Incoherent Musings on JSA and Immortality.

So I was thinking. There are some characters I love but would never want to see back from the dead.

Wesley Dodds for instance. In fact, most dead Golden Age JSA-ers are characters I don't want resurrected. And I think I've figured out why.

As much as the JSA is about family and legacy, it's also about Immortality for me. The JSA is the one group with origins very strictly defined into WWII. The JLA can migrate forward, much like the X-Men, always timing their origins to be ten years before the present day. But the JSA is different. Whether the JLA started in the 1970s or the 2070s, the JSA will always be tied to the origins of superhero comics. To World War II.

The 1940s JSAers are immortal. All of them. It's just that their immortality comes in one of two ways. Characters like Jay, Alan, Ted Grant or Carter are the true immortals, the Supernaturals. They don't die. If they die, they come back. That's the way it goes. You can't have a JSA without Alan or Jay at all. I firmly believe that.

But characters like Wes, like Al or Terry or Charles, Ted Knight as well, they're immortal too. But they're also more...human. Or maybe mundane's a better word. It's like how, barring special stories like Obsidian Age, I don't think resurrection stories work very well with the Batclan. (I'm still holding judgement on Jason Todd). They're normal guys essentially (even with Wes's prophetic dreams), even though they've got some nifty tricks up their sleeves. Their immortality is just as real, but like them, it's more mundane.

They're the Fathers. Their immortality is in seeing their names (or blood) live on through their spiritual descendants. It wouldn't be right to bring them back from the dead because that would ruin them. It would make them Supernatural. And they're characters that specifically aren't.

A character can't be both kinds of immortal, really, because a Father's name will live on beyond him and a Supernatural Immortal will never need a successor. I actually think this is why Jade was always so marginalized. She's Alan's offspring with the same powers. But there was never any chance for her to carry on his legacy. They tried to alleviate this by linking her to the Silver Age/Oan Lantern concept, but that was only a stopgap. Jade was pretty much doomed, I think, with Infinity Inc.

I actually think this may be why Vertigo's Sandman Mystery Theatre went with a new Sandman. Because Sand is a Supernatural. There won't be a successor for a man who can survive dissolving into the Earth. Even if they take his powers away, the sand-monster element has removed him enough from the rest of humanity to ensure he can't be a Father. Which makes the Gaiman-Morpheus-esque elements of his costume a nice bit of (likely unintentional) metatext.

SMT though is much more human-based than the JSA. (Though I do think Sand would be a good lead of a mystery series, it'd need to be one with more of an occult/supernatural horror theme than SMT). It's possible that Kieran Marshall, depending on how the story goes of course, will be more "normal" like Wesley was, and thus could ultimately have a successor of his own.

There would then be two Sandmen: one, his true heir, with the emotional/familial bond, who inherits the connections and role in the JSA but has become something Other, Supernatural, Not-Quite-Human, and the other, his thematic heir, who'll share the name and dreams, but also carry on Wes's legacy in terms of humanity.

Or SMT: Sleep of Reason will be something else entirely and this will all be a load of crap speculation. :-) Either way, it should be fun.