All-Star Companion Volume 2 (ALL STAR COMPANION TP)

Editor Thomas' All Star Companion (2004), a comprehensive guide to the 1940s comic book featuring the first superhero team, the Justice Society of America, seemed to be the last word on the subject. Apparently not, though, for here is a companion volume that turns over further stones by covering the costumed heroes of All Star's comic-strip format advertising, such as Roll-hawking Captain Tootsie; membership kits offered for 15 cents to those who joined the Junior Justice Society; and corrections and addenda to the first volume. The preponderance of volume 2 is, however, devoted not to the original 1940s series but to an issue-by-issue rundown of The All-Star Squadron, the 1970s comic reviving the JSA, which Thomas scripted. The comeback's later date suggests that this book may have a larger initial audience of nostalgics than volume 1 did, for baby boomers read Squadron; their parents, its forerunner. Remarkably, more apparently remains to be said about these characters and their exploits, and Thomas promises a third volume. Gordon Flagg
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