TITLE: Justice League of America Issue #172
YEAR: November 1979
COMPANY: DC Comics
WRITER: Gerry Conway
ARTIST: Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin
LETTERER: Ben Oda
COLORIST: Jerry Serpe
EDITOR: Ross Andru
A little over a year and half after the “Justice League of America” was released in the ’60s, in August 1963, the first Justice League of America and Justice Society of America teamup was born with issue #21.
And from the ’60s through the ’80s, there would be an annual team-up between both superhero teams from Earth Prime (the superheroes we are aware of – the Justice League of America) and Earth-Two (the superhero team known as the Justice Society of America).
Each planet has their own Flash (Barry Allen and Jay Garrick), their own Green Lantern (Hal Jordan and Alan Scott) and Hawkman (two versions of Carter Hall), while the Justice Society has their detective, The Huntress (daughter of Batman) and Power Girl (Earth-Two’s alternate version of Supergirl) and their powerful hero of magic, Dr. Fate.
In 1979, the annual team-up between the Justice League of America and Justice Society of America didn’t turn out so positive as issue #171 featured the death of Mr. Terrific (Terry Sloane) who was murdered.
With issue #171, Superman immediately shocks everyone that one of them must be the killer. Superman requests both Green Lanterns and Dr. Fate to put a shield around their HQ so no one can escape and an investigation is done.
Batman and the Huntress would be responsible for investigating the death of Mr. Terrific and as the two do their investigation, Batman through talking to each hero and Huntress on the computer, the computer she is working on blows up leaving her with severe burns and knocking her out.
Fortunately, Dr. Fate was able to heal her burns and the Huntress was able to give Batman enough clues when she woke up for a short time.
And through the clues presented, Batman is able to find out who the true killer is and it happens to be the Spirit King who possessed Jay Garrick’s body.
For the most part, this is probably the saddest, most melancholic JLA/JSA team-up that I’ve read because a JSA character dies (and it’s important to note, Tery Sloane has not been brought back by DC Comics and, someone else has since taken on the name).
It’s still a fascinating story but an annual team-up that I never saw coming in this type of fashion!