Per Degaton, Part 0: "NO LUXURIOUS TRAPPINGS!"

So, it's obvious to anyone (who knows JSA history) that "The Stranger" creeping on Li'l The Huntress in The New Golden Age is the JSA's time-hopping nemesis, Per Degaton.

Now, you can surely look him up on the internet, but after my recent lecture about the importance of reading the originals of things, I think you deserve to read the original Per Degaton story ("The Day that Dropped out of Time," All Star Comics #35, 1947). 

But...

It's 38 pages of dense Golden Age madness featuring Wonder Woman, Dr. Mid-Nite, The Atom, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Flash, Johnny Thunder, Professor Zee, the Mayor of Gotham, the awesome KALE, penicillin, dominoes, tanks, elephants, four separate death traps, several historic persons as yet unnamed, a future dystopian heckscape, and stories that tell themselves and then retcon themselves. Unless you're ten years old and born in 1937, it's quite challenging to read, so what you deserve is...

for me to read it for you.

Which I will start tomorrow. Before I do, however, there are some things you deserve to know in advance.

"No luxurious trappings!"
The Atom sewed those drapes himself, you know. Alan happened to have several bolts of material lying around, as he often does.

1. "NO BOASTFUL TROPHIES HANG UPON THEIR WALLS." 

So, modern artists, STOP drawing the JSA Brownstone as being... full of trophies.  This is NOT the JLA (those vain, posing popinjays of the press!).  These people do not collect trophies. They don't have CAVES to put them in.  The JSA aren't WEIRDOS.   

I mean, sure, Alan's got an odd fashion sense and Jay sniffs chemicals and smokes in his lab and Johnny's on the spectrum and Charles has that thing with the owl and Al needs anger management and Diana has that bondage issue and Carter simply refuses to wear a shirt. Everyone has quirks. But they are regular JOES.

They have REAL lives. They get the job done and then go out to dinner with their Private Romantic Interest of Choice (after donning proper evening wear). Except for Dr. Mid-Nite and we just don't talk about that.

2. YES, WONDER WOMAN IS THE SECRETARY.  

But stop being stupid about it.  She's not the 'get me some coffee, sweetheart," secretary.  What's wrong with you people?  She's the secretary as in "second in charge after the chair".  

Notice who's in the center? She is. Know why? SHE is the most popular character.  SHE's the one with her OWN TITLE.  She's the one all the world is waiting for and the magic that she does, and upon whom all our hopes are pinned.  

You know why she's NOT chair?  Because (as I say every time I talk about Golden Age JSA) the purpose of the Justice Society stories was to showcase characters not seen elsewhere in hopes of sparking their popularity. She's not the chair for the same reason she doesn't get assigned solo adventures: she would steal too much of the spotlight, defeating the purpose of the stories.  

So stop parroting "Wonder Woman wasn't a member because sexism" or "They made her secretary because sexism"; you sound ignorant when you do.  She's there for the same reason Batman shows up in every new book nowadays; to attract new readers because she's a popular character.

2.5.  WHEN WONDER WOMAN FOUND A CLUE. 

See?  Wonder Woman is the seller.

3. PERHAPS THE STRANGEST.  

They ain't kidding. Hit the ground; this is going to be oomphy.

4. COMLETELY. 

Even the Golden Age didn't have enough editing.