Tuesday, October 23, 2012

JLA: Scary Monsters #1 (May, 2003)



In the Dakota Badlands of 1877, U.S. Calvary soldier Abel Carmody rescued the granddaughter of an American Indian shaman who gave his life to contain a demoniac hoard that had plagued Black Spirit Lake and slaughtered Carmody's troop. Carmody eventually married the girl, become a great industrialist, and constructed the fortress "Carmody’s Folly" in preparation for another terrifying assault.

In 2003, Plastic Man was on monitor duty aboard the JLA's lunar Watchtower. Aquaman was on leave. Superman was on active duty, combating global issues. Batman, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman were all on-call, the latter in New Zealand on a forest hike with adolescent girls.


Vacationing elsewhere were Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, his girlfriend Jade, the Flash, and his wife Linda, who had taken to the Spirit Lake Resort for a vacation. Also at the resort were Kishana Lewis and three fellow forest service fire fighters, who were called out by resort manager William Hume to insure that there would be no sparks lit under the hot summer sun. Within hours, Lewis had made a fire, and left her men to burn in it. Smoke over the south ridge had alerted Flash and Green Lantern, where they found Lewis in shock and rambling. Clearing the flames, the heroes were attacked by the possessed bodies of the firemen, whose supernatural abilities allowed them to circumvent the Leaguers’ powers. The firemen spontaneously combusted just as the dual titans were ready to collapse. This marked the arrival of on-call League back-up, likely called to the western Badlands by Jade, who joined them in discovering Flash and Green Lantern unconscious.

By Chris Claremont, Joshua Hood and Sean Parsons.

2 comments:

karl said...

Do you remember the Retro DC issues that were brought out late last year, showing unseen stories from the 60s, 70s and 80s? It was generally well-regarded that the 90s issue with a Messner-Loebs/Eric Luke tale about Diana left with a group of young girls was the best one.
Your piece here - with the line about Diana going for a nature hike with some girls - could almost have come from that era. With a bit of handy ret-conning it could fit right in to continuity!

Diabolu Frank said...

I'd have to reread the issue, but I thought the Messner-Loebs/Moder Retroactive was set during their run together, pre-Deodato? I liked that one, but I think I dug the Dr. Psycho/Silver Swan sequel more.