Justice League of America #136 (November, 1976)

Welcome to our coverage of the middle chapter of 1976’s Justice League of America/Justice Society of America crossover event, guest-starring “Shazam’s Squadron of Justice” — i.e., the Fawcett Comics heroes that DC had licensed the rights to a few years previously.  Although if you missed last month’s post about JLA #135, you might want to go back and catch up on things there before digging into today’s entry — because, as we’ll soon discover, this comic’s very own writers opted fifty years ago not to offer even a brief recap of this frankly overstuffed storyline’s first installment — and this blog is opting to take its cues from them.  Hey, fair is fair.

Before getting into JLA #136’s interiors, however, we’ll take a moment to note that — not counting last issue’s floating headshot — this issue’s cover by Ernie Chan and Frank Giacoia features the first appearance of the Golden Age/Earth-Two Batman on a comic-book cover since — well, whatever your personal headcanon holds to be the last published issue of Batman, Detective, or World’s Finest featuring the OG Caped Crusader.  And now, on to our main event:  Read More

Justice League of America #135 (October, 1976)

Half a century ago, July, 1976 brought the return of one of my younger self’s favorite comic book traditions of those bygone days– the annual team-up event between the Justice League of America and their forerunners from the Golden Age of Comics, the Justice Society of America.  This particular iteration was the fourteenth such team-up to appear since DC Comics had kicked the whole thing off back in 1963, not to mention the eleventh for your humble blogger, who’d first come aboard in 1966.  And though you couldn’t tell it from Ernie Chan’s cover, Justice League of America #135 had an additional numerical distinction as well, as it presented the first chapter of what would eventually emerge as only the second JLA/JSA event up to that point to occupy three full issues, two having been the norm ever since JLA #21 and #22 had inaugurated the tradition way back when.  Read More