Christmas Countdown: Justice League of America #74

A few days ago, I came across the cover to the above comic book on Rip Jaggers Dojo. Upon seeing this it took me back to the late 1960's (perhaps 1970) when my brother had this comic. I normally don’t chase down comics or buy them online but, on this occasion, I made an exception and managed to purchase a very nice reading copy. The Christmas connection? well it’s an early festive purchase to myself. Below are some pages to go along with the stunning Neal Adams cover above:

This issue continues from issue 73 where a living star called Aquarius uses his power (and Starman’s power rod) to attempt to erase the entire Justice Society of America from existence. Of course, this paves the way for a classic JLA / JSA fight. As is the norm with these types of storIes there are various team ups with members of the JLA fighting the JSA when Aquarius uses his powers to pit members of both teams against each other. The main event in this fun tale is that Larry Lance, Black Canary's husband is killed saving his wife’s life. This snaps the JSA out of Aquarius' control and eventually the 2 Green Lanterns defeat Aquarius. Black Canary realising that she has nothing to live for on Earth 2 now that her husband is dead, asks to join the JLA on Earth 1. The rest is of course comic book history.

I was surprised that this issue was a landmark JLA edition which reintroduced Black Canary into the Earth One Universe, perhaps that is why this issue was a favourite of my brothers as he would probably have swopped this for a couple of other US comics. Whatever the reason I’m glad I managed to pick this one up. Although I wasn’t a massive fan of US comics as a 9 year old, only a few years later I would be searching out newsagents for any American comics that I could find, and at this time the JLA was my favourite title. Perhaps this very issue started that intertest in the JLA for me.