JSA #35

Stealing Thunder Part 3 of 5: Lightning Storm

David Goyer & Geoff Johns Writers
Leonard Kirk Penciller
Keith Champagne Inker
John Kalisz Colors
Heroic Age Separations
Ken Lopez Letterer
Morgan Dontanville Assistant Ed.
Peter Tomasi Editor

Our cover by Rags Morales shows three of the strongest heroes in the DCU — Superman, Wonder Woman and Firestorm — under the control of the Thunderbolt genie, which is subsequently under the control of the Ultra-Humanite. It's a pretty haunting image, although it does make me wonder where Batman is in this story. But on the other hand, it is kind of refreshing to read a story like this that involves virtually every imaginable DC character except for Batman. He already has enough on his plate.

Our story begins with a handy recap page for novices like me. Apparently Johnny Thunder, one of the original members of the Justice Society of America, had grown old and developed Alzheimer's. He placed his magic genie in a pen, then gave it to Jay Garrick. Not realizing the power of this pen, Jay gave it to young Jakeem Williams, who later learned the pen's secret and became the hero Jakeem Thunder. But six months ago, the Ultra-Humanite took over Johnny Thunder's body and tricked Jakeem into giving him control of the genie.

So now we're in the world where Ultra-Humanite reigns supreme and has most of Earth's superheroes and villains under his control thanks to a device planted on the back of their necks. Jakeem is one of the few free heroes who have finally figured out how to destroy those mind control devices, and are leading an attack to rescue their friends.

We pick up where last issue left off, with a very large assembly of mind-controlled metahumans racing toward our heroes — Jakeem, Sand, Icicle, Captain Marvel, Powergirl, the Crimson Avenger and Hourman. Naturally, the speedsters of the group — Flash, Jesse Quick, Jay Garrick and Impulse — are the first to reach the heroes. But Icicle was prepared for them and managed to put up a perfect, bubble-free wall of ice that was virtually invisible. The speedsters crashed into the ice headfirst and were all knocked out.

And they stay knocked out for the rest of the issue, which mostly involves this small band of heroes fighting a whole bunch of other heroes and villains. Luckily, the mind-controlled ones are essentially puppets, and therefore much weaker than they'd normally be. So it's actually not much of a challenge for these JSA guys to defeat the other heroes and free them from Ultra-Humanite's control. The issue ends with the Ultra-Humanite himself appearing with a large gorilla army for some reason.


Once again, I don't have too much to say about this issue. The neat thing about it is how it includes so many different characters. The challenge, though, is making sure all of those characters have something to do. While the fighting went on page after page, I couldn't help but think that those four speedsters should have revived by now. In any case, it was nice to have all of them together again, even if it was only for two panels.

Next time, we'll start another five-part story about another all-powerful genie creating another alternate reality (I'm sure it was a complete coincidence) with World Without Young Justice.