Adventures of Superguy

July 20, 2010 - Happy Harbor, RI

Mt. Justice

21:24:27

“Everyone in Central City knows Jesse Quick! She’s our hero, after all, and saved the city like a bazillion times. There’s even a-” Walli launched into her origin story excitedly.

“A Quick Museum.” Everyone else but M’gann said in chorus, and shared a laugh.

Walli scowled at them for their interruption.

“Its a very nice museum, Walli. Especially the Kid Quick Annex.” Connor reassured her, which seemed to mollify her.

“As I was saying… everyone knows Jesse, and before that, everyone knew Jenny Quick, Jesse’s mom! She got started in the 40’s, fighting crime and Axis saboteurs in Central City and across the country. Jenny was the first Quick, and she gained her powers from a mathematical formula that she learned from the professor who tutored her when she was young. And HE learned it from an inscription he found on a Pharaoh's tomb in Egypt!” Walli’s voice rose and her speech sped up as she hustled through the extensive and bewildering backstory for not just her aunt, but her aunt’s mother as well.

This is some Golden Age bullshit right here, Connor thought.

“When the US joined the Allies in WW2, Jenny Quick teamed up with other heroes, or ‘mystery women’ as they called them in those days.” Everyone groaned as she even put on an old timey radio announcer voice for the bit.

“It was her, Liberty Bill, Plastic Woman, Doctor Mid-Nite, Hawkwoman, Robotman, and Atom. They formed the All-Star Squadron, and the President herself charged them with protecting the homeland from Axis attack. They fought Japanese monsters, German superweapons, Italian mafiosi and crazier stuff besides. Really, you guys totally should go see the Squadron Annex at-”

“The Quick Museum!” They all shouted in unison, and fell to laughter once more as Walli rolled her eyes.

“It is a pretty good exhibit.” Connor admitted to the others, and in response Robin threw a handful of graham cracker squares at him, laughing. Seeing the classic uniforms of the heroes who actually pitted themselves against the fascist beast was a humbling experience. Not fantasies, but real heroes who became real veterans of the struggle for life and liberty.

“So, they fought the good fight, helped win the war, and kept the country safe! After the war, there was less call for them and they weren’t soldiers anymore. So they reformed as the Justice Society in the 50’s, and other members joined. It was more of a club for heroes then, even though they still teamed up for cases once in a while. But then the government got antsy about all these heroes hanging out without any villains to fight or an enemy to watch out for. Crooked politicians accused them of conspiring against the country, and started whipping people up to demand they reveal their identities.” Walli’s tone turned grim as she recounted the dark turn events took.

The exhibit had been a short section on this period; newsreels and framed black and white photos, and copious reproductions of newspaper headlines accusing the Justice Society of all manner of sordid personal, professional and political ties and dealings. The picture of them standing in front of a shouting woman, who Connor presumed was this universe’s Joseph McCarthy, was iconic.

Fem Joseph McCarthy was a sight I could have done without. Not much better than Lady Hitler. 

He shuddered once again at that particular thought.

“All the accusations were bogus! They were heroes, veterans of the war! They saved the world a couple times. And they weren’t going to snitch on each other. The whole hearing was based on them being masked heroes and the Society being an active ‘subversive’ organization, so they made a decision as a group. They were called to testify, and they showed up, got sworn in, and announced they were all retiring from costumed crimefighting, disbanded the Society, and walked out. Those crooks couldn’t believe it!” Walli cackled at the memory, and the others laughed along with her.

The newsreel of the Society, or former Society, members filing out of the chamber, their heads held high, while the politicians went apoplectic behind them, was a big hit at the exhibit. Next to it was a large framed print of the last picture of the Society in costume on that day, as they posed for the cameras on the steps of the Capitol, before departing.

“They’d already been together for awhile, but that’s when Jenny Quick and Liberty Bill got married, Jesse’s folks. Apparently it was a very quiet ceremony, no costumes. They settled down into civilian life, thinking it was all behind them. But then the CRAZIEST thing happened!” Walli exclaimed, and Connor, for all his comic book knowledge, struggled to follow the narrative she laid out. 

Apparently, something had happened with the Spectre, or WOULD happen with the Angel of God’s Wrath in the future, and the energy he let off let Lady Hitler (shudder) use the Spear of Destiny to try to win the war or bring about Ragnarok. Connor wasn’t entirely clear on the insane Nazi monster’s plan. How she did that when the war had been over for ten years and she was already dead was either too complicated for him to understand or too inconsequential for Walli to explain. Regardless, timey wimey stuff happened, the Justice Society got back together for one last ride, and went back in time to the funeral of President Eleanor Roosevelt in 1945 to stop it.

