Summer on Earth-2 Part Two

 The previous post inspired me to write a retrospective of Alpha Flight some time in the future entitled "Puck's Not Dead". But for now, here's the second in a summer miniseries about DC's Earth-2.

For my entire life, DC comics has honoured the heritage of  its Golden Age heroes, even though for just under half of that time, they were the inhabitants of another, alternative world.
 Earlier this year we learned that the Justice Society of America was being modernised and recreated, again on a parallel Earth. The big news story this week was that the much-heralded new homosexual super-star from DC would be the E-2 Green Lantern, Alan Scott.


DC comics has, historically, always followed Marvel's lead when it comes to diversity and representing real-world issues. It's surely no coincidence that this announcement was made in the wake of the same-sex marriage of Canadian  X-Man Northstar at Marvel.

 Depressingly, there have been hostile responses to the Alan Scott story, even though, of course, it hasn't seen print yet. It's disingenuous to try to "shield" kids from images of gay lifestyles in comics. For one thing, mass media products like tv shows have gay storylines. For example, Doctor Who has been presenting bi and gay characters for seven years now, most notably the charismatic action hero Captain Jack Harkness. More pertinently, what pre-teen kids even read or buy mainstream superhero comics?


I think some of this hostility arises from the culture of comic readers: one that's predominantly male, white and middle-class; at the same time the privileged mainstream and yet somehow feeling marginalised. Has any youth cult been more marketed than Goth/Emo? For nearly the last thirty years, that culture has reflected a violent, morbid landscape of body art, death/speed metal ,war gaming, weapon fetishism and narcissism- more Spirit of Vengeance than Forever People if you like.

In the 21st century, DC has already introduced gay superheroes in the shape of Batwoman, Starman ( like Alan, a character reworked by DC's boho genealogist, James Robinson) and Bunker. But the Alan Scott story was trailed by a statement that the new gay hero in the New 52 would be an iconic character- someone who matters, in other words. It was never going to be Batman or Hal Jordan, who have for some reason been spared the new continuity; the Barry Allen -Flash seemed the most likely candidate, to me.But making it Alan Scott is a bit of a cheat. DC must know that Green Lantern is a middling Ryan Reynolds movie from last summer, in the public perception. Today's Sunday Herald wibbles meaninglessly about Alan "donning the skintight unitard more typically associated with straight superheroes." 

I think it's unfortunate that DC feels it has to eliminate the history of its Golden Age characters and in this case, some 80s spin-offs.It smacks of sensationalism without genuine commitment to me; why not just create a new character? In any case, I think it would be more controversial to revive the Bronze Age Biblical hero, Seraph and show his faith in a positive light or make dull Transformer knock-off Cyborg a practising Muslim.

 I'm reminded of Gerry Conway and Chris Claremont's attempts to write liberated women in the Seventies. On the 'optikon I wrote recently of my first experience of truanting, when I glimpsed a reproduction of a Mike Grell cover, which introduced Conway's feminist take on Supergirl.

I bought this Showcase in Aberdeen at Easter; I'd read most of the stories in the 70s but the first two-parter also appeared in a JSA digest in the very early 80s. The original Alan Scott is a major player in the storylines.
 Fans had clamoured for JSA reprints in the days of the 100-page Super-Specs and the summer Crises had been popular for over a decade.But DC chose, rather oddly, to make some younger heroes the focus of the All-Star Comics revival. In addition to the statuesque if abrasive Power Girl, the Star Spangled Kid was inducted and given the powers of Starman Ted Knight. The Kid never clicked at all until the female version turned up in the 90s. Another failed Super-Squadder was the grown-up Robin in a Neal Adams outfit. He did however have an impressive-if distant- civilian calling as US Ambassador in South Africa. Dick would eventually have his day as Nightwing, of course- perhaps they should have stuck with his campy Silver Age look? 

The first issues have an almost quaint, stuffy tone, given it's the Bronze Age, with polite little panels by Ric Estrada and Wally Wood. With my first issue, Keith Giffen came aboard as penciller and experimented with layouts. The villains are very Marvel-esque menaces: the illusory Brain Wave, the insane astronaut Vulcan and the Lemurian demon-god Zanadu. Gerry Conway also piles on some rather contrived feuding and angst. Thankfully, SSK's assertion that Wildcat is psychotic (like Wolverine, hmm?) was never followed up...Flash, GL and Hawkman drift in and out of the team, with the Emerald Gladiator having a breakdown due to recession-based woes and Hourman bemoans his own usefulness.
The first phase of the revival ends with three issues of pure Wally Wood, a Camelot story of knights and castles and a clash with Vandal Savage. Like Degaton the previous year, Savage is a generic heavy with whatever powers and technology the story requires.However, I suppose that's better than the grisly cannibal serial killer of the present day.


The middle phase of the title is, for me, the most successful. Giffen and Wood are gone; Joe Staton and Bob Layton produce a year of stylised, whimsical cartooning while LSH scribe Paul Levitz explores the generation gap. The stars of the strip are Power Girl, who wins a tryout trio of stories in Showcase; the pugnacious Ben Grimm substitute Wildcat and the implacable Dr. Fate. 

There is a DC Special telling the Secret Origin of the JSA with a dynamic Neal Adams cover. We learn that E-2's geography differs from ours with a poorly-researched Glasgow somewhere in the Borders complete with a Nazi-thronged McMurdie Castle.
Villains included the Psycho Pirate; Mr. and Mrs. Menace; and a murderous revival for the original Rose and Thorn.There were also guest appearances by the Golden Age Wonder Woman and Starman Ted. Hawkman was redesigned with an Egyptian motif.  But the breakout star was Helena Wayne, The Huntress : a tragic heroine who blended the MO of the Batman with the sultry allure of Catwoman.

When Layton leaves, for a time Joe Giella's inks give the strip a sparse, primitive look. All-Star falls foul of the DC Implosion and the JSA relocates to Adventure Comics. This bleak, final phase begins with a truncated story about the death of the Golden Age Batman atop Gotham's twin towers. This grim period ends with Wildcat retiring again; a final cameo for Mr. Terrific before his murder in the 1979 JLA/JSA crossover; and the story of how the HUAC investigations closed down the JSA in the Fifties.

In the 80s, the Golden Age JSA featured in All-Star Squadron (and its spin-off title, the distinctly Avengers-flavoured  Infinity Inc.) But that's a story for another time...

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