Kind of surprised it didn't turn up in the JSA sequence, in ancient Egypt, when they relate a Thanagarian ship being the source of the Nth metal found by Khufu.  It included the wizard Shazam and Teth Adam, as well as Nabu.  I think Johns and Goyer missed a trick,

Yeah, closest we got was in James Robinson's The Golden Age, where he relates the ending of things as the A-Bomb, and Manhunter on a mission to assassinate Hitler and discovering a secret that is center to the story.  Robinson kind of bridged the gap between the All-Star issues, the Squadron series and the later history, as established by Paul Levitz, in Adventure Comics.

I didn't mention that specific letter; but, my frustration with the passage of time is part of why I went with a running narrative of the war, in the historical notes.

-She was killed in Roy's original All-Star Squadron story; but, she was established as alive after the 40s, in later post-Crisis comics; specifically, Starman.  James Robinson has Jack Knight meet Dian Belmont and Wesley Dodd and Dian is who Jack is most nervous to meet.  Dian is his literary hero and she is a key factor in solving a mystery they investigate, carrying on the characterization that Matt Wagner gave her, In Sandman Mystery Theater.   This issue uses the same narration about a "headtsrong kid;" but never outright says she is dead or shows a grave, like in issue 18.  I suspect Roy intended her to be dead; but, Robinson took the ambiguity as a loophole to have her alive in the 2000s.  I kind of forgot the earlier death and since the issue didn't state it clearly, I assumed badly injured, especially since we are post-Crisis.

Funny enough, I recently came across an interview James Robinson did, in relation to writing a new modern-day Invaders, at Marvel and he talked Golden Age stuff and made a valid mild criticism of Roy in it.  he talked about Invaders and how Roy was more unrestrained in crafting exciting stories that reflected the Timely covers, which did not feature interior team-ups with the characters, until the All-Winners Squad (aside from the Namor/Human Torch battle).  He then said Roy was a bit too reverent to his beloved DC heroes, trying to rationalize inconsistencies and maintaining every tiny piece of continuity, no matter how inconsequential.  I have to agree with that, as I felt Roy got a bit too bogged down in linking to old stories in All-Star Squadron and Infinity, Inc, to the point he was ignoring the opportunity to create new stories and focus more on the types of stories that the readers seem to enjoy.  I thought he started strong, with a few minor digressions into continuity fixes; but, by the third year, it was occurring more and more until by the tail end, he was obsessed with stories that only he and Jerry Bails and a few others cared about.   By contrast, in Invaders, there was little continuity to go against and Roy was busy crafting a more solid WW2 history for the Marvel Universe.

Don't get me wrong, I like Roy's writing and enjoyed the bulk of this series and the majority of Infinity, Inc; but, after a while, both felt like fan fiction for a very select audience.  I think he would have benefitted from an outside editor who brought another point of view to his work.  I don't think the writer/editor thing works very well, when it isn't entirely your creation.  Even then, an editor helps a writer find the weaknesses and fix them or polish up the writing or find a better way to tell the story. 

All-Star Squadron #67



Last issue!!

Creative Team: Roy Thomas-writer/editor, Arvell Jones-pencils, Tony Dezuniga-inks, John Clark-letters, Carl Gafford-colors
No Cody Weiss, for the last issue. Funny enough, I believe we had more personnel changes for the pencilers and inkers than letters or colorists.

As has been usual at this period, based on a Golden Age story: All-Star Comics #4.

Synopsis: The JSA are in Washington, to meet with J Edgar Hoover, to root out Commies and pinko subversives, while exchanging hair and make-up tips....



They take their orders and go hunting for subversives and saboteurs. Green Lantern deals with Ratzis who are trying to disrupt radio broadcasts, while pressuring a German-American to aid them....



Hey, cool; they got a blimp! He defeats the Baron (Steve Forrest?), with the help of the German-American.

Flash deals with Bundists, in Detroit, the Spectre handles sabotage at a munitions plant, Hourman handles murder at an oil field, and Dr Fate handles attacks on shipping, via pneumatic cannon!



Sandman deals with an attempt to intimidate a publisher, in El Paso, Hawkman with sabotage of a B-17, and Atom deals with Ratzis on Campus...



He gets caught and Johnny Thunder tries to help and gets caught, but the rest of the JSA turn up to smash some Nazi...



Not sure why they needed anyone but the Spectre...



