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The DC Comics Time Capsule: March 1962
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Re: The DC Comics Time Capsule: March 1962
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Commander Benson
Justice League of America # 11 (May, 1962)
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Mar 10 12 11:22 AM
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"One Hour to Doomsday"
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Gardner Fox
Art: Mike Sekowsky (pencils); Bernard Sachs (inks)
The second half of this two-part Justice League adventure opens with Our Heroes taking care of their unfinished business from last issue---putting paid to the world-conquering scheme of the Lord of Time. We see the JLA descending upon the villain’s citadel.
The Time Lord didn’t bother to change hide-outs after the Batman and the Flash tracked him down to this lair in the previous issue, and it appears he has good reason for such confidence. No doubt still drug out from their case with Felix Faust, the Justice Leaguers don’t bother with strategy; as soon as they spot him, they hit him all at once with everything they’ve got.
Power-ring beam. Magic lasso. Emerald shaft. Martian super-breath.
And all of them pass right through the grinning jackanape without so much as mussing his goatee.
“I’m beyond your reach,” he tells them mockingly. “All you see is a
projected image
of myself!”
The real Lord of Time, the image explains, is already an hour into the future and moving farther ahead still. For once, the bad guy isn’t a total nimrod; he doesn’t tell the JLAers the era of his final destination. However, once he gets there, the image informs them, he “shall seize upon mighty super-weapons---raise a vast army of futuristic warriors which you cannot defeat---then return and take over the present-day world!”
The Time Lord’s image fades away, and the Justice Leaguers are left scratching their heads. The problem isn’t traveling through time---quite a few of them can do that---it’s that it would take all eternity to find the rascal.
But, like all comic-book villains, the Lord of Time made one screw-up. The device he used to cast himself through the time-stream was a wristwatch-type of thing, and by using his power of total recall, Superman pulls up his memory of seeing it on the image’s arm. Concentrating, he remembers seeing the time setting on the dial. The Lord of Time is headed for the year A.D. 3786!
The Man of Steel swiftly constructs a protective bubble to enable him to transport his fellow JLA members through the time-barrier. But they’re not ignorant of the idiosyncrasies of time-travel. They leave Snapper Carr behind, in the Time Lord’s stronghold, as a precaution.
“If he should escape us and return to the present, sound the emergency signal,” Wonder Woman instructs Snapper. (And herein, Gardner Fox makes one of his rare continuity gaffes, which I’ll mention in my commentary.)
Zipping through the time, Superman brings the League to the year 3786 and with his telescopic vision, quickly locates the Lord of Time. He’s already collected a pile of futuristic weapons and tries to blast the heroes with one of them. It’s ineffectual, of course, against the Man of Steel’s invulnerable hide, and with his heat vision, melts it into a blob of hot goo. With a burst of super-speed, the Flash relieves the Time Lord of his time-control unit, and Wonder Woman snares him with her golden lariat.
So much for the big, bad Lord of Time.
With the villain as their prisoner, Superman hauls the team back through time---only to slam headlong into a mysterious barricade when they reach the year 2062!
Here’s what happened.
In the last issue, we saw the JLA corral Felix Faust before he could complete the mystic ritual which would grant him unlimited magical power. However, unbeknownst to the good guys, the sinister sorcerer was able to enact enough of the spell to release the Demons Three---Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast---in a century's time.
1962 + 100 years = 2062.
During the interlude while the Justice League was in the year 3786, Faust’s spell kicked in, and the three demons were freed from their enchanted imprisonments in the year 2062.
Finding themselves a bit out of touch with the world of the twenty-first century, Abnegazar and Rath and Ghast decided to reverse time and return the Earth to the way it was a billion years before. Gathering the artifacts they needed, the trio of demons conjured a spell that, in an hour, would turn time backwards a billion years. This is what created the impenetrable force which trapped the homeward-bound Justice Leaguers in 2062.
In the meantime, Our Heroes discover that none of their super-powers enable them to pierce the barricade. Superman, particularly, is at a loss because magic is one of his rare vulnerabilities. It’s also why the Martian Manhunter’s super-senses detect something that Superman’s don’t.
A beam of subtle, mystical vibrations is creating the barrier, and J’onn J’onzz is able to determine the beam’s direction.
Leaving the Lord of Time locked up in the bubble, the JLAers follow the vibrations back to its source. Unfortunately, Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast have been expecting them and ambush them with a magical whammy. After gloatingly revealing their plans to the enthralled heroes, the Demons Three then eliminate the Justice League as a threat. Standing abreast, each Leaguer is transformed into mist and imprisoned in a glass flask with his name on it.
That fate befalls to each hero, one by one, as the villainous mages go down the line---Superman, Batman, J’onn J’onzz, Green Arrow, the Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and finally, Green Lantern.
