough to make them back off.
  • The Shade is, on his best day, an Unscrupulous Hero. But when Stargirl’s biological dad dies, he personally goes to inform her of his death.
• Physical God: Having fused with the Worlogog, Extant becomes an omnipotent Energy Being who can alter time with just a thought.
• Pop-Cultured Badass:
  • As always, Starman.
  • Sand is very knowledgeable in film history due to having spent years without anything to do other than watching movies.
• Power Tattoos: Alex Montez sports these, which keep Eclipso at bay.
• President Superhero: After the events of the "Black Reign" arc, Black Adam becomes the new ruler of Khandaq, with Eclipso, Nemesis, Northwind and Atom-Smasher as his close allies.
• Pretender Diss: Eclipso makes a point of calling Yolanda Montez and Beth Chappel “pretenders” to the mantles of Wildcat and Dr. Mid-Nite during the fight against Dove.
• Prisons Are Gymnasiums: D-Bomb keeps himself in good shape with a rigorous routine of exercise and diets while in jail.
• Private Military Contractor: Red Morgue, formerly Eliminations, Incorporated, are a fascist cabal of mercenaries who serve as muscle for Per Degaton.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Hourman, Hyppolyta and Starman (at James Robinson’s request) promptly quit at the end of the third arc, "The Hunt for Extant".
  • Black Canary eventually quits the team to focus full-time on the Birds of Prey and later on with the Justice League of America, although she's still a reserve member.
  • After Infinite Crisis. Hawkgirl leaves the team to star in her new ongoing and join the new Justice League.
• Rape by Proxy: Mordru posessed Hawk to impregnate Dove and incarnate inside their child, who is fated to be the universe’s most powerful sorcerer.
• Recovered Addict: Rick Tyler, the second Hourman, used to be addicted to Miraclo.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Extant is a megalomaniacal supervillain and wears a red and black outfit.
• Religious Bruiser: Dr. Mid-Nite, in comparison of his best friend Mr. Terrific, is pretty religious, and just as competent and badass as Holt.
• Retcon:
  • A substantial one to Black Adam's backstory: He once was a legitimate hero of his nation and worked alongside Nabu and Khufu, but the deaths of his wife and son made him much more ruthless and violent.
  • Mordru is the true reason why Hawk became Monarch in Armageddon 2001, as part of a plan to incarnate inside Hank and Dawn’s son.
  • Arion the Immortal isn’t Power Girl’s grandfather.
• Ret-Gone: Per Degaton kills Chronos by pushing his younger self infront of a moving vehicle, causing his present version to vanish into nothing.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: The Team's most persistent foe is Mordru, who is usually associated with the Legion of Super-Heroes.
• Rule of Symbolism: After she shoots down Wildcat, Crimson Avenger is splattered with their blood, which makes her look like she is crying.
• Series Continuity Error: Per Degaton kills Chronos by murdering his younger self, but as a living paradox Walker no longer has a younger self to kill and is invulnerable to changes in the timeline. Possibly Hand Waved by the fact that Per Degaton is an experienced enough time traveller to find a way to do that regardless.
• Silicon-Based Life: After Sand’s powers activate, Dr. Iker determines that he is no longer a carbon-based lifeform, but a silicon-based one.
• The Slow Path: Upon being stranded in ancient Egypt with the time cube that brought them to the past broken, Nabu choses to lock Mr. Terrific, Hawkgirl and Captain Marvel inside magic sarcophagi that will put them in a deep sleep until an immortal, in this case Black Adam, frees them when the time comes.
• Smart People Play Chess: Roulette captures Terrific and Mid-Nite to force them to play chess against one another in a match where the loser will die, as part of a more intellectual alternative to her metahuman death matches for Wicked Cultured villains like Phobia and the Monocle. They wordlessly agree to end on a stalemate to save one another and allow their escape.
• The Social Darwinist: Compared to Dr. Mid-Nite, Per Degaton thinks that only the strong should be allowed to survive, and that Pieter’s empathy makes him weak.
• Start of Darkness: It’s implied that Black Adam breaking Ahk-Ton the Metamorph’s neck in revenge of him destroying his homeland and killing his loved ones was, at the very least, one of the main factors that lead to Teth becoming the Knight Templar he is today.
• Starter Villain: The first villain the reformed JSA fights is Mordru.
• The Stoic: Compared to his best friend Pieter Cross, who is very emotional and empathetic, Michael Holt is very detached and even somewhat aloof.
• Take That!: A couple to the "New Blood" Anti Heroes from the Bloodlines Crisis Crossover:
  • Icicle derisively snarks about Ultra-Humanite having kidnapped Gunfire, because it's "scrapping the bottom of the barrel".
