Justice League of America #255 – “Rising” – Gerry Conway (plot), J.M. DeMatteis/Luke McDonnell/Bill Wray
This issue opens with Zatanna still being held by Adam’s cult and we get a recap of how she ended up there after tracking her friend Sheri (who double-crossed her) and having some blood taken by Adam so he could assimilate her magical powers. Zatanna’s dream of her father helps her reconnect with her powers and she fights off the influence of the drugs she’s under. Zatanna wakes up and uses her powers to escape, but runs into Adam right away (though she does manage to send a distress call). Zatanna’s blood has
mingled with Adam’s natural telepathic powers so he’s now much more powerful, able to communicate with the entire universe. The power has driven Adam crazy and he actually believes he’s God, demonstrating his omniscience by eavesdropping on the JLA in their headquarters, hundreds of miles away. The JLA get Zatanna’s emergency signal and prepare to move out, but Steel has to stay behind since he was injured fighting Despero last issue. J’onn and Gypsy are still investigating the murder of a woman that J’onn ended up being framed for. Gypsy tracks down Pamela Cross (who 
seems to be a hooker) and tries to talk to her. Pamela is reluctant to open up, so Gypsy gives her (and us) her own origin story. Basically, Gypsy grew up in the suburbs, but her family life was a mess because of her drunken, abusive father and powerless mother. She finally ran away after accidentally using her illusion powers on her family and after spending some time living on the streets, met the JLA. But part of her wishes she could go home, no matter how screwed up her family is. Gypsy’s story gets to Pamela and she starts to open up, even though she’s obviously scared. When Gypsy gets the emergency signal, she ignores it because she doesn’t want to just take off and leave Pamela. Meanwhile, J’onn figures the secretary at Biloxi Investigations (Norma Simons) might be the one who set him up, so he
trails her. J’onn finds Norma meeting her boyfriend and she confesses that he’s the one who shot his wife and set J’onn up, so he and Norma could run off together. The guy shoots J’onn, which doesn’t hurt him but does knock him into the fireplace. Like all Martians, J’onn is vulnerable to fire, so when his JLA signal goes off, he doesn’t even notice it. The rest of the JLA show up to help Zatanna, but she tells them it as a false alarm and that they can leave. Of course, it’s really Adam pretending to be Zatanna and using his powers to manipulate the Leaguers, but they have no way of knowing that. I should point out that J. M. DeMatteis used “Michael Ellis” as a pseudonym on this story for some reason; he’ll end up writing the rest of the series, which only has a few issues left.
All-Star Squadron #62 – “The Origin of the Shining Knight” – Roy Thomas/Tony DeZuniga
This is another story establishing a definitive origin for a Golden Age character, which Roy was doing quite a lot of at the time. I won’t go into minute detail, since the origin has been printed and reprinted numerous times (and this one feels even more familiar because of the Arthurian elements incorporated into it). Shining Knight was originally Sir Justin, a knight in King Arthur’s Camelot who volunteered to fight a giant named Blunderbore who was terrorizing the northern hinterlands. O the way, Justin accidentally freed Merlin from an oak tree and the wizard enchanted
Justin’s armour, sword, and horse (which became Winged Victory). Justin killed Blunderbore, but fell into an iceberg and was frozen until 1941, when a museum curator named Moresby found him. Moresby took Justin home and introduced him to modern life and to Eve Barclay, the daughter of a major benefactor to the museum (and the way slobbers over Justin, she’s thirsty as fuck). When some thieves rob the museum, Justin dons his armour and captures them in the guise of Shining Knight (who Eve gets hot over). From that day on, Shining Knight became a fighter for justice and eventually joined the Seven Soldiers of Victory and the All-Star Squadron.
Infinity Inc. #31 – “Shock Treatment” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Todd McFarlane/Tony DeZuniga
This one starts with Star-Spangled Kid debuting his new costume (which incorporates the cosmic rod into it, giving him the power to fly) and his new name of Skyman. He decides to celebrate by looking up Jonni Thunder, the detective he’s kinda sweet on. She’s surprised by his new look, but not exactly swept off her feet, although she doesn’t object too much when he goes to kiss her. Their romantic moment is interrupted by Jonni’s counterpart, a female thunderbolt that can merge with her. Jonni wants nothing to do with the t-bolt, preferring to stay fully human at all times,
but the t-bolt isn’t happy about that. She can’t forcibly take Jonni over, but she promises she’ll start destroying stuff and hurting people (starting with Skyman) if Jonni doesn’t merge with her. Skyman sends an emergency signal and Silver Scarab and Fury show up to help. Scarab’s solar powers can’t really hurt the t-bolt and the others are basically powerless against her, but Scarab does manage to knock the lady thunderbolt through the wall. Outside, Scarab’s solar rays aren’t any more effective and Jonni says she’d rather blow her own brains out than let the t-bolt inhabit her again. Before she can follow through, Jade 
and Obsidian show up and Jade’s green energy can hurt the t-bolt. Jade knocks her around for a bit and the t-bolt decides to retreat, but vows to return for Jonni. Jonni’s office is trashed and she tells Skyman and the others she’s going to get out of town for a while, hopefully to someplace the t-bolt can’t find her. The next day, the Infinitors have a meeting at Stellar Studios and Skyman shows off is new costume. Fury tells the others that Silver Scarab took off in the middle of the night to the Hall Mansion in New York to get some “space”. She mentions that he’s been acting weird lately, ever since he started getting calls from some professor named James Rock. The rest of the Infinitors vote on
whether Yolanda, Beth, and Rick should be inducted and the vote is unanimously in favour of all three. As the team’s resident doctor, Beth immediately suspends Rick because of the detrimental effect Miraclo has on him. She promises to find a safe alternative. Skyman tells the others the team’s agreement with the city has expired and he’s bought the land the studios are located on. Skyman tells them they no longer work for the city, so they’ll have to take other assignments, starting with guarding a trade conference in Calgary. Fury, Nuklon, and 
Wildcat immediately volunteer for that mission, while Northwind informs the team he has to return to Feithera because of some emergency. Later, Jade and Brainwave Jr. are getting romantic, which kinda pisses off Jade’s brother Obsidian, who decides to take off. Before Jade and Brainwave can get it on there’s a knock at the door and it turns out to be Psycho Pirate, who’s there to kill them. Talk about a mood killer.