Justice League #2 – “Make War No More” – Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire/Al Gordon
This one starts with Batman interrogating Kimiyo (Dr. Light) Hoshi about where she got the JLA signal device she used to summon the team last issue. She tells him (over and over) that some guy gave it to her and she had no reason to assume the rest of the team was unaware of that. While they’re talking, Blue Beetle brings a TV show to their attention, one that isn’t too complimentary to the new team. A talking head named Jack Ryder (a name that may sound familiar) rails against the new League, making them sound like a bunch of dangerous,
irresponsible vigilantes. Guy Gardner is mad to enough to go after Ryder, but Batman tells him to calm the hell down. In his office, Max Lord sees the broadcast and thinks he should do something about Ryder (since Lord seems to be manipulating things behind the scenes to get the public to like the new Justice League), but he’s interrupted by someone named Mr. Gold showing up for a meeting. Hmmm, I wonder who that could be? Elsewhere, a guy called the Gray Man (who seems to be some kind of Grim Reaper figure) hates his life and contemplates a change, but Dr. Fate shows up to warn him not to stray from his appointed 
path. In Bialya, three costumed weirdos (Wandjina, Silver Sorceress, and Blue Jay) show up and start destroying all the nuclear weapons. Bialya’s leader (Rumaan Harjavti) doesn’t seem too bothered by having his nuclear arsenal trashed, and when they explain that they want to get rid of all the nukes on Earth, Harjavti welcomes them with open arms and asks how he can help. At JLA headquarters, Batman and J’onn J’onzz are examining Dr. Light’s signal device (which is actually superior to the regular ones) when they’re summoned to watch another news report. This one is about Wandjina, Silver Sorceress, and Blue Jay destroying nukes in Israel, possibly on behalf of Rumaan
Harjavti. Batman knows they have to stop these new superbeings (although Guy thinks what they’re doing is great since “Nobody but Ronnie-boy should have his finger on the button!”) As they head for the Middle East, the others try to explain to Guy why letting these guys destroy all the nukes is a bad idea, especially if they’re working for Harjavti, a known terrorist. (Guy still doesn’t get it.) As Wandjina, Silver Sorceress, and Blue Jay head back to Bialya, we get their origin story: the world they’re from was wiped out y nuclear 
war, so now they go to other worlds and destroy their nukes to keep the same thing from happening again. The League arrives and Guy goes after the three new superheroes (defying orders as usual). The rest of the League catches up, but since they’re inside Bialyan territory, they have to leave to avoid an international incident. Harjavti tells the three crusaders they’re safe in Bialya and gives them their next target … Russia.
Noticeable Things:
- Wandjina, Silver Sorceress, and Blue Jay are based on Marvel’s Thor, Scarlet Witch, and Ant-Man/Wasp, respectively.
