:jsa_book_club: Thy Kingdom Come Part Two:jsa_book_club:

Hello all and welcome to our first August session of the @JSABookClub. This session we are going to be returning to the Thy Kingdom Come storyline we started a while back. Now last time we left off with a recruitment drive and the mysterious murder of a villian by an unknown assailant. Let’s see how the investigation is going and just who might be joining the JSA shall we.
JSA BOOK CLUB ROLL CALL

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@JasonTodd428 & @Aurora

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THE JSABC WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS

None this time around.

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What to Read

Justice Society of America (2007) #12-15

Discussion Question

  1. Seems the JSA is looking at having some legacy heroes to join their ranks. Who was your favorite new member?

  2. Jakeem seems to have a bit of a crush here. Do you like seeing these ‘slice of life’ bits or would you rather writer stick to action instead?

  3. Gog seems like such a swell guy. (sarcasm) What do you think of this villain?

  4. What did you think of the fight between the JSA and Gog?

And that’s all folks. Next session the JSA goes on a Strange Adventure. Hope to see you there.

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You misspelled “thy.”

Looking forward to this. If you are on a Johns binge I can relate.

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Whoa, what a cliffhanger!

  1. I liked all of the new members with maybe a little extra liking for Black Lightnings daughter. Her powers make it difficult to live in the modern world.
  2. I do like the glimpses of regular life shown. It humanizes the heroes.
  3. Gog seems powerful enough, if deluded. I wouldnt want to see him as a recurring villain.
  4. I thought they worked well together fighting him, although the cliffhanger indicates they didnt do well enough.
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  1. Starman, then Citizen Steel, then Cyclone.

  2. I love the slice of life bits. After Jakeem’s flirting with her in his early appearances Stargirl is really enjoying this.

  3. The needed villain for this JSA civil war. He is hard to read and determine if he is good. At this point there is not much information on him. If you mean the human sized guy well he really needs to cool down.

  4. It gave us this image.


    Therefore it is objectively great.

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Actually that was The Curse of Autocorrect. It kept changing “Thy” to “They”. I thought I caught em all but I guess I didn’t. :rage: I edited it and thanks.

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More thoughts on the first 3 issues.

12- I just know Damage is insulted by being called “Atom Smasher.” I think the conversation on page 12 perfectly summarizes the old men’s problem, they are giving themselves way too much credit and rushing this. They are taking very small improvements by the new guys, declaring “they’re not rookies anymore,” seeing that as them being fully trained, and then rushing to get more guys. They are way too cocky in their mentoring skills when other than Wildcat none seem to be doing any actual mentoring, just searching for more members.
From page 19 “We’re here because of who you’re Great-Grandfather was.” Maybe your recruitment should not put top priority on who they share genes with but more about character. Especially as this guy already seems to be doing good with a completely different organization. Nothing about says he needs help or has anything to really offer the team. Alan is collecting
legacies.

13- The opening Stargirl/Jakeem banter is mostly comedy, but it does show that they have expanded well past what they planned for or are prepared for.
Old Superman cannot handle the nostalgia. More confirmation from Superman and how completely outmatched regular Superman that the JSA is vastly superior to those losers in The Watchtower.

14- Based on how muscular Eaglesham draws Power Girl I doubt she needs super strength. She can probably rip through steel on Krypton.
Page 9- Anybody else notice David is giving Jakeem a death glare for constantly staring at Lightning?
I still have no idea why Amazing Man joined a team with that attitude. No wonder he left later and nobody cared.
Before Gog arrives one thing is very apparent- their team dynamics really suck now, and the guys in charge need to take a big look in the mirror. They need to communicate better and at least not blindside Ted like that. How did they think that would go? How did you think inviting heroes in on a voluntary stance would react when they cannot go to save the world go? I am sure a few of them could just take the entire group there anyway by themselves.
Was there a mandate at the time from DC that a woman leads the team? I ask because Power Girl is in charge, but Green Lantern, Flash, Hawkman, Mr. Terrific, Superman, David, and Stargirl are all showing far, far, far more leadership than her? Granted I know this happens all the time. Older guys tell younger person they are in charge, but then they constantly push them aside to take leadership (the same thing happened to Sandy in JSA), and I have dealt with that myself. It is why I love this scene since it is very accurate to many times when I have been in a group with way too many members and poor communication.

