JSA Legacies Project Day 4- Green Lantern, Jade, & Obsidian #JSApril

What is JSApril?

The Justice Society of America made their debut in All-Star Comics #3 in 85 years ago. In celebration, the folks over at Fire and Water Podcasting Network have assembled bloggers, podcasters, and many more creators to honor the world’s first superhero team. Find the full list of participants and more over at Fire and Water Network’s webpage and I truly encourage you all to check out some of the amazing things people have been creating.

For JSApril, I have decided to contribute my art skills to honor the team that means a lot to me. Alongside the X-Men, the Justice Society is my favorite superhero team. The main things I love about the team is that they are a family. As much as they may bicker and squabble, at the end of the day they love and respect each other. Additionally, I find the JSA exemplifies my favorite part of DC comics and that’s LEGACY. So for fifteen days this month I will be posting watercolor art showcasing members of the Justice Society alongside their notable legacy character.

Today’s subjects include one of the foundational members of the DC universe and his long lost children.

Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Jade (Jennie Hayden), and Obsidian (Todd Rice)

These three were no brainers to include in this project. Alan Scott is probably the most recognizable JSA member outside of the Trinity. My first encounter with the character and the JSA (sort of) comes from the classic Justice League episode Legends. That episode had the Justice League travel to an alternate universe with a pastiche of the JSA- The Justice Guild of America. I recommend checking that episode out if you ever get a chance as it is one of the best episodes of the first season of the show.

When I got into comics around 2007, I gravitated towards Justice Society, 52, and related titles largely because of the Justice League series and Legends is one that drove me to check out the real deal JSA. By the time I got to the comics, it was firmly in the Countdown to Final Crisis territory and Jade was unfortunately dead by that then but Obsidian was still around alongside his dad. They are some of my favorite members of the JSA and the process to create this piece was an interesting one to say the least.

Green Lantern (Alan Scott)

I love Alan Scott’s whole deal. First off, he’s a more mystically powered version of Green Lanterns and his coexistence in the world of Green Lantern Corp is such a weird quirk of the merging of Earth-1 and Earth-2 following Crisis on Infinite Earths. He doesn’t belong to the Corps but obviously has some ties at times. It’s funny to me. The journey of Alan Scott the character is an interesting one especially following New 52. When the JSA was ported over to Earth-2 in the New 52 timeline, they were all reimagined and de-aged etc. Kind of like how Earth-1 versions of the characters represented Silver-age reimagining of the Golden-age characters.

The notable thing that happened with Alan was the decision to make him gay in Earth-2. I loved the decision as there are just few openly gay characters in the world of Big Two Comics, especially marque characters like Alan Scott. This did upset fans for a lot of reasons. Some folks reasons were not so great, but others wondering what it meant for Jade and Obsidian. My only concern was what were they going to do when DC would inevitably reverse the New 52. Would DC return Alan to the heteronormative status quo or would they keep him as gay.

Luckily my concerns would be addressed many years later (it took a while for DC to figure out how to return the JSA to the mainstream) with Infinite Frontier #0 as Alan comes out to his children. It doesn’t retcon (an admittedly confusing) relationship to the Jade and Obsidian’s mother. Instead it shows Alan was a deeply closeted man. Alan Scott: Green Lantern series deals with this topic and its on the top of my reading list. I am just glad this elder queer man exists in comics.

The Process

The process for this one wasn’t too bad. I debated a bit on whether to have him stand stoic or in action and opted for more dramatic shot right before he would attack. My figurework is always a work in progress as an artist but I really like how most of this came out. As for the inking and coloring. I overworked the beard and hair a bit too much. I also began to experiment with a dry brush I had on the JSA sketches. Some were more successful than others but I was happy with this.

On the watercolor side, let me say that Alan’s costume is a lot of secondary colors for a hero. Like, a purple and green cape with a red tunic? Either way I had fun with this one. I did try use a wash of Sap Green for the green flame from his ring and use a lighter wash to cast onto the figure. I am not as happy with that but it was a worthwhile experiment.

Jade (Jennie Hayden) and Obsidian (Todd Rice)

Jade and Obsidian originally began on Infinity, Inc. before joining the JSA proper. Their history was confusing when it came to their parentage to say the least. They both claim Alan as their father but they never knew their mother. Through a whole soap opera reveal in the shadow of The Crisis on Infinite Earths it was revealed that their mother was long time Jay Garrick Villain Thorne. but through a convoluted retelling of history that reads like a Wikipedia article. Jade would go on to date Kyle Rayner (never a great idea) and would become a member of the Green Lantern Corps. Obsidian was one of the earliest gay characters in DC but they but him with mental health issues (you know, the superhero kind). They are both currently serving alongside their father on the current iteration of the JSA.

The Process

This one was rough. First, I decided to draw both characters on the piece. Normally this isn’t an issue, but this project is working on 4″ x 5″ sized portion of paper. It’s not a lot of space. I struggled to convey their powers and give them proper spacing. Then on top of that the faces looked terrible once I inked the page. I considered just pasting a new head on the characters but decided to just take a piece of watercolor paper and cut a whole new panel and paste it on top. The new composition was much improved. I do wish I could get Jade’s skin tone closer to the model, but that aside, I liked this one.

That’s a wrap for this edition of JSA Legacies Project. Join me next time as I tackle one of DC’s most convoluted heroes Hawkman.

Social Media

You can follow along with JSApril all of the other creators on social media with #JSApril. You can always find me here or over on Bluesky and I contribute weekly to The Beat. If you are new here be sure to check out out the archives. Personally, I’m quiet proud of my History of Heroes Reborn posts. You can see my other JSApril posts here.

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