Comic Book / JSA Classified

JSA Classified is a DC Comics book featuring the Justice Society of America that ran for 39 issues from to 2008. The book is broken up into storylines lasting from one to four issues featuring individual members of the team or their foes.

The storylines in JSA Classified are:

• "Power Trip" (issues 1-4) written by Geoff Johns with art by Amanda Conner featuring Power Girl.
• "Honor Among Thieves" (issues 5-7) written by Jen Van Meter with art by Patrick Olliffe featuring the Injustice Society.
• "The Spear and the Dragon" (issues 8-9) written by Peter Tomasi with art by Don Kramer featuring The Flash and Wildcat.
• "The Fall and Rise of Vandal Savage" (issues 10-13) written by Stuart Moore with art by Paul Gulacy featuring Green Lantern.
• "Double or Nothing" (issues 14-16) written by Steve Englehart with art by Tom Derenick featuring Stargirl and Wildcat.
• "The Venom Connection" (issues 17-18) written by Tony Bedard with art by Scott McDaniel featuring Hourman.
• "Skin Trade" (issues 19-20) written by Scott Beatty with art by Rags Morales featuring Doctor Mid-Nite.
• "Best Served Cold" (issues 21-22) by Walt Simonson featuring Hawkman.
• "Nightfall" (issues 22-23) written by J.T. Krul with art by Alex Sanchez featuring Doctor Mid-Nite.
• "Johnny Mimic" (issue 24) written by Tony Bedard with art by Dennis Calero featuring Green Lantern.
• "Fight Game" (issues 25-26) written by Frank Tieri with art by Matt Haley featuring Wildcat.
• "Problem Solved" (issue 27) written by Fabian Nicieza with art by Steve Uy featuring Jakeem Thunder.
• "Mister Horrific" (issues 28-31) written by Arvid Nelson with art by Alex Sanchez featuring Mister Terrific.
• "Giving Thanks" (issues 32-33) written by Junior Thomas with art by Staz Johnson featuring Green Lantern.
• "60 Minutes" (issue 34) written by James Peaty with art by Freddie E. Williams featuring Hourman.
• "Forward Through the Past" (issues 35-37) written by B. Clay Moore with art by Ramon Perez featuring Wildcat.
• "Body and Soul" (issues 38-39) written by Mike W. Barr with art by Shawn Martinbrough featuring Wildcat.

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Tropes in JSA Classified

Power Trip

"As long as I can juggle semi-trucks and leap over buildings, I'm fine."

—Power Girl

• The Bad Guy Wins: The JSA and Superman together are not enough to prevent Psycho-Pirate's plot from succeeding, partially because Power Girl can't tell when she's interacting with the real ones vs. Psycho-Pirate's illusions.
• Covers Always Lie: The covers for the Power Trip arc show Power Girl as confident and winning her confrontation with Psycho-Pirate. In the actual story Psycho-Pirate's plot to make Power Girl question reality and start losing her mind are so successful he's able to abduct her when she gives up and stops fighting as she can no longer tell what is real.
• Tomato in the Mirror: "Power Trip" examines Power Girl's reactions over the years to learning that she supposedly isn't Kryptonian, or Atlantean, as Dr. Mid-Nite and others notice and raise questions about her Kryptonain powers and memories which are quickly and unstably reasserting themselves as her real history of being a Kryptonian from another universe is about to be revealed.

Honor Among Thieves

• Honor Among Thieves: The Injustice Society, or at least the core members of the Wizard, Icicle, Tigress, Solomon Grundy and Gentleman Ghost look out for each other and try not to incur unnecessary wrath or invite revenge by doing more harm than they need to to get the job done. Lex Luthor's Society has their own more harsh rules, ones that could keep Johnny Sorrow from being able to attack his teammates without repercussion since there are powerful enough people backing them up, which is part of why the Injustice Society is going so far out of their way to get in.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: The Injustice Society's plan hinges on the knowledge that Ragdoll has never not betrayed those he's working with. When he tries stealing the key for himself and ditching the Injustice Society it ends up killing him, allowing Johnny Sorrow to use Ragdoll's death and the key to escape his otherworldly prison.
• Villain Episode: While the rest of the book focuses on the heroes this tale is all about the Injustice Society, and how the core members will risk their lives and livelihoods to save one of their own even when there is nothing else in it for them.

The Fall and Rise of Vandal Savage

You too have had partners. Many of them, down the decades. Perhaps just as Smithy and Beauchamp led me down the path of destruction one of your deceased friends will do the same to you.

—Vandal Savage

• Revenge Before Reason: As Savage's stockpile of bits of his kids and descendants to eat and store up his powers goes missing at the same time his immortality starts slipping and his mind. He becomes obsessed with ensuring that if he's about to die he's taking Alan Scott with him no matter what he has to do to kill him, even cutting his own remaining time short.
• Ship Tease: Alan Scott and Jimmy exchange what can be oh so easily taken as a flirtatious exchange while leaving their shared sleeper room aboard a train, right before Jimmy was killed in an explosion. This romantic relationship was eventually revealed to be canon, but hidden given the time period, following DC Rebirth bringing both characters back into continuity.

Skin Trade

In rare cases the alcohol/opiate mix has left certain patients blissfully oblivious to pain, but fully awake during the procedure. Better that he surrenders fully to sleep. Elective or unplanned and unwilling, surgery is an experience best left unseen by the patient.

