"One Last Time Then..."
The Originals. The Justice Society of America. There is just something powerful, inspiring and downright amazeballs about seeing Alan, Jay, Carter and Kent by Tom Derenick and Trevor Scott on the opening page of the Justice Society of America Convergence tie-in. Apparently, Brainiac has captured a number of cities, and placed them under a dome. This has taken away the heroes powers for Alan Scott as Green Lantern, Jay Garrick as The Flash, Carter Hall as Hawkman, and left Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson) in a come for three hundred sixty four days now. Telos is now breaking down the dome and pitting cities against one another for the survival of the fittest. This feels like DC's version of Marvel's Contest of Champions and Secret Wars.
The Dan Panosian is pretty cool in a Kubert way, however, it's the Dan Abnett script combined with Derenick and Scott art that makes this worthwhile.
The theme of The Greatest Generation's first heroes is mortality. Roy Thomas set that up in the legendary All-Star Squadron Annual with the JSA facing Ian Karkull, as a way to explain why they seem so young, even in the '70's. Here, Derenick and Scott show all the wrinkles in Abnett's script. Jay can barely climb a flight of stairs. They all have aches and pains. Those aches and pains are only compounded by being prisoners under a dome for a year. Until Telos pits them against another city.
The image of Kent Nelson waking from his coma is pretty impressive. Derenick and Scott make these four geezers appear as Caucasian Guardians of OA. Nelson can cast a spell that will give them their youth and vitality once again, but it will come at a cost. There really is no way to turn down an offer like that.
The Good
The combination of Abnett's script with Derenick and Scott's art really lift this story off the page and the comic book rack. Monica Kubina's colors and Dave Sharpe's letters round out an enjoyable story. Setting aside the event tie-in, this is a story that is worthy of a Justice Society mini-series. Maybe, instead of an ongoing, the original Justice Society can live on in annual mini-series. The story is somewhat self-contained.
The Bad
The important thing is to take this as a Classic Justice Society story. There's no point in getting lost in the morass of event comics, Convergence, The New 52, or Earth-2. That would be like trying to teach a pig to sing. It would be futile and just annoy the pig. Maybe if there were a better way to briefly recap Brainiac capturing the cities, and this one in particular, and how Telos becomes involved. There is a nice recap on the Justice Society for the uninitiated. One question comes up, why Metropolis? Wasn't New York or Gotham the JSA's base of operations? The other small nitpick is that it is probably a good idea to read this two-shot tie-in, before Convergence Infinity INC.
The Skinny
No one wants to face mortality issues. No one wants to face growing old. And yet, Abnett, Derenick and Scott manage to handle that pretty well here. The JSA looks pretty good as "old geezers". It is pretty cool to see them once more in their prime.
"One more time then..."
"Society", part one of Convergence: Justice Society of America earns five stars for nostalgia alone. The story and art about aging super-heroes adapting and adjusting is a pretty delicious cake with frosting.