They win and report back to Hoover, who is ecstatic and then tasks them t infiltrate labor unions and Hollywood.

Thoughts: Fairly pointless rehash of All-Star Comics #4, with some minor additions by Roy. Hoover was unseen in the original, but Roy had Arvell include him. Otherwise, this is a fan recreation of what came before, for Roy's own enjoyment. Nothing particularly bad about it, other than what was fresh in the 40s was pretty cliched in the 80s and it really served no purpose and wasn't exactly a high note to go out on.

So, here ended The All-Star Squadron, which, quite frankly, ended just before Crisis threw a giant monkeywrench into things. I think part of the problem was Roy's obsession with keeping continuity with every minor story of All-Star Comics and other Golden Age funnybooks, coupled with the drastic changes wrought by Crisis. Roy's attention to the minutiae kind of crippled his reaction to Crisis, which he initially had a big hand in, but soon found that he was a minority voice and powers at DC were pushing for the JSA to be retired to keep the focus on the modern heroes. Roy pretty much checked out, at that point and the book suffered, compared to earlier issues. By this point, Roy is focused on his next project, which sought to provide stand-ins for erased continuity. We shall see if such a thing makes for good comics, as we move into the next phase.

So, looking back at the series, as a whole, it is clear that the best stuff came in the first 2-3 years, both from a story standpoint and visually, with Jerry Ordway's artwork. Arvell Jones and Mike Clark did some fine work, as did Richard Howell; but, it increasingly became Roys' fan-fiction and diverged into stories that weren't really wowing the audience anymore. Roy went through a similar thing with Invaders, as it was great, for about 2-3 years, then kind of lost focus, after battling Master Man and Warrior Woman, in Berlin. After that, it struggled to find a good antagonist to pit against the team and went back to the Axis uber-men at the end. Roy similarly struggles to do anything after he has played out Baron Blitzkrieg, as well as Per Degaton and Ultra-Humanite. His rule of keeping things in 1942 prevented him from using other supervillains, who hadn't appeared yet and he didn't come up with many great new ones. I think there were pockets of greatness, in the second half, but that the series was less consistent. I really do think Roy needed an outside editor to nudge him in a more engaging direction.

From a history standpoint, Roy brought a lot of real world elements and highlighted some major events, such as the Detroit race riots, which was a watershed event in what woulld become the post-War Civil Rights Movement. He illustrated how Japanese Americans were incarcerated without trial and presented two different outlets for their anger, via the Japanese agents attempts to use Nisei as saboteurs and the Nisei standing with their fellow Americans, despite their treatment. We saw Mexico, in 1942, things like the Normandie fire and the Battle of Los Angeles (with a slight twist, thanks to Per Degaton). Roy got to play with a lot of toys, including the Marvel Family and the Freedom Fighters. Really, I think the Freedom Fighters and the non-JSA contingent were the better way to go to create ne stories, set in the period, and not run afoul of DC editorial changes.

Next, we move on to Young All-Stars, as Roy attempts to replace the departed Golden Age heroes with new stand-ins, like Fury and Iron Monroe. Here again he has to tread a fine line in creating something new and paying tribute to the spirit of the past, without getting bogged down in the minor details of old stories. since Crisis said those stories didn't count anymore, Roy actually had a chance to say what did and did not count, besides the existence of Superman, batman and Wonder Woman, in 1942.

Historical Notes: J Edgar Hoover was implied but unseen in the original story, but is front and center here. The FBI were tasked with counter-intelligence and actually scored a major coup, in 1941, when it rounded up more than 30 members of the Duquesne spy ring, which had been set up to spy and commit acts of sabotage, should the US become involved in the war. The Bundist leader Fritz Klaver is based on real Bund leader Fritz Kuhn, who actually met with Hitler, in 1936, but was considered unreliable and the Nazi government distanced themselves from the American Bunds. As noted in my Jokes, Hoover was far more obsessed with Communist subversion than Nazi, until war was on the horizon. A 1942 attempt to infiltrate saboteurs fell apart not due to the FBI's efforts, but because of the betrayal of one of the members of the ring, who turned himself into the FBI after they didn't believe a phone call he made, telling them of the plot. Much of Hoover's FBI activities centered around investigating union organizers, Hollywood stars, writers, artists, publishers, and leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, while Hoover was notoriously soft on Organized Crime, leading to conspiracy theories about the mob having blackmail information about Hoover's alleged homosexuality and/or transvestism. The whole story is mostly conjecture; but, what is fact was that Hoover dominated the FBI into the 1970s and more major mob convictions came after his death, than before.

