All-Star Squadron #32

All-Star Squadron #32 (April 1984)

title: "Crisis on Earth-X: The Prequel"
writer/editor: Roy Thomas
penciller: Rick Hoberg
inker: Bill Collins
letterer: Cody & Albert de Guzman

colorist: Gene D'Angelo
letter column: Roy Thomas

cover: Jerry Ordway

Order of Appearance: Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, Black Condor, Doll Man, the Ray, Uncle Sam

Other Stars (speaking parts): Liberty Belle, the Tarantula, the Flash, the Spectre, Midnight, Dr. Mid-Nite, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Johnny Quick, Wonder Woman, Red Torpedo, Miss America, Neon the Unknown, Invisible Hood, Magno the Magnetic Man, Hourman, Wildcat, Ibis, Dr. Fate, Commander Steel, Robotman, Plastic Man, Starman,  Firebrand

Opponents:
Japanese Navy, German Army, Baron Blitzkrieg

Overall Summary: 
Uncle Sam and Doll Man tell their individual tales of woe, which converge in an invasion of Santa Barbara, CA!  

Plot Summary:
The mystery-man named Midnight has burst into a collection of super-heroes at the All-Star Squadron head-quarters, carrying the wounded Doll Man sleeping in a safe deposit box. Green Lantern revives Doll Man as Midnight is patched up by Dr. Mid-Nite. Under the influence of Wonder Woman's magic lasso, Uncle Sam begins to tell the details of how he accidentally teleported himself to another world, a world without any super-heroes that he has dubbed "Earth-X." 

While there, Uncle Sam gets a vision of what he now knows was the Pearl Harbor attack, so he returns to his Earth to recruit some heroes to go back with him to fight the Imperial Japanese Navy. He picked new heroes, who were eager to makes names for themselves, and one veteran, Hourman. Hourman initially refuses to go, but the younger heroes and Uncle Sam's tale of a parallel world eventually convinces him to join in. 

Uncle Sam manages to bring the other six with him back to Earth-X, and they arrive in the air above the Pacific Ocean just as the Japanese Navy is heading towards Pearl Harbor. They manage to defeat the majority of the Zeroes. One remaining warplane gets through on a suicide mission and destroys Red Torpedo's ship, apparently killing all of the heroes except Uncle Sam. 

Sam eventually washes ashore in Hawaii and learns that no attack took place. He is arrested by the US Army as a crazy man. While on Earth-X recuperating, he comes to realize that preventing the Pearl Harbor attack has stalled the US entry into the war, and so Germany and Japan are getting stronger. Uncle Sam has seen another vision, and this time he thinks the Japanese Navy is planning on attacking the US mainland! Therefore, he rushed back for more help. 

Midnight now picks up the story, telling of how he and Doll Man were following Uncle Sam when they saw him, Hourman, and the others travel to Earth-X and jumped into their vortex. Somehow, instead of appearing over the Pacific Ocean with them, Doll Man and Midnight appeared in occupied France. They stop Nazis from killing two civilians, joining the Resistance. They spend two months in Paris. 

Then, earlier that night they learned that the Japanese were planning an attack on the United States. Doll Man and Midnight go to Nazi headquarters in Paris and try to learn the site of the attack so that they could warn the US. However, Doll Man is seen by All-Star Squadron enemy Baron Blitzkrieg, and the team make a hasty retreat. Suddenly, a vortex back to Earth appears, and Midnight, Doll Man, Baron Blitzkrieg, and several Nazis enter it. They appear in New York City, and Midnight hightails it to the All-Star Squadron, having read about them in a newspaper he had picked up. 

Liberty Belle as Squadron leader decides to send a task force with Uncle Sam back to Earth-X to investigate, just as news of a possible enemy submarine sighting in Santa Barbara is coming over the radio. Doll Man confirms that Santa Barbara was the site of the planned attack on Earth-X, too. Unfortunately, there is also news of Nazi sabotage occurring in cities like Metropolis, Gotham, Keystone, and New York. Most of the All-Star Squadron members vow to protect their own cities, rather than go to Earth-X or to California. 

