Monday, March 14, 2016

The Justice League Hereby Elects?


On of my favorite trades is this one featuring Justice League stories which showcase the arrival of a new member. Once upon a time, the Justice League was a pretty exclusive club, adding members with sufficient rarity to make each time a bit special. Some members hung around the League for several adventures before getting the nod, and others were ushered in pretty quickly.


Love this Neal Adams cover on a special issue with the stories of how Green Arrow, Atom and Hawkman joined the League. Jerry Ordway does a smashing job of evoking it with different characters for the trade.


The first story is the very first League story to usher in a new member. And I'll have more to say about this issue soon.


We skip ahead several years and have this story by the new creative team of Denny O'Neil, Dick Dillin and Joe Giella which has the smashing Black Canary cross over from Earth-1 and join the team.


The Elongated Man gets the nod at long last in a great story by Len Wein, Dillin and Dick Giordano.


In this issue, which makes no mention of it, Hawkwoman at long last gets equal billing in the League as she's added thanks to Steve Englehart with a beautiful drawn story by Dillin and Frank McLaughlin.


Gerry Conway tells the tale of how Zatanna finally becomes a member, again the Dillin and McLaughlin team supply the art.



The final tale is that most rare of events, when a character turns down membership. Metamorpho had done it some years before and in these two exciting issues by the  Conway, Dillin, McLaughlin team Black Lightning does likewise.

(Not included in this volume, but a great cover nonetheless.)
I am surprised that this volume did not collect up Firestorm's induction into the team, since he went  on to become a major addition in the Bronze Age. 

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