Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #11 - The Clue of the Broken Locket

There's a certain amount of nostalgia in going back and re-reading books that you haven't read for years and years, and that is certainly true with re-reading the Nancy Drew books.  Growing up, I read the yellow spine books, which were the revised texts for books 1 through 34.  As an adult, I was first introduced to the original text books through the Applewood reprints of books 1 through 21.  I bought those and read them as they were published, but I haven't re-read any of them since (well, at least not until we started doing these Central Florida Sleuth meetings).  So, picking up the original text version of The Clue of the Broken Locket, quite honestly, was just like reading it for the first time.  I honestly did not remember anything from this story.

 

The story was written by Mildred Wirt (who wrote the originals stories for the first six Nancy Drew books, then came back with this one after a 3-book break) based upon an outline provided by Edna Stratemeyer Squier.  The one thing I do enjoy about these early Nancy Drew books is that each mystery was unique - they weren't all some form of "sabotage" as today's books all seem to be.  This mystery centered around the adoption of a pair of twins who were found abandoned in an old canoe on a river bank.  With them were some articles of clothing and a broken locket on a chain.  The twins are adopted by a very absorbed couple who happen to be actors, and who believe they can use the twin babies to further their career.  Nancy's father handled the details of the adoption, but he is now regretting it, as he sees how shallow Mr. and Mrs. Blair (the adoptive parents) are.  Nancy has the opportunity to meet them and is completely disgusted by them.  So, in true Nancy Drew fashion, she decides to set things right by trying to find the real mother.

 

The story features a number of unusual elements and characterizations that, quite frankly, caused me to take longer than normal to read the book.  The first thing that stood out to me is the way Hannah Gruen is portrayed.  Hannah is the faithful housekeeper in the Drew household, and while she has always been concerned for Nancy's safety, she has never been as vocal as she was in this book.  Additionally, Hannah's voiced worries about Nancy bringing those twin babies into the house to be cared for is completely uncharacteristic - "if you're aiming to bring those babies home with you, I may have something to say about it," she says on page 33.  When Nancy jokingly asks if she doesn't like babies, Hannah's response is, "I like them all right, but I don't enjoy turning myself into a nursemaid!"  Hannah's overzealous concern for her cooking is also a bit unusual.  When Nancy asks her to help her by bringing some doll clothes to the Blair's house, Hannah responds on page 28:  "And you want me to come out to Jolly Folly in a taxi?" the housekeeper demanded incredulously. "I"m right in the midst of my baking."  Later, when Nancy isn't eating because she is so focused on the mystery,  Hannah complains on page 138, "Humph! If it ain't one pair of twins it's another. I declare, no one gives me any consideration in this house. Here I slave all morning baking cake and cooking a fine luncheon. Then your father telephones he won't be home, and you refuse to eat!"  Nancy suggests serving them with tea when Rodney and Ruth arrive; however, that plan is also thwarted when Nancy, Rodney and Ruth are called away to help with the babies - to which, Hannah Gruen stands aghast on page 148 and wails, "You can't go before you've eaten!"  Finally, on page 169, when the girls head out and ask Hannah to prepare a picnic lunch for them, she complains, "Now you'll be gone again all day, and my nice cakes never will be eaten!" I don't think I can ever recall a book where Hannah complained so much!

Another interesting tidbit about this book are the characters themselves.  Mr. and Mrs. Blair are so over-the-top, and Mrs. Blair particularly, with her false desire to have the children (which she admits she can't wait to show off to her "friend," who has a child of her own and has belittled Mrs. Blair because of her lack of children), but at every turn, she is disgusted with their crying, and she repeatedly reaches out to Nancy to come over and help quiet the children because the nanny she hired, Colleen, is more interested in her boyfriend and playing dress-up in Mrs. Blair's fine clothes than she is in caring for the children.  And the Blair's producer/agent, Edwin McNeery, wants absolutely nothing to do with the Blair's new children - he is more interested in whether the Blairs will ultimately ruin his latest production.  Then there is Carson Drew.  We see quite a different side of Carson in this book.  Yes, he's still overly indulgent of his daughter - but he shows real regret in arranging this adoption, after he discovers what kind of people the Blairs are.  Further, when the Blairs threaten Nancy after they think she has stolen a necklace from Mrs. Blair, Carson stands up to their attorney, threatening him with slander if he takes any action against Nancy or publishes any false narratives, accusing her of being a thief.  Oh, and we learn Carson is a smoker in this book - for on the very last page, Nancy slips in her father's study where she finds Mr. Drew sitting "in his lounging robe, dreamily blowing rings of smoke toward the ceiling and watching them dissolve into formless vapor" (p. 219).