Eventually Liberty Belle, Firebrand, Starman, and Johnny Quick go on a reconnaissance to California while the six members of the Freedom Fighters and Red Bee decide to go with Uncle Sam. The Spectre helps guide the super-heroes to the parallel world, even though "God" does not allow the Spectre to assist them. Unfortunately for them, they appear right in the middle of the Japanese invasion of Santa Barbara! 

Review: 

In my opinion, Roy Thomas is a victim of his own need to be EPIC. This story would have worked LOADS better if he had kept its focus firmly on the six Quality characters who went to Earth-X and who died defending Pearl Harbor. We should have seen the whole story about how Magno, Invisible Hood, Neon, Red Torpedo, and Miss America had succeeded in their initial mission and then chosen to stay on that Earth. These heroes and Uncle Sam could have learned about the attack on Santa Barbara, and THEN Uncle Sam could have come back begging for reinforcements. Then ALL of the other Quality characters (the Jester, Manhunter, Plastic Man, the male Firebrand, the Blackhawks, and the heroes we know as the Freedom Fighters) could have joined Uncle Sam. That gets all of the Quality characters on Earth-X, which is where they belong. 

As it was presented, we get five heroes we've never seen before and who we will never see again  introduced and murdered within six pages. We don't really understand what they can do or who they were, even though Roy (via Uncle Sam) awkwardly throws in their secret identities as he talks about their heroics. 

I am not a fan of Roy Thomas' retro-actively moving the Freedom Fighters from Earth-X to Earth 2 so that they could THEN go to Earth-X. Not only does it throw out all of the Freedom Fighters' individual origins and stories (Black Condor can no longer be a Senator, the Ray can no longer be a reporter, Phantom Lady can no longer protect her father; Doll Man has no Martha Roberts and father to spend time with, etcetera) but as we will soon see, it doesn't really ADD anything to their stories. 

And really, why do this story in the first place? None of the Freedom Fighters except Phantom Lady have appeared in All-Star Squadron before, so why not just leave them all on Earth-X, where they started? Why did Roy feel it necessary to have them start on Earth 2? (I'm hazarding a guess, but it was probably because he wanted to use two specific characters, Plastic Man and Phantom Lady!) It has already been established that there is a group of Blackhawks AND a Plastic Man on Earth 1, so why not introduce versions on Earth-X (or is it Earth 2)? And if Roy insisted on having Phantom Lady around, why couldn't there be an Earth-2 version, maybe the blue-and-red version instead of the yellow-and-green original? Why go to the trouble of introducing these characters just so that you won't ever use them again? Just leave them alone! Quality Comics characters = Earth X, unless you want to create Earth 2 versions of any of them. I just don't see the point of this story AT ALL. 

So right off the bat I am not in a good place to enjoy this story. Then, it is just not written very well. Writer Roy Thomas writes things with plot contrivances that Editor Roy Thomas shouldn't have allowed to get through. For example: Uncle Sam "has a vision" of Japanese warplanes attacking an Army base, so he brings back several heroes to this other world, and they just HAPPEN to appear in the middle of the Pearl Harbor attack. Awfully convenient, wouldn't you say? Then Doll Man and Midnight just happen to arrive at Hourman's laboratory, just in time to go through the same vortex, but THEY arrive not in the Pacific, but in the middle of a Nazi attack in Occupied Paris. Also pretty damn convenient for the story! Later, Midnight and Doll Man escape from Baron Blitzkrieg using one of Uncle Sam's vortexes, which just happens to open up around them just when they need it. Pretty damn unlikely. Likewise, Doll Man speaks German and French, because someone has to. Invisible Hood is able to understand Japanese plans to "fight to the death," which really adds nothing to the story. He also happens to have the ability to fly a Zero fighter plane, because, otherwise what good can an invisible man have against a squad of murder machines? Later, Midnight knows all about the All-Star Squadron and our entry into World War Two, even though he just returned to our world earlier this evening. Roy explains that he happened to pick up a newspaper that just happens to mention the Squadron AND their headquarters' location. Contrived much? Lastly we have Uncle Sam inextricably being able to move back and forth between parallel worlds, but only so long as it is convenient for the plot. When it's convenient that he loses this power, he does. At the end of the story Roy decides that it's necessary for the Spectre to be involved in the transportation to Earth-X, even though last issue the Spectre didn't even agree that parallel universes were a thing. This is just poorly written stuff, and I am not a fan.  