April 1945-

On Bougainville Island, Australian troops defeated the Japanese in the decisive Battle of Slater's Knoll. The Japanese had committed so much focus on attacking the Australians, they had no congencies for losing the fight. As such, after suffering huge losses, morale plummeted and desertions increased.

The real story in the Pacific came on April 1, as American forces began the invasion of Okinawa. Now, for the first time, America wasn't retaking lost territory, blocking Japanese offensive strategies, or seizing islands to use as bases. Now they were attacking traditional Japanese territory. The objective was to seize the island for use as a staging ground for the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. To do this, the largest amphibious landing, in the Pacific Theater, was carried out. To carry out the invasion, a new group was assembled: the 10th Army, a joint formation of the uS Army and Marine Corps, with its own tactical air force and support personnel. Approximately half a million men comprised the force, including support troops, as well as combat forces. The Japanese described the invasion as a "typhoon of steel," given the amount of armored units, amphibious landing craft, ships and aircraft that assaulted the island. Fighting raged on the island until July 2, by which point over 50,000 American casualties (about 12,500 dead and 4 times as many wounded), 84-117,000 Japanese and roughly half the Okinawan pre-war population was killed in the fighting. Large amounts of soldiers and civilians committed suicide, rather than be captured, as propaganda had convinced them of savage treatment by the Americans. Fighting was so intense that the distinction between soldier and civilian deteriorated and there were instances where civilians were deliberately killed. There were suicide attacks on land and masses of kamizae attacks on the US fleet. 15 amphibious ships were sunk, with 9 other vessels, as well, plus numerous others badly damaged in the attacks. In his graphic novel memoir, A Sailor's Story, author/illustrator Sam Glanzman, who served on the USS Stevens, off Okinawa, displayed the horror of the attacks, as planes kept coming at them, through a hail of anti-aircraft fire. The play and move, Mister Roberts, concludes with news of the kamikaze attacks off Okinawa. The final segment of HBO's The Pacific, is based on Eugen Sledge's memoir, which detailed his experiences on Okinawa, which left him traumatized for many years after the war.





24 Medals of Honor were awarded for actions on Okinawa. One of the most extraordinary recipients was Corporal Desmond Doss, a combat medic. Doss was a Seventh Day Adventist and pacifist. He had a job as a joiner, at the Newport News shipyard, which gave him a draft deferment; but, he chose to enlist in the US Army, and was assigned to the 77th Infantry Division. During fighting in Guam and the Philippines, he had earned two Bronze Star for valor, aiding wounded soldiers while under fire. On Okinawa, at a place called Hacksaw Ridge, his unit came under heavy Japanese counter-attack, with heavy casualties, with many cut off from the main body. Doss responded to cries from the wounded, giving them aid and carrying them to safety, lowering them down the side of the escarpment, via ropes. He then turned around to go back and find more wounded. Each time, he treated their wounds, dragged or carried them to safety and lowered them down the escarpment. He went in under shellfire and small arms fire to treat wounded men and bring them to safety. he was himself hit in the leg and treated his won wounds and waited five hour for stretcher bearers to reach him, after aiding others. While he was carried out, they were hit again and he crawled off the stretcher to aid wounded and suffered a compound fracture of his arm, which he splinted, himself, with a rifle stock and then crawled 300 yards, over rough terrain, to an aid station. It is estimated that doss saved the lives of between 50 and 100 men on Okinawa and he did it without taking a single human life.



In relation to the Invasion of Okinawa, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched Operation Ten-Go, a suicide attack on the US Fleet, led by the battleship Yamato. Carrier-based aircraft attacked the formation before they were in range of Okinawa and sank the Yamato and 5 other warships, proving that air power had replaced the battleship in naval warfare.

During the fighting on Okinawa, legendary American journalist Ernie Pyle was killed by a Japanese sniper.

On April 7, the only flight of Sonderkommando Elbe takes place. This is a suicide unit, tasked with ramming enemy bombers, with the idea that the pilots would parachute just before collission. Unlike in the GI JOE cartoons, this was rarely successful. 24 B-17 and B-24 bombers were downed in the attack, but it does little to stem the tide of Allied bombing missions. The Germans lack sufficient fuel to mount major air defense.

