SOLOMON GRUNDY versus STAR-SPANGLED KID & JAKEEM THUNDER
Kids (DC)
Where: JSA #29 When: December 2001
Why: Geoff Johns How: Peter Snejbjerg
The Story So Far...
As junior members of the Justice Society of America: Courtney Whitmore and Jakeem Williams were supposed to have a quiet Halloween night in at JSA Headquarters. Instead, trouble finds them when more than the local trick or treating kids come knocking...
Solomon Grundy has been poisoned by The Joker and is more crazed than ever before! Running amok through New York City, he arrives at the JSA's doorstep -- but the depleted senior ranks are already on mission to contain the army of Slab inmates unleashed by The Joker!
It's up to the new Star-Spangled Kid and Jakeem Thunder to face one of the JSA's oldest enemies alone. Joker venom has made him scarier than ever, but that isn't the only thing worrying Courtney: He also killed her predecessor!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Solomon Grundy 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Stargirl 2 (Average)
Speed: Thunderbolt 7 (Light Speed)
Stamina: Thunderbolt 6 (Generator)
Agility: Thunderbolt 7 (Unlimited)
Fighting: Solomon Grundy 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Thunderbolt 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Thunderbolt 37 (Cosmic)
Solomon Grundy is one of the quintessential recurring DC villains. He can show up just about anywhere, at any time, with his demeanor ranging from a murderously rampaging beast -- to a deviously sinister super-villain.
During Infinity Inc #51, Grundy was a love-smitten simpleton who was coerced into murdering Sylvester Pemberton, then known as Skyman.
Pemberton's equipment was subsequently retired to the custody of former sidekick Pat Dugan, whose step-daughter, Courtney Whitmore, inadvertently stumbled upon the gear and chose to become the new Star-Spangled Kid!
Trained and assisted by her step-father; the eventually renamed Stargirl wields both the Cosmic Converter Belt of the Star-Spangled Kid, and the Cosmic Staff invented by Starman, and previously used by Jack Knight. The former grants her enhanced strength, speed, stamina, and energy projectiles that disrupt electrical impulses and the human nervous system. The Cosmic Staff allows her to fly, create force fields, and command devastating energy blasts!
Jakeem Thunder inherited his super-powered legacy when Jay Garrick gifted him a pen that secretly contained the magical being Yz. Better known as The Thunderbolt, the 5th dimensional genie previously served Johnny Thunder when he said the magic word "Cei-U", but now resides within Jakeem Williams' pen!
This is our first time seeing Jakeem Thunder in action, but Stargirl has had two outings with the Justice Society of America. In JSA #64 she ventured into the Dream World to help recover Sanderson Hawkins.
More notably, she had a later encounter with Solomon Grundy in JSA #65, where the undead behemoth was able to snatch her by the ankle and show signs of remembering previous encounters with the Star-Spangled Kids. In that fight it was Sanderson Hawkins who came to the rescue to put Grundy down!
At his most vicious we've seen Solomon Grundy tear the jaw of Killer Croc in Faces of Evil: Solomon Grundy. He was able to withstand the combined efforts of Hawkman, Hawkgirl & Monolith in Hawkman #33, as well as the powerful blows of Bizarro in Solomon Grundy #2. He even punched a hole through The Demon before succumbing to hellfire in Solomon Grundy #2!
Stargirl should be able to give Solomon Grundy a run for his money, but her relative inexperience, and the psychological history of her legacy, may pose barriers. The magical powers of Thunderbolt should make quick work of the behemoth as long as Jakeem can direct them. Let's see what happened...
The Tape: Justice Society Ranking: Solomon Grundy (#142)
What Went Down...
A thunderous earthquake is followed by the sudden crash landing of the Statue of Liberty's head outside the JSA brownstone! Museum curator Alex Montez wonders who would've painted it white with a red smile -- until an equally pale fist reaches down to clobber him on top of the head!
Laughing atop the decapitated monument stands Solomon Grundy!
The hulking villain hoists a stunned Jakeem Thunder by the scruff of his shirt and snatches his magic pen out of its pocket. Grinning he says he'll write a letter to ma, but the only delivery is Star-Spangled Kid's boot to his jaw!
The flying kick launches Solomon Grundy across the street and down the steps of a nearby subway entrance!
The blow also freed Jakeem Thunder from the clutches of the maniacal zombie. He refuses The Kid's offer of help as he gets to his feet, but softens when she reveals Solomon Grundy's role in killing the original Star-Spangled Kid.
