JSA #42

JSA #42 cover

Date:

January 2003

Title:

“Paradox Play”

Plot:

Flaw takes Dr.. Fate to Cutter’s Keep on Gemworld, where Cutter tells him of the origins of both his amulet, Nabu, and Mordru.  In particular, that Mordru came to Gemworld in order to steal a soul.

Only scenes featuring Legion of Super-Heroes characters are dealt with here.

Credits:

David Goyer / Geoff Johns (Writer) • Leonard Kirk (Penciller) • Keith Champagne (Inker) • John Kalisz (Colorist) • Heroic Age (Separations) • Ken Lopez (Letterer) • Steve Wacker (Associate Editor) • Peter Tomasi (Editor) • Rags Morales (Cover)


CHANGE HISTORY

Date of Change
Content of Change
02/08/03
Posted
02/10/03
Notes change to 12:1

Tinted cells and text indicate missing or incomplete information.

Character and Object Tracking

       

Name

Previous Appearance

Next Appearance

Heroes

Dr. Fate III (Hector Hall)
Previous Legion appaearnace:
     JSA #41
Next Legion appaearnace:
     JSA #43
Fury (Lyta Trevor-Hall)
No appearance; unnamed mention only

Villains

Mordru (Prince Wrynn of Topaz)
JSA: Secret Files #2 (story #1) <JSA #45>
 
Child (appears only as Cutter) JSA #41 JSA #43
Flaw
JSA #41 JSA #43

Supporting Characters

One-shot or Untracked Characters:
     Nabu
     Anubis
     Grandpa Walton
     Lords of Order
     Lords of Chaos (footnote #1)

Locations

Cutter’s Keep, Gemworld (exterior and interior)
None None to date
 
One-shot or Untracked Locations:
     Cilia (planet)

Technology

Dr. Fate’s amulet
Previous Legion appaearnace:
     JSA #41
Next Legion appaearnace:
     < >
Dr. Fate’s helmet
Previous Legion appaearnace:
     JSA #14
Next Legion appaearnace:
     < >
 
One-shot or Untracked Items:
     gemcutting tools

1. Often thought of as Villains, Chaos is orthogonal to Good and Evil, so they are generally listed as Supporting Characters.  Specific ones like Mordru may list elsewhere, though.
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Analysis Notes

General Only pages 10-12 are dealt with here.
10:1 Kind of the ultimate house atop a mountain peak.  Cutter must value his privacy.
10:2 <Don’t know which Dr. Fate series this part about Anubis comes from.>
10:3 The coopting of Flaw is from the third Amethyst series
11:1 And thus Cutter (Child, actually) doesn’t even know the word “English”; that’s the translation of “your language”.
11:2 Grandpa Walton: from the television show The Waltons, from whence comes the familiar line “Good night, John-Boy.”
11:3 <Don’t know which Dr. Fate series this information about Nabu and Cilia comes from.  Could also be from Hawk & Dove v2, since that dealt with Lords of Order and Chaos.  Or even from Sandman.>
This origin of Cilia puts Lords of Order on a parallel to Marvel’s Watchers, who are also from one of the first sentient races in the universe.
11:4 What happened to the rest of Cilia?  Converted to energy?  Compressed down to the singe stone?  And if all the surviving inhabitants are in the amulet, does that mean all the Lords of Order are in there, too?  Or did Lords of Order arise on many worlds?
Also in the amulet are Mordru and Kent and Inza Nelson, plus who knows whom else.
That is Cutter’s reflection in the stone.
This counts as an appearance for Dr. Fate, since we can see his chest.
11:5 This doesn’t count as an appearance for Dr. Fate, since all we see is the amulet.  Cutter could have taken it off him, for example.
12:1 Hector didn’t have the helmet with him in JSA #41.  As seen in JSA #44, it can be made to materialize at will.
We’ll see in the next issue that it isn’t Lyta in the coma at all, it’s Dove (Dawn Granger).  Hector may have posed the question wrong, or Nabu may have spoken in riddles.  Or he may have given the truth: by going to Gemworld and meeting Child disguised as Cutter, Hector will get a solution to Dove’s coma, which we lead along the unwinding chain to the ultimate goal of Lyta.
12:1 And how are we rewriting the third Amethyst series (which rewrote Legion stories)?
12:3 Interesting.  Marvel has a character who also existed before the start of the current universe: Galactus.
12:4 How does this play into the Endless and Death’s comments that she’s one who locks up the universe at the end?  Especially given that Hector’s son is now Dream?
12:5-6
Being connected to a physical form would then explain why Mordru has aged somewhat by the 30th century.
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Appearance Counts

Character Name

Cover

Panels / Speaking

Heroes
Dr. Fate III (Hector Hall)
8 / 5
Villains
Mordru 1 / 1
 
Child
     (appears only as Cutter)
0 / 0
12 / 13
Flaw
4 / 1
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