Infinity Inc. #39 – “The Saga of Solomon Grundy” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Michael Bair/Tony DeZuniga, Pablo Marcos
As the title suggests, this is a post-Crisis retelling of Solomon Grundy’s origin, probably Roy’s way of establishing a definitive history for the character after all the changes wrought by Crisis. Grundy has been hanging around Jade since she released him from the iceberg a couple issues back; I guess he thinks she’s a friend since she saved him. His gratitude is enough to overwhelm the instinctual hatred he has toward her for being the daughter of his archenemy, Green Lantern. Grundy reflects on his past and we get his history (as seen in various comics) with a couple of small
changes. I won’t go into heavy detail, since we’ve seen all this before. Grundy was originally a guy named Cyrus Gold who was shot and left for dead in Slaughter Swamp in the late 1800s. For some reason, Gold’s body (or skeleton) accrued a bunch of detritus from the swamp and re-animated, emerging as a monster. Some shady hobos christened him Solomon Grundy (because he was born on a Monday) and used him to rob banks. Green Lantern got involved but got pounded because his ring couldn’t affect Grundy (since Grundy is partially made of wood, which GL’s ring doesn’t affect). GL went after 
Grundy again and lured him in front of a train, thinking that finished him. But since Grundy isn’t really “alive”, he can’t really be killed and he came back to fight GL again. This time, Lantern trapped him inside a force bubble where Grundy’s body became petrified. But a lightning strike released him and he ended up fighting the entire JSA, almost killing some of them. GL sent him to the moon to keep him away from humanity, but Grundy somehow rode light waves back to a telescope (!) and reappeared on Earth. This time Lantern buried him deep underground, but Per Degaton brought him up to fight the All-Star Squadron. Grundy was sent back to the moon, but an errant meteor brought him down to Earth again, where he fought GL, Hourman,
and Dr. Fate. GL and Fate sealed Grundy in a bubble and sent him into orbit, but he came back again to fight the Justice Society, the Justice League, and even Swamp Thing. Later, Ultra-Humanite used Grundy against Infinity Inc and he ended up in Feithera, where he was buried in the iceberg while trying to hold it back from destroying the city. When Grundy did that, Jade promised she’d come back for him and she did, which is why Grundy is so friendly toward her (although when she told him that, she had no intention of actually coming back to rescue him).
Young All-Stars #1 – “The Coming of the Young All-Stars” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Michael Bair, Brian Murray, Vince Argondezzi/Malcolm Jones III
This new series was an attempt to undo some of the damage done to Golden Age continuity by the Crisis. Roy Thomas was always a Golden Age fan, so he kinda took it upon himself to fix things as much as possible, substituting some new heroes for the ones Crisis retconned out of existence. This story starts with a giant-sized Mekanique slaughtering the All-Star Squadron, but we soon see it’s just a nightmare. The dreamer is Helena Kosmatos, who was pulled out of the
ocean but Johnny Quick a while back and has been staying with him and his wife, Liberty Belle (although Helena doesn’t know they’re superheroes). Helena is the replacement for the Golden Age Wonder Woman and will turn out to be the modern-day Fury’s mother. Helena’s used to having nightmares, but they’re usually about her running into the Furies at the Areopagus in Athens. This particular nightmare has informed her that Johnny and Libby are superheroes and they admit they are, but wonder how Helena could’ve dreamt the truth. They decide to take her to meet some other All-
Stars. Out on the California coast, Neptune Perkins investigates some rogue waves and finds Tsunami trying to drown herself in one of her own tidal waves. She ends up saving his life and tells him her real name is Miya Shimada and that she’s changed since they last saw each other in All-Star Squadron 35 (which is said to be two months ago). She goes on to tell him how her father was interned by the government and how she attacked the agents who took him. (She also tells Neptune something else, but we don’t get to hear what it is.) Neptune says there’s someone who needs to hear her story and they head for Hollywood. In Eastern Canada, a squadron of Spitfires is sent up to investigate an anomaly that turns out to be a flying man. (This is Flying Fox, the
replacement for the Golden Age Batman.) Flying Fox evades the planes, making the pilots wonder if they were seeing things. In Colorado, some Nazi spies are trying to blow up Boulder Dam when TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite show up to stop them. The Nazi leaders take off in a car with the two heroes pursuing in another vehicle. The Nazis cause TNT’s car to crash and explode, but the Nazis’ car is trashed by a guy named Iron Munro who was putting the moves on some girl nearby when he heard the gunshots. Munro has superhuman strength, speed, and invulnerability (yes, he’s the Golden Age Superman’s 
replacement) and he pulls TNT and Dan out of the burning wreck. A woman comes down from the sky claiming to be a Valkyrie named Gudra, there to collect souls of the dead. She takes TNT’s soul, but Dan is still alive and Munro won’t let her take him. Gudra blasts Munro and takes off, warping through space to New York. There, she meets up with her teammates, a bunch of super-powered Nazis calling themselves Axis Amerika, whose goal is to wipe out the All-Star Squadron.