David's Reviews > JSA: Ragnarok

** spoiler alert ** I just finished reading “JSA: Ragnarok” by Paul Kupperberg (2020*).

I put an asterisk by 2020 because this book had been in publishing limbo for fourteen years. Kupperberg wrote the book in 2005 for an intended 2006 publishing date by ibooks, the publisher that at that time had a license with DC Comics to publish a number of tie-in prose novels featuring the DC superheroes. ibooks publisher Byron Preiss tragically died in an automobile accident on July 9, 2005, right as Kupperberg was finished writing the book, and ibooks then declared bankruptcy on February 22, 2006, just as it was about to go to press. It then became stuck in the legal limbo until the author was finally able to self publish the book in 2020.

Now, for those not familiar with the Justice Society of America (the “JSA”), they were DC Comics very first superhero team. Introduced in the pages of All Star Comics #3 (cover dated Winter 1940-41), it initially featured the then current versions of the Flash, Green Lantern, the Spectre, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Hourman (then sometimes dubbed “the Hour-Man”), the Sandman, the Atom, and Johnny Thunder. These were all characters that had their own solo features in other titles published by DC (then two separate but linked publishing companies called Detective Comics Inc. and All-American Publications). Superman and Batman were said to be “honorary” Justice Society members, as well, but were rarely ever present.

Originally only published until 1951, the Justice Society returned in 1961 (I won’t go into all of the specific details here; suffice it to say that 1) it was due to the popularity of the then recently launched Justice League of America book, the spiritual successor of the Justice Society, and 2) that it introduced the concept of “parallel Earths” and “the multiverse” to DC and their readers).

By 2005 (when Kupperberg wrote this book, which he had intended to be book one of a trilogy of JSA novels), the Justice Society was enjoying a bit of a renaissance in its own title, “JSA”, written by James Robinson, David S. Goyer, and Geoff Johns, that ran from 1999 to 2006. It is this version of the Justice Society (a mixture of older original members and younger “legacy” successors) that Kupperberg’s novel features (although it also jumps back several times to 1945 and the original team).

(Well, the original team as rewritten over the course of decades of newly written comics. One thing that might seem quite strange to some, for instance, is the presence of Wonder Woman in the 1945 scenes. But not Diana, the version of Wonder Woman most are familiar with, but instead her mother Queen Hippolyta, who briefly took her daughter’s place and traveled back in time to serve as the World War II era Wonder Woman. Yes, it’s convoluted but that’s what oftentimes happens when you are dealing with characters written by many authors over a long period of time.)

Kupperberg addesses who all of the various characters are and their histories as each are introduced to the reader and does a generally good job doing so. However, it does mean for a *lot* of exposition (kind of like this book review so far), which in turn prevents the plot from progressing at a comfortable flow. Instead, many chapters (which are all very short, only a few pages long) start with one character who reflects on his or her situation and life up to that point before tossing that character into some sort of cliffhanger only to jump to a different character at the start if the next chapter.

The overall plot takes place over two main time periods, the “present” (presumably 2006 or thereabouts) and 1945, and during both time periods the Justice Society is having to deal with their usual foes in the Injustice Society of America (a group of supervillains) and the ISA’s attempts to use the mystical Spear of Destiny and two other powerful relics to become supreme rulers of the entire world.

That’s all I want to give away about the plot here. I think I can safely sum up “JSA: Ragnarok” as a book that fans of the source material (the DC Justice Society comics) will probably enjoy a lot more than those not already familiar with these characters who will likely find themselves having difficulty keeping track of who everyone is.

A few observations. One, I have to wonder if Kupperberg experimented any with the order of how he tell this story. Instead of starting in the present, then jumping back to 1945, then back to the present, etc., I kind of think that the story might have worked a bit better if he had started the novel with the primary 1945 sequence first (introducing us to the World War II versions of the JSA and ISA) and then skipped ahead to the present time frame with its newer versions of the two groups of characters.

Two, Kupperberg does not work ignore one of the Justice Society’s most memorable and status changing stories from the comics (one that proved to be rather controversial with the fans), that of the Justice Society becoming trapped in Asgard, the realm of the Norse gods, fighting, dying, and being reborn again only to go through the same never ending cycle over and over again as a way to keep “Ragnarok” from coming to Earth. This happened in a special one-shot comic book titled “The Last Days of the Justice Society of America” (1986, written by Roy and Dann Thomas). This story was told because, at that time, DC wanted the older superheroes of the Justice Society to be written out of then present DC continuity as DC had just rewritten its overall continuity with the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and no longer saw a place for the JSA in it. They instructed the Roy Thomas, who along with his wife Dann had been writing the JSA comics stories for most of the 1980s, to come up with a story doing so. Thomas did not want to kill the characters outright so he instead came up with the trapped fighting in Ragnarok instead which would allow DC to bring back the characters later on if they chose to do so (which they eventually did).

Again, Kupperberg uses this as backstory here. However, he doesn’t touch upon it until very late in the story which I would imagine would make it feel like something coming out of nowhere to a new reader not already familiar with the characters’ history. Something so life changing as having spent what felt like an eternity in an endless cycle of war, death, and rebirth, a nightmare existence in several of these character’s pasts which is only brought up very late in the story (when faced by the same powers and demons once again) seemed a bit off to me.

Lastly, though, ironically enough, the release now of “JSA: Ragnarok” in 2020 actually might benefit from one thing entirely outside of the author’s control, which is the release of the “Stargirl” (a.k.a., “DC’s Stargirl”) television series on the DC Universe streaming service and also on the CW television network in 2020 as “Stargirl” is one of the modern era Justice Society members in the novel, and the “Stargirl” television series is based largely on the 1999-2006 “JSA” comic book series as well as “Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.”, the comic book series that ran from 1999-2000 written by Geoff Johns that introduced the Courtney Whitmore character to readers.

Again, I enjoyed the book because I am a fan of the source material (especially the Justice Society stories of the 1980s but also the later “JSA” run), and I’m very glad that Kupperberg was finally able to see his book come out in print for the rest of us to read. I’m sorry that we will most likely never get to read his intended second and third books in the trilogy.