Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
. . . the Justice League of America!
More great Silver Age JUSTICE LEAGUE covers... this time, as specifically
requested via e-mail! (This is the last of these I plan on doing for
a while, by the way, folks; there's still an unholy amount of Silver Age territory
left uncharted by Yours Truly on this site, and I'd kinda sorta like to get
to some of it before I become too aged and enfeebled to do the Lewis and Clark
thang with it... okay...?) 
One correspondent weighed in with a pair of requests. Given that the
following two offerings are among the most deeply disturbing JUSTICE
LEAGUE covers ever to see print... I'm beginning to entertain dark and unhealthy
suspicions about some of you out there.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #7 ("The Cosmic Fun-House") offered young and impressionable readers the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see their favorite heroes grotesquely mutated, thereby ensuring that the crop of psychoanalysts twenty years down the road would never have to wonder where their next BMW payment was coming from.
(Check out the li'l, stumpy Green Arrow.
That is just so wrong.)
With the publishing of JUSTICE LEAGUE #36, however
("The Case of the Disabled Justice League"), however... the possibility that
week-long crack parties were going on in the DC offices of the day begins
to seem increasingly likely.
Try to follow me, here: the JLA -- in an attempt to "inspire" a group of physically-challenged kids -- use Green Lantern's power ring to transform the Batman into a big, ugly monster [see cover, above]. In that way (I don't pretend to follow the argument), they can whup up on their fellow member's noggin, and thereby show said tots that they, too, can... ummm... well... beat up on monsters, I guess. (This is why, doubtless, one seldom sees super-heroes actively engaged in the Doing of Charitable Good Works. "Hmmmm... a problem with the homeless in this city, you say? Very well, then; Lantern -- turn Wonder Woman into a baby duck. We'll all take turns stepping on her head.")
And people wonder why the Batman turned psychotic.
(Actually, both of the preceding stories are quite well-done and entertaining;
I'm just feeling... you know... "silly," right about now. You might
want to bear that in mind.)
Another traveler to our little Silver Age Mecca, hereabouts, has requested a reproduction of JUSTICE LEAGUE #31 ("Riddle of the Runaway Room"), in which the Silver Age Hawkman is formally inducted into the League [see cover, above].
This issue is a personal favorite of mine, as well; I always enjoyed seeing the SA Hawkman involved with the League, and deoutly wish that later attempts to "redefine" the character hadn't left him such a wretched mess of contradictory and self-referential origins and personality types that DC finally felt forced to exile him outright to Comic Book Limbo.
Really nice cover.
Current JUSTICE LEAGUE scribe Grant Morrison (may he only stay on the book forever) recently returned a long-time League nemesis to the forefront of the team's phalanx of foemen: the needle-nosed criminal mastermind known as "the Key."
Apparently, enough of you out there liked that story enough (and a nifty little tale it was, too) to request a reproduction of his very first dust-up with the League.
We aim to please.
(Interesting Side Note: this issue also marked the first instance in which Hawkman's wife -- and future Leaguer, her own self -- Hawkgirl proved instrumental in cracking a case which left the rest of the team baffled and helpless. FYI, all of you self-styled "heroine addicts" out there.)
Speaking
of which: in anticipation of the rumored (as of this writing, anyway)
induction of the former "Batgirl" (now known as "Oracle") into the company
of the anointed... I've received more requests for this next JUSTICE LEAGUE
cover than any other:
In addition to the rare appearance of Batgirl in a Silver Age JUSTICE LEAGUE comic (complete with her ever-present "Bat-Purse"; take a closer look at the cover.) ("Bat-Purse." Heh-heh-heh...), this issue is one of the highlights of the classic Gardner Fox/Mike Sekowsky "run" for several reasons:
*** SEE -- some of the nicest artwork of Mike SSekowsky's JUSTICE LEAGUE tenure; fully the equal of the best of Dick Dillin's, in later years.
*** SEE -- the criminally-underutilized Atom save the rest of the League from the eeevil doings of "the Queen Bee."
*** SEE -- Green Lantern in a nice "character" bit, at the very end of the
tale; one more nail in the coffin of the "Silver Age comics had no characterization"
canard.
This one's worth hunting down and paying full Overstreet for, gang. No foolin'.
... and,
finally: while this cover was not specifically requested,
per se... one of the nicest folks I've ever met online has mentioned,
on more than one occasion, that JUSTICE LEAGUE #61 is one of his all-time
favorite offerings from the Silver Age run. Therefore...
... this one is for YOU, J. Kevin Carrier
-- !!!
Here's hoping you've all enjoyed the six pages (!!!) of
Silver Age JUSTICE LEAGUE pics (and accompanying commentary)! Check
out the rest of the site, as well; the Silver Age of Comics offered riches
enough to keep even the most studiedly casual browser busily intrigued...
and I plan on covering all of 'em, eventually!
The Silver Age JUSTICE
LEAGUE
PAGE ONE
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