Back on Earth 2, the "main" characters don't get treated any better. Last issue there were nearly 50 super-heroes present at the All-Star Squadron meeting, remember? Yet this time, only a third of them appear. Because they are no longer important to the story, the majority of Squadron members from last issue fade into the background. But why didn't any of them join Starman, Liberty Belle, Firebrand, and Johnny Quick in their trip to Santa Barbara? If the Japanese really are attacking, don't you think a little bit more manpower would be helpful? Now, obviously, the Justice Society and the Seven Soldiers of Victory couldn't get shuffled off to Earth-X. But was there really any good reason that throw-away characters like Airwave, the Whip, Mr. America, Sargon, TNT, and Dan the Dyna-Mite couldn't have participated in the adventure more, either to Santa Barbara or to Earth-X? Atleast that would have toyed with the concept a bit more. 

Of course, including Hourman in the original group was exactly the kind of plot twist that I was just suggesting, and last issue I enjoyed the idea that perhaps the reason Hourman left the JSA was to travel to Earth-X. However, this time out he is "killed" along with the others. This only makes me doubt the whole direction of this story more. (Spoiler alert, Hourman isn't dead.) Does that mean that the others are somehow alive, too? I sure hope so.

Similarly, the illogical inclusion of Baron Blitzkrieg in this story leaves me scratching my head. He is now on Earth-X?!? Why do we even need this sub-plot about Baron Blitzkrieg? He adds nothing to the plot whatsoever.  And by the way, Midnight seems to know him from his attack on Winston Churchill back in All-Star Squadron #s 7-9.  Yet that happened in late December 1941. So how did Midnight know about it, if he was already on Earth-X by that point?  

My last complaint is the ability of Uncle Sam to know who Hourman is in his secret identity. Is this a matter of Uncle Sam having some type of "sixth sense" where he recognizes a person's "soul" regardless of what s/he is wearing? If so that would be cool, but it was never something seen before and Roy doesn't clearly explain it. More likely, it's another case of Editor Roy needing Uncle Sam to sneak up on Rex Tyler, so he allows Writer Roy to make (another) short-cut in plotting. 

Check back next issue when the story gets worse! 

Best Moment

Hourman gives the Freedom Fighters their name. 

Well done, but I wish it had been one of the Quality Comics characters instead. 

Worst Moment

A rat ON the LEDGE surprises Doll Man, 

and they make enough noise to attract the Baron's attention. Oy, vey 

Freedom of Information

• For the second issue in a row, Doll Man and the Human Bomb do not appear on the cover. 
• The date of the events of this story is given as February 23, 1942. This is the date of an actual attack on Santa Barbara by Imperial Japan, the Bombardment of Ellwood. 
• Ish Kabibble was a radio and movie comedian of the early 1940's.  
• Historically, 79 Zeroes attacked Pearl Harbor. 
• We learn in this story that Doll Man speaks both German and French. 
• Baron Blitzkrieg made his debut in World's Finest #246. 
• Kamikaze fighter pilots did not enter the war until 1944.  
• Although Plastic Man, the Jester, Midnight, and one of the Manhunters were all Quality Comics characters, none of them go with Uncle Sam to Earth-X.  

The Freedom Fighters

assembled by Len Wein