Anyway, I re-read Golden Age recently and found that it was a pretty bad story on closer analysis. The whole plot is driven by coincidence, only slightly abetted by the years-long timeframe of the story; but while a case can be made for Manhunter and Fatman meeting in a tavern, or Miss America reading Thompson’s diary at the right time, or Thompson/Ultra-Humanite keeping a diary filled with crippling secrets to begin with, or Hawkman taking up an interest in performing (not undergoing, PERFORMING, undergoing it made sense in the context) hypnotic regression – it is damn near impossible to excuse Alan Scott JUST HAPPENING to be testifying before the HUAC the exact day of the big battle.

I felt like Robinson was writing backwards; he wanted to show the Golden Age superheroes fighting a super-powered Hitler, then worked out all the finicky details that would lead to that event. Everything along the way seemed like a frantic attempt to cram in cool moments featuring all of the major heroes. The characters themselves were all portrayed in intriguing ways, but much of it felt pointless once the whole thing devolved into a massive brawl – a good brawl, mind you, but one that made all of the cool character sketches feel like decoration. Captain Triumph is the only hero that I felt had a complete, interesting character arc; Johnny Quick and Atom came close, although Atom felt a little forced down the stretch.

Golden Age was one of those stories that I really wanted to love, but it falls flat on the basis of contrived (I don’t want to say lazy, I think Robinson was just broke for ideas on how to move the plot forward) plotting and weirdly incomplete characterization. Robinson in general seems to be a great first read, poor re-read for me.

Or, for that matter, McCarthy’s fellow “Progressive”, FDR? “Can’t happen here”? Happened. Over and over. Started with Teddy Roosevelt and keeps happening to this very day. Both parties. Some elections (like this one), both parties actively compete with one another to see which can be the MOST Fascist (e.g., that horrible “national service” forum).

TGA fell into the same cliched trap that befell NEW FRONTIER: an anxious compulsion to portray the creator’s politics as the epitome of all that is good and pure while deriding anyone who veers away in even the slightest respect as wicked and irredeemable. In other words, supposedly anti-Fascist works became the very model of actual Fascism.

Plus there was all that ickiness about the JSAers faking the Spear Of Destiny stories to cover up their paralysis in the face of the Nazi terror. As if fear of Hitler alone would have kept the Spectre from turning him into tapioca the first chance he got.