All Star Comics - Archives, Volume 10
In 1940, DC Comics hit upon the clever marketing ploy of making some of its most popular superheroes, including the Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, into a team, the Justice Society of America, for the aptly namedAll Star Comics.The result was the template for today's successful superteams, from the Fantastic Four to the Teen Titans. The stories in this volume come from 1949, toward the end ofAll Star's run, when the superhero genre was in decline. Membership in the Justice Society would prove to be the last stand for most of DC's heroes: by the end of the year, only Wonder Woman would still be appearing elsewhere. The top-notch artists whose work had distinguished the series had moved on by this time, leaving it in the hands of competent but lackluster replacements. Even so, the stories display the elements that contributed to the Justice Society's longevity: solid plotting (albeit by the era's relatively undemanding standards), colorful villains, and a cast of some of the 1940s' most famous costumed heroes.Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved