The World of No Return!

Justice League of America #1

November 1960

In a Nutshell

The extra-dimensional tyrant Despero has come to Earth to cheat at board games. But what the evil despot fails to realize is that teenagers sometimes just pretend to be hypnotized.

The premier issue of the JLA’s own title is also the first instance of the nerfing trifecta. Early writers of the title often found it necessary to hobble the team’s heavy hitters to make their villains’ threats more credible. That meant every bad guy came equipped with Kryptonite, fire and something yellow. In this issue, we see all three.

Roll Call

This issue is another case of the League being threatened directly, which means once again the bulk of the team accomplishes nothing more than self-preservation. So the participation credit is going to be sparse this month.

  • The Flash earns his contribution credit by summoning the team, hoping to assist alien refugees from the other-dimensional world of Kalanor. Arriving at League headquarters, he finds the rest of the team under Despero’s hypnotic control. Despero forces the Flash to play a rigged board game, during which he teleports Flash’s teammates to his home dimension. This seems like a remarkably pointless scheme, since Despero could have simply sent the Leaguers away without the pretense of the game.
  • Wonder Woman and Superman are dispatched to a dinosaur planet. Although this is another dimension where Krypton never existed, the Man of Steel still manages to trip over a chunk of Kryptonite. The duo accomplish nothing beyond running away from dinosaurs before fleeing the planet.
  • Aquaman and Green Lantern find themselves on a water planet that is being boiled by a giant magnifying glass. Sorry, a giant yellow magnifying glass. After foiling the threat, the heroes learn they have also saved an undersea civilization, but this is nothing but a happy accident, and doesn’t count for our purposes.
  • At least Batman and the Martian Manhunter are aware that they are helping to save an alien world from Despero’s Flammerite missile. But as they acknowledge, the planet was only in danger because Despero was trying to kill the Leaguers. Ultimately, their actions are once again only self-preservation.
  • And so it is up to Snapper Carr to save the day. Stowing away on Despero’s Dimensional Traveler has rendered Snapper temporarily immune to the tyrant’s hypnotic powers, but he feigns a trance to escape the alien’s attention. When Despero turns his back, Snapper activates the refugee scientist’s Energy-Absorbing Machine, rendering Despero helpless. By single-handedly solving the problem, Snapper earns a bonus Saving the Day point.

The Scorecard

Amazingly, this win puts Snapper Carr in solo position at the top of the leader board. While I’m confident this trend will not hold, I admit I never expected the team mascot to field this strong a performance right out of the gate.


Team Member


Tenure

Cover Appearances

Story Appearances

Contribution Rating

Snapper Carr

4

0

0%

4

100%

5

125%

Flash

4

4

100%

4

100%

4

100%

Green Lantern

4

4

100%

4

100%

4

100%

Aquaman

4

4

100%

4

100%

2

50%

Martian Manhunter

4

4

100%

4

100%

2

50%

Wonder Woman

4

4

100%

4

100%

2

50%

Batman

4

1

25%

4

100%

1

25%

Superman

4

1

25%

4

100%

1

25%

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