'Justice Society' to split

July 24, 4:36 PMComics ExaminerBrian Steinberg

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Is JSA getting too big?

In what seems to be part of a trend, DC Comics is dividing its venerable "Justice Society" team, and will soon feature two different factions of the group going foward. This manuever follows Marvel sporting three different versions of its popular Avengers as well as a recent storyline that features certain members of DC's Justice League splitting off from the main group to run a sideline that has more of a vigilante spirit.

While the idea certainly has potential - "JSA" features dozens of characters, and some of them are young and clash with the veterans, making a split  a reasonable path to pursue - it also could fizzle out. Over the last few years, JSA has been a must-read, thanks to storylines from scribe Geoff Johns that treated the team more like a family than a bunch of people in capes and tights scrambling around to defeat World-Dominator Z or Supervillain Y.

Part of the series' charm has been the fact that it features characters who have been around since the 1940s (Golden Age Flash, Golden Age Green Lantern, and Wildcat), along with newbies and revamps of older concepts (Citizen Steel, Judomaster, Jakeem Thunder and a new version of Doctor Mid-Nite). The whispers from the blogs suggest that one team will consist of the older folks who have a certain way of getting things done - using their brains and experience, no doubt - and the young upstarts who like to think with their fists.

My question is: If  the success of "Justice Society" has hinged on veterans schooling the young'uns, will two different series serve only to remove that tension and make the stories less interesting? And does the average comic-book fan have the dollars in this economic climate to take on two different comics where one once sufficed?

Three Avengers, two Justice Leagues (for a time) and now, two JSAs. Just because there are enough characters out there to shove into one or more teams doesn't mean fans have enough money - or attention - for them all. You'd never see super-hero teams fight each other regularly, but the two JSAs may well be duking it out for share of wallet in the not-too-distant future.