But the final oddity about this story is the last remarks made by Nancy on page 219.  Curled up next to her father, Millie writes how they "gazed into the open fire before them."  Then she has Nancy remark, "When I look into those flames, I am reminded of other fireplaces."  The statement has absolutely no context, and the only thing I can figure, is Nancy is remembering the fireplace where Mrs. Blair threw the bundles of clothes she believed to belong to the twin babies, which sparked a reaction out of Rodney Brown that caused Nancy to believe Rodney had a connection with the twin babies.  Even if that is the case, the whole scene at the end is unusual (made even more unusual by the fact that there is no reference to the next mystery in the series, which, at this point, had become a staple in the series, advertising the next book at the end of each mystery).

We could also talk about all of the unbelievable coincidences that lead Nancy to unravel the mystery of the twins' parentage, but let's face it - every Nancy Drew mystery is made up of highly unlikely coincidences that would never happen in real life.  But I do want to mention the cover art, as well as the internal illustrations (for the original text, anyway).  The internals are unique, in that they are spread so far apart in the book.  There is one illustration for page 35, but the remaining three illustrations are for pages 181, 197, and 209!  So, readers back in 1934 saw the first illustration at the beginning of the story, then had to wait nearly 150 pages before getting to the next illustration, with two more coming in quick succession thereafter!  I found that odd, since usually the internals are usually spread out throughout the entirety of the book. 

As far as the cover art goes, this is the only Nancy Drew book to feature four different covers.  The first is painted by an unknown artist (why Tandy did not provide the cover as he did for all of the others in the first 26 books of the series remains a mystery), and features Nancy Bess and George finding the other half of the broken locked in the canoe in what appears to be the early morning.  The second cover art, provided by Bill Gillies, provides the same scene, but it appears later in the morning.  The third cover art, provided by Rudy Nappi, features the same scene, but with the addition of the old man (Enos Crinkle - who Nappi used himself as the model for) smoking a pipe and the scene appears to have been shifted to even later in the day.  The fourth and final cover art was also provided by Nappi, but gone is the old pipe-smoking man, and now the scene is at night.  Not sure if it was intentional by the publishers to make each cover later and later in the day, or if it is just coincidence (which might be the case since this is, after all, a Nancy Drew book!).

At any rate, the story was actually very enjoyable.  Nancy is still the head-strong girl as first written by Millie in those early Nancy Drew books, and the mystery is less about whodunnit and more about reuniting lost family and rescuing those twin babies from a horrific home life.  I will say that the identity of the twins' parents come as a bit of a surprise, but it makes for a nice twist to the tale.

RATING:  7 unlatched baby cribs out of 10 for mystery, drama, and a wailing housekeeper who doesn't want her food going to waste!

Jupiter Jet and the Forgotten Radio - Volume 2 of the Jupiter Jet Graphic Novels

When I read the first Jupiter Jet comic book mini-series by Jason Inman and Ashley Victoria Robinson, I assumed that was it.  A lot of independent comics come out and hint at more stories to come, but they never materialize.  That first mini-series was a great read, with thoroughly enjoyable characters and beautiful art by Ben Matsuya, and so when Action Lab comics offered up a graphic novel containing a second story with 17-year old Jacky Johnson and her jet-pack, I snatched it up right away.

Jupiter Jet and the Forgotten Radio picks up about a year after the end of the first story, in which Jacky found a jet pack her father had built and used to it to become the hero, Jupiter Jet.  With the help of her younger brother, Chuck, and her uncle Gabriel (her father's brother), she defeated the Praetor that was maliciously using the people of this planet.  And, oh yeah - most of those people think they are still living on Earth, but as Jacky finds out, they are not!  They are on a moon of Jupiter (hence, the name Jupiter Jet).  So now, a  year later, Jacky (or Jupiter Jet) has advanced her suit so she can fly in space, and as the story opens, she is fending off a robot menace on the edges of the atmosphere.  But what starts as a a minor little mission is only a harbinger of the strange things to come...

Inman and Robinson give readers another fantastical tale of adventure and mystery, starting off with the totally unexpected arrival of Jacky and Chuck's mother!  Readers learn pretty much nothing about their mother in the first story, so her appearance here makes for a great surprise - but, as with any good tale, nothing is as it truly seems.  When Jacky takes off with her mother into space (without so much as a word to her brother or uncle), she is over the moon (literally and figuratively!) to be heading out into the unknown with the woman who has been absent for most of her life.  But upon arrival at the spaceship to which her mother is taking her, Jacky is shocked to find a Praetor waiting for them!  Is this one friend or foe?  Her mother tells her the other woman is a friend - but can Jacky ever really trust an alien whose race has kept her people enslaved for so long?