On the Eastern Front, the Red Army defeat the Germans and capture the city of Konigsburg, in East Prussia. Soviet troops also move on Bratislava and the outskirts of Vienna. Yugoslav Partisans liberate the city of Sarajevo and eject the German puppet government. The Red Army presses on to Berlin.

In the West, the Canadian Army takes over responsibility for the Netherlands and isolates German forces in Atlantic Wall fortifications. They succeed in finally taking the city of Arnhem, one year after the failure to seize the Arnhem bridge in Operation Market Garden. US and British forces push Eastward. On April 11, elements of the US 3rd Army liberate Buchenwald and enter Hell.



4 days later, British and Canadian forces liberated Bergen-Belsen. On April 23, Flossenburg is liberated, but not in time to halt the execution of German Admiral Wilhelm Canris and his Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) co-conspirators, who passed information to the Allies, along with dissident pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who were executed on April 9. On April 29, US forces liberated Dachau, the oldest of the concentration camps.

At Buchenwald, Gen Patton, after seeing the horrors, ordered all German civilians to be paraded through the camp and witness what had been done to their fellow men Similar actions occur at other camp liberations. At Dachau, SS troops were shot and killed by US soldiers, acting in reaction to what they had witnessed. Dachau was a large complex, with sub-camps, who were liberated in turn, including one by the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, a Nisei unit and also found a contingent of prisoners on a forced death march and intercepted them.

On April 12, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died suddenly, n his retreat at Warm Springs, GA and Vice President Harry S Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States. Roosevelt had been in poor healt since the Yalta Conference and was sitting for a portrait, when he complained of a terrific headache, then slumped forward in his chair. He died of a brain hemorrhage. His body was brought back to Washington via train, with thousands coming out to pay their respects to the man who had been president since 1933, carrying the country out of the Great Depression and into and through World War 2. He missed the end of the war in Europe by just under a month.

On April 16, the Battle of Berlin begins. The Red Army attacked on 3 fronts, with two Army groups positioned on the South and East and one in the North. Stalin was desperate to take Barlin to ensure that the Allies would uphold their agreement for a Soviet Occupation Zone and had fought hard to encircle the city. The main body was led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, one of the Red Army's most capable and successful generals. In the West, the Allies ceded Berlin to the Soviets, as it was unlikely they could reach the city in time and the very real possibility of friendly fire losses by engaging 3 separate armies seemed unnecessary. Hitler, upon receiving the news of the death of Roosevelt briefly though this might cause a falling out with the Allies, but reality soon set in. Fighting in Berlin was intense as city blocks were turned into defensive positions and battles were fought just to take a few floors in a building. Soviet artillery pounded the city at close range. Much of the German defense consisted of Hitler Youth, armed with Panzerfaust rockets, to try to knock out Soviet armor. Ammunition, fuel and other supplies were long ago spent in fighting and resources were at critical shortages, but the Germans fought hard, fearing the Red Army more than the british and Americans. By April 29, the Red Army was fighint for control of the Reichstag.

On April 20th, Adolf Hitler emerges from the Fuhrerbunker to decorate a group of Hitler Youth soldiers. It would be his last appearance outside the bunker. on the 22nd, he receives word that Felix Steiner cannot raise enough forces to launch a counter-attack on the Soviets and Hitler privately concedes that the battle is lost. On the 23, Hermann Goring sends a telegram asking if he should assume leadership of Nazi Germany. Hitler regards the act as treason. On April 29, Hitler marries his younger mistress, Eva Braun, in a private ceremony and signs his last will and testament. On April 30, Braun takes poison and Adolf Hitler shoots himself in the head with his service pistol. His body is burned to keep it from falling into the hands of the Soviets. Grandadmiral Donitz becomes President of Germany and Joseph Goebbels the Chancellor. Goebbels and his wife murder their children and then consume poison, dying in the Fuhrerbunker.

On April 25, American and Russian troops link up at the Elbe River.

The Red Army raises the flag of the Soviet Union over the Reichstag...



In Italy, after Brazilian forces liberate Montese, major fighting comes to a halt. on April 28, Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are captured by Partisans, as they try to flee the country. They are executed and strung up by their feet from lamp posts, for all to see. The next day, the Germans and Fascist Italian forces sign the unconditional surrender of Italy.

