The Stop Button

Paul Levitz takes over the full writing gig, no longer only dialoguing from a plot, and… well, at least there’s not all the misogyny. Otherwise, there’s not much improvement. It’s definitely somewhat different—we get lots of heroes standing around moping about how they can’t possibly be heroes when there’s so much against them. Dr. Mid-Nite quits, and so does someone else (who’s quit at least once before in All-Star, with Levitz using it for the same story beat again). And the whole thing is supposed to be about how Dr. Fate’s on death’s door.

If only there were a deus ex machina to resolve it. Unexpectedly, it comes a page after filler about Green Lantern and the Flash being in Egypt—at Fate’s subconscious request—to find a cure. There’s also a silly bit with Flash making fun of “mystics,” even though Dr. Fate’s a literal sorcerer and Green Lantern has a magic ring. It’s not so much the internal logic of All-Star not making sense, it’s Levitz not even acknowledging it should.

The issue opens with a big fight scene involving Hawkman, Wildcat, Solomon Grundy, and the Fiddler. The Fiddler has brainwashed Wildcat into beating Hawkman to death. Despite the promises he’s killed him, Hawkman is, in fact, fine. The exposition goes on and on about Wildcat’s fatal fists, but apparently, he didn’t do much actual damage. As the fight resolves, we find out in addition to Wildcat misunderstanding how killing Hawkman (or anyone) works, we find out the JSA has been operating under the assumption Superman and Power Girl are dead from last issue.

They are not.

Wildcat then makes it sound like they just let Superman do all the actual work and wait to see what he’s come up with. With all these heroics on display, what can the rest of the issue hold? Not much aside from the aforementioned moping about not being heroic like in the old days, some oddly static fight scenes (with nice detail from Wally Wood, just not a lot of energy).

The various stakes of the issue—including the supervillains trying to kill the JSA—either get punted or resolved off-page. Hawkman’s “Real Men Could Save Their Wives” arc is another page-burner. Levitz hasn’t got any actual material, just gristle.

The various setups for next time don’t promise much, either. More mysteries, more supervillain plotting, presumably the same contrived plotting.

Levitz doesn’t distinguish himself as the solo writer yet. And doesn’t do anything to imply he will.