JSA #20 – Jeff Lemire, Writer; Diego Olortegui, Artist; Luis Guerrero, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: For this anniversary issue, it’s the JSA vs. the Spectre, the cosmic force who was surprisingly a member of the earliest incarnation of the team. But this isn’t the Spectre they knew. Over the years, the cosmic force of wrath was hosted by Jim Corrigan, Hal Jordan, and Crispus Allen. But now, it’s untethered of any human connection, possessed only by vengeance, and it’s unleashed on the city. The smallest crimes, personal and unrealized, are harshly punished. And all the while, the Spectre continues to seek out a new host, jumping from one member of the JSA to another and finding them wanting. It’s a fun, chaotic segment with a surprising veneer of horror over it as Lemire makes clear that the Spectre without a human tether is a genuinely horrifying thing. The Spirit of Vengeance needs a host – and the rest of the team seeks out the only person who can find him one.
That would be Madame Xanadu, a character who has always sort of treaded the line between DC and Vertigo just lke the Spectre. A team including Dr. Fate, Kid Eternity, and Stargirl seek her out in a swamp, hoping she’ll be able to point them to where Jim Corrigan has gone, but while she fills them in on what makes Corrigan the perfect host for the Spectre, she doesn’t know at all where he is. We get an interesting look into just who Kid Eternity is, where she comes from, and who she left behind in her old life. Meanwhile, the Spectre picks an unwilling host on Earth – which immediately threatens to plunge the earth into total darkness. The identity of the new Spectre host eventually seems a little too obvious, which makes me think there might be a swerve coming, but this story has the scope and stakes needed to make a great follow-up to the JSA: Year One arc that just wrapped up.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
