"Ghost in the House"
Writer: Paul Levitz
Artists: George Perez (p), Bob Wiacek (i)
Publisher: DC Comics
Plot: As Power Girl mulls over what her cousin has asked her to do, she and Ma Hunkle read about an adventure of the JSA that took place on Earth-2 shortly after the group disbanded.
Commentary: I miss Earth-2.
Well, that isn't exactly true. I wasn't a serious DC collector until 1987 so I wasn't "there" during the time of the Multiverse but I have read enough of the back issues to develop a certain fondness for it. Having two versions of Superman, Batman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, etc. living on separate worlds appealed to me. Two men are responsible for this: Roy Thomas with his work on All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc., and Paul Levitz with his runs on All-Star Comics and Adventure Comics.
It is a kind of weird happenstance that I happened to be going through my run of Levitz's Justice Society work a little before this issue came out. While he wasn't the initial writer on the series (that was Gerry Conway, who seemed to be writing just about every title DC was publishing at the time), Levitz gave the series a consistent feel, something that carried over into the stories that appeared in Adventure Comics after All-Star Comics became a victim of the famed DC "Implosion." While the writing was a bit heavy handed at times, he gave the characters a certain depth that made them likable and, most importantly, he made Earth-2 feel like a world where anything could happen even to the big guns like Batman who assumed room temperature under Levitz's care.
Levitz's writing ability has not diminished with time. His style has changed slightly. When he first wrote the JSA's adventures, his dialogue could be a bit dense, but that could be said of a number of writers around that time period. In "Ghost in the House" Levitz maintains his voice while keeping the actual mechanics of the dialogue and captions more in line with how the book has been written over the past eighty-one issues. It's a tight little story too covering a hitherto untold adventure from the Earth-2 JSA's past set with Power Girl's anguish over a decision she doesn't want to make as a framing device.
The plot was clever and while it was set in the past and had the trappings of that era, it definitely had a modern feel to it, which I have always liked. The JSA has disbanded, and Superman and Batman give themselves the task of cleaning up the secrets hidden in their former headquarters. Levitz plays to his strength of characterization and adds little bits of business (like Batman telling Superman that he did a good job of writing up the JSA disbanding) that not only make the characters likable but also gives the reader a sense that there is more to them than just fighting bad guys. I also enjoyed how Ma Hunkle vacillated between remembering the Pre-Crisis multiverse and not remembering it. It made the comment she made at the end of the issue regarding Lois Lane a bit more poignant.
And as a big fan of the Earth-2 Superman, I loved the scenes between Lois and Clark. I thought that Levitz nailed these sequences and gave the characters the respect they deserved.
Then there was the art. No one, and I mean no one, draws the Earth-2 Superman better than George Perez does. From the way he designs the symbol to the little bit of detail he gives the sleeves of Superman's uniform to make them look like the costume from the Kirk Alyn serials, the character always appears to be more than just an older version of the current Superman. Outside of that obvious personal bias, I thought the rest of the issue looked fantastic. Perez (with inks by Wiacek) managed to give each setting (the past and the present) its own look, and the page layouts were excellent. There was also a lot of emotion on the page from little moments like Lois rolling her eyes at Clark's mild mannerisms to the last page where Kara is obviously going though a lot of inner turmoil. Their design of the Gentlemen Ghost was also superb, especially the shot of him flying over the hoods on his flaming horse.
In The End: This issue gives me a good feeling about Levitz's upcoming run on the title. I have to admit that I was a little nervous because sometimes these "homecomings" don't live up to the expectations, but this issue met and exceeded mine. On a personal level, this has to be my favorite of the Infinite Crisis crossovers. It was nice to take a trip down memory lane even if those memories were made nearly two decades after the fact.
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