In essence, the war in Europe is over in all but an official surrender. That will come swiftly. In the Pacific, the fighting will continue on Okinawa, through the month of May and June. The fighting will be some of the bloodiest and other horrors will live in the minds of survivors for decades to come. For some, April brought a rebirth, as they were freed from the horrors of the death camps and given a new life, to return home or settle in new countries, start families and remember those who did not survive and ensure the world would never forget what happened in the Holocaust. I think the child of one such survivor, Geddy Lee, of Rush, captured it pretty well, in 'Red Sector A"...

Okay, we enter the new phase of the All-Star Squadron. With Crisis throwing a monkey wrench into Golden Age DC continuity, completely wiping away Earth 2 and much of its history, a lot of the foundation of Roy's comic was stripped away. As we saw, Roy started in the book to work on continuity fixes for old stories; though, quite frankly, I don't think anyone cared that a Superman story about comic strips coming to life and wondered how it now fit into DC history. Not every story had to count. However, Roy had a few problems on two fronts; one, he lost several characters from future use in the All-Star Squadron and their participation in past adventures was now history. Two, Roy had created legacy characters for the JSA and their history was now affected, especially Lyta Trevor, aka Fury.



Lyta was introduced as the daughter of the Earth-2 Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, in the 300th issue of the WW series, which Roy was writing. In that story, she is just a teenager, who is wowed by a visit from her "aunt" Diana, of Earth-1. Then, Roy launched Infinity, Inc, both in the pages of the All-Star Squadron and their own title, with Lyta now a superhero, Fury, alongside Hawkmans's son hector (aka Silver Scarab) and protege Northwind, Atom's adopted (sort of) grandson Nuklon (the future Atom Smasher), Green Lantern's twin children Jade and Obsidian (implied at first, confirmed as the series went on), Brainwave Jr, son of the JSA enemy and established legacies Huntress and Power Girl, plus the Star Spangled Kid (who joined the JSA with the 70s All-Star revival, as part of the Super Squad, with Power Girl and Robin). That was fine, until Crisis wiped away Huntress and messed with Power Girl's origin (she became the grandchild of Arion, of Atlantis, which got further F-ed with) and stripped away the existence of a Golden Age Wonder Woman. Fury remained (since they had trademarked the name) but had no parents. Roy first addressed it in Infinity, Inc #35, where the Infinitors run up against Injustice, Unllimted (the second generation Injustice Gang). During the story, the members of the team are forced to aid the Injustice bunch in obtaining several items, for the Wizard. Fury is paired with The Shade and they goe to Greece, to the Aeropagus, the Hill of Ares. Fury falls into a crevice, while searching for a stone , which she brings out, to the Shade. At the start of the issue, we get a glimpse of our first continuity fix, as we see an image of the JSA, with a new member...



There, to the left of the Flash, we see a woman in chain mail, with a metal shoulder guard, similar to Fury's armor. She is not addressed further, in the story; but, if we zip over to Secret Origins #12 (also written and edited by Roy), we learn what happened in the cavern that Lyta discovered. She found a black onyx rectangular solid and touched it and the Furies of myth came forth. In Infinity, Inc, Lyta remarked that she had never been to Greece, but the Aeropagus seemed familiar. We learn why, as the Furies relate the tale of Helena Kosmatos, a Greek woman, during the Nazi occupation of the country. Helena lives with her mother and brother. her brother has been collaborating with the Nazis, to care for his family, which angers Helena. She finally confronts him and reveals the truth to their mother, who suffers a heart attack, from the stress and dies. Miachael runs off and Helena swears vengeance, as she hides from a German patrol and an earthquake occurs, swallowing her into a cavern, where she is presented the Furies and becomes possessed to be an instrument of vengeance, both against her brother and the Nazis.



In a very rapey scene, Fury is down and straddled by a German soldier, holding a knife, as her body is vibrated by a quake, until she throws the man off and unleashes the supernatural power of the furies. Michael is then confronted and destroyed by one of the Furies and Helena is plunged into the Mediterranean, where a semi-conscious Helena is found, clutching the wreckage of Michael's smuggling boat. She is rescued and meets Johnny Chambers, a newsreel photographer.

This sets the stage for Young All-Stars, Roy's new volume for the All-Star Squadron, as he seeks to replace the erased heroes of the Golden Age with new stand-ins, to fulfill their roles. fury, is the first, taking the place for Wonder Woman. We will next meet replacements for Superman, Batman and Robin, and Aquaman, while Tsunami will return to the book, to help add some ethnic and gender diversity, while also adding the plot element of a Nisei, in WW2, who had fought against the Squadron, previously.

Now, time for the new launch.