Originally published on Patreon
I've loved the Justice Society since Jeff Johns' run on the title, where he was able to bring back a load of the Golden Age heroes, bring them up to date, and introduced new generations of heroes to join their ranks. Ever since then the team has had an on and off relationship with DC it would seem, being erased from the main timeline, being brought back, being given nothing to do, showing up for big events. They've kind of been a bit all over the place; which is a huge shame as they're DC's best team by far. Now, however, Johns is back, and he's doing something incredibly bold with the them.
The New Golden Age is an extra sized one shot that kicks off both the new Justice Society book that's coming, and the new Stargirl limited series. It also pulls in some events from the end of Flashpoint Beyond, so expect time travel and universe changing shenanigans.
The events of this comic are split across several different timelines, we visit the Justice Society during their first meeting, catch up with Doctor Fate in the 1970's, catch up with Khalid Nassour, the current Doctor Fate, in present day continuity, and travel to the distant future of the 31st century. There's also multiple points in time, in the future, where we drop in on Helena Wayne, the daughter of Batman and Catwoman.
First off, to get it out of the way, the Helena Wayne segments aren't related to Earth-2, which would be a fair assumption given the history of the character. This book isn't dealing with multiple Earths, nor it this a story about the Justice Society of another world. This is firmly the main DC universe. It's just one that's changing slightly.
The sections dealing with Helena are in the future of the continuity we're reading now, and she is the daughter of Earth-0 Batman and Catwoman, meaning that they get back together at some point. There are references to people and things in those segments that make it pretty clear. However, there is time shenanigans going on, so who knows how set in stone this all is.
Helena is having visions of a mysterious man who's been cropping up throughout her life, watching her, taking joy in her moments of pain. This same man also kills the new Justice Society in the era of the Legion of Super Heroes, something that seems to reverberate backwards through time to each Doctor Fate. It seems likely that the man, who's probably a time traveller, is Per Degaton, someone that Justice Society fans will be familiar with.
We also get some moments that show some of the people removed out of time shown at the end of Flashpoint Beyond are integrating back into the timeline, as Alan Scott reads a headline about the Russian super hero/villain Red Lantern in the 1940's. However, knowing what we do about the Stargirl series, it seems like not all of them have returned to their timeline correctly. With the end of the comic being set in the future, where the Justice Society is older, and Helena gets the news of her father's murder and decides to become Huntress, it's unclear for those who've not read solicitations what shape the new Justice Society series is going to take, whether it will involve more time travel, or if it'll be set in the future. Whatever shape it's going to take, this seems like an intriguing beginning.
The comic features multiple artists, all of which take on different styles depending on when its set and who they're following. The segments set in the past have a much more classic comic look to them, and it helps to illustrate incredibly quickly that the reader is in a different time. These styles also differ greatly in both the modern day, the far future, and the Helena Wayne segments, all of which makes for a complex and shifting narrative easier to understand.
The Justice Society are back, they've got an ongoing series, and some of their characters are getting mini series too, so if you're a fan of the original super hero team this is a really exciting time.
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