Something really enjoyable about this story is that not only do we get to see Jacky grow into her role as Jupiter Jet and what that means, but we also see little Chuck realize his dream to be Jupiter Jet's sidekick (in a rather humorous way) when he takes on the role of Saturn Scout!  He has the help of his friend Neil, as well as a long-forgotten radio that he and Neil find in his father's invisible lab (and which radio happens to be programmed with its own artificial intelligence and a voice that sounds remarkably like Jacky and Chuck's father), and he manages to stop a jewel thief named Squeak.  

Meanwhile, Jacky is learning more about her mother when they land on a planet named Justus, which has been the home of Jacky's mother for a number of of years (and which also happens to be over 800 million miles away from Jacky's home world of Europa).  It is here that Jacky's true strength as a hero comes to light, for she must choose between helping the enslaved people of the planet or side with her mother, who seems to have fallen in line with the Praetors.  No matter what choice she makes, someone is going to lose - and when the Praetor her mother has been helping decides to head back to Europa to gather those people for her own use, Jacky must find a way to return to her own world that is so far away!

There's plenty of action, plenty of adventure, and plenty of heart-warming moments throughout the tale, making it one heck of a great read.  Inman and Robinson definitely know how to tell a story with lots of heart, because no matter how many grand space adventures there are, this is still a story about family and exactly what that means for each of the characters.  Oh, and there are definitely some indications that there are more stories yet to be told - the fact that Earth itself is barren, yet someone with a glowing blue arm remains on Earth and knows he and Jupiter Jet will come face to face one day ... the fact that Chuck is still holding onto that radio that his father had instilled with an artificial intelligence ... the fact that the female Praetor is still out there somewhere ... and, oh yeah, the fact that the last page features four preview panels and a blurb saying "Jacky Johnson Will Return in Jupiter Jet Volume 3!"

So, what are you waiting for - get out there and get this book already!

RATING:  9 old potato pancake recipes out of 10 for keeping comic books exactly what they should be - FUN!

The Secret of the Summer Sweetheart - a Britannica Junior Detective mystery

I can't remember where I first saw this book - whether it was on Amazon or whether someone on a Facebook group mentioned it.  I just know that when I saw it and heard the description, I knew it was something I needed to read.  A mystery set in the 1950s, filled with UFO theories and nuclear bomb scares, with a female sleuth, a tough guy on a motorcycle, men in black, a secretive scientist, and a town that honors its teenage detectives - I mean, seriously, who could possibly pass this up?

The Secret of the Summer Sweetheart is the story of the Britannica Junior Detectives - a two-member detective team consisting of Danny "Britannica" Oxford and his younger protege, Mary-Sue Welles.  It is their last year of Junior High, and the prom is in full swing. But Danny and Mary-Sue have anything but dancing on their minds - oh, no, they are intent on unmasking the phantom of the prom (which just so happens to be the title of the first chapter in the book!).  Through diligence and prime deductions, they set out a trap for the culprit, and in front of the entire school, they unmask the creep who was determined to ruin the prom for everyone - the janitor!  

And so sets the stage for the turmoils that are about to face our dynamic duo (no, not THAT dynamic duo - this one!).  After all, it is the 1950s, and despite the fame of the Britannica Junior Detectives, everything is about to change.  Junior High is about to be behind them, and it is time they grow up. While author Gregory R.E. Gallagher (and Corey Hickenbottom, as listed inside on the copyright page - not sure which names are real and which aren't!) definitely pokes fun at our favorite children's mystery series, throwing in some outlandish ideas, some crazy characters, and some over-the-top foibles, there is also a bit of realism thrown into the mix - such as the scare of nuclear threat that everyone believed could happen at any moment ... the idea of what a woman's place is ... and the coming of age of the "beatniks" who had a very different outlook regarding life, the government, and the world around them.  Gallagher manages to use each of these things to further his story in some rather well-played ways.

