I find these issue historically interesting more than anything else. However, they do have their moments.
COMMENTS ON ISSUE #3
The date of this first meeting is retroactively set to November 22, 1940 in All-Star Squadron #1 in 1981. This just happens to by Roy Thomas’ birthday.
Roy surmises that All-Star Comics was created due to the success of the World’s Fair anthology earlier in 1940.
In a 1977 interview Gardner Fox claims that each of these stories were written as separate stories like #1 and #2. At some point, someone came up with the JSA idea and Gardner tied them together.
info to this point from All-Star Companion Volume 1 from 2004
I don’t recall when I first read these stories. It would have been when I bought Volume 1 of the All-Star Archives somewhere between 1993-1995.
Loved the Roll Call in JLA, no different here.
Yet the guy not in the Roll Call, Johnny Thunder, uses his genie to get everyone there quicker. I like Johnny Thunder on the team. A little humor and occasionally he’ll save the day. Then again, I like Snapper Carr and Jimmy Olsen too.
Atom wonders where Superman, Batman and Robin are. Too busy earning the big checks Al. I know why they aren’t there, but I would have preferred they showed up a few more times in the Golden Age than they did. Thankfully, the JLA dispensed with the “too popular” route after ten issues or so.
Who needs house ads? Just put “Read The Flash Every Month in FLASH COMICS!” at the end of his chapter.
I find it interesting that’s it’s not just the art that changes from chapter to chapter, it is the lettering as well.
The entire DCU in just 9 comics and costs just 90 cents.
My pick of the stories is Dr. Fate. Although those Witches of Endor don’t look like Ewoks. It also has an odd finish where he tosses the dark wizard into a wall and breaks his neck. No magic solution, just fisticuffs.
The Flash gets the team’s marching orders from the FBI in Washington and now the team has got something to tie these stories together. Next time it will be a much better book.