Who's This? All the Earth-2 villains.
The facts: Once JSA members started accumulating proper super-villains towards the end of the Golden Age, it made sense to group them together and have them fight the team (more or less, since the JSA famously split up into solo acts or duos, so the Injustice Society did too). They first appeared in All-Star Comics #37 (October 1947), by Robert Kanigher and Sheldon Meyer, though they had individually tangled with Flash, Green Lantern, or the JSA before. They would return, often with more (or different) members, for another half-dozen engagements in that series. They reform in the 1970s when All-Star returns. In the 80s, their legacy is Injustice Unlimited, opponents of Infinity Inc. In the late 90s, the new JSA series requires a new ISW, this one led by Johnny Sorrow, and it's been around, with different
members, through the New52, Rebirth and All In.
How you could have heard of them: There is an Injustice Society of America in the Stargirl TV series, and whatever team fights the JSA in the modern era tends to use that name, as they did in the recent Jeff Lemire-penned series.
Example story: All-Star Comics #41 (July 1948) "The Case of the Patriotic Crimes!" by John Broome, Alex Toth (cover and splash), Carmine Infantino and Frank Giacoia (Chapter 1), Arthur Peddy and Bernard Sachs (Chapter 2), and Irwin Hasen (Chapter 3)
Hey, we're in luck! With this issue, Black Canary replaces her old co-star Johnny Thunder in the JSA! Although, you might also grieve the loss of some of the ISW's power hitters in exchange for lower lights like Huntress and Sportsmaster (or would you?). What are "Patriotic Crimes"? Well, the Injustice Society will endeavor to steal the "objects most dear to the hearts of the American people". Like, do you remember the Liberty Train? Me neither, but there was a Freedom Train touring the States in this era, so let's call this an Earth-2 discrepancy. Anyway, be a shame if something happened to it, especially since it contained the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution, among other famous documents!
Black Canary is on the case and the FBI sends her to ask the JSA for help. Thankfully, she's already been recruited by Wonder Woman who gave her a signal device. But no one shows up to the meeting... Dang, are the JSA "most dear to Americans"? Maybe they shouldn't have put the word "America" in their name.
Canary might find out what happened from seeming traitor Harlequin (well, she does love Green Lantern), but the Icicle gets a jump on both of them! They're soon back at Injustice HQ (an abandoned coal mine, so all the villains will die of black lung) and put under the "mind eraser" (which takes a LONG time, enough that Harlequin can do long recaps).
And with all the heroes out of the way (well, those the comic acknowledges, anyway), the ISW is free to... get on with their crime contest?! It's all about who can commit the "greatest robbery coup", and the prize is nothing less than the LEADERSHIP of the Injustice Society! You'd think the Wizard wouldn't want to give that up after recruiting this lot. If we were talking about his original group, with the likes of Brain Wave, Per Degaton and Vandal Savage, yes, maybe, but these guys don't seem like masterminds on the same level to me. Maybe the Wizard thinks he's got it on lock, especially with his vanishing of the Liberty Train. The bar is set! And here are the plans:
-The Fiddler will go after the Freedom Bell (i.e., the Liberty Bell... was there some crazy copyright law the comics were trying to obey?!).
-The Huntresss will nab Plymouth Rock (from the public domain!).
-Sportsmaster wants Old Ironsides - the college football trophy? Would make sense for him, but no, he means the old clipper ships U.S.S. Constitution. Certainly, a better prize.
-And Icicle purposes to bring in the Washington Monument itself! I should think that if he succeeds, he should win the contest.
-Oh, and what would have been Harlequin's crime? It's already been committed! She was in charge of capturing the JSA! But wait, she was actually going to warn the JSA and lead them to the ISW, so really, it's Sportsmaster, having read her diary, who does the deed. Hey, maybe HE should be leader.
They might have put Harlequin under their mind control rays, but they don't take away her hypnotism glasses, so she manages to snap the JSA out of it before the effects take hold (temporarily, we're told), so all that's left is for the JSA to split up and stop the various villains. I don't really want to linger there, because it becomes solo efforts and each of these villains has an entry and thus a Who's This? article, but in terms of team work, the JSA didn't count on the Wizard being in the wind and able to reassert his will on them.
So Hawkman defeats Sportsmaster, but the Wizard defeats Hawkman and HE brings in the ship. Similarly, Dr. Mid-Nite and Wonder Woman make short work of the Fiddler (amusingly, he traps them under the Bell with gas pellets, but they breathe through the crack and escape. They don't tie his hands, and it seems a snap of the fingers is the trigger to bring them back under control. Shoot! Fiddler's loot is his own! Huntress vs. Flash and Atom is a no-brainer, but taking Plymouth Rock out of the truck breaks the ramp with a SNAP sound and they're back under. Green Lantern doesn't prevent Icicle from ripping the Washington Monument out of the ground with a blimp, but snaps his own fingers and puts himself under. The Wiz captures Black Canary and Harlequin again, and this time, takes the glasses away. Nothing to stop the ISW from killing them all, now that they've proven a danger. The villains drop the heroes down a mine shaft, and it's time to judge the contest. But who should get a vote? How about the American People themselves? And Icicle has the giant blimp (how is this part of his schtick, anyway?) to steal an entire baseball game.
Sportmaster will, of course, MC.
Lock your own votes in, peeps. All done? Alright. Hand me that envelope. What? The baseball fans riot and start attacking the villains? Now we'll never find out the results! Meanwhile, the JSA has broken free of the Wizard's mind control (the girls do it with some heavy convincing) and show up just as the villains are about to retaliate against the mob. We never find out who would have won, but Black Canary gets officially inducted into the JSA, so she's the clear winner of the issue, if not the contest.
I would have given it to the Wizard on the merits (he brought in TWO prizes, and the train was really SEVERAL), with Icicle coming in a strong second. What about you?
Who's Next? Lana Lang's dark secret.
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