JSA: Fair Play (Book 4)

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!!
Review: DC is successfully revitalizing the classic super-hero team, the JSA, the Justice Society of America. With a mixture of classic heroes and renewed characters, the team has all of the flash (no pun intended) and excitement of modern heroes, plus all of the character and appeal of the Golden Age heroes!

This book contains JSA issues 26-31 plus JSA SECRET FILES #2. In the desert of Nevada, Roulette runs a secret gambling den for super-villains, where superheroes are brought and forced to fight to the death. When she kidnaps the bulk of the JSA, they must use their talents and teamwork to overthrow this evil. But, for those left behind, there is no time to rest, when Solomon Grundy shows up looking for some more people to kill!

I must admit that I loved this book. I have always loved the Golden Age comics, and felt that no one knew how to write stories like that any more. Well, I have been proved wrong. This is a great graphic novel, one that you will love to read, and love handing off to your children (like my own ten-year-old). My son and I both highly recommend this book!

Rating:
Summary: Fair Play More Than Fair!
Review: JSA Fair Play maintains the high standards of the previous three collections in the series. In my oppionion its better than the last two but not quite as good as the first. This trade resolves, at least for now, the issue of Black Adam, a former villain, being on the team. It also features the introduction of a major new villain (Roulette), the deaths of one or two minor DC characters, a new JSA member and a new JSA chairman.

Roulette runs a modern-day version of a Roman gladiator arena in which superheroes are forced to kill each othher for the plesure of paying customers (mainly supervillains). JSA members are placed in difficult circumstances and I must commend Johnss on thinking up some truly original ways of getting them out.

The relationships between Star and JJ Thunder is also developed here but much more central to the story is Hawkman and Hawkgirl's relationship, which also goes through some changes.

My only complaint is that didn't like the way that Batman was handled in this book. Just like James Robinson's handling of him in Starman, Batman comes off as immature, which is inconsistent of his handling in other comics such as JLA where he is a bad {guy}. Batman is protective of his city and has trouble letting people get close to him, but he has many times in the past worked perfectly well with other characters and teams. The Batman here is closer to the Batman we saw in Giffen's Justice League, which was more or less a parady of superhero teams and was done for laughs more than anything else. It short: it worked there, but it doesn't work here. Also, his appearance doesn't seem necessary with him doing very little against that issue's main antagonist. I got to admit that it does answer the question of what Batman's oppinion is of the new JSA being based in Gotham, which I myself have been wondering, but so far at least, nothing significant has come of it.

I liked Captain Marvel's appearance much better although he didn't seem as innocent as he did in the past. Got to admit though that I haven't followed his adventures in years and it may be that he was developed this way.