  • Another jab at the event comes in issue #54, when Captain Marvel brings up Loose Cannon and Wildcat doesn’t know who that is.
• Team Mom: Ma Hunkle, the Retired Badass Red Tornado, serves as this.
• Thanksgiving Episode: Issue #54 takes place during Thanksgiving.
• Those Two Guys: As the team’s resident supergeniuses, Mr. Terrific and Dr. Mid-Nite are often seen working together.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: After Kobra kills his mom, Starman needs to talk Al out of killing the cult leader. Later on, however, Atom leaves Extant to die in her place instead. He'll eventually abandon the Justice Society and join Black Adam's gang of Anti Heroes.
• Tinkle in the Eye: The second issue has Jack Knight get peed on by a baby after seeing whether it has the birthmark indicating that it is destined to be the next Dr. Fate.
• Token Evil Teammate:
  • Black Adam is an Anti-Villain with no qualms against killing or disobeying orders. He does at least have some degree of respect for the team, but clearly views them at best as well-intentioned but misguided.
  • And for Adam’s Black Reign team, Eclipso feels that slot, being more concerned with violence and bloodshed than any noble cause.
• Token Good Teammate: Inversely, Atom-Smasher is this for the Black Reign, being the only one who feels doubtful about the violence used to overthrow a regime.
• Token Robot: Hourman is the only robot in the Society's first roster.
• Undressing the Unconscious: Wildcat, Starman and Mr. Terrific steal the clothes of defeated Kobra mooks to infiltrate Blackhawk Island.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: During an arc where part of the Justice Society is stuck on the past, Captain Marvel meets a much younger Black Adam and learns that he used to be a humble, polite warrior before he became an Anti-Villain.
• Villains Out Shopping: Multiple villains are seen attending Roulette’s death battles. The more intellectual ones also attend Dr. Mid-Nite and Mr. Terrific's deadly chess match.
• Virgin Power: The Gentleman Ghost can't harm Stargirl because she is still a virgin.
• Weaponized Allergy: Courtney, back when she was still the Star-Spangled Kid, found out that her overbearing stepdad Pat had a severe allergy to pineapple and left a piece in his bed to keep him out of commission for a day so that she could visit Pat's old associate Ted Knight without Pat looking over her shoulder. After hearing this, Ted makes a mental note not to get on her bad side.
• We Can Rebuild Him: The death of Matthew Tyler is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Rex was able to rescue his hourglass, and implies he will try to rebuild him.
• Wham Episode:
  • Issue #21 reveals that Kendra did die on her first suicide attempt, but Shiera Hall somehow reincarnated inside of her.
  • Issue #44 has Hector Hall discover that the woman he thought was Lyta Hall was actually under a concealing spell. She’s actually Dawn Granger. The following issue delivers a MASSIVE one when it’s revealed that Mordru is the true reason Hawk became Monarch, having driven him insane so he could possess Hank, impregnate Dove and then Body Surf into their kid, who as a child of order and chaos will be the most powerful sorcerer in the universe.
  • Issue #56 ends with Atom-Smasher killing a dictator, signaling he has embraced Black Adam’s ideology.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: For all his virtues as a superhero and succesful inventor, Rex Tyler was a very absent father during Rick’s childhood. He never had time to play with him and once bought him a “Happy 8th Birthday” card when he was eleven.
• With Great Power Comes Great Perks: An advantage of having the Thunderbolt genie is that Jakeem can just make him do his homework.
• The Worf Effect: In JLA (1997), the General was such a menace that the only way to defeat him was to teleport him to an asteroid thousand of light years away from Earth, since he tore through the JLA’s ranks with ease. He is taken out in the introduction of issue #77 without much care by Hal Jordan.
• Would Hurt a Child: Per Degaton orders the deaths of Stargirl’s entire family, including her brother Mike and her baby sister Patricia. He later pushes Walker Gabriel infront of a moving car when he was five years old to kill his present self.
• You Cannot Kill an Idea: The "Redemption Lost" arc begins with Hourman confronting the Rag Doll and threatening to finish him off for good to end his cult's corruption of children. The Rag Doll responds by gloating that the influence of his cult will outlive him, comparing himself to Charles Manson and David Koresh.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Karkull opens a rift in the Shadowlands, Obsidian promptly kills him because it’s all he ever needed from him.
• You Should Have Died Instead: In a bitter discussion, Mike Dugan wishes Pat had died instead of his mom.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Black Adam’s Anti-Hero team leads a coup on Khandaq to overthrow their dictator and reinstate Black Adam as ruler of the land.