J.S.A. #15 // Review
It’s the summer of 1940 in the Tower of Fate. Five people have assembled to discuss the matter of a man named Jim. Dr. Occult feels that he’s not ready for the power he holds. He might not even be worthy of it. Madame Xanadu disagrees. The power that chose Corrigan didn’t have to consult with the five of them to grant him the power. The nature of that power and so much else is explored in J.S.A. #15. Writer Jeff Lemire continues an exploration into echoes around the edges of the D.C. Universe before it was the D.C. Universe. Artist Gavin Guidry brings the story to the page with the aid of colorist Luis Geurrero.
Elsewhere, Corrigan is spending a bit of time with Green Lantern and the Flash. The Flash whispers concerns about Corrigan. Green Lantern wouldn’t be the guy he is if he didn’t confront him on it right away. “Flash thinks you’re hising something, Corrigan.” His response: “Everyone’s hiding something. Everyone.” He’s got a point. He’s also creepy as hell, but that’s kind of his thing. The only issue is...being together isn’t exactly anyone’s thing. And though the may all be in the same line of work, they might not exactly work all that well together.
Lemire takes a look back at the dawn of the Golden Age in D.C. Comics and all of the heroes who have been hanging out back then. It's a sort of thing that's been done before.Lemire finds a way to make it new. The distinct dynamics between the heroes were around back then had never really been fully explored in the original comic books. Lemire text characters we've been around for the better part of a century and makes them interesting by virtue of exploring their own inner personalities just a little bit more than they ever were back in the 1940s.
There's something about the visual design of those old Golden Age heroes that doesn't necessarily transfer really well to a more contemporary look and feel. This is precisely why these characters were visually redefined in the Silver Age. Nevertheless, Guidry lends a distinctly sophisticated dramatic weight to the visual presence of characters like the original Green Lantern and the original Flash. The dramas being explored between some of the earliest superheroes feel particularly sophisticated with Guidry’s framing of the action. Guerrero’s colors add warmth, depth and visual texture that would have been impossible back in the 1940s.
There have been a lot of attempts to redefine the 1940s for the DC comics. It might be the one decade that has had more of a lasting and lingering presence on a comic book page than any other so it's not like these characters from this particular era I haven't been explored 1 million times before. But what's really nice about this particular rendering is that it does focus in on the characters and a bear interactions and the way they interact with each other. It's a very satisfying look back at the golden age.
