JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice

Writers: David S. Goyer • Geoff Johns
Penciller: Carlos Pacheco
Inker: Jesús Meriño
Letterer: Ken Lopez
Colorist: Guy Major

Cover Penciller: Carlos Pacheco
Cover Inker: Jesús Meriño
Cover Colorist: Guy Major

Frankly, I find this cover a bit boring. The top part shows some of the top members of the JLA — Wonder Woman, Atom, Superman, Green Lantern, Batman and Flash. The bottom has some JSA members — Captain Marvel, Doctor Fate, Mr. Terrific, Sentinel and the first Flash, Jay Garrick. Keep in mind that this represents only a portion of both of these teams, as they had fairly massive rosters at this time. (At least I consider those rosters massive compared to what I'm used to from the New 52 and beyond.) Anyway, my main complaint with this cover is that is implies a battle between the Justice League of America versus the Justice Society of America. And that is not at all what this book is about.

Virtue and Vice is a 94-page prestige-format book featuring dozens of characters. There's a lot going on here, but Impulse only shows up in one panel, so I'm going to give this the briefest of recaps. The story begins with the JLA and JSA deciding to start an annual tradition of having Thanksgiving together. Everything's going great until Captain Marvel, Plastic Man, Green Lantern, Mr. Terrific, Batman, Doctor Fate and Power Girl become possessed by the Seven Deadly Sins of Man, which are usually safely locked away at Shazam's base, the Rock of Eternity.

The possessed heroes turn on their teammates, throwing a handful of them into various prisons before  heading out to wreak havoc in the world. The remaining members of the JLA and JSA team up to try to figure out what's going on. To make matters worse, there's an epidemic of insanity spreading around the world, forcing all the rest of Earth's superheroes to try to quell riots across the globe. And this is where we see Impulse, fighting one such riot in New York, alongside Robin, Wonder Girl and the Red Tornado.

As you can see, this story perpetuates the error from the Secret Origins issue that forgot Red Tornado is no longer working alongside Young Justice. Anyway, to make a long story short, we find out the main villain behind all this is a powerful being named Johnny Sorrow, who teamed up with the ghost of Despero and enlisted the aid of a psychic from Apokolips called Doctor Bedlam (not to be confused with the Bedlam we've seen Young Justice battle several times). Johnny Sorrow imprisoned the wizard Shazam, releasing the Deadly Sins to possess the heroes. And Despero possessed President Lex Luthor to throw off the reader, I guess.

As interesting as the setup is, I found the the conclusion a bit wanting. After a brief pep talk from Dr. Mid-Nite, Batman is able to shake off the Sin of Anger through sheer willpower, I guess. Batman tells the others that Captain Marvel is the key, so Green Arrow shoots Wonder Woman's lasso around his neck, forcing him to say his magic word, which returns his powers to Shazam, who promptly entraps the Seven Deadly Sins again. Green Lantern and Sentinel capture Johnny Sorrow and use his powers against Despero, saving Lex Luthor and the world.

It's not a bad story. Just a bit disjointed and with an all-too convenient ending. But there was definitely a lot of fun here. It's always neat to see heroes turn evil, and this time, they weren't just generic evil, but different shades of evil — anger, lust, envy, sloth, etc. And this issue did include the DC version of the demon Surtur (although he was much cooler in Thor: Ragnarok).

Next time, we'll do an issue with a bit more Impulse, Young Justice #52.