Originally posted by beatboks
Theres no denying that in all star comics as part of the team the heavyweights were seriously downplayed. Its also quite clear that their power levels were quite a bit below later iteratuons. Even in his own title Spectre for example needed the help of the Voice (now called presence) every time he faced Zor who on showings was leagues below BA and SA enemies.
Still the retcons of the BA set in the Golden age brought things up to par. Roy Thomas did a lot of work in All Star Squadron to explain all the inconsistancies. For example there is no way that Spectre could have achieved the feat he did when the Freedom Fighters crossed to earth X (holding earth 2 and X apart) in the golden age.
Yes he needed the the voice's help to fight zor but zor himself was actually extremely powerful, he dwarfed the entire solar system. That feat in All Star Squadron actually shouldn't be beyond GA Spectre's abilities although I guess it depends on your interpretation of it. in More Fun comics (golden age) the spectre was able to move an entire planet with a thought:
http://imgur.com/xVBYL8w
He's also destroyed a planet with a single thought in an earlier issue but that was with the ring of life. However, remember when he confronted Zor he was able to dwarf entire planets:
http://imgur.com/Q53oSYG
Yet this was the best he could do in ASS:
http://imgur.com/NNe3aFs
So he could conceivably replicate the ASS feat, however, it is a bit ambiguous because it involved also holding apart the dimensional barriers between the two Earths. So that feat could be well beyond just holding two planets apart. He's also encountered a similar situation in JLA #46-47.
Also, from what I recall that showing takes place right before Spectre's upgrade reveal in All Star Squadron annual #3, which has been noted to take place right before the events of All-Star Squadron #36-37, and thus after ASS #33-35 involving the two earths storyline.
The spear of destiny was perhaps the best part the All star squadron came up with regarding why the JSA couldn't solo WW2. I remember also them putting together the early superman stories when luthor acquired the power stone and most famously the time when the JSA were bfr'd to the various planets of the solar system (which the ASS retconned into alternate dimensions); and even sought out to tie up continuity problems after COIE happened like who battled the villains which E2 Superman was supposed to battle (E2 superman didn't exist at this point), setting Superman v1 #19 as an example. They definitely tied things up pretty well but there are still inconsistencies which are inevitable I guess.
Originally posted by beatboks
Likewise GA Brainwave wasnt up to much of what he did in issue 19,20. I mean the best wesaw in the GA was a few mental projections at a time. Some grabbing WW and the JSA girlfriends. One shooting someoen newr hawkman etc. His later appearances he used more inventions like a force field that repelled energy amplified (Alans ring energy turning back on himself etc). This also made the feats of Alan i issue 20 quite varient also.
Brainwave's powers have always been contradictory and not well defined. Even back in the golden age, it was stated that his mental projections are three-dimensional, yet for some reason they didn't appear to have any effect on a physical level, his shtick was causing death from the fear/shock while being in a suspended animation state, at least in the golden age. His most impressive appearance and the one where he actually displayed some impressive powers were in All-Star comics v2 when the JSA's title re-surfaced in the bronze age (the one you referenced). We did see Brainwave displaying actual abilities like making robin collide with power girl, and his thought beams, along with Degaton's help was able to handle the entire super squad (actually fight them and not take them out off-panel like usual). Apart from that he was about to send a beam to displace the entire Earth, which is well above anything he has tried to do previously. Then in ASS #19-20 we see BW's usual off-panel JSA take down and putting them in suspended animation like always. Those never impressed me.
Originally posted by beatboks
The same could be said for the early JLA stories. I mean IIRC Superman had to pull Wonder Woman out of quicksand in thier first encounter with the lamo version of Despero. Supes and Bats used to save the JLA every one of the first dozen or so issues because they were written so low end.
WW was pretty pathetic back then. Although to her defense, in a later comic, she did free herself from a similar situation (quicksand) along with the flash and GA iirc, and she did save the JLA even early on (in JLA #11). But yeah...she also couldn't break a regular wall with her tiara before the water would drown her, which was like still at her legs at the time; also couldn't break a grip from a bird hawk which got one-shotted by MM; KO'd by car fumes, etc...
Still, silver age was mostly an upgrade for most characters. For example, back in the golden age, Jay never even went many times FTL; there was several times that he went "faster than light" but the whole "many times FTL" concept didn't even exist back then from what I recall while Barry did in the silver age (Even though if it was established that his average upper limit was 10 times FTL). Same thing with GL, Alan lighting up a mere city was like the cream of the crop back then, later on Hal was able to do much more impressive things like mindrape the entire earth, move planets, forming a net around Jupiter, powering up a dimming sun, restoring evolution to children across the planet, etc... hell even Alan when he reappeared in the silver age was able to do things like displacing the entire E2 population to E1 (another universe) -- something which seemed completely out of his league in the golden age. Even Superman's planet level feats hadn't manifested until only late golden age (iirc the first one was in Superman #58). Most of the golden age characters were pretty weak.