• An Arm and a Leg: The organ theft group stole Grogamesh's arms. Later Delores loses one of her own arms when she tries to use the power she's stolen from Icemaiden to attack Mid-Nite and freezes her own limb off.
• Back-Alley Doctor: Delores is running a very illegal medical clinic for the ultra-wealthy where they can get plastic surgery and buy meta-human parts and have them implanted.
• Bio-Augmentation: The rich and connected can get meta-human organs transplanted through Delores's clinic.
• Body Horror: The arc is all about people having body parts forcibly stolen by a doctor who goes out of his way to keep them alive due to his twisted interpretation of the Hippocratic Oath. This means STAR Labs is trying to keep victims alive after they've been in some cases skinned alive and in other case had their heart removed.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Loose Cannon managed to stumble to STAR Labs for medical attention without his heart before collapsing.
• Deadly Doctor: Dr. Mid-Nite, as per usual, uses his medical knowledge to his advantage in fights. Allowing him to defeat Roulette's much stronger bodyguard.
• Eye Scream: The group that's been stealing parts from metahumans cut out Argus's eyes, then tries to do the same to Mid-Nite with a lovely panel of their doctor lowering a scalpel less than an inch from his unseeing eyes as they're held open.
• Mad Doctor: Delores Winters' mind was saved when the Ulta-Humanite stole her body by his assistant who was in "love" with the actress. The assistant is now helping Delores run a twisted meta-human body part selling ring for the wealthy.
• Organ Theft: "Skin Trade" featured a villain harvesting super-powered body parts to sell to wealthy patrons in the black market. The gruesome part is that the heroes whose body parts were stolen are often left alive after the procedure and basically crippled.
• Plot Hole: Delores Winters had Icemaiden skinned alive because she wanted "alabaster skin." Icemaiden's skin has always been blue.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: Delores Winters has Dr. Mid-Nite strapped down and his eyes forced open in order for her pet doctor to extract them for sale to clients wanting meta-human parts.

Nightfall

• Actually Not a Vampire: The serial killer Mid-Nite is tracking has fangs, drinks his victim's blood, only operates at night and claims to be a vampire. When Mid-Nite captures him he proves not to be a vampire after all, but is instead a meta-human suffering from a strange disease and delusions.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: In "Nightfall" Mid-Nite, who regularly fights a plant zombie named Solomon Grundy and lives in a world where there's at least one actual vampire acting as a hero, refuses to believe that the fanged serial killer with no heat signature whose been running around biting people and draining their blood could possibly be a vampire.
• Magic Versus Science: For some odd reason, despite living in a world were magic is definitely real Mid-Nite and Mr. Terrific double down on the concept of logic vs. superstition on this case.
• Sham Supernatural: Dr. Mid-Nite is trying to track down a serial killer who seems to be a vampire and goes to a nightclub which caters to people playing at being vampires. He does actually find the killer there and the killer turns out to be a sick metahuman who'd convinced himself he was a vampire.
• Wife-Basher Basher: Mid-Nite starts out the arc by sneaking up on an abusive husband who has taken his daughter and bleeding wife hostage at gunpoint and knocking him out.

Johnny Mimic

"Baloney. The top brass in Washington never had clean hands. Just ask the survivors of Dresden or Hiroshima. It was Mystery Men like you who stood for something better, even the hoodlums looked up to Green Lantern. You were the super-man before there was a Superman! The world only seemed to make sense back then because guys like you set the standard! And now you're gonna let this Father Time putz drag you down to his level?"

—Jonathan Waddill

• Reformed Criminal: Johnny Mimic was a small time supervillain back in the day, who made a deal with Alan Scott after being defeated by the Green Lantern and has kept his nose clean for decades since. He's pissed when Green Lantern shows up asking for help in defiance of their deal, and even more pissed to learn that the US government threatening him and his wife made Green Lantern do so instead of finding a way around them.
• Tele-Frag: The unfortunate S.H.A.D.E. scientist who tried to steal an H-Dial by moving forward in time to a point when he thought the lab would be empty loses a leg when Johnny Mimic taps into the echo of his plan, and mindset and moves a chair to sit right where his leg is about to rematerialize.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Jonathan Waddill (Johnny Mimic) is pissed when Green Lantern shows up at his house to ask him to use his powers despite their decades long agreement. He's even more pissed to learn it's because a government official is going to come in and take Johnny by force, even threatening Johnny's wife, if he doesn't agree.

Fight Game

• Grave-Marking Scene: Wildcat finally goes to see his father's grave and try to let go of his resentment of the man for killing his mother in a car accident and abandoning him to escape his gambling debts.
• Race Lift: Sportsmaster II was introduced in Manhunter #17 in 1989 as an African-American named Victor Gover, who went on to briefly join the Suicide Squad. Wildcat fights a white, blond-haired Sportsmaster here, whose real name is still given as Victor Gover.

Problem Solved

• An Aesop: Jakeem learns that he can't solve everyone's problems even with a magic genie, and that magic has a nasty way of balancing the scales in his verse when he tries to do nice things for people on a larger scale when he's not using magic to fight magic.
• Taking Advantage of Generosity: A woman whose life was saved gets pissed when Jakeem recovers a teddy bear for one of her child neighbors from their destroyed apartment building, ranting about how the heroes aren't really helping since they're leaving behind a destroyed building. This upsets Jakeem so he sets up a wishing booth to use his Thunderbolt's powers to help people. He's quickly inundated with a massive crowd of people requesting he do everything for them even if it's something they could easily do themselves to the point that the Thunderbolt revolts and refuses to assist him.

Mister Horrific

• Brain in a Jar: A Nazi brain in a jar directing a Nazi plot from a moon base.
• Moon Base: The villains have a base on the far side of the moon.

Giving Thanks

• Christmas Episode: Alan, Jay and Ted attend a parade, which is crashed by Solomon Grundy and Vandal Savage, and then attend the JSA's annual Christmas get together.
• Twisted Christmas: Alan's daughter returns from the dead for Christmas, as a tortured soul under Vandal Savage's imperfect control whose mere existence is draining the life from Alan and a child so she has to sacrifice herself to save a little girl.