The flasks are stored on shelves in an ancient castle of sorcerers, then with fun time over, the three demons get back to work.
Several minutes tick by, then in a flash of energy, Wonder Woman bursts free of her flask, restored to her normal form. She has no idea how it happened and she has no idea how to free her fellow members---until she spots Green Lantern’s power ring on the floor, where it dropped after he was “mist-ified”. Suddenly, the Amazing Amazon is seized with a compulsion to pick up the power ring, point it at the remaining seven glass jars, and will the other heroes back to their regular bodies.
The power ring does the trick, and the JLAers are fully restored to their normal selves. Before her fellow members can elect her Leaguer of the Month, Wonder Woman insists she hasn’t the foggiest notion how she did it.
Instead, the Green Lantern steps forward to take the credit. Last in line, he had stood helpless, watching as the other JLAers were turned into smoke. If he were to use his power ring, the demons would see the telltale emerald glow and move to stop him. When it was down to just him and Wonder Woman, G.L. got a game-saving idea.
He had pressed his power-ring against the Amazing Amazon’s hip, thus concealing the resulting glow when he willed it into operation. He then ordered the ring to change Wonder Woman to mist an instant before Ghast could speak the necessary incantation, then, ten minutes later, return her to normal and mentally compel her to use the ring herself to free the others.
The next problem is---how to deal with Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast. Clearly, their magicks are too powerful for the Justice League to go toe-to-toe with. It’s Aquaman who comes up with the crucial piece of information: the demons’ spells worked only against the
specific
individual named in the incantation.
“Suppose each of us looked like some other member?” suggests the Sea King. “For instance,
I
could look like Superman---and Superman could like
me!
Then the sorcerers’ spells---since they’re always directed at individuals---couldn’t hurt us!”
Another job for Green Lantern’s power ring! After “a brief discussion”, the ring emits a burst of verdant energy, and each Justice Leaguer finds himself transformed in appearance to another.
Dividing into three sub-teams, the disguised heroes take off after the Demons Three.
This is where the story gets interesting, because each JLAer only
looks
like a different hero. They retain their own inherent skills and powers---and no more. In order to fool Abnegazar and Rath and Ghast, they have to simulate the abilities of the heroes they’re imitating.
Stretching their resourcefulness to the limit, Our Heroes pull it off. The demons are completely at a loss when their directed magic fails to work against their intended targets.
“Batman”, “J’onn J’onzz”, and “Green Arrow”---actually Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and the Flash---prevent Abnegazar from hurling the moon out of orbit.
“Wonder Woman” (Batman) and “Aquaman” (Superman) and “the Flash” (Green Arrow) stop Rath before he can complete his spell removing all human life from Earth.
And the team of “Superman” (Aquaman) and “Green Lantern” (J’onn J’onzz) thwarts Ghast’s last-ditch effort to send the world back to the pre-Stone Age.
The triumphant Justice Leaguers enjoy a few yuks over the experience of being somebody else, then they get down to the wrap-up.
After Green Lantern changes everybody back to their true selves, he power-rings the Demons Three to their original sites where they had been imprisoned by the Timeless Ones. The mystic artifacts---the Red Jar of Calythos, the Green Bell of Uthool, and the Silver Wheel of Nyorlath---will be kept safely in the trophy room of the JLA secret sanctuary, where no-one will be able to use them to free the evil trio ever again. (Or, at least, not until
JLA
# 35.)
After that, it’s back into the protective bubble for a quick trip back through the time stream, to turn the Lord of Time over to the authorities. Superman screws with Snapper Carr’s head a little by timing their return to 1962 one
second
after the Snapster watched them leave.
Thus, the first continued story of the Justice League ended the way their cases usually did---with smiles all around. They sure were a happy bunch.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
JLA writer Gardner Fox cranked out a pretty exciting tale, despite it involving two themes of which I am usually leery---magic and time-travel.
I generally turn my nose up at magic-based villains and heroes. “Magic” tends to be an inchoate power, with no definitions or limits, and loopholes for escaping danger abound. There’s usually some muttering---or gloating, if it’s the villain---about using a spell that he’s never used before, and
poof!
problem solved. Fans of magical heroes will counter, “Well, regular, non-magical-type super-heroes are always pulling rabbits out of a hat, too, to get out of trouble!” Yes, but the writer has to find some way around the established limits to the hero’s abilities first. He will, of course, but there’s a certain drama to it.
Magic, on the other hand, can usually do anything it wants. Hence, no drama.
In “One Hour to Doomsday”, Fox gets around this situation neatly. The magic of Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast seems limitless. The trio smacks down the mighty Justice League without even breathing hard, and turning back the clock a billion years is about the same for them as a housewife making a cake from a recipe.
