All-Star Squadron #24

History

Issue #24 was written and edited by Roy Thomas, penciled by Jerry Ordway, inked by Mike Machlan, lettered by David Cody Weiss, and colored by Gene D'Angelo, and was published on May 26, 1983 with a cover date of August 1983. Ordway had taken over as series penciler with issue #19, and Machlan — a longtime friend and fellow Wisconsinite who had collaborated with Ordway since the mid-1970s on fanzines — joined him as regular inker beginning with issue #21. Thomas had come to DC after a dispute with Marvel's Jim Shooter and was simultaneously serving as writer-editor on All-Star Squadron while developing Infinity Inc. as a companion title; the Ultra-Humanite arc running through roughly issues #21–26 was designed to organically introduce the Infinity Inc. characters into the existing WWII continuity before their own series launched.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Brainwave Jr. (Henry King Jr.), son of the villainous Brain Wave and a founding member of Infinity Inc.; he appears in a flashback sequence in which Tarantula recounts encountering a mysterious youth from the year 1983 who calls himself Brainwave.
• The story is titled 'The Man Who'll Know Too Much!' and is the second chapter of the 'Mind Over Mystery-Man' arc; story continues from issue #23 and into issue #25.
• The issue is set on February 10, 1942 (per DCU Guide), with the Ultra-Humanite engineering the real-world disaster of the SS Normandie — a French ocean liner being converted into a troop carrier — which burned and capsized in New York Harbor; Johnny Quick is gravely injured attempting to prevent the disaster.
• The Ultra-Humanite's scheme centers on abducting Dr. Chuck Grayson — whom Thomas retconned as a cousin of Dick Grayson — because Grayson had previously transplanted a human brain into Robotman's body, and the villain wants the same procedure performed on himself.
• Amazing-Man (Will Everett), who had debuted in the previous issue (#23) as an Ultra-Humanite henchman, continues his arc here; the character was created by Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway as a tribute to Bill Everett (creator of the original Centaur Comics Amazing-Man and Marvel's Sub-Mariner), and Amazing-Man's powers — absorbing the physical properties of any substance he touches — were activated by a lab accident engineered by the Ultra-Humanite.
• The Tarantula (John Law) receives a brand-new costume in this issue, designed by Jerry Ordway, replacing the character's original Golden Age outfit — an example of the creative team's systematic visual updating of obscure wartime heroes.
• Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, Commander Steel, Robotman, Doctor Fate, The Atom, Liberty Belle, Firebrand, Johnny Quick, and Cyclotron all appear; celebrity cameos include Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, and Clark Gable, grounding the WWII setting in real popular culture.
• The events of All-Star Squadron #24–26 are explicitly cross-referenced with Infinity Inc. #2–3, as some characters experience both storylines from different temporal perspectives — one of the series' most intricate continuity-weaving maneuvers.

Cast · 38 characters

Full credits

Key issues in All-Star Squadron

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#25 1st appearance — Jennie-Lynn Hayden

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#21 1st appearance — Deathbolt

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#33 1st appearance — Tsunami

Variants (2)