Untold Tale of the Justice Society: Mission in Space!

In late summer of 1975, the Greatest Superheroes of Twin Earths were called away to other worlds, facing ancient adversaries that threatened parallel planets. In both instances, each team defeated these foes one by one, until the true malevolent mastermind was revealed behind-the scenes, powered by a stellar stick in a ploy to lure these champions to their doom using fin-head spacemen.

On Earth-One, members of the Justice League were transported to Rann-One by the scientist named Sardath using his Zeta Plus Beam, in order to assist his future son-in-law Adam Strange in battling old gigantic enemies in the form of: a ray-gun, the bird Kalulla, the metallic Borg, and the Cloud Creature. All of these creatures were manufactured by Kanjar Ro, a villain who battled both Strange and the League in the past. 

On Earth-Two, members of the Justice Society were teleported via celestrial energies at the Mount Pride Observatory* while tracking down missing member Starman. On another world in space, most likely Rann-Two, the Society members battled stellar beings designed by their immortal adversary Vandal Savage** to resemble constellations Andromeda and a giant winged horse, Orion and a giant dog, and Sagittarius and a giant eagle (and later, characters modeled after those on Earth’s broadcast television airwaves). Savage accomplished this by utilzing Starman's old Gravity Rod. With these stellar beings, Vandal built green Kryptonite suns for the planet Colu-Two to orbit.***

While the space mission of the Justice Society was accomplished without any serious threat to life, such was not the case with the Justice League. For a time, it seemed as if Leaguers Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary and Elongated Man had perished, until Adam Strange noticed that they had been transformed into black spheres. Using Kanjar Ro's Energi-Rod to reverse the process, the five heroes along with their fellow members and Strange were able to defeat Kanjar Ro, removing the threat he and his minions posed.

During to the Society's own mission in space, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Starman were likewise able to outmanuever Savage, when Starman used his prototype Cosmic Rod to overpower Vandal's stolen stick. Concurrent to this, six other members of the Society were dealing with a threat posed by the Injustice Society of the World and their minion, the empowered Cary Bates. Bates, a comicbook writer on Earth-Prime, accidentally ended up on Earth-Two when he used the Earth-One Flash's Cosmic Threadmill left behind on Cary's world. Seeing the potential to create sinister scenarios using his creative storytelling techniques, Bates was manipulated by the Wizard into leading the Justice Society into a trap while battling their Injustice adversaries. Mentally controlling Wonder Woman, Doctor Mid-Nite, Hourman, Johnny Thunder, Wildcat and Robin, Bates had each hero pose as a member of the Injustice Society. Then, when Bates' coworker and fellow writer Elliott S. Maggin journeyed to Earth-One with six members of the Justice League. he found his former friend now a vile villain. The League defeated those whom they thought were the Injustice Society, seemingly killing them.

The Leaguers remained on Earth-Two**** to protect it until the remaining Society members returned from space. As for those six seemingly deceased heroes, they were  in fact all comatose under the effects of Cary Bates, a process reversed by the Spectre, visiting his homeworld after having previously migrated to Earth-One. Together, the League and Society defeated the supervillains, and Bates with Maggin returned to Earth-Prime (a similar battle between the Justice League and Injustice Gang later took place on Earth-One).

* While this tale initially was told in a post-Crisis Earth, during the period of the early 1950s, it has been witnessed that tales on that composite world had a basis in adventures on Earths One and Two. As there were two fin-headed space heroes involved (Adam Strange and Starman), various energy beings used as pawns (Strange's old inhuman adversaries in the cloud etc. and the 3 constellation entities), spawned by evil enemies (Kanjar Ro and Vandal Savage) using stellar sticks (the Energi-Rod and Gravity Rod), with teleportation to and from Earth to other parts of the universe (via Zeta Plus Beams from Sardath's laboratory and cosmic rays from Starman's Mount Pride Observatory), involving remaining members of the Society (Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Starman) not present during the Injustice Society case... it seems logical that this is the untold tale of the Justice Society in space in 1975. 

**Soon after this tale, Vandal Savage attempted to restore his immortality while visiting Earth-One. He made this planet…. probably Rann-Two... as a staging ground to build Colu-Two and its two suns a year later. We know he was still in his phantom state as Earth-Two Flash mentioned to his counterpart that he just learned of Vandal’s condition (which was an untold tale… this tale!!!). Afterwards, Savage lured Superman and the Justice Society to Colu-Two via ancient Camelot!

