All-Star Comics #52

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE SECRET CONQUEST OF THE EARTH! Receiving a letter requesting help from an anthropologist, the Justice Society is airlifted to the jungle where he's digging by Green Lantern's ring. As the anthropologist explains, supposedly a race of superhuman men lived in the area once, and legend says one they'd return, and unleash "a great and terrible terror". Psychic emanations cause him to break free of his bonds and dig his way into a chamber where four men are standing inside a glass case. He smashes it open, and the four rulers of the ancient civilization are revived. The JSA attacks, but are tranced into immobility until the four rulers are gone. Not only that, when they leave the cave and make it to a town, they realize they were actually out for an entire year. They're further convinced how deadly their new adversaries are when the paper talks about four powerful new war leaders arising and attracting thousands of followers; if the ancient rulers aren't stopped, the world will be consumed in war.  The first of the rulers, Mr. Prince, tries to force the leader of "a great South American republic", to declare war with this telepathic powers. Hawkman and Wonder Woman attack him and are frozen by his telepathic powers, but crash into him and knock him out by dint of the momentum they'd already built. His warmongering plans are thwarted, but Prince disappears before the JSAers can capture him.   In Europe, Mr. Monarch is riling up crowds to demand war with his own telepathic abilities. The national army tries to arrest Monarch, who uses his powers to force them to march to their death in a lake, but the Flash builds a bridge in a matter of seconds and the soldiers just walk across it instead. However Monarch disappears before he can be captured as well.   A masked member of the kings tries to launch a sneak attack on the sultan of a desert country to force a war. Atom and Dr. Mid-Nite are along with the sultan's retinue as extra protection, and knock the masked man off-balance with a black-out bomb and minor local earthquake delivered by the Atom. The king is unmasked and revealed to be a white man, but before his local followers can kill the infidel in revenge he disappears too.   Green Lantern investigates Mr. Crown, leader of the Swordsmen, who's using his powers over the radio to stir America into a frenzy to fight a war when they don't even know who the enemy is! Crown tries to control Green Lantern, who fights off the mind control with his terrific willpower. Lantern knocks out Mr. Crown with a giant green fist, then provides proof to the Swordsmen that Crown was tricking them to start a war for its own sake. While Lantern was talking to the Swordsmen, however, Crown disappeared like his fellows.   It isn't a mystery for long where they've gone: the anthropologist tells the JSA he's noticed natives from around his dig site carrying weapons-grade uranium to an isolated area. Green Lantern whips up a rocketship that takes them back to Africa, where the four kings have created four ICBMs they'll fire off, and provoke the war they've been trying to get started this entire time. After that, they'll easily rule the remaining human population.   The JSA fly down and attack them but are easily fended off by the kings' combined mental powers. Green Lantern quickly whisks them to safety, and Dr. Mid-Nite comes up with a plan: they'll hypnotize themselves into attacking the kings, and since they'll already be hypnotized, the heroes will be immune to the influence of the kings' mental commands. Green Lantern obliges by using the light from his ring to trance his teammates, who tackle the kings and dismantle their weapons. The unstable atomic bombs go off, annihilating the kings, but Green Lantern shields his teammates from the blast, and the triumphant Justice Society heads home. THE LAST MAN ON EARTH!