The younger hero is ready to charge the subway to take Solomon Grundy down, but a dull rumbling tips SSK off to the oncoming threat of a counter-attack. She dives to tackle Jakeem to the ground -- narrowly avoiding an airborne train!
Star-Spangled Kid knows they should wait for help from the JSA, but her eagerness to take a shot at payback is equaled only by Jakeem's desire to reclaim the pen that contains his friend - The Thunderbolt.
Tentatively, the two junior heroes descend into the darkened subway.
The power is out, but on the platform the bantering teammates can see juvenile graffiti scrawled across the walls. The words 'HA HA HA JSA SUCKS! GRUNDY RULES!' seem to lead down the pitch black train tunnel, but the pair quickly discovers its a simple act of misdirection to lure them into a trap!
Solomon Grundy appears from the shadows behind Jakeem laughing and clutching his magic pen! Star immediately leaps to his rescue!
The Stargirl launches at Grundy with a charging shoulder, following it up with a devastating uppercut that knocks out one of Grundy's teeth, and a volley of shooting stars that embed in his chest and drive him into the concrete wall!
Grundy wraps his massive palm around the Star-Spangled Kid's neck, laughing about the tickle of her attacks. She knows his dead flesh isn't affected by her nerve-numbing stars and compels Jakeem to run.
Instead Jakeem jumps on Solomon Grundy's back and weaponizes one of the villain's own spray cans! Paint blasts Grundy's eye! In his desperation to wipe blinded eyes, Grundy releases the magic pen -- but he also swats Jakeem aside!
Blood dribbles from his mouth as he realizes his pen has slipped through a grate. While he tries to reclaim the magic artifact, Solomon Grundy contemplates killing his second Star-Spangled hero. He holds the Stargirl's head like a basketball and presses it into a wall, reveling in his past murder.
Grundy places a second hand over The Kid's head as she feebly threatens to kill him. The zombie laughs about making her like himself -- dead -- unaware of the lightning spark that arcs between Jakeem's outstretched finger and his magic pen! They're reunited and with a simple click The Thunderbolt is released!
Jakeem commands his faithful genie to burn Solomon Grundy from the inside out. A wish the crackling Thunderbolt is all too glad to grant!
The pink dynamo streaks into a stunned Grundy's mouth. Within moments light begins to blast from inside the ashen zombie's eyes and ears as he clutches helplessly at his throat and burns from the core!
Jakeem checks on Star while the Thunderbolt emerges from the still grinning, smoldering corpse of Solomon Grundy. It collapses into a pile of ash, "Back to the swamp with you, beast!"
The Hammer...
A good team effort gives Thunderbolt the chance to deliver a finishing blow with extreme prejudice! It wouldn't have happened without the diligent efforts of Star-Spangled Kid and his master Jakeem Thunder!
Solomon Grundy may've been burned to a crisp, but as we've seen time and again -- the deathless zombie will rise once more from Slaughter Swamp to spread his unending curse of terror! Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday!
JSA #29 is all around a fantastic issue. I would highly recommend seeking it out to anyone remotely interested. I would also strongly suggest reading it in print, if you can.
Peter Snejbjerg does an incredible job on art duties, but I would also heap massive amounts of praise upon colorist John Kalisz, who does an outstanding job building mood and atmosphere with palette and tone. Sometimes those colours just don't translate to digital.
This is also the Geoff Johns who made reading DC Comics in the 2000s such a pleasurable experience. It's a script that scratches a lot of different itches from different angles, intuitively drawing together disparate references to create a wonderful whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
On a basic level the issue functions as an enjoyable rite of passage story in the tradition of Uncanny X-Men #143. Courtney and Jakeem are stuck home alone and forced to face a terrifying, overwhelming threat. In doing so, they mature as heroes, learn more about each other, and strengthen their bond.
The issue is satisfying on that level, but as with many Johns projects of the time, digging a little deeper will enhance everything with grander context and meaning. Inherent in this series is the simple fact that everything, including both junior JSA members, has direct legacy ties to heroes of the early 1940s.
Stargirl (as she was later renamed) and Jakeem Thunder are strong examples of developing intuitive new legacy characters. They draw from the original Star-Spangled Kid and Johnny Thunder, respectively, but growing into their roles, rather than simply supplanting them, is a big part of the story.
The reader is given ample opportunity to meet these new heroes as they're introduced in different series. Through a natural development process, each also becomes more distinctively realized through lived experience -- like this fight with Solomon Grundy -- and their natural involvement with other characters, such as the enduring JSA members who have become mentor figures.