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Out of the newest of the new members from issue #12? I wanna say Amazing Man because I love the legacy. That being said, I don’t know if I’ve seen enough of Marcus Clay to really state this. I like his motivations as a civil rights hero, and I look forward to seeing more of him. Seeing as how I haven’t seen enough, my answer is going to be Lightning. I think I liked her a lot more in this read-through thanks to the Black Lightning TV series. Jennifer’s appearances in these issues really convey the frustration of how her life has changed since gaining her powers in a similar way to how the Black Lightning TV series did. I love the character both in the show and in these comics.

I think that slice of life material like this is essential as long as it doesn’t distract from the main story arc. In this case, it certainly didn’t. The moments of Jakeem’s crush were small and entertaining. They didn’t overshadow the main plot and set up the possibility of fun things in the future.

Honestly, I don’t think too much of him at this point. Outside of his motivation of killing “false gods” to set deity Gog up as the one true god and a very vague backstory, there really isn’t much to Gog. He’s powerful, sure, but he has no personality to speak of. Considering he’s inspired by/possibly connected to Kingdom Come’s Magog, I was kind of hoping for a bit more to his characterization. Magog had some angst and attitude to him…

That was pretty cool. It really illustrated the strengths and weaknesses of individual JSA members. I’m thinking of Gog’s inability to knock Citizen Steel down, or Judo Master smashing Gog into the ground by catching his ankle in midair only to have her ability to not be hit circumvented by an energy blast that kicked up debris in her general area. Great fight! Kind of wished it played out to a more satisfying conclusion, though, as deity Gog kind of ends the thing prematurely.

Yeah, I also took a little issue with this. Was it really necessary to recruit FDR’s great-grandson? Also this idea of collecting legacies brings up the question of: Is the JSA elitist? I mean, their stated mission in this series to to help prepare the next generation of heroes, but is that only heroes with legacies behind them? Does this mean that heroes without established legacies like Sideways or Naomi are out of luck so far as the JSA is concerned? If so, that’s a little exclusionary and should change.

That’s it from me! Good reads!

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Finally got around to getting it done (Olympics has really distracted me).

15- Is one of Jakeem’s powers super weak constitution? I think a gentle breeze would knock him unconscious.
Yikes are Green Lantern and Obsidian powerful, as they completely outperform Kingdom Come Superman. I am bothered by Green Lantern’s hair changing colors.
Looks to me like Gog brought specific people that he could influence easier to the temple. Especially as he left Stargirl Flash behind who were right there.
It still bothers me that they show future images of “Black Adam and Isis” yet Hawkman left right before then.


The hypothetical world of a Stargirl/Black Lightning crossover.

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You and me both. :sweat_smile:

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I thought I would have this done in a few days. I have barely read any comics since it began.

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Lightning is one of my favorite characters and I really loved Jennifer here. Her frustration feels very real and natural. Her life has been turned upside down since she gained powers and now on top of that she is joining a team of strangers.

I’d love such a crossover.

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Plenty of JSA in Infinite Frontier #4.

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  1. Cyclone, I guess, she seemed the most relatable and happy to be a part of it.
  2. Although I love the action scenes, slice of life so to speak provides more character depth so I’m a fan of it.
  3. Is he really a villain, or just a cosmic being who is true to his nature. How can we really understand the motivations such an entity. I mean one person‘s hero can be another villain and vice versa. Has the JSA was formed in a world where things were portrayed more black and white then the gray of our reality, it was nice seeing them struggle to determine whether to fight or support him.
  4. It was an interesting fight however it was a bit confusing how sometimes the heroes could hurt him and other times he was completely oblivious to their powers.
    I got so wrapped up on it, I read the whole storyline, not just the issues in the challenge.
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I need to read that.

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I really like Cyclone myself. She may be a little over enthusiastic at times but her heart is in the right place.

I’m a fan of it as well. I don’t want to see it happen all the time but I don’t think we get to see it enough either. Or at least not enough for me anyway.

Those are both excellent questions.

I suppose if one were to look at Gog a certain way then he is just following his own nature as a cosmic entity rather like Q from Star Trek is simply following his nature. Gog’s motivations are probably beyond our understanding as well.

It’s possible that his power levels fluctuate although I don’t think its ever mentioned.

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