(2006) Geoff Johns, Keith Champagne and Don Kramer, Titan Books, £8.99, trdpbk, 144pp, ISBN 1-84576-347-5
This volume (the eleventh) contains JSA issues 76-81, all of which pretty much occur in the midst of the Infinite Crisis and, consequently, all the stories revolve around those events. The 'meat' of the tales include the involvement of some of the heroes, including 'guests' like the Hal Jordan Green Lantern and the resurrected Donna Troy Wonder Girl, in the Rann-Thanagar war plot strand, and the rest take part in the magical wars which include the Spectre's killing of the wizard Shazam, a final showdown between Dr.Fate and Mordru and the goings-on in the thunderbolt dimension. By way of contrast the volume ends with a tale of Stargirl and her relationship with her father which also features Liberty Belle. Sadly I have to say that, for me at least, the whole presentation of the Crisis has been very poor and nowhere more so than in the current crop of trade paperbacks, many of which mix and match random issues of whichever title they're supposed to be reprinting with snippets from other titles (where they crossed-over) and/or from the Infinite Crisis series itself. JSA has been a favourite title of fans for a few years now, but for me the best thing about the title has been the covers by Alex Ross and, on their own, wouldn't have been enough to keep me buying it month after month. Still, I'd have to say that for completists of either JSA or the Infinite Crisis, you will require this volume.
Tony Chester
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