It's debatable whether attempts to revamp the original Star-Spangled Kid for a modern 1980s audience were successful. "Skyman" had some nostalgic charm, but mythologizing his death in a 1988 issue of Infinity Inc, rather than undoing it, was arguably the strongest way to galvanize his legacy, and build something new from it. As part of Stargirl's backstory, it immediately creates a natural link with Solomon Grundy, enhancing both characters, and the fabric of the DCU.
We haven't even addressed the fact that this is also a banner event tie-in for Joker: Last Laugh! The contextual links go backwards and forwards, people!
To some degree Last Laugh is an unnecessary imposition, but the story uses the high concept of Joker infecting villains to simply add colour to the issue. It gives Solomon Grundy an excuse to be a little bit creepier and weird than usual. His full page entrance, laughing on top of the Statue of Liberty's decapitated head, is almost worth the tie-in all on its own!
The event and its flair also place the issue in time, which can be nice. It breaks up the monotony, and infuses the sudden appearance of the antagonist with a bit more meaning. The imposition of the event really helps sell the story, which comes at a time when much of the Justice Society has been take captive by Roulette, and forced to compete in an underground fight club.
Again I would stress that all of this extra information merely serves to enhance the issue. You should be able to quite happily read JSA #29 without being particularly concerned with any of it. You'll pick up the sense that there's more to the story than what's happening presently, but it isn't overly important, or distracting. This is a wonderful Halloween issue unto itself.
If you'd like to get a good look at the entire issue yourself, but aren't able to find the single issue, you can find it collected in JSA Vol. 3: The Power of Legacy or JSA Omnibus Vol. 2.
Use the Amazon links provided for any of your shopping and the online retailer will support the legacy of the site at no extra cost to you! You can also take a more direct route with Patreon, where patrons can get involved with additional updates, special article requests, and voting polls.
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 600 battles with more on the way! You can discover more by following links throughout this post, or dive into the Secret Archive for a complete index of featured smackdown in order of publisher, series, and issue number.
Get extra updates and daily links to featured fights inspired by the topics of the day by following on Twitter and Facebook. Make sure to hit like & share!
Winners: Thunderbolt, Jakeem Thunder & Stargirl
#97 (+101) Thunderbolt [+1 kill]
#95 (+47) Stargirl
#339 (new) Jakeem Thunder
#146 (-4) Solomon Grundy
Where: JSA #29 When: December 2001
Why: Geoff Johns How: Peter Snejbjerg
The Story So Far...
As junior members of the Justice Society of America: Courtney Whitmore and Jakeem Williams were supposed to have a quiet Halloween night in at JSA Headquarters. Instead, trouble finds them when more than the local trick or treating kids come knocking...
Solomon Grundy has been poisoned by The Joker and is more crazed than ever before! Running amok through New York City, he arrives at the JSA's doorstep -- but the depleted senior ranks are already on mission to contain the army of Slab inmates unleashed by The Joker!
It's up to the new Star-Spangled Kid and Jakeem Thunder to face one of the JSA's oldest enemies alone. Joker venom has made him scarier than ever, but that isn't the only thing worrying Courtney: He also killed her predecessor!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Solomon Grundy 6 (Invincible)Intelligence: Stargirl 2 (Average)
Speed: Thunderbolt 7 (Light Speed)
Stamina: Thunderbolt 6 (Generator)
Agility: Thunderbolt 7 (Unlimited)
Fighting: Solomon Grundy 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Thunderbolt 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Thunderbolt 37 (Cosmic)
Solomon Grundy is one of the quintessential recurring DC villains. He can show up just about anywhere, at any time, with his demeanor ranging from a murderously rampaging beast -- to a deviously sinister super-villain.
During Infinity Inc #51, Grundy was a love-smitten simpleton who was coerced into murdering Sylvester Pemberton, then known as Skyman.
Pemberton's equipment was subsequently retired to the custody of former sidekick Pat Dugan, whose step-daughter, Courtney Whitmore, inadvertently stumbled upon the gear and chose to become the new Star-Spangled Kid!
Trained and assisted by her step-father; the eventually renamed Stargirl wields both the Cosmic Converter Belt of the Star-Spangled Kid, and the Cosmic Staff invented by Starman, and previously used by Jack Knight. The former grants her enhanced strength, speed, stamina, and energy projectiles that disrupt electrical impulses and the human nervous system. The Cosmic Staff allows her to fly, create force fields, and command devastating energy blasts!
