A Thorn by Any Other Name
All-Star Comics #72
Cover Dated: May/June 1978
Released: 21st February 1978
Released: 21st February 1978
No messing around as we get right into the action as the splash page show the JSA at a murder scene filled with exposition. And whilst it might be my imagination but Power Girl seems a lot calmer than we’ve seen her before, just working alongside everyone peacefully like. It’s a little weird as Garrick treats her with kid gloves like she still the old feistier Power Girl when he was there at the event that mellowed her out a little. Doubly weird when they take the time to cover the, obvious, fact that Huntress is now officially part of the team.
It seems that Throne is building a criminal empire in Keystone City and the JSA have been called in to bust it all up, starting with an assault on the Courthouse, a journey that lasts just long enough for us to see the new Hawkman costume before the shadow subplot rumbles along.
The fight with Thorne does not go well what with the Judge she was apparent;y after getting taken down, so much for the early claim that there would be no more murders, but when they face off against her even though Power Girl tells him not to Wildcat takes on Throne and gets taken down from her poison thrones. They rush him to the hospital, allowing Throne and goons to get away. Things seem rough for Wildcat and they seem devastated about potentially losing him, even though we’ve had at least two other JSAers at death’s door before. We also get a confusing, for me, a statement from Huntress about already losing her father and not being able to lose another. Now, this might be my hyperfocus on just the JSA but as far as I knew from last time Bruce was alive and well, though apparently it’ll be covered in a future issue so look forward to that now! Also, her poor mother doesn’t get a look in here, as in the traditions of females on Earth-2 apparently.
Here they also cover the weirdest of subplots in the last year or so of the comics, ever since being mind-controlled by Icicle, Wildcats been talking in your typical Brokylin type accent. It never really commented on it was just something that was just there! Now it seems not only that this was due to brain damage, stopping the doctors from curing him of the poisoning, the JSA was aware of it but thought that it was from his previous boxing career. It weird enough I would have thought it was some fix-it fic from a new writer or editor but it’s been the same writing team the whole time of all this. Maybe all this is just me still not quite being used to how comics were made back in the day.
At this point, Huntress is just popped in a bubble by Scott and sent to find Icicile, in the hope he can do something to help Wildcat, whilst the rest take on Throne and the gang. In a nice little reveal, we find that Rose, the “good” side of Rose and Throne (in a traditional them being the same person who swaps control of the body), is now working for Throne and has been spying on the JSA. She is seen here at the hospital as a nurse, and earlier at the crime scene. I do like here that before the reveal it’s not bought to the reader attention just trusting them to pick up such details.
So whilst Huntress meets a mysterious person,, Thorne and her goons attack the JSAers right off the bat and catch them at a disadvantage. We then get the reveal that she’s bought in help the Sportsmaster, who should be the goofiest character imagable but somehow works here. He keeps Power Girl out of the fight by using exploding baseballs on innocent, whilst Garrick and Alan fight pretty ineffectively. They even managed to take themselves out stopping Power Girl from being hit by Thornes poisoned thorns, even though she’s repeatably told peoples she’s immune to them. Luckily despite them getting their asses handed to them, Power Girl managed to snag one of the poisoned thorns that might help the doctors cure Wildcat.
Meanwhile, in a nifty bit of continuity, Helena is avoiding the clutches of the original Golden Age huntress who does not seem pleased that someone has taken over her name and has trapped Helena in a trap-filled building.
It may be because of the Showcase break, or the weird stripping down of the team in previous issues of JSA but it feels like a mini reboot of the comic. Though I’ll admit that might just me picking a point in a comic that really doesn’t seem to want to have a status quo.