Who’s Afraid of Ghosts?
JSA #83
One Year Later
Cover Date: May 2006
Released: 1st March 2006
- Writers: Paul Levitz
- Pencilers: Rags Morales / Luke Ross
- Inker: Dave Meikis
- Colourists: John Kalisz
- Letterer: Rob Leigh
- Editors: Stephen Wacker
Continued from JSA #82.
After Infinite Crisis the whole line jumped forward now year, that missing year being filled in by the 52 event (we’ll get to that eventually), something that issue takes full advantage off!
In essence this issue is a series of ghost stories, with various members of the JSA being haunted by the (literal) ghosts of there past..
We start not with any of the JSA themselves, with Joan Garrick, wife of Jay (The Flash), meeting the ghost of her father in the supermarket of all places! The shock of this causes her to fall down and call Jay who literally comes running to help her out. We’re not interested in all that yet as we instead cut to Jakeen, owner of the Thunderbolt spirit, who uses said spirit to put the smack down a group of local thugs. His ghost, because almost everyone will get a ghost here, is of his older brother who apparently he doesn’t think he has.
But enough ghost tales we instead get a page about the origins of a mysterious character, with in Regency Era a mother and her son, apparently a servent of some kind, being thrown out by a young noble who in the act disowns her bastard son. He’ll be no noble he declares, a line that I’m sure will not amount to anything what so ever!
Courney, Stargirl, is travelling back to the JSA headquarters with Michael, Mister Terrific, who fills us in that she’s going back to school soon and that the JSA have been pretty quiet for months. These discussions are cut short when there’s a commotion caused by the ghost of a car showing up on the road, the car in questions being the very one that killed Michael’s wife, the ghost of with is also around. Talking to Michael when they get close enough. He’s obviously lost to the emotions of meeting the ghost of his wife, until Stargirl breaks the spell (so to speak) by zapping the ghost and carrying him away from the scene.
This time our Regenecy child, called Jim, starts (and ends) a fight with the Innkeepers, where apparently he and his mother is working, when the child tries to make him do the skivvy work. He also says his dad was a Gentleman, just in case it’s not quite clear why we’re taking time on this flashback.
OUr next ghostly encounter is with Doctor Mid-Nite, who’s assuingly mistakened for Batman, who’s helping a man who’s fallen on hard times. He get’s most just one ghost but a whole half dozen, victims of various medical mistakes over his medical career. They seem more pushy that the others, ignoring even a good old flash grenade, and ignoring Mid-Nite’s prclinations that they can’t be real. Charlie, his owl, being smarter than the average owl (which to be fair isn’t difficult) snatche’s DOctor MId-NIte’s googles making him blind to the world, and somehow getting rid of our wrathful spirits.
THat little fight got Jim and his mum thrown out of the inn, but he promises he’ll make it up getting them the wealth that they need to survive in this world.
Alan Scott, the Green Lantern, is not here to see the next ghost, instead meeting up with the other JSA members. Joking around about Ma’s spicy chili was strong enough to make him see ghosts, he strikes a nerve with the other JSA members. It’s actually Pee Gee who cut’s through the vague hints the others are throwing down, insisting that everyone just cut the crap and tell her exactly what’s going on here. She might be a little out of line about people keeping secret’s, though the who betrayl by Superboy-Prime and Alexnader must still be a little raw, but it does the job and people explain what we’ve already seen in the issue.
Alan tries to suggest ghost can’t be real as magic hasn’t been working since the Crisis, only for Thunderbolt, in a moment of self awareness, to point out him being there sort of discounts everything that he just said. THis is obviously a (green) lampshade hanging on the fact that with what the JSA have seen and done none of them should have any doubt that ghosts don’t exisist, a common problem in supernatural genre fiction of all kinds!
This does the job and the team begin to work out who they should go to start working out what’s happening here, they mention the Spectre, before an answer presents itself with the arrival of, shock of all shock, Jim Craddock the Gentleman Ghost!
Apart from the above flaw the comic does a pretty good job of building up the tension of the piece, the encounters being built carefully around the various characters well. Holt is one that would have been interesting to see in more details, what with the characters being a declared atheist! Though that might be me knowing the character better than say Joan, despite my reactions to his New 52 comic I am a fan of the character in general. But that aside it’s a well told solo tale that build up to whatever ghost related shenagians we’ll get to find out about in the next issue!