The Future of the JSA

I'm going to come right out and say it: this preview for tomorrow's issue of Justice Society of America leaves a baaad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Now I know that this "twenty years later" future will never come to pass. Stuff like that doesn't happen in comics and especially not in the DC Universe. But there mere hint of it. The mere possibility gets me shaking with fear. It's not the idea that Neo-Nazis have turned America into some sort of twisted "Fatherland." It's not even the idea that the Nazis won.

No, the thing that makes me really uneasy is that Michael Holt -- Mr. Terrific -- seems to have given up. Michael Holt gave up once. After the death of his wife he nearly committed suicide. But he found a greater purpose. And in doing so one of the smartest men in the world became one of the world's greatest super-heroes.

But would he give up again? Could something so terrible happen that it might make him lose all hope and beg for the end? Beg to forget? The very thought of it sends chills down my spine.

Perhaps that is the key. After all, if such a characterization of Mr. Terrific seems so off to me, maybe that's because it is off. Perhaps this little preview of a "future" is the surest sign yet that it will never come to pass.