But Fox has also provided a singular limitation to their magic. The three demons’ own magical abilities have to be directed at a
named
individual. Fox slyly laid the groundwork for this in the first half---“The Fantastic Fingers of Felix Faust”---when the three demons worked the spell that gave Faust control over the JLA members. It’s present, but subtle. Most of Fox’s JLA plots required the heroes to
think
their way out of a grim situation, and this one was no different. Our Heroes were up a tree, until Aquaman realised what that one limitation was.
And plots involving time-travel are always a tricky business. The problem there is that the villains capable of time-travel never seem to use it to their best advantage. In this case, the Lord of Time was able to travel back and forth through time indiscriminately and take stuff with him---like armies and vast arrays of weaponry---in the process. He told the Justice Leaguers that he was headed into the vast future to gather some super-scientific weapons and an army, then come back to 1962 and take over the world. And there was nothing the JLA could do to stop him, he bragged in his best vile-villain manner. Heh, heh.
But think about it. If the Lord of Time wanted to conquer the world, no muss, no fuss,
why
come back to 1962, where a Justice League is waiting to fight him? Why not take his futuristic armies and weapons back to 1952---eight years before there was a Justice League at all? Or 1930, or 1900? Any era before there would be any super-heroes around to give him trouble.
As it turned out, that wasn’t much of a consideration because, frankly, the Lord of Time turned out to be pretty much of a wienie, as far as JLA foes go. Part of the problem was he was sandwiched between the main villains of the two-parter---Felix Faust and the Demons Three---and had to be dealt with readily. But even on his own merit, the Time Lord wasn’t much of a problem for Our Heroes. They already had him on the run at the beginning of
JLA
# 10, and he escaped only because of the intervention of Felix Faust.
When the JLA finally got back to dealing with him in “One Hour to Doomsday”, they nabbed him before he could pretty much accomplish anything toward his sinister plan. He was cuffed and stuffed by page 6.
One of the things I appreciated about Gardner Fox’s writing was that he paid attention to continuity details. He didn’t interlace his stories with a dozen continuity threads from other titles, leaving a new reader lost if he didn’t follow the other magazines. But Fox was very good about remembering details, both within his own plots and about things going on in the Justice League members’ parent titles.
JLA
# 10 ends with Wonder Woman hauling Felix Faust off to the hoosegow and the Green Lantern transporting the Red Jar, Green Bell, and Silver Wheel for safekeeping in the secret sanctuary, while the rest of the gang takes off after the Lord of Time.
JLA
# 11 opens with the Justice League converging on the Lord of Time’s citadel. Notably, Wonder Woman and G.L. are absent. This is followed by a quick panel showing those two heroes arriving to the party late, because of their chores shown in the previous issue.
Now, it wouldn’t have mattered one whit if that had been left out. If Fox simply had all nine members rushing in on the Lord of Time from the beginning, no reader would have noticed. But the fact that Fox took pains to make that small, but specific reference to the earlier-stated events served to tighten the connexion between the two issues.
Now having patted Fox on the back for his sense of detail, I have to turn right around and ding him for letting a continuity lapse get right by him. As the League prepares to head for the thirty-eighth century to stop the Lord of Time, Snapper Carr is left behind. In case the villain gets away from them and returns to 1962, says Wonder Woman, Snapper can alert the JLA with his emergency signal.
Good idea, except for one thing. ‘Way back in “Challenge of the Weapons Master”, from
The Brave and the Bold
# 29 (Apr.-May, 1960), it was established that the one medium that the emergency signal cannot travel through is
time
. (That’s why Superman didn’t respond to the emergency signal about the threat of Xotar, and why the Batman had to go track him down.)
It’s a small thing, with lots of “Well, maybe’s” to explain it away, but it’s not the kind of thing that Fox usually overlooked, especially when it was a plot device in one of his earlier yarns.
Lastly, the one thing I remember thinking when I first read “One Hour to Doomsday” fifty years ago (ye gods, has it been half a century?) was how strange some of the choices were for which Justice League member would pose as another. Batman posing as Wonder Woman? Green Arrow acting like the Flash? The switch-arounds didn’t seem to make much sense, powerwise.
It would have been much more logical for the League’s two non-super-powered members, Green Arrow and Batman, to swap places. And Superman and the Martian Manhunter could have posed as each other effortlessly. As for the remaining four heroes, it wouldn’t have mattered much who played whom, their impostures still would have been less tasking than Aquaman, somehow, trying to portray the Man of Steel.
No doubt Fox scripted it the way he did because it was more interesting and more exciting to see the Green Arrow attempting to duplicate the super-speed stunts of the Flash, or the Batman faking magic-lasso tricks. It’s a justifiable reason, but still, something shouldn’t be so illogical that a kid reading it notices.
Last Edited By:
Commander Benson
Dec 23 15 3:17 AM. Edited 8 times.
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