All-Star Squadron #1 (1981)

A cover that inspried an entire JLA story arc, circa 2007

“The World on Fire!”
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Rich Buckler

It’s another FIRST ISSUE, from the early 80’s. Yet this title actually jumps back about 40 to DC’s “Earth Two” and the eve of World War II. So it’s from 1981…yet it’s not!This was a fairly hot title for DC, for awhile. I remember getting my copy of this FIRST ISSUE at a silent comic book auction, for the price of about $4.00, in 1986 or so.

The reasons for “All-Star Squadron” were varied, but it became known as an exercise in “retoractive continuity” or “retconning”. Basically, DC wanted to give some linear definition to their old Golden Age “Earth-Two” heroes; who had existed as mostly oddities at this particular point. They were just guys who would pop up in the annual Justice League/Justice Society team-ups, punch a villain, then leave. DC also wanted to combine these guys with some of the “Quality Heroes” who they had picked up. Namely, guys like the Freedom Fighters (Uncle Sam, The Ray, etc), while also mixing in the Blackhwaks and the “Fawcett Heroes” like Captain Marvel/Shazam. It also helped that the original stories of the DC Golden Age hereos weren’t very well known to modern readers. So there was definitely curiosity and potential for an “All-Star Squadron” ongoing title.

Even though this is the FIRST ISSUE, it’s actually continued from a preview story that was tacked onto an issue of “Justice League of America”. The events of that story are quickly recapped, here, for new readers. Basically, in December 1941, all but 3 members of the Justice Society of America were kidnapped by a strange crew of supervillains. The 3 who escaped are basically the stars of this book; Hawkman, Dr. Mid-nite and the Atom.

Either because of the JSA abduction or the pending escalation of “The War in Europe”, the three have also received an invitation from none other than Franklin D. Roosevelt to appear at the White House. Note that I mentioned December 1941; as this story just happens to be taking place on December 7, 1941, the date of the infamous Pearl Harbor attack. While the rest of the country responds to the Pearl Harbor attack, the 3 heroes eventually make it to the White House and FDR.

Along the way, they pick up Robotman, Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle. All of whom provide more narration than expected on their backgrounds and even origins. Liberty Belle (Libby Lawrence) gets the biggest treatment, as we hear the story of how she escaped from occupied Europe, swam across the English Channel and has crafted out a career for herself as an international radio reporter and freedom fighter of sorts. Damn! She’s not showing off her goods, so I think Liberty Belle might be my new Comic Book Crush.

Turns out, FDR wants to mobilize ALL “masked men” into a cohesive unit, reporting only to himself. In FDR’s words, this would be an “all-star squadron”. Yes, he wants to include every single superhero running around in the US. It’s a little odd how “working for the government” united every superhero in 1941, but in 2006 a similar concept (Marvel’s “Civil War”) divided the superheroes.

So that’s the hook “All-Star Squadron” uses to encompass the ENTIRE cast of Golden Age DC. A very ambitious motive. Of course, all superhero comics need some villains to punch around, as we find out more about that weird cast of villains who abducted the JSA. They’re led by Per Degaton, a time-travelling Nazi from the “future” of 1947! He’s enlisted Wotan, Professor Zodiak, Sky Pirate and Solomon Grundy (with pants). As part of their master plan, they’re hanging out on a volcanic island in the South Pacific. Using Degaton’s “futuristic” technology, they want to launch on immediate follow-up to Pearl Harbor, by attacking San Francisco! A 1-2 punch like that could cripple the US and turn things in the favor of the Axis… and Per Degaton, naturally.

But that… is a story for another issue! With such a huge cast and the initial set-up, there’s a lot going on here. In addition to the heroes cited above, we’re also introduced to Danette Reilly, the sister of Rod Reilly, aka Firebrand. Rod and his sidekick (TBD) are actually elisted men in the US Navy and are shown being killed in the Pearl Harbor attack. I supose it’s fairly rare that a Golden Age character is suddenly killed off in a FIRST ISSUE, but here it is, anyways:

Dannette is a geologist, in the area to study volcanoes. She meets up with the Shining Knight and both get captured by Per Degaton and his goons. The Shining Knight? Yeah, we’re squeezing him in, too. Along with his horse, “Winged Victory”. Think of the Knight as a combo of Marvel’s Black Knight and Thor. Like I said, the cast just grows by the page! Throw in the cameos by the kidnapped JSA’ers and this thing is overloaded.

There’s also a lot here for history buffs. Plastic Man and Hawkman talk about one of them new fancy-dan “television sets”. While the Atom and Dr. Mid-nite are attending a football game (in full costume, no less), we’re shown a few panels of the Washington Redskins’ “Slingin” Sammy Baugh. Okay, I suppose uber-history buffs could go back and determine if Baugh was actually playing a game on December 7, 1941 and beating the Philadelphia Eagles 20-14, but it’s an alternate universe, so they shouldn’t waste too much time.

As the book progressed, it would often reference famous dates of World War II and the 1940’s, which really helped spur an interest in history for me, back in the day. I remember foaming at the mouth when my grade school history courses finally got to World War II around 5th grade. By then, I had been reading “All-Star Squadron” for a few years, already knew about some incidents and aced most of our tests.

This issue also has a letters or editorial page, where writer Roy Thomas explains his outlook on the book and how he’ll handle it. It’s basically a labor-of-love, as Thomas mentions the short-lived 1970’s “All Star Comics” revival and how he decided to change things up by setting this new “All-Star Squadron” in the PAST. Usually first issue editorial pieces are full of self-fellating hype, but this one is worth reading. Heck, you can read it, almost word-for-word, on Wikipedia’s summary for “All-Star Squadron”.

The enormous cast was always the star of “All-Star Squadron”. Not necessarily WHAT they were doing, though. The book was pretty much: “who will turn up, this month” and was essentially a few issues of DC’s “Who’s Who” strung out over 5 or 6 years. I remember characters as obscure as The Whip showing up. Indeed, you can argue that “All-Star Squadron” and its retconning created the need for “Who’s Who”; and, possibly, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and the overall consolidation of DC.

This book gains points for focusing on the lesser-known Golden Age heroes. It was probably the first chance a lot of readers had to check out some of the old “Earth-Two” characters. As Thomas mentions, he wanted to swap in Johnny Quick for the Flash, Liberty Belle for Wonder Woman, etc. Which also explains why Batman, Superman and Green Lantern appear in this story as one-panel cameos. Really, did DC need ANOTHER comic about their main characters, only with WWII in the background? It’s just too bad that the ensemble cast became the main gimmick and the book was basically an ongoing trivia exercise.

I guess you could say that “All-Star Squadron” was akin to MLB’s All Star Game. It’s a grand spectacle that looks nice; and it’s very cool to see who’s there and made the team; but in the end it means very little.

Summary: Everything old is new again. Plus bonus trivia.
Cover Price:.50
Rating: 1.25