Justice Society of America (vol.3) #6 (2007)

Justice Society of America (vol.3) #6 (July, 2007)
“The Lightning Saga, Chapter Four: Three Worlds”
Writer – Geoff Johns
Penciller – Dale Eaglesham
Inker – Ruy Jose
Colorist – Jeromy Cox
Letterer – Rob Leigh
Assistant Editor – Adam Schlagman
Editor – Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $2.99


A storm’s on its way… prepare for the Penultimate Lightning!


If you need to/want to catch up:
Chapter One: Justice League of America (vol.2) #8
Chapter Two: Justice Society of America (vol.3) #5
Chapter Three: Justice League of America (vol.2) #9


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We open up with Superman explaining his weird and wacky history with the Legion of Super-Heroes… and boy, is he getting into it!  Power Girl asks why they left so abruptly… and what’s the deal with these lightning rods anyway?  Superman mentions the hazards of time-travel, especially when it comes to memory.  He even brings up an archival-adventure they had called “The Legion of Three Worlds” that nobody can remember!  He says the last time he remembers seeing the Legion was during the “first” Crisis.  Well, we could argue that… but we won’t.

Anyhoo… dem lightning rods, right?  They were used by the Legion after the death of Lightning Lad (Adventure Comics #304).  It was sort of a game of Russian Roulette where lightning would strike (and kill) a Legionnaire… and it would somehow bring Lightning Lad back to life.  The gang played this game in Adventure Comics #312… and it looked like Saturn Girl was the thunderstruck sacrifice.  Turns out it was actually Chameleon Boy’s shape-shifting pet Proty taking the form of Saturn Girl that bit the big one.  Still with me?  Okay… we said all of that, so we might say this… looks like the Legion is planning to give the lightning rods another go-round.

Speaking of the Legion, we join them as they fly in the skies over a densely-wooded/jungle area.  We can see here that despite Star Boy/Man’s memory blocks being off… he’s still pretty loony.  Since we’re skipping around this volume at this blog, we know all about the time he’d spent on Earth-22.

The land… and they must be in the right place, because nearby we see Liberty Belle, Wonder Woman, Damage, Hourman, and Black Lightning tracking the final Legionnaire.  We join them as Jesse is trying to sell Diana on dating the new Mr. America.  They come across one of the Secret Society’s old bases… and Jefferson steps in to zap the door off it’s hinges.  What they find inside is not one Legionnaire, but… three?

Hey, it’s Triplicate Girl… and boy is she chatty.  She seems a bit misinformed as to her purpose in the present, however.  She thinks the Legion has been sent back to prevent Computo from activating… and while that’s an erstwhile endeavor, it ain’t the one we were expecting!  Worth mentioning, there’s another Legionnaire lurking in the shadows, hmm…

Oh yeah, also Computo activates… and a fight is on!  The sixsome of Legionnaires as well as the remainder of the amalgamated Justice League/Society of America arrives and we find ourselves experiencing one heckuva skirmish.

The fight doesn’t seem to be going the way the League expected… and Hal notices something weird about their foe when he tries scanning it with his ring.  A comment from Karate Kid suggests something’s afoot.  We shift inside the Secret Society base where we see Dawnstar “trigger-wording” that shadow-lurking Legionnaire.

When it looks as though Triplicate Girl is about to be crushed to death, Superman issues a stand-down command.  As several confused heroes look on, he instructs Power Girl to use her x-ray vision.  In doing so, we come to find that… Computo (and Triplicate Girl) was a lie.

An illusion, courtesy of the actual seventh Legionnaire, Sensor Girl… under which the Legionnaires were able to bug out, and venture off to face their flashy fates!

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Boy is it nice to have Dale Eaglesham back for this issue!  It just doesn’t look like the Justice Society without him.


Now we start off with a quite annotate-able flashback to the first time Lightning Lad bought the farm, which isn’t something I was expecting to research this early in the morning (what the hell is a Proty anyway?).  I found an excellent blog post from Silver Age Comics discussing the entire magilla.  Worth a visit!


I mentioned in our discussion of Chapter Two that this feels like more of a passion-project in Johns’ issues… and this further cements that point of view.  We see that he’s already laying the groundwork for 2008’s Legion of 3 Worlds miniseries.  I mean, that story doesn’t even start for like a year and a half at this point!  Wild.


I gave “props” (ugh, did I just say that?) to Brad Meltzer for keeping his Justice League-centric stories/character development bubbling away in the background of this crossover, and I gotta do the same for Johns.  We get another mention of that crazy Earth-22 which will, within the next few months, absolutely take over this volume.


We’re definitely putting pieces in place as we approach the climax.  A great issue, though I wasn’t completely on board for the Computo fight scene.  I’m not sure why, but it kinda lost me there.  I suppose it was necessary… just didn’t dig it.  Least it was beautiful to look at!  I’ve said it before but I just love Eaglesham’s two-page spreads!


Overall… like I said yesterday… if you’ve read the previous parts, there’s really no reason not to check this one out too.  Unless, of course, you hated the previous issues… but then you’d probably not be reading this piece.  I think I just confused myself.  Anyhoo… this sucker’s been collected and is available digitally!  We’ll wrap this up tomorrow… also, that Power Girl’s boobs cover.


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