Jakeem Thunder inherited his super-powered legacy when Jay Garrick gifted him a pen that secretly contained the magical being Yz. Better known as The Thunderbolt, the 5th dimensional genie previously served Johnny Thunder when he said the magic word "Cei-U", but now resides within Jakeem Williams' pen!
This is our first time seeing Jakeem Thunder in action, but Stargirl has had two outings with the Justice Society of America. In JSA #64 she ventured into the Dream World to help recover Sanderson Hawkins.
More notably, she had a later encounter with Solomon Grundy in JSA #65, where the undead behemoth was able to snatch her by the ankle and show signs of remembering previous encounters with the Star-Spangled Kids. In that fight it was Sanderson Hawkins who came to the rescue to put Grundy down!
At his most vicious we've seen Solomon Grundy tear the jaw of Killer Croc in Faces of Evil: Solomon Grundy. He was able to withstand the combined efforts of Hawkman, Hawkgirl & Monolith in Hawkman #33, as well as the powerful blows of Bizarro in Solomon Grundy #2. He even punched a hole through The Demon before succumbing to hellfire in Solomon Grundy #2!
Stargirl should be able to give Solomon Grundy a run for his money, but her relative inexperience, and the psychological history of her legacy, may pose barriers. The magical powers of Thunderbolt should make quick work of the behemoth as long as Jakeem can direct them. Let's see what happened...
The Tape: Justice Society Ranking: Solomon Grundy (#142)
What Went Down...
A thunderous earthquake is followed by the sudden crash landing of the Statue of Liberty's head outside the JSA brownstone! Museum curator Alex Montez wonders who would've painted it white with a red smile -- until an equally pale fist reaches down to clobber him on top of the head!
Laughing atop the decapitated monument stands Solomon Grundy!
The hulking villain hoists a stunned Jakeem Thunder by the scruff of his shirt and snatches his magic pen out of its pocket. Grinning he says he'll write a letter to ma, but the only delivery is Star-Spangled Kid's boot to his jaw!
The flying kick launches Solomon Grundy across the street and down the steps of a nearby subway entrance!
The blow also freed Jakeem Thunder from the clutches of the maniacal zombie. He refuses The Kid's offer of help as he gets to his feet, but softens when she reveals Solomon Grundy's role in killing the original Star-Spangled Kid.
The younger hero is ready to charge the subway to take Solomon Grundy down, but a dull rumbling tips SSK off to the oncoming threat of a counter-attack. She dives to tackle Jakeem to the ground -- narrowly avoiding an airborne train!
Star-Spangled Kid knows they should wait for help from the JSA, but her eagerness to take a shot at payback is equaled only by Jakeem's desire to reclaim the pen that contains his friend - The Thunderbolt.
Tentatively, the two junior heroes descend into the darkened subway.
The power is out, but on the platform the bantering teammates can see juvenile graffiti scrawled across the walls. The words 'HA HA HA JSA SUCKS! GRUNDY RULES!' seem to lead down the pitch black train tunnel, but the pair quickly discovers its a simple act of misdirection to lure them into a trap!
Solomon Grundy appears from the shadows behind Jakeem laughing and clutching his magic pen! Star immediately leaps to his rescue!
The Stargirl launches at Grundy with a charging shoulder, following it up with a devastating uppercut that knocks out one of Grundy's teeth, and a volley of shooting stars that embed in his chest and drive him into the concrete wall!
Grundy wraps his massive palm around the Star-Spangled Kid's neck, laughing about the tickle of her attacks. She knows his dead flesh isn't affected by her nerve-numbing stars and compels Jakeem to run.
Instead Jakeem jumps on Solomon Grundy's back and weaponizes one of the villain's own spray cans! Paint blasts Grundy's eye! In his desperation to wipe blinded eyes, Grundy releases the magic pen -- but he also swats Jakeem aside!
Blood dribbles from his mouth as he realizes his pen has slipped through a grate. While he tries to reclaim the magic artifact, Solomon Grundy contemplates killing his second Star-Spangled hero. He holds the Stargirl's head like a basketball and presses it into a wall, reveling in his past murder.
Grundy places a second hand over The Kid's head as she feebly threatens to kill him. The zombie laughs about making her like himself -- dead -- unaware of the lightning spark that arcs between Jakeem's outstretched finger and his magic pen! They're reunited and with a simple click The Thunderbolt is released!
Jakeem commands his faithful genie to burn Solomon Grundy from the inside out. A wish the crackling Thunderbolt is all too glad to grant!
The pink dynamo streaks into a stunned Grundy's mouth. Within moments light begins to blast from inside the ashen zombie's eyes and ears as he clutches helplessly at his throat and burns from the core!
