JSA #54

Jan 2004 · DC · 2.50 USD; 3.85 CAD

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“Virtue, Vice & Pumpkin Pie”

About this Issue

JSA #54, titled 'Virtue, Vice & Pumpkin Pie,' is a rare beast in early-2000s superhero comics: a deliberately unheroic holiday issue that consciously inverts the standard team-up formula. Writer Geoff Johns devotes the bulk of its page count to character interaction — three generations of DC heroes simply sharing a meal — reserving the 'action' for a comically brief villain intrusion by Kulak and the Warlock of Ys, who retreat the moment they realize how badly they are outnumbered. That structural choice gives the issue lasting significance as a study in character voice across DC's widest possible ensemble, and it stands as one of the most fondly cited examples of the lighter, more humanist approach Johns brought to the JSA title during his multi-year run. It also functions as a direct sequel to the JLA/JSA hardcover 'Virtue and Vice,' cementing a new tradition of annual holiday gatherings that consciously echoed the annual summer crossovers of the Silver Age.

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writer Geoff Johns · artist Don Kramer · inker Keith Champagne · colorist John Kalisz · letterer Jared K. Fletcher · colorist Heroic Age · cover Carlos Pacheco, Jesús Merino

More listings for this title

VG $2.9 VF+ $3.95 NM $4.99 NM $5.19 NM $24 CGC $124.99 JSA #54 - Geoff Johns - 2004 - DC Comics $2.25 JSA #54 Justice Society of America DC Comics 01/04 (VFNM 9.0/Stock Photo) $3.03

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History

The issue was produced in the middle of Geoff Johns' acclaimed solo run on JSA, which he had been writing since issue #6 (initially co-writing with David S. Goyer through issue #51). Johns paired with penciler Don Kramer and inker Keith Champagne — the regular art team for this stretch of the series — with a cover by Carlos Pacheco, the artist associated with the 'Virtue and Vice' hardcover. Editor Peter Tomasi and associate editor Stephen Wacker oversaw production. The story was conceived as a direct follow-up to the 2003 JLA/JSA hardcover 'Virtue and Vice' by Johns and Goyer, and was published on November 12, 2003, ahead of Thanksgiving, with a January 2004 cover date.

Trivia · 8 facts

Story title: 'Virtue, Vice & Pumpkin Pie' — written by Geoff Johns, penciled by Don Kramer, inked by Keith Champagne, cover by Carlos Pacheco and Jésus Meriño.
Published November 12, 2003; cover-dated January 2004.
Functions as a direct sequel/companion piece to the JLA/JSA hardcover graphic novel 'Virtue and Vice' (2002, by Johns and David S. Goyer with art by Carlos Pacheco).
The entire story takes place on Thanksgiving Day at JSA Headquarters in Manhattan, with the full combined rosters of the Justice League and Justice Society present for a holiday dinner.
The villain intrusion — Kulak the Sorcerer and the Warlock of Ys crash the gathering — is resolved almost entirely off-panel within 33 minutes, with the heroes ordering pizza afterward; the comedic deflation is the point.
Wally West (The Flash) appears on the cover but is absent from the story interior, a deliberate continuity choice reflecting the period in The Flash Vol. 2 #200 when Wally temporarily erased himself from the world's memory.
Issue includes notable character-work moments: Batman and Mister Terrific's developing friendship, Wonder Woman's historically minded Thanksgiving speech, and the Black Canary/Doctor Mid-Nite relationship tension.
Collected in JSA Vol. 7: Princes of Darkness (trade paperback covering JSA #46–55) and reprinted in JSA Omnibus Vol. 2.