***Undoubtedly, the stellar beings which Vandal enlisted into service on Rann-Two as constellations were the Sun-Thrivers, whom he forced to build for him Colu-Two’s twin green Kryptonite suns.

**** Of those remaining members of the Justice Society during these contemporaneous tales of Savage on Rann-Two and the Injustice Society, six heroes were present on Earth-Two though not active at this time. Atom was recovering from injuries in a previous crossover, Sandman had self-imposed amnesia of his dual identity (in order to deal with the trauma of his sidekick Sandy's current condition), Mister Terrific was focusing on his career as a Gateway City college professor, Superman and Batman were busy raising a cousin and daughter respectively. As for Doctor Fate, he was dealing with his old foe Khalis' return in the city of Boston.

_____________________

Continuing thru April 2025 - #JSApril! Celebrating 85 years of #DCComics JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA, the world's first greatest superheroi team! Join over 40 podcasters bloggers as we honor our favorite heroes! Info participants:

www.fireandwaterpodcast.com/JSApril

Tale Tales of the Liar's Club

We've heard that superheroes fight for "truth and justice". However, there are times when these masked men and maidens have to conceal their identities, and have to fib while doing so.

An oddity about the 1940s was the prevalence of a specific type of club that didn't always bring out the best in those of which it was a part. This Club apparently had several branches in various cities across America. The driving principal of these associations was that their participants tell the tallest tales to each other, with the goal of one of them winning a prized award! In fact, the name they went by was the Liar's Club! They even were such the rage in the 1940's, that by the early to mid 1950's, there were Junior Liar's Clubs, of which Lois and Clark Kent's niece Susie Tompkins was a member!

The first mention of a Liar's Club was the one that Ted Knight was inducted into in April 1942. During that first meeting, Ted admitted that he was Starman, then the other members began making outlandish claims that Starman would kill them in various manners. After the club's chairman Vardon is said to have died, these other members seem to also fall prey to the lies they told. Framed for these attempted on the lives of the Club's members, Starman eventually discovered that it was Vardon who orchestrated his "death" and that of the others to conceal the fact that he stole money from them.

Jay Garrick was the next Justice Society member to join the Keystone City branch of the Liar's Club. He enjoyed this activity so much that he frequented the club more than just their annual gatherings. He attended his first meeting in August 1943, then winter of 1944, followed by at least two visits to the Club in 1945, 1946 and 1947.

Among the true tales that Jay told that earned him the Liar's trophy, given their outrageous nature, were such adventures as Flash travelling to 2443, a winged horse, racing his old foe Eel Madden through time, a fourth-dimensional portal, a hidden enclave of sand-beings, and so on. In all but one occasion, Jay won the coveted award, much to the chagrin of his lying teammates. Perhaps Jay felt a release from the pressure of concealing his dual identity, and such Club gatherings provided him some opportunities to... well... brag a little.

In March 1944, the Metropolis branch of the Liar's Club brought Superman into their competition with a tall tale of how he met Hercules in ancient Greece, and trains the former weakling to be a powerhouse like he was. This is an early version of what became known as "Imaginary Stories" told about Superman.

While not as prominent on Earth-One, there were occasional mentions of such groups, like the Deep Six Liar's Club which Dane Dorrance and his fellow Sea Devils tried to join in the 1960s. Their tales seemingly stretched credulity too much, it seemed. 

Years later, Batman and Robin of Earth-One battled the Mad Hatter in Gotham City's Liars Club. Then, Roy Raymond would encounter a variation of this called the Super-Whopper Club. But these were rare exceptions on that Earth, compared to those on Earth-Two.

It seems that the Keystone City and Metropolis Liar's Club of Earth-Two were legitmate if morally ambiguous alternatives to the Rogues Gallery of Central City and the Anti-Superman Gang of Metropolis on Earth-One. The latter two organizations worked to defeat their mutual foes the Flash and Superman, whereas the former two associations sought to expose the lies of the Flash and Superman's alter egos.

Starmen of Different Places and Another Time

Prince Gavyn was the younger son of the emperor of the intergalactic empire known as Throneworld, within the Earth-One universe. When his father died, his sister assumed control and as a custom for such manners, she executed him by leaving him float in space. However, as a mutant, Gavyn survived the airless vacuum of space and was retrieved by the elderly alien known as Mn'Torr. Granting the prince a pair of jeweled wrist bands that harnessed the power of the stars, Gayvn could direct bio-energy to project force blasts as well as propel himself through space as high  velocities. As Starman, Gavyn protected the empire that spurned him and assumed the role of emperor when his sister died, while he married his true love.

