The Stop Button

Wally Wood takes over the full art duties and eighty-sixes Power Girl’s cleavage window, making All-Star immediately feel a little more grown-up. Helping set it back—writer Paul Levitz now makes special time to gripe about Power Girl being too into women’s lib and not gracious enough to the men around her.

Otherwise, the majority of All-Star’s ongoing problems get a respite. There’s still the whining—Hourman whines about how no one needs him, Green Lantern whines about how no one cares about his money troubles—but there’s also time travel to Camelot and a big reveal at the end.

In the present, Star-Spangled Kid has turned his cosmic rod into a belt, which doesn’t really feature in the story at all. Other than Kid pissing off Power Girl because he does something nice but she can’t appreciate how men are, actually, just trying to help her. Levitz takes the time to point out her personality defects after these moments, which is cruddy but now expected.

Superman—who last issue promised he was retiring (again) from the JSA—rejoins this issue (he’s back at headquarters for some reason too, even before rejoining). It works out because Wood clearly enjoys doing Golden Age Superman in “modern” comics. Quotations for modern because they really lean into the Camelot time travel for a bit, complete with slight costume changes.

They’re back in the past because Flash and Green Lantern show up at JSA headquarters with Shining Knight, who they discovered in Egypt while looking for Dr. Fate’s cure (Dr. Fate’s recuperating off-page). Presumably, original series writer (and editor) Gerry Conway had a different development in store for the Egyptian sojourn, but Levitz uses it to send the team into the past; the Romans are attacking Camelot, which is ahistorical (Camelot being historical could just be an Earth-Two thing, right?).

After that whining from Hourman and Green Lantern, the team heads back, fighting some knights before ending up at the castle for their briefing with Merlin and Arthur. Despite being a seemingly essential guest star, Shining Knight disappears around this point. He’s definitely not there once the heroes realize something else is going on.

Specifically, Power Girl notices something else is going on, bringing it to her cousin Superman’s attention. Now, if Golden Age Superman is the crème de la creme, why doesn’t he notice it? Because he’s too busy crying havoc. One wonders if editor Joe Orlando was ever once concerned with internal consistency. Again, probably not.

The Wood art is nice, even when he’s brushing over plot holes (or creating them himself).

All-Star’s not exactly good, now, but it’s majorly improved.

Also doesn’t hurt Wildcat is nowhere to be found.