Justice League #3 – “Meltdown” – Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire/Al Gordon
Last issue, three misguided heroes from another planet (or possibly dimension, I’m not sure which) came to Earth to destroy all the nuclear weapons, hoping to prevent a nuclear holocaust like the one that destroyed their world. The three (Wandjina, Silver Sorceress, and Blue Jay) tangled with the Justice League and ended up taking refuge in Bialya, whose strongman leader (Rumaan Harjavti) thinks he can use them to rid all his rivals of their nukes … starting with the Russians. The League is hovering just outside Bialyan airspace in Blue Beetle’s Bug and we get some more banter between team members (which is fine, but
sometimes it comes off more like a sitcom than a comic book). When the three nukebusters leave Bialya, Batman orders Beetle to follow them, but when they read into the USSR, he stops the Bug cold, throwing everyone inside off balance. Batman and J’onn J’onzz figure they have no choice but to violate Russian territory, since the nukebusters’ attack will be blamed on America anyway. But Russia has its own defenders, guys in armoured suits called the Rocket Red Brigade, and they come after the Bug as soon as it crosses the border. Guy 
Gardner (who’s as jingoistic as they come and has tangled with the Russians before) disobeys orders (again) and goes out to fight the Rocket Reds. Batman sends Captain Marvel out to stop Guy. In Moscow, Gorbachev is on the phone with Maxwell Lord (!) and ends up ordering the Rocket Reds to pull back from fighting the JLA and concentrate on protecting the nuclear sites from the other intruders. There’s a problem at one nuclear plant, where a rapid shutdown has led to a meltdown that could be worse than Chernobyl. The JLA/Rocket Reds fight is interrupted and the Brigade asks the League to help with the imminent
nuclear crisis. But it’s Wandjina who ends up going into the plant and absorbing all the radiation, stopping the meltdown. Wandjina gets radiation poisoning, but the Russians say they’ll take care of him (and his two friends) and order the League to leave. They have no choice but to obey and Blue Beetle is pissed off that the whole thing will be covered up. When they get back to their (supposedly) secret headquarters, the League are astonished to find Maxwell lord waiting for them with Booster Gold … who lord says is their newest member.
Noticeable Things:
- Blue Beetle and Black Canary bond over their love of The Bothers Karamazov and the general Gorbachev gives orders to is named Smerdyakov, a character from that book. (Smerdyakov also ended up being the real name of Marvel’s Chameleon, but that hadn’t been revealed at this point.)
Infinity Inc. #40 – “A Flash of Thunder” – Roy and DannThomas/Vince Argondezzi/Tony DeZuniga, Danny Bulanadi
This one starts with all the Infinitors in action, doing various heroic deeds. Turns out they’re making a commercial to show off their talents to potential employers, since the team is for hire. Solomon Grundy screws up part of the commercial trying to help Jade, but they get enough good footage to make it work. Mr. Bones and Skyman are still sniping at each other, but Skyman agrees to let Bones call the other members of Helix to talk. Dr. Midnight thanks him, saying Bones is probably being a dick (more
than usual) because he misses his teammates. Lyta (Fury) Hall asks Albert (Nuklon) Rothstein to lunch to talk about Silver Scarab dumping her and quitting the team. Nuklon is thrilled (since he’s always had the hots for Fury), but Yolanda (Wildcat) Montez is jealous, thinking Fury’s making a move on him. I’m not sure why Wildcat is so worked up; she’s never really told Nuklon how she feels about him, although she was using Tasmanian Devil to make Nuklon jealous, but I don’t think Nuklon is too good at reading subtle clues like that. Bones calls Helix 
and talks to Penny Dreadful, but she’s pretty brusque and we see that Dr. Love (the nutty scientist who created Helix) is there with her. It kinda looks like Helix have all been brainwashed or something … they’re almost catatonic. Dr. Midnight tells Rick Tyler that his father’s disapproval of him being the new Hourman was just because he was worried about the addictive side-effects of Miraclo. But using antibodies from his father, Midnight has come up with a serum that will allow Rick to take Miraclo without any deleterious effects. Yolanda interrupts Lyta and Albert before Lyta can tell Al what’s up. Al gets mad at
Yolanda and takes off, but Lyta recognizes Yolanda’s jealousy and tells her what she was trying to tell Al … she’s pregnant and never got the chance to tell Silver Scarab before he dumped her. At Molly Scott’s house (Molly is Jade and Obsidian’s stepmother), Jade. Brainwave Jr., and Obsidian hang out while Grundy cleans the pool. Molly introduces her assistant Marcie Cooper and tells Jade and Obsidian that Green Lantern left them half his radio station. They figure working there might help bring in some younger listeners, especially if they play up the Infinity Inc angle. Skyman tries to find a replacement for Silver Scarab, but Power Girl is off in Skartaris tracking down info about her past. Skyman is happy to see Jonni Thunder stop in for a surprise visit, but he soon gets over it when he finds out she’s been taken over by the Thunderbolt. Apparently, she wants Skyman as a mate but her seduction technique is a bit rough, as she knocks him unconscious.
Young All-Stars #2 – “A Gathering of Heroes” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Brian Murray/Malcolm Jones III
This one starts with Green Lantern and Doby Dickles making a newsreel film to sell War Bonds (which features them pounding Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo). The filming is interrupted when Neptune Perkins and Tsunami show up to give GL some important news. Tsunami tells him how she met a Nazi named Sea Wolf, who invited her to join a new super-villain group (Axis Amerika). Sea Wolf wanted her to help go after the All-Stars in San Francisco, but despite her earlier beef with the All-Stars (
in issue 35), Tsunami’s no Nazi-lover. She decided to warn the All-Stars about Axis Amerika, hoping they could get her father and other interned Japanese-Americans out of custody (and GL says he’ll do what he can as long as none of them are spies for Japan). Danny Dunbar (aka Dan the Dyna-Mite) wakes up in hospital and learns from Iron Munro that his partner (TNT) is dead. Danny kinda remembers Munro saving him from the Nazi Gudra, but Munro tells him he got rid of TNT and Dan’s costumes so nobody would know who they were. Dan’s pretty broken up about TNT’s death and when Munro sees a 
flying horse outside, he assumes Gudra’s come back for the kid. It turns out to be Shining Knight, who asks Munro to join the All-Star Squadron. Munro’s not interested, but agrees to go to a meeting of the All-Stars to relate what happened to TNT. Meanwhile, Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle bring their “niece” Helena Kosmatos (really just a family friend) to the All-Stars’ headquarters to meet everyone. Sandy shows her around and mentions that the Freedom Fighters are “gone”; I’m not sure if that means they’re dead, or if something else happened to them. In the old continuity, they went to Earth-X, but there are
no parallel Earths now, so I don’t know what their new status is. Helena mentions Mekanique (who she saw in a dream last issue), which surprises the All-Stars since their clash with Mekanique was unknown to the public. They’re interrupted by Axis Amerika busting in to attack them. The Nazis use their surprise to take out most of the All-Stars, but when Helena sees Johnny and Belle knocked out, she gets mad and turns into Fury.