An unnamed warrior prince fearlessly defended his homeworld, the fabricted Asgard spawned within the notional dimension attached to the Earth-Two universe. Early in the celestrial conflict known as Ragnarok, the Justice Society of America from the post-Crisis world of Earth-0 journeyed from 1986 to 1945 Earth-Two, with each of its members merging with one of the Asgardian warriors. This prince and Sylvester "Star-Spangled Kid" Pemberton became one-in-the-same, with the Asgardian royal now possessing stellar abilities from Pemberton allowing him to fly at high velocity and project beams of energy.

Both alien princes had brief careers, each ultimately perishing in order to preserved their beloved homelands threatened due to the incursion of forces unleashed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, whereas Starman Gavyn would have his energies transferred from Earth-One's reality and enter the body of Earth-0 human Will Payton, Star-Spangled Kid eventually departed Asgard's realm and returned to his home reality... while the Asgard prince he was once merged with carried on his battles in the Ragnorak conflict alone once more.

_________________________

Two other men tied to the Starman legacy, as were the princes of Thronesworld and Asgard, were Richard Rigel and David Knight. Both men had grand aspirations, inspired by members of the Justice League and Justice Society, that ultimately led to them adopting their heroic predecessors' alter egos yet using their stellar powers for evil rather than good.

Richard Rigel was a young astronomer and amateur inventor who became a coworker with research assistant Lucas "Snapper" Carr at S.T.A.R. Laboratories. As the two young men gained each other's acquaintence, Carr confided in Rigel that he had a previous criminal career as Star-Tsar, when Snapper teamed up with master criminal the Key as the two sought revenge against the Justice League of America. While an honorary Leaguer for a number of years, Snapper grew disenfranchised when his reputation as a teenage sidekick of superheroes diminished his career prospects. However, Carr as Star-Tsar soon after joined forces with his Justice League friends in defeating the Key and a third Star-Tsar, Mark "Privateer" Shaw. 

David Knight was the oldest son of astronomer and millionaire Theodore Knight, aka the original Starman of Earth-Two. Although at first a reluctant hero, with his father giving his Cosmic Rod to fellow mystery man the Star-Spangled Kid instead of either of his sons, Ted would ultimately find within his son the heart of a champion. However, shortly after embarking on his costumed career, David was shot by the son of the elder Knight's arch-enemy, the Mist. However, a quirk in the fabric of time-space jettisoned David decades into the past.

Stealing the Star-Tsar suit and equipment from S.T.A.R. Labs, Richard became the fourth Star-Tsar and embarked on a crimewave unleashed on Star City. This drew the attention of the city's prime protector Green Arrow and his teammates in the Justice League, and ultimately one of the Ace Archer's gimmick arrows brought about the defeat of this Star-Tsar.

Although in a Post-Crisis world, David was sent to forty years prior to the 1990's, where he would be 1950's Starman, in the pre-Crisis world of Earth-Two he was instead sent forty years before to the 1980's, arriving in the early 1940's. Due to the confusion of his unexpected time travel experience, David became a misguided villain who sought out the ancient Atlantan book of Thoth, and was subsequently defeated by his father’s  Justice Society teammate, Doctor Fate.

Twice-Told-Tales: The Lights and the Leagues

Doctor Light and the Light throughout their sinister careers paralleled one another's pathetic ploys towards power, and this included their each tied to Leagues. For Earth-One's Doctor, it was his mortal enemies of the Justice League. For the Light, it was his criminal organization known as the Octopus League. Utilizing their various nefarious gadgets and schemes, this drew them ones more into conflict with their old adversaries, costumed crusaders of the Justice League and Justice Society!

It is interesting that during this encounter with Starman, the Light obtained the hero's Gravity Rod which possessed similar levels of raw power in much the same manner as had the light-ray gun used by Arthur Light. Each of the Lights took to The seas for grand thefts that would by stymied by their heroic opponents.

After the Lights manipulated matters with their various devices, they used a myriad of mirrored images... be the the Doctor's holograms or the Light's henchmen.

Nevertheless, these nefarious nemesis of Justice were ultimately captured by their arch-enemies. Would they reappear again after such devise defeats? Absolutely... yet each time they'd fall short of their lofty aspirations. They may have reached for the stars, but their light was eclipsed time and time again.

And perhaps, as Comic Archives suggests but cannot confirm, there was another twice-told-tale involving both Doctor Lights of these twin Earths!