They achieved that, through more timey wimey shenanigans, but Lady Hitler still managed to light the match to burn down the world. If she couldn’t have it, nobody would. She roused Surtur, the Fire Giant who burns the world, and they had to battle the King of Fire Giants in Asgard, the home of the Norse gods, to prevent him from kicking off the end of the world. This all occurred outside of regular time… somehow.

I might remember bits of this. I wasn’t a JSA fan, but man I regret that now. Funny that it was the Norse gods, don’t see them much in DC. Wouldn’t want a rival company’s headliner to muscle in on your action.

“So they were stuck there, in Asgard, outside of the timestream. Forced to fight Surtr all day, and die or win every day, and then night falls and they all go to sleep and wake up and do the same thing again. Over and over, for years! Bill and Jenny said it was like going through the motions on autopilot most of the time, but it sounds pretty bad. They had to do it, and win every day, or Surtur would win and kick off Ragnarok. So we lost them for thirty years! But they did it; they fought the eternal battle and saved us over and over. Eventually, a new team was able to reach them and relieve them and they could finally come home.”

Walli took a brief break to breath and eat half a dozen of her terribly burned smores to replenish the energy her storytelling was draining out of her. Her expressions of horror at the travails the Society had endured undersold the existential horror that they roused in Connor.

I literally cannot imagine being stuck in a Ground Hog day time loop of fighting to stop the apocalypse every day, for decades… From what I do remember, the editors put the JSA on a bus so they could focus on the Justice League. Just so they could reach back onto the bus to pull them off whenever they thought they had a good storyline. Is that why it happened to them here, an editorial decision?

“But then they were finally back. And it was the seventies, so that must have been a helluva shock for them. They’d been in Asgard thirty years, but they came out thirty years after they’d entered in 1945, even though THEY were from 1955-” 

“Get on with it!” The team chorused and Walli cut herself off.

“So they come out and there’s disco and stuff now. Jenny and Bill decide they’re now double extra super retired, and they settle down and have Jesse. She inherited the magical strength from her dad that he got from the Liberty Bell, and her mom taught her the formula that she had learned from her teacher. They, and the rest of the Society, trained her and she became the best Quick yet! Until me, of course. Jenny was a founding member of the Justice Guild, too.” Walli continued to gush about her aunt until she was shouted down and actually got to where she came into the story.

“Alright, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! How mild-mannered Walli West enters the picture. So, Jesse’s my aunt by marriage. Her husband is my mom’s brother. He’s kind of a big deal, and I knew that he knew Jenny Quick. So I was always bugging him about her, what she’s like, could I meet her, that kind of stuff. He never let on, because you’re not supposed to give out that kind of information when you’re in the life.” Walli explained for Connor and M’gann’s benefit.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Robin deadpanned, her arms folded as she regarded her friend while said friend spilled a great many unnecessary personal details about herself to the team.

“Whatever. So, I was obsessed with Jesse. Jesse Quick, I mean, not my Aunt Jesse, who at the time, I didn’t know was actually-”

“Boooo!” Truly, only teamwork could keep their speedster on track.

“Alright, alright, sheesh… So there I was, over at their house for a while, unsupervised. And I started looking around, because I was bored. And I found Jesse’s journals from when she first got started in the life! She had them just lying around. Totally unsafe.” 

I somehow doubt it was that easy to find…

“And it was a journal all about her career, and her origin, and it even had the mathematical formula that gave her the speed! Of course, I tried it out. Didn’t work. I copied the bits of it down and worked it over at home for weeks, trying to understand it and make it work. Robin and Bats were already working together, and Diana had Donald working under her. So I knew that Jesse Quick could absolutely use a partner, too. But the formula was a mindbender! I couldn’t get it, until I tried for like twelve hours in a row, and drank about thirty energy drinks to keep going.”

Walli snapped her fingers to punctuate her tale.

“But then I finally understood it! Like a bolt out of the heavens hit me right in the brainpan! What it meant! And then I was gone!” She sprang up and zoomed around the camp, rustling leaves, the tents and making the fire dance in her wind.

“Instantly I was across town and at their house, showing Jesse what I could do! She was super impressed, gals, let me tell you! She asked me to be her apprentice right then and there.” Walli declared confidently. 

Connor had his doubts. 

She was probably 12, or 13? And she snooped through her aunt’s stuff, uncovered her secret identity, AND the source of her powers? Then gave herself those powers? I doubt Jesse was that pleased.

“It was, officially, the greatest day in the world. Why, you ask?” Walli asked dramatically.

“For the record, we didn’t.” Robin snarked.

“Because that was the day the world got Kid Quick!”

The team offered a scattered applause, and a slow clap from Robin, which earned her a rude gesture by Walli.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!