The DC “Celebration” books are decent retrospectives on the characters that helped put this publishing company on the map. This one tries to be inclusive by collecting stories from all the important comic book eras – starting with the Golden Age of Comics.The Justice Society of America (JSA) were DC’s first super-group – a collection of their finest heroes – except Batman and Superman… Because this type of book was a showcase for heroes and the Batman and Superman books already sold well, those two – who made occasional appearances – didn’t need the exposure. So as super-groups go it was more like Power Station instead of Asia.It’s 1941, so who are they going up against first? If you said Nazis, Random Goodreader, you are correct, but with a caveat. The writers couldn’t/wouldn’t/shouldn’t say Nazis, so the bad guys were named Fritz and Hans and they were from a foreign country (Canada?) intent on sabotage and corrupting good All-American values.The initial group was kind of lopsided in power sets: Dr. Fate and The Spectre could have easily handled these Fascist mooks on their own. In another story in this book, The Spectre lodged himself between two Earths to prevent them from colliding! So why bother teaming up with The Sandman, who has a gas gun and can throw a punch?Mr. Spectre, you are starting to scare me!A major step down in abilities from the magic/sorcery dudes, you had The Flash (Jay Garrick), who could quickly (incredibly obvious pun intended) round up these no good bastards. The writers didn’t quite know what to do with The Green Lantern (Alan Scott), since he rarely used his ring for much more than flying and fell for the old crowbar-to-the-back-of-the-noggin’-via-fascist-goon trick.There’s The Atom, a short dude who has the power of, one would assume, an atom. And finally you have Hourman, who upon taking a drug named Miraclo, had super powers for only an hour. Miraclo is a patented combination of Meth, Viagra, powdered muskrat testicles with the option of either mocha, watermelon or minty flavoring.Make mine mocha!*starts humming “Sixty Minute Man”Wonder Woman joins the Justice League in the next story.One of the most powerful super heroes ever, she gets to…watch the club house and keep an eye on loser/mascot Johnny Thunder, while her male counter parts get the crap knocked out of them for dozens of pages.“Oh, and sweetheart, can you have some beer and sandwiches ready for us when we get back to the club house and maybe show us some of those bondage tricks you’ve picked up along the way. Thanks!”In the last Golden Age story, we have the Justice League traveling by rocket ship to one of Saturn’s moons. Wonder Woman now gets to kick some ass, and because Black Canary is now a member, she gets to stay behind on the rocket ship with the giant Saturnian.“Oh, and sweetheart, can you have some beer and sandwiches ready for us when we get back to the rocket ship and maybe model your fishnet stockings later. Thanks!”A note about Golden Age comics: There’s a lot of reading.There’s more to read on this single page than in the whole bonus version of Stephen King’s The Stand. In addition to the painful exposition-a-rama, it seems that the editors had to explain anything science-y. We learn about gravity, trajectories, centrifugal force – all the things that made me hate science class and by extension, Golden Age comics.The Silver Age brings about another conundrum. DC revamped their superhero comics in the late ‘50’s and now had the Justice League. So what about the Justice Society and all the heroes from that previous era?Say “hello” to the alternate Earth storylines.The current roster of heroes are now dubbed “Earth One”; the Golden Age heroes, even though they pre-date their modern counterparts are now “Earth Two” and qualify for AARP. Senior discounts are now available for all the now old geezer heroes from “Earth Two”.This led to the annual JLA hooks up with the JSA storylines. “Now that we can kick some ass again we don’t have to spend our days playing checkers and counting our liver spots.”“Combining forces to keep the two Earth’s from smashing into one another. For the millionth time.”“Not getting our asses kicked by those bozos on Earth 3.” Yes, I said it. Earth 3! Three’s a crowd, Earth 3.My personal favorite was when Solomon Grundy and Blockbuster punched and gouged the hate out of each other.“Knocked the hate out of each other.” I think there’s some sort of lesson there, kids, but I’m not sure what.I’d like to take a minute here and give the Silver Age DC editors the middle finger for even coming up with the “Infinite Earths”concept.*pauses and gives middle finger*I feel much better, my rage is almost gone.The remainder of the book had DC trying to find a place in modern continuity for the JSA pre- and post-Infinite Crisis with varying degrees of success. Of note, Black Canary moved herself from Earth 2 to Earth 1, to 1) avoid having to change the adult diapers of her fellow JSA pals, and 2) challenge the DC artists mad skillz at drawing fish net stockings. So what kind of storylines round out this tome?Do we just write retro stories?He is serious Hawkman and don’t call him Shirley.Do we bring the JSA into Earth One along with some old pervy Golden Age villain?Yes, please.Do we have old man Superman pay a visit and hang out awhile swapping stories about how Earth 2 Batman put Kryptonite in his hemorrhoid cream?Do we go all New 52, make the Green Lantern gay and spoil any memories of the JSA by writing a crappy book?The gay Green Lantern Alan Scott with a weakness for “wood”, that was a hard editorial choice to make.Bottom line: Like I said a million words ago, this collection tries to be inclusive, offering a glimpse of the group from the entire publishing history. It works when the stories are self-contained, but when, you’re stuck on Thanagar with that a$$ Hawkman for whatever reason, you’ll wish you had never left the Golden Age of comics. Not a bad collection, but not for the squeamish.