Twice-Told-Tales: Lethal Lights versus Cosmic Crusaders

This Twice-Told-Tale is really remarkable in the parallels they invoke, be that from the characters involved to the sinister schemes of the supervillains to the chronology of these crimes. Doctor Arthur Light of Earth-One and the heretofore nameless Light of Earth-Two were also the malevolent masterminds behind this tale told twice! They each drew members of the Justice League and Justice Society, the Atom and Starman, to face them mano-y-mano respectively. Using magnetic light and other inventions, they had their foes helplessly trapped at miniature size, the Doctor using solder to lock the size changing controls on the Atom's belt, and the Light by using his diminishing ray on Starman. How would they extract themselves from these seeming death traps?

As it turned out,  the Lights' adversaries were not the only brilliant men in the room, as their foes figured out ways out of these traps. After leaving the Atom in an experimental light bulb devised to turn matter into energy, what the Doctor failed to realize was that the same heat from the filament designed to due his dirty deed was what melted the solder. For Starman, it was by his cornering the Light's henchman after the greedy genius left the room, using his gravity rod to turn the tables on the thug. So consumed these Lights were to revenge, Doctor Light towards the Justice League who defeated him and the Light towards his former professor who rejected him, that they failed to thing through their strategems. And so it would be for these brilliant baddies time and time again with their enemies.

Space Scientists Seek Sensational Superheroics

Dexter Knox was a sensational scientist while just a lad when he first met his neighbor Billy Batson. Over the years, Knox aided Billy's alter ego Captain Marvel and other members of the Marvel Family on various adventures, itilizing his knowledge of physics and the sciences of space.


On one occasion, he even teamed up with the Marvel Family as the Space Patrolman in order to liberate a future timeline from the Sivana Family, who with their alien associates began conquering various planets of the solar system. 

Using his gadgetry, Dexter equipped a legion of Space Patrolmen in the future era, mirroring his Earth-Two counterpart Ted Knight aka Starman and his Earth-One doppleganger Thom Kallor aka Starboy who worked alongside futuristic Defenders and Legion of Substitute Heroes, respectively.

Knox was among the various friends and allies of the Marvel Family who like their heroes were frozen in Suspendium created by their arch-foe Sivana that was sent through space with its captives for decades. When the Suspendium finally melted as it drew close to the sun, all of its prisoners were freed after their lengthy sleep. Dexter, like the others freed, remained unaged. Soon thereafter, Dexter invented the means of imbuing his grandmother with electrical energy. After this misadventure, Knox returned yet again to his laboratory to create new and innovative inventions undeterred.

Stellar Surnamed Superheroes: Starman

Thom Kallor was the son of astronomers traveling through space where their son was born. As such, he gained the ability to increase mass and density in order to increase the gravitational pull of an object. When he was 16 years old, Thom left his home behind and encountered a comet which temporarily gave him Kryptonian level powers as well. Joining the Legion of Super-Heroes as Star Boy, he would travel from his native 30th century to the 20th century where he met Earth-One's Supeeboy, his future fellow Legionnaire. Kallor eventually met and fell in love with another Legionnaire, Nura Nal aka Dream Girl. Throughout the years, the pair would be foundation members of the Legion through its various incarnations.

Theodore Knight was the wealthy heir to a fortune who had a hobby as an amateur astronomer. When his cousin Sandra discovered untapped inventions of her scientific friend Professor Abraham Davis, she introduced one of these to Ted in the form of the gravity rod which he was able to energized with cosmic radiation he tapped from his observatory. He became Starman and soon thereafter a member of Earth-Two's Justice Society of America. With that team, he journeyed to the 30th century in order to obtain the needed items for a bomb defense formula. Encountering that era's Defenders, he along with his fellow Socialites succeeded and returned to the 20th century.

Eventually, Ted married a woman named Adele Doris Drew and sired a son named David...and later a younger son in Jack. Years later, this Doris... different from Ted's early girlfriend named Doris Lee who had briefly adopted a Starwoman alter ego to aid her boyfriend and his Justice Society allies... died leaving her husband a widower. During this period, Ted would attempt to raise both of his sons however given his scientific nature he would often find that he had a disconnect with both of them. While David aspired to be like his father, Jack wanted to chart his own course in life. 

As for Thom and Nura, for a brief period of time Kallor was expelled from that team while defending Dream Girl from a jealous romantic rival. She left with Star Boy and together they were members of the Legion of Substitute Heroes. Eventually they would be readmitted into their original team. In their later years as Starman and Dream Woman the pair would ultimately marry in one alternate future.