Jakeem checks on Star while the Thunderbolt emerges from the still grinning, smoldering corpse of Solomon Grundy. It collapses into a pile of ash, "Back to the swamp with you, beast!"
The Hammer...
A good team effort gives Thunderbolt the chance to deliver a finishing blow with extreme prejudice! It wouldn't have happened without the diligent efforts of Star-Spangled Kid and his master Jakeem Thunder!Solomon Grundy may've been burned to a crisp, but as we've seen time and again -- the deathless zombie will rise once more from Slaughter Swamp to spread his unending curse of terror! Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday!
JSA #29 is all around a fantastic issue. I would highly recommend seeking it out to anyone remotely interested. I would also strongly suggest reading it in print, if you can.
Peter Snejbjerg does an incredible job on art duties, but I would also heap massive amounts of praise upon colorist John Kalisz, who does an outstanding job building mood and atmosphere with palette and tone. Sometimes those colours just don't translate to digital.
This is also the Geoff Johns who made reading DC Comics in the 2000s such a pleasurable experience. It's a script that scratches a lot of different itches from different angles, intuitively drawing together disparate references to create a wonderful whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
On a basic level the issue functions as an enjoyable rite of passage story in the tradition of Uncanny X-Men #143. Courtney and Jakeem are stuck home alone and forced to face a terrifying, overwhelming threat. In doing so, they mature as heroes, learn more about each other, and strengthen their bond.
The issue is satisfying on that level, but as with many Johns projects of the time, digging a little deeper will enhance everything with grander context and meaning. Inherent in this series is the simple fact that everything, including both junior JSA members, has direct legacy ties to heroes of the early 1940s.
Stargirl (as she was later renamed) and Jakeem Thunder are strong examples of developing intuitive new legacy characters. They draw from the original Star-Spangled Kid and Johnny Thunder, respectively, but growing into their roles, rather than simply supplanting them, is a big part of the story.
The reader is given ample opportunity to meet these new heroes as they're introduced in different series. Through a natural development process, each also becomes more distinctively realized through lived experience -- like this fight with Solomon Grundy -- and their natural involvement with other characters, such as the enduring JSA members who have become mentor figures.
It's debatable whether attempts to revamp the original Star-Spangled Kid for a modern 1980s audience were successful. "Skyman" had some nostalgic charm, but mythologizing his death in a 1988 issue of Infinity Inc, rather than undoing it, was arguably the strongest way to galvanize his legacy, and build something new from it. As part of Stargirl's backstory, it immediately creates a natural link with Solomon Grundy, enhancing both characters, and the fabric of the DCU.
We haven't even addressed the fact that this is also a banner event tie-in for Joker: Last Laugh! The contextual links go backwards and forwards, people!
To some degree Last Laugh is an unnecessary imposition, but the story uses the high concept of Joker infecting villains to simply add colour to the issue. It gives Solomon Grundy an excuse to be a little bit creepier and weird than usual. His full page entrance, laughing on top of the Statue of Liberty's decapitated head, is almost worth the tie-in all on its own!
The event and its flair also place the issue in time, which can be nice. It breaks up the monotony, and infuses the sudden appearance of the antagonist with a bit more meaning. The imposition of the event really helps sell the story, which comes at a time when much of the Justice Society has been take captive by Roulette, and forced to compete in an underground fight club.
Again I would stress that all of this extra information merely serves to enhance the issue. You should be able to quite happily read JSA #29 without being particularly concerned with any of it. You'll pick up the sense that there's more to the story than what's happening presently, but it isn't overly important, or distracting. This is a wonderful Halloween issue unto itself.
If you'd like to get a good look at the entire issue yourself, but aren't able to find the single issue, you can find it collected in JSA Vol. 3: The Power of Legacy or JSA Omnibus Vol. 2.
Use the Amazon links provided for any of your shopping and the online retailer will support the legacy of the site at no extra cost to you! You can also take a more direct route with Patreon, where patrons can get involved with additional updates, special article requests, and voting polls.
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 600 battles with more on the way! You can discover more by following links throughout this post, or dive into the Secret Archive for a complete index of featured smackdown in order of publisher, series, and issue number.
Get extra updates and daily links to featured fights inspired by the topics of the day by following on Twitter and Facebook. Make sure to hit like & share!
Winners: Thunderbolt, Jakeem Thunder & Stargirl
#97 (+101) Thunderbolt [+1 kill]
#95 (+47) Stargirl
#339 (new) Jakeem Thunder
#146 (-4) Solomon Grundy
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