Two hundred years ago, Prince James, heir to the throne of England - was assassinated in an English castle. In 1940, while the castle was being shipped to America for safe keeping, an enemy torpedo detonated the ship and cargo to Eternity - but in so doing, the spirit of Prince James was released from eternity to return to earth once again as the most bewildering the most mysterious force the world has every known! A force known only to mortal beings as the incredible Mr. Justice!
Mr. Justice was created by writer Joe Blair and artist Sam Cooper in issue #9 for Blue Ribbon Comics. Blue Ribbon was published by MLJ Comics, named after the first initials of its three founders: Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater. MLJ would later become Archie Comics, and as one might guess, many of the MLJ superheroes have returned in various incarnations over the years (The Comet, The Shield and The Fly being the ones most often revamped.)
Several attempts have been made to revive MLJ's original superhero line, without success. Recently at Comiccon 2008 it was announced that the characters have been licensed to DC. J. Michael Straczynski* will be using his run on The Brave and the Bold to fully integrate these characters into the DC Universe, saying "The goal is to really give them a leg up on that process .... once they’ve appeared in 'The Brave and the Bold,' they can be used by the rest of the DCU books, and some of them may get their own titles".
*Depending on how you feel about JMS's work on The Twelve and Squadron Supreme, then you will be appropriately excited or saddened by this prospect. ;)
Here are some recent links from Newsaram re DC's plans for MLJ's characters.
ReplyDeleteFirst, an interview with JMS:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/040929-JMS-Red-Cirlce.html
Next an interview with JG Jones about the costume redesigns:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/040923-JG-Red-Circle.html
No word yet on Mr. Justice.
Gotta love Mr. Justice. One the great costume designs of the Golden Age, along with the original Daredevil and The Destroyer. MLJ was a fun publisher...
ReplyDeleteWow....is there any Golden Age universe DC HASN'T bought out? I wonder how it would be if Marvel owned some of those old "universes"....
Sphinx - Thakn you for the awesome links! I was wondering if there had been an update on the revamping of the characters!
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Chris - Yeah, I totally agree. I'm thinking of asking Pierre to find a way to include the character as a cameo in our Trial of the Red Death Comic. Check out this link to see some of the characters we're already planning on using:
http://flashbackuniverse.blogspot.com/search/label/WayBack%20Universe