Customer Reviews

All Star Comics Archives, Vol. 7 (DC Archive Editions)

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The five issues of the class Forties series ALL-STAR collected here show a transitional period with the Justice Society of America: this is, is Roy Thomas explains in his intelligent introduction to the volume, just before the great series of Justice Society stories that have been so classically remembered by comics enthusiasts. This has the first of those stories, the marvelous "Revenge of Solomon Grundy," with its superb artwork (especially in the Joe Kubert Hawkman chapter) and terrific narrative suspense. The other stories collected here are a mixed blend: the Psycho-Pirate story is enormously disappointing, but the Brain Wave story "The Dreams of Madness!" is particularly surreal and nightmarish, and the Landor story has a nifty gimmick. There's too much dreary Johnny Thunder antics for my own personal taste in these stories, and not enough Wonder Woman (why wouldn't they let her participate in the adventures?), but it's got a great Forties feel to it.

Archives 7 contains some of the better Golden Age JSA stories:

#29- With strong art from Kubert (Hawkman) and Kozlak(Atom and Green Lantern)this story of a man from the future looking for a challenge is not bad. The idea of characters like the Reverse Flash stem from this type of story and the idea still pops up today.

#30- Brainwave makes another appearance, taking our heroes into bizarre fantasy worlds and making them doubt their own existence. With Johnny Thunder actually making sense, this one is a great deal of fun. The art is wild, particularly in the Flash chapter where he's surrounded by funny animals.

#31-Is another sci-fi based story that lacks the action of the one in issue #29 and serves as a precursor to the type of stories the series ended with.

#32-The Psycho Pirate makes another appearance and the story works pretty well with the exception of the Psycho-Pirate's accomplice, Big Mike, who may be one of the dumbest criminals ever seen in the All Star books.

#33- One of the best All Star stories, "The Revenge of Solomon Grundy" brings the swamp creature into combat with the entire JSA instead of his usual foe, Green Lantern. Each hero comes up short against the monster, but combined they overcome the creature. With excellent art all the way around this is easily one of the JSA's best tales from the Golden Age.
Overall this is a good collection and with Roy Thomas's excellent introduction this is a very good volume in the series.

As others have mentioned, this volume and the one that follows ("All-Star Archives" v.7 & 8) are pretty much the peak of the series... If you want to try out the "All Star" books, this is the place to start.

The first story in Volume 7 pretty much exemplifies what had been wrong with the title to date -- "The Wiles Of The Wizard," from All-Star #34 (May, 1947) is awkward and crude, badly plotted and fairly idiotic, and the segments where various heroes are sent out on their own solo adventures don't really connect up very well. The writing and artwork are blatantly slipshod, with the notable exception being Lee Elias' work on the Flash section, which has a formality and draftsmanlike flair that recalls Milton Canniff's work on the "Terry And The Pirates" newspaper strip. Otherwise: sheesh!

Issue #35 marks a real upswing in quality. The villain is still silly -- Per Degaton, a brutish, red-headed scientific "genius" who seems like a cross between Jules Verne and Benito Mussolini. Degaton resents the success of other scientists, and steals a time machine so that he can go back in the past and undermine all scientific progress. Although the science fiction-y plot is riddled with logical inconsistencies, it still has a bold imaginative sweep, and is much more ambitious and intriguing than your standard Golden Age fare.

The following stories, from issues 36 and 37 are also classics, and mark a high-water point for the "All-Star" book. This, along with Volume 8, are what made the title memorable, and are certainly worth checking out. (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain book reviews)