All Star Comics Archives 000
Comics' first superhero team, the Justice Society of America, appeared in 55 issues of All Star Comics between 1940 and 1951, all of which have been previously reprinted in the Archives series. Those collections skipped the magazine's first two issues, however, which contained stories starring characters from various other DC titles. Hence, this "Volume 0" gathering 16 tales featuring some of the era's best-remembered superheroes, including the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Atom, and the Spectre, all of whom were revived in the 1960s in versions that persist, largely unchanged, to this day. Stories of various third-rate characters who remain deservedly obscure--Ultra-Man, champion of the year 2240; Red, White, and Blue, three U.S. soldiers who fought fifth columnists and other home-front menaces; and Biff Bronson, apparently just a regular guy predisposed to getting into scraps--fill out the book. The artwork may be crude, and the stories ludicrous, but this stuff retains definite charm.
