:jsa_book_club: Honor Among Thieves [March 1-15]:jsa_book_club:

Hello again members of the JSABC. I hope you all enjoyed the event last month. I know I did.

This session we will continue taking a look at the stories featured in the JSA Classified book. First up is “Honor Among Thieves”, which features the Injustice Society and then we will move on to " The Spear and the Dragon" featuring an adventure with The Flash and Wildcat. Let’s call this meeting to order and get started.

THE JSABC ROLL CALL

Club Leaders

@JasonTodd428 & @Aurora

Standing Members

Abrax, AggressiveIntellectual219, anthony.javier3, Applejack, BBlake, bbzo24, bigblock66, BlueBeetlesAssistant, BobbinIrving, Brenticus_Rex, CassTheStreet, Cozmiccam, CrazyQuilt, Daffern, dave7atgosky, dave_worrell, DC_Community, Deathstroke’sPunisher, december360, djganon, DocterFate1, Don-El, fawsid, frankie.lacy79, Frostbite30, ganaoque, harrist, HombreDeMaiz, hotstufflouie, Jay_Kay, Jflow, jlevin, kaliym73, lunalane, MatthewHecht, mbpbinder, _meegs, Meisaj, mgeiler, Midnitehour, MisfitCMJ, mitchellbpearson, MPMCN86, msgtv, PaintEater, parzival27, ProActress, ralphsix, Ravenrifft, ReaganFan78, Remember5NovEveyHammond, RickTylerHourman, rlynchfamily, ROMANLEGION rspezzano, rwm, scoop001, slowp0Ketail, SuperBlue Grodd, TheCosmicMoth, TK52, TurokSonOfStone, YolandaMontezz, ZacharyLee1995.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

@ROMANLEGION
@MPMCN86
@BobbinIrving
@CozmicCam

WHAT TO READ

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. Our first story, “Honor Among Thieves” features the Injustice Society and a good portion of the story is told from their perspective.What did you think about getting a look at how things work from the villains perspective?

  2. What did you think of Icicle’s narration in this story?

  3. Why do think Icicle pulled his punches with Ma here?

  4. The second story here, Spear of the Dragon, features Wildcat and The Flash. What did you think of their team up?

  5. What did you think of Wildcat’s a plan to get himself out of the Spear of Destiny’s influence?

  6. What did you think of this story overall?

And that’s all folks. Tune in in two weeks when the All Star Squadron’s continuing adventures take center stage.

To join the JSA BOOK CLUB please click the link.

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Looks interesting, I don’t recall reading these before! Bookmarked.

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These were pretty fun reads in my opinion.

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Appreciate the clarification. I was thinking it was 5-9, but you confirmed it.

Thanks

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Just the first 3 for now.

1- Normally it is terrible. It works when the creators remember these are villains and fails when they try to say “these murders are actually anti-heroes we should root for.” Here we have key scenes like the final part with Sorrow forcing them to serve him, Icicle killing Rag Doll, most of Rag Doll’s actions, and a few others showing that they are indeed villains, and we should root for the JSA.

In addition I liked their team building scenes in part 1.

2- Pretty basic stuff except his description of how he keeps Tigress wanting to be with him. Other than that the actual story did it better.

3- Makes sense when I think about it. By killing him it might do something like this. A JSA member (Jakeem and Hawkman seem likely) decides to kill him back and do something like this. “Thunderbolt make Tigress die an incredibly slow and painful death like she is being stoned. Thunderbolt make Icicle have no choice but to watch very closely. Thunderbolt make Icicle’s knees break. Time for more torture making him wish for the sweet release of death.”

Even if they hold out Ma does have a superpowered granddaughter who might decided some very bloody revenge is in order.

I know this takes place after “Princes of Darkness” (Stargirl’s name and Ma being there) but before “Black vengeance” (Jakeem’s hair). Since Sand is back this takes place after “Black Reign” where Hawkman started slaughtering his enemies. Icicle would be sure to keep that in mind.

Some other thoughts from the first storyline-

I really like the part one subplot about the research. A common irritation in fiction is the smartest and only smartest guy knows how to even use a computer or figure anything out, and this makes some jabs at that with a few other jokes that reminded me of college life.

Shouldn’t Stargirl be able to melt MA safely? I guess she is worried about not controlling them properly and thinks the professional equipment is better suited.

Does Johnny Sorrow’s new ISA actually do anything until "Constellations (JSA All-Stars). Before this they just recently lost to the JSA in a blowout in issue 1 of JSA All-Stars (who’s idea was it to give both serieses the same name?).

I saw plenty of Stargirl Icicle Sr. on Icicle Jr. Both show clear utilitarian ethics (get the pun yet?) to justify their attempts to rebuild a family. They both in the end are betrayed by one of their teammates (Gambler and Johnny) dooming it.

Grundy awesome in every panel. Grundy comedy is best. Grundy keep things light hearted. Grundy offer dramatic moments. Grundy great.

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I agree, and I find most of JSA Classified is lacking (at least compared to JSA).

I like seeing the villain side of the coin in the first story. Most of the time all you get is the hero side of things so it was nice to see that focused on.

Have you seen Batman Assault on Arkham yet?

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  1. One of those wackier stories with plenty of crazy moments. It is a good popcorn read.
  2. He needs to keep better track of his lives. I remember he had 3 left after the Crimson Avenger so he is now down to two.
  3. It was a fun read on my lunch hour. Not something that makes me really think, but a decent spending of twentyish minutes.
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I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I agree. I think that’s what I liked most about this story. I also liked the part with their team building and thought it was fun seeing how one of their schemes is put together.

I liked that part too.

I would have thought so. It could be as you said that she was worried about hurting her somehow. Seems to me whenever an ice villain is involved whoever the hero is would rather use some machine to thaw people out than their power. Could be that the procedure needs a more controlled thawing then powers might provide.

Definitely a popcorn read for sure. Just a weird little story.

I would certainly agree that he needs to keep better track of that. His plan made a lot of sense though.

There are times when all I want is a fun read and this story provided that for sure.

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I got around to rereading all 11 issues of Constellations, and Tigress and Icicle are still understandably bitter at Sorrow there. I guess it took him a few years to make a plan that for some reason involved bringing Shiv.

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