Danny meets up with a beatnik - a young woman who causes him to question everything about his family, his beliefs, and his own childhood obsession with solving mysteries.  Mary-Sue, in the meanwhile, meets a rebel on a motorcycle who is an outcast, but who may be the only one that can help her solve the "The Mutant of Mercury Marsh" (where there have been accounts of strange happenings, and Mary-Sue is determined to learn if it is a sasquatch, a mutant, or even an alien from outer space). Danny and Mary-Sue clash, and they end up going their separate ways.  Will Danny begin to question his father's loyalty to his country?  Will Mary-Sue uncover the truth about what is going on in Mercury Marsh?  Will Danny's father complete that top secret project he is working on day and night? And will that man in black who keeps appearing all over town reveal his real reasons for being in Bonnifeld?  And when he does, how will it change Danny and Mary-Sue's lives forever?

And something that adds some spice to the tale is the artwork by Jazz Miranda.  You get a mix of mystery and '50s sci-fi on the front cover, with a bit of Archie meets the nuclear war on the back cover.  And the internal illustrations are a nice nod to the children's series of yesteryear, when every mystery had pictures throughout the story that helped bring the mystery to life for young readers.  The book even has its own unique endpapers (which include magnifying glasses, cameras, keys, notebooks - everything a good young sleuth would need to help solve a mystery!).  And if all that weren't enough, Gallagher throws in a little "next book" blurb at the end, promising readers another mystery to come their way: The Curious Case of the Clairvoyant Cult!  Now, I'm not sure whether that is simply intended to be a joke, to keep the parody faithful to the books upon which it is based, or if the author truly intends to provide readers with a follow-up mystery starring the Britannica Junior Detectives.  I, for one, would be thrilled if that second book were to come out!

Overall, this was a really fun read and definitely worth the time!  I would most definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good read - whether you are a mystery fan or not!

 

(Oh, and one final note - although this appears to be self-published, the author does give a nice nod to the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books with his faux publisher name on the bottom of the title page - Dixon & Keen, Ltd!)

RATING:  10 true stories of the weird and mysterious out of 10 for taking all of the things that make the '50s so unique and mixing it with some Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys-style mystery telling to create a fantastic read!

The Mysteries of Maisie Hitchins, Book 6 - The Case of the Spilled Ink

The world of Maisie Hitchins is one I never thought I would visit again.  This is another one of those British series that was being re-packaged and re-published here in America, and I picked up the first five books in the series that were published here. And that was it. No more books were solicited, even though there were a total of eight books in the series.  I kept a constant watch on Amazon, and while books 6, 7, and 8 were never listed individually here in the States, Amazon did list a set of all 8 books (British editions), so I added that to my watch list, but never got around to ordering it.  Well, lo and behold, this past Christmas, when I opened up one of my presents, what did I find but the set of 8 books!  So now, more than four years after I finished book 5, I am finally getting the opportunity to finish reading this series.

The Case of the Spilled Ink is the sixth book, Maisie sets about to help her friend, Alice, once again.  It seems that Alice's father and his new bride, Miss Darling (Alice's former governess), are getting ready to travel for quite a long time, and so they have decided Alice would best be cared for in a boarding school for girls.  Her father donates a considerable sum to "Miss Prenderby's Academy for Young Ladies of Quality" to allow Alice to stay at the school with her cat Snowflake and its two kittens (pets are normally not allowed, but Alice would never dream of leaving them behind!).  Alice is afraid of this new school, but Maisie promises to visit as often as she can (since her grandmother could never possibly afford such a place, and anyway, Maisie would never want to go to a school like that - she was quite content helping her grandmother with the boarding house they ran, as well as solving mysteries).

Author Holly Webb provides readers with another fun-filled adventure as Maisie must help her friend and one of the school's maids, Florence.  It seems that after only a few days at the school, Alice disappears, along with her cats.  The only clue that Maisie has to go on is a bottle of spilled ink in one of the classrooms, which shows cat paw prints leading away from the desk to the door - but the paw prints stop before they reach the door.  Clearly, Maisie deduces, at this point, the cats were picked up and carried away.  Miss Prenderby believes Alice was kidnapped for the intent of getting money from her family.  Maisie, however, believes otherwise.  What kidnapper would take the girl AND her cats?  But when another maid informs Maisie that Florence, the maid who Alice had made a quick friendship with had been fired the very same day, Maisie suspects that something else is afoot.

As with the previous books, the mystery is not overly difficult to figure out (I mean, after all, this is a series aimed at young readers, not at adults); however, there can be no denying it is a fun read, and Maisie searches for clues, follows leads, and jumps into any situation without thinking when it comes to helping out those in need - much like Nancy Drew at any age!  There are plenty of illustrations by Marion Lindsay throughout the book, and like with the golden-age of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys (wayyyyyyy back when), the internal illustrations add visual enjoyment to the story.  

