JL #17 "A Matter of TIME!" Afterward

So what did you think?

The "theme" of this issue was partnerships. Not only was all the work done by pairs, but even the work that was done singularly was done by two people working independently (Green Lantern and Aquaman). Black Canary and Green Arrow open the adventure (again) by what they consider a "routine" job. Green Lantern and then Aquaman working NOT together stop (sort of) the rocket. Then Hawkman and Hawkwoman find Chronos' head-quarters. Superman and The Flash think they can solve the whole problem on their own (they're wrong; this series isn't called SUPERMAN, ya know). Then the Flash and the Elongated Man manage to knock Chronos out and wrap him up. I enjoyed doing that scene, because I enjoy making connections to previous issues. The Flash was captured by Chronos back in issue #11, and he references that meeting here.

This story was based on SUPER FRIENDS #22 by Denny O'Neil and Ramona Fradon. However, in the original story Chronos has three idiot assistants called Seconds, Minutes, and Hours. They were not in continuity before that and were never seen again. Also, and more importantly, they are totally worthless, and end up causing Chronos' down-fall. When the Super Friends can't figure out a way into Chronos' head-quarters, they decide to convince him and his gang that the time wave has gone rogue and stopped ALL time so that they will turn the wave off. It's a hoakey and stupid plot and doesn't work nearly as well as *my* action ending, if I do say so myself. :-)

In the SUPER FRIENDS story it is Batman and Robin stopping a gang in Gotham City instead of Black Canary and Green Arrow stopping Two-Face (who was well known due to the BATMAN FOREVER movie). Aquaman cleaned up after Superman, not Green Lantern. Then it was Wonder Woman noticing the blimp instead of Hawkman & Hawkwoman. Since Wonder Woman still saves Superman (and the Flash) from the time wave, I figured this was a fair division of the labor. Re-reading it now, I think I gave all of the members something to do. Believe me, with twelve members it wasn't always easy!

I like that I kept Martian Manhunter at the satellite during the entire story. Similar to issue #6, he  manuevers the other members while staying on monitor duty. This time, however, he never "ups" the code to "red," meaning Aquaman and Green Lantern don't have to come in. I know I thought about not using all the members here, but like I've discussed before, with only so many issues coming out (and this particular issue being new after more than a year) I ended up included everybody. In the next two, I wouldn't. :-)

I also should say that I was really enjoying drawing these stories. I have to say that I really like the way the JLAers would interact with each other in my stories. These panels reprinted here, for example; I think I was getting better at body language and character placement. I know I had fun with this issue and the next two, and I think it shows in the work. This one, being the first one back after a short sabbatical, seems more tentative than the next two. But maybe that's just me....


The other thing I liked about this story was that Black Canary, who I have tried to show as a tactitian similar to Batman, derides Superman for busting forward and trying brute force first and getting caught in the time wave. I suppose if you were Superman you would always try the obvious way first. On the other hand, if you were the one hanging out with Superman, I think you would always be thinking things through, if only to try to keep up with him! In my mind, she definitely belonged in the League.

One more thing about Black Canary in this issue....I had her and Green Arrow riding on her motorcycle without wearing helmets. In Japan all students MUST wear helmets when they ride their bicycles to school, and when this issue came out, SO many people said, "Isn't she supposed to be wearing a helmet!?!" It hadn't even occurred to me, haha!

This issue was well received by my students so I continued with the two stories I was already beginning to work on. Next up: an adaptation of another one of my favorites, this one based on the real JLA issue "Doom of the Divided Man!"

JL #17 "A Matter of Time!"

Here's your omnibus "reading" version of the Justice League's battle against Chronos the Time Thief! 

JL #17 "A Matter of TIME!" Roll Call

JL #17 "A Matter of TIME!" Forward

Starting with this issue I started to update and revise already published stories to fit "my" DC universe. By this time I had gone back to the States on vacation and picked up some more of my comic-book collection, including all of my AQUAMAN, JUSTICE LEAGUE, and SUPER FRIENDS books. My goal was to try to cut down on the time and effort of writing these bilingual comics so I could spend more time drawing them, theoretically publishing them more often.

As I've explained before, my "publishing" schedule went from April of one year to March of the next, which was (and still is) the school year in Japan. I would try to get my first issue of the new volume out pretty quickly, say in early May, so that the new kids in my English class would be exposed to them right away. Then over the course of the year I would try to have an issue in the late summer (when I sometimes had more time to actually work on them) and then again in the later winter/early spring. Too close to March and I would run out of time and the kids would, too, often missing classes for more important life events at the end of the school year.

So....keeping that in mind, it is strange that last issue #16 was published in 1995. That would have been February or March for sure, as it was the end of a two-parter and I never let those storylines hang over the course of a school year.

And yet here we are in 1996 already.

What happened was that the kids SO hated the Teen Titans/Dr. Destiny issue in #16 that I got discouraged for the second time and swore off making these comics. I was burnt out and feeling unappreciated! Plus I'm sure there were plenty of other things going on in my life...this would have been the time when I had three good friends living near my town and we did all sorts of international events together.

However, eventually I got bitten by the creative bug again. Like I said, I had comic source material by that point, so I probably sat down and played with a couple different issues, trying to come up with the best fit. In the end, the next three issues would end up being "re-imagined" stories. First up: SUPER FRIENDS #22. It features Chronos, a villain I had already established in "my" DC universe. It featured all the main super-heroes, and then I was able to wedge in a few additional characters. And I actually like my ending better than the original's, haha!

cover by Ramona Fradon

Translation was assisted by my office co-worker again, Mrs. Ikuko Ochiai. In this first issue I "re-imagined" you can see that I did not credit Ramona Fradon for the layout of the art. So I want to point that out here: several of the pages' layouts were copied directly from Ms Ramona Fradon's wonderful work. Thank you!

JL #17 "A Matter of TIME!" cover

I like this look, with all twelve of the JLAers on the cover....but I *don't* understand why I didn't have Chronos raising his arms ala the hands of a clock to push the symbolism. Dumb!

First and only time the JLA "shield" logo was not used on the cover.

Click on it to "super-size" it.