The only drawback to this story (as I have with so many of the children's mystery series being published today) is that the main character is much too young to have all of the freedom and liberty that she has to go wandering through the streets of London at all times of the night and day - and her level of intelligence to discern clues, figure out motives, and uncover culprits is far too advanced for the age of which she is in the book.  Back when I was a kid reading the adventures of Nancy Drew (who was 18), it did not feel unrealistic, as I was not that age yet, so it was something I could look forward to and aspire to when I reached that age.  The ideology today that the characters need to be the same age as the readers to help them better "identify" with the characters does not resonate with me - but, as long a the stories are well written and enjoyable to read, I'm not going to nitpick on the age of the protagonist.

For a quick, fun read, this is certainly a series I would recommend to fans of children's mysteries.

 

RATING:  8 panes of cracked and filthy glass out of 10 for keeping the mysteries light but engaging, and the characters fun to read!

Grendel, Kentucky - an Upshot Comics mini-series

Having been born and raised in Kentucky (Louisville, to be exact), I have a soft-spot when it comes to stories set in my home state.Whether it be Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders Among the Kentucky Mountaineers or Jane Pellew in Kentucky or Unsettled Things, or any number of other books, I can't help but pick them up.  So when I saw this new comic book series from the indy publisher AWA Studios (Upshot), Grendel, Kentucky, I knew right away that I had to have it.  As usual with mini-series, I wait until all of the issues have been published and are in my hands before I read it so that I don't have to wait month-to-month to see what happens - I can read the entire story in one sitting.  I'm honestly not sure what I expected, because quite frankly, I didn't read too much into the premise of the comic when I picked it up - the title enough was what sold it for me.  But after reading the 4-issue mini-series, all I can say is - WOW!

 

Grendel, Kentucky is touted as being a modern-day retelling of the 'Beowulf" tale, but that means little to me - I've never read 'Beowulf.' So, from page 1 of this story, everything in it was totally new to me.  Written by Jeff McComsey and illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards tell the Southern Gothic / horror tale of a small town in Kentucky that has made a deal with a devil - quite literally.  Only, Clyde Wallace tries to break that deal, and it costs him his life.  That one death sets off a chain of events that brings his prodigal daughter, Marnie, back to Grendel, Kentucky (along with her gang of biker women) and reunites her with her brother Denny and her cantankerous grandfather Randall "Pap" Wallace.  By the end of the first issue, readers learn that Clyde Wallace was not killed by a bear - and each member of the Wallace family knows it.  But what they plan to do about it is what this story is really about.

 

McComsey and Edwards build the story in a very thematic manner, with the backstory being told little by little, and the secret that Marnie has been keeping nearly all her life finally coming out just before the grand finale.  There are plenty of gruesome fight scenes, some horrific deaths, some touching scenes, and some hard-hitting, violent scenes of vengeance.  I absolutely love the relationship between Marnie and her brother, Denny, as well as her entire girl-gang biker group.  And while the setting is the backwoods of Kentucky, McComsey does not give us the standard stereotypes.  Marnie is the strong, Sigourney Weaver-type who is not afraid to face down the monster that scared her as a child - both in order to protect her home and to seek vengeance for everything the demon has taken from her.  I honestly wouldn't mind seeing more stories with her, although these four issues tell a complete story and I would not want anything to lessen the impact of this tale.

The art is dark and gritty, but so is the tale, so it works well.  Love the covers that pay homage to the old '70s movie posters!  And speaking of which, at the end of the first issue is a special treat for those who lived in Kentucky, particularly in Louisville.  McComsey and Edwards provide a one-page faux newspaper that gives an article about Clyde Wallace's death.  But that is not what I loved about it.  No, what I thoroughly enjoyed about that newspaper page were all of the movie theater ads.  It appears McComsey and/or Edwards did their research, because they included ads for ACTUAL movie theaters from back in the day - - from the Kenwood Drive-In (which was just down from where I lived!) to the New Albany Drive-In across the river, to the Preston Drive-In - plus, the South Park, Lakewood, and Parkway theaters as well! Yeah, it may be a small thing that means nothing to most people, but for this Kentucky native, that kind of attention to detail just made the entire mini-series that much more enjoyable.

This series is definitely one I would recommend for comic fans, horror fans, and Kentucky fans - a true gem!

RATING:  10 monsters up in a tree out of 10 for a horrifying tale filled with good ol' boys, tough-as-nails women, and an interesting little twist in the final two panels...

JSA - Ragnarok

There was definitely no better way to start out 2021 than to read the one and only JSA prose novel! I have been waiting for this book for more years than I can count (well, not really, but it HAS been quite a number of years!).  The JSA (or, more accurately, the Justice Society of America) has long been my favorite superhero team, consisting of my favorite heroes from the pre-Crisis Earth-2 (and if you don't know what that means, go look it up!).  After the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985, DC Comics wiped out all of the alternate earths and merged the JSA into the main earth; however, this meant that these World War II heroes would be fighting side-by-side with their formerly Earth-1 counterparts, and the world would be filled with two Flashes, two Green Lanterns, two Hawkmen, two Hawkgirls, two Atoms, two Wonder Women, etc.  And DC couldn't have that.  So, they elected to send the old-timers into a limbo, forever fighting the undefeatable Surtur in a never-ending cycle of battles to protect all of reality - and so seemed to end the careers of the Justice Society...

Until DC brought them back in the '90s. After a short-lived 10-issue series, writer Geoff Johns breathed new life into the team, creating a legacy of heroes and an absolutely amazing comic book series populated with old and new heroes alike.  And it is this super team that author Paul Kupperberg drew upon for the very first JSA prose novel, Ragnarok.  It was set to be published in early 2006, and I even had it on my Amazon watch list, ready to buy it.  Then the publisher claimed bankruptcy, and the completed JSA novel never saw print.  I kept hoping DC would take it to another publisher, but that didn't happen.  And year after year after year went by, until finally I came to the realization that I would never get to read Kupperberg's tale.

But all that changed when I saw an announcement on Facebook that Kupperberg was going to self-publish the book!  After all this time, I finally was able to get the book and read the prose adventures of the JSA!  And Kupperberg definitely did not disappoint.  Ragnarok is not a re-telling of the JSA's last adventure after Crisis; rather, it was a story that explored the after-effects of that tale.  The story is set in the post-Crisis universe, where Power Girl is uncertain of her origins; where Superman and Batman were never part of the original JSA; where Hippolyta (Wonder Woman's mother) was the Wonder Woman who was a member of the JSA; where Hawkman's son, Hector Hall, is Doctor Fate; where Sand has now taken over the role of Sandman; where Jakeem Thunder now has control of the Thunderbolt, who is merged with the original Johnny Thunder; where Michael Holt has taken over the role of Mr. Terrific; and where the original Flash, Green Lantern, and Wildcat are training the next generation of heroes, such as Stargirl and Hawkgirl.  The story also features the JSA's long-time nemeses, the Injustice Society - the Wizard, the Icicle, the Sportsmaster, the Fiddler, the Tigress, the Shade, Brain Wave, and even Solomon Grundy.  It is a good, old-fashioned story of good vs. evil - the ISA wants to take over the world, and the JSA must stop them.

Kupperberg treats readers to a glimpse into the JSA's past, after the end of World War II, as the world was beginning to settle down following the death of Hitler and defeat of Germany.  The Spear of Destiny takes center stage, both in the past and in the present, and when the Wizard gets all three pieces of the Spear, in conjunction with other mystical objects, it offers him an opportunity for unlimited power - but at what cost?  Is he willing to betray his own villainous teammates to put an end to the JSA once and for all?  And with the JSA on ice (literally!), how will they prevent Surtur from taking them back into his world to return to that eternal battle from which they thought they had escaped?

There's plenty of heroic action, plenty of characterization of our beloved characters, and plenty of dastardly betrayals.  The only thing that was a bit disappointing for me with this story is that Green Lantern mentioned his daughter, Jade, on several occasions - but not once did he mention the fact that he also has a son (Todd Rice, otherwise known as the hero, Obsidian).  There is even a mention of the Infinity, Inc. team, of which Obsidian was a founding member.  So, why the glaring omission?  I can't say, but once can only hope that it was merely an accidental oversight and not an intentional omission.

The story was well-worth the wait, and considering how long it has been now since DC introduced its "New 52" universe and the current "Rebirth" universe, leaving far behind not only the original JSA of Earth 2, but also this version of the JSA from New Earth, it was refreshing and fun to read some more adventures of the team I've loved for nearly all my life. Now, if only DC Comics would bring back the original JSA and tell some more stories of them (perhaps the upcoming JSA cartoon movie will inspire some creators to pitch a new JSA comic to DC.....)

RATING:  9 showings of Casablanca out of 10 for feeding a fan-boy's hunger for more tales of the original super-team!