Data courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under Creative Commons license.

Issue Details

Issue #22
Published Fall 1944
Cover Price 0.10
Pages 52
Editing Sheldon Mayer
Notes Scripter Gardner Fox reports writing this story for All-Star #23, and why it appeared in #22 he didn't know. Wonder Woman is not listed in the roll call, but is prominently featured on the cover and in the conclusion. On the full page JJSA ad, the JJSA certificate features the Sandman and Doctor Fate, even though they were no longer appearing as JSA members. All story synopses and notes by Craig Delich (Dec. 2005).

Cover Details - "A Cure for the World"

Characters Dr. Mid-Nite; Spectre [Jim Corrigan]; Wonder Woman [Earth-2]; Hawkman [Carter Hall]; Starman [Ted Knight]; Atom [Al Pratt]; Johnny Thunder [Earth-2] (all as the Justice Society of America/JSA)
Genre superhero
Pencils Frank Harry
Inks Frank Harry
Notes Scripter Gardner Fox reports writing this story for All-Star #23, and why it appeared in #22 he didn't know. Wonder Woman is not listed in the roll call, but is prominently featured on the cover and in the conclusion. On the full page JJSA ad, the JJSA certificate features the Sandman and Doctor Fate, even though they were no longer appearing as JSA members. All story synopses and notes by Craig Delich (Dec. 2005).
Reprinted in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #5

4 page Justice Society of America story "The Test of Time! [introduction]"

Characters Hawkman [Carter Hall]; Starman [Ted Knight]; Johnny Thunder [Earth-2]; Atom [Al Pratt]; Dr. Mid-Nite; Spectre [Jim Corrigan] (all as the Justice Society of America/JSA); Conscience
Synopsis On his way to the regular meeting of the JSA, Dr. Mid-Nite comes across some boys fighting, and discovers the reason a boy was being beat up was because of his religious beliefs. He reminds them that ALL men are created equal, then takes the young victim to the meeting. Upon their arrival, the Man of Night lets the boy tell the members what happened, and then says that the JSA has a battle on it's hands: a battle against humanity itself! But the members aren't sure how they can help until suddenly a strange female being appears and tells them they can IF they are willing to undergo a test, which they agree to do. Each member will be hurled back in time to eras of great persecution and prejudice [without their present knowledge] to become opponents of those prejudices and hatreds. If they let the difficulties of the past overcome them, they will fail their missions.
Genre superhero
Script Gardner Fox
Pencils Joe Gallagher
Inks Joe Gallagher
Notes Intro of Conscience, who also appears in #24.
Reprinted in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #5

6 page Hawkman story "The Test of Time! [chapter 1]"

Characters Hawkman [Carter Hall]
Synopsis Hawkman is hurled back to the stone age era, whom the natives consider to be a large bird, enough for several meals. The Feathered Fury overcomes their attack and then one of a bear, and is hailed as the new leader of a tribe of cavemen and women. He is shown a cave painting of a wooly mammoth, who members of the tribe believe not to be a painting, but a real animal, and they intend to kill the artist. Hawkman, now known as "Ga," prevents this. The artist tells him these animals indded exist and helps Ga protect the tribe from a herd of the beasts. He is then accepted as one of their own as Hawkman disappears into the mists of time.
Genre superhero
Script Gardner Fox
Pencils Sheldon Moldoff
Inks Sheldon Moldoff
Reprinted in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #5

5 page Starman story "The Test of Time! [chapter 2]"

Characters Starman [Ted Knight]
Synopsis Starman finds himself in ancient Greece in the year 480 B.C. where he is a Greek soldier and member of the Strategoi [of Generals]. He recommends to the other generals that their slaves be trained in warfare, making the Greek Army second to none. But the generals think the slaves to be cowards and that this plan is madness. Starman begins a program of training the slaves, until that day when they are first taken into battle. Accidently discovering the power of the gravity rod, Starman uses it to push the foe back. The slaves win their freedom and word goes out to train their other slaves to fight and earn their freedom as well.....all just as Starman fades from view.
Genre superhero
Script Gardner Fox
Pencils Stan Aschmeier
Inks Stan Aschmeier
Reprinted in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #5

1 page Fat and Slat filler "Corn on the Side"

Genre gag
Script Ed Wheelan
Pencils Ed Wheelan
Inks Ed Wheelan

6 page Johnny Thunder story "The Test of Time! [chapter 3]"

Characters Johnny Thunder [Earth-2]; Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt
Synopsis Johnny Thunder travels back to the past of medieval England, where he finds himself to be a lowly shepherd boy. He accidently kicks a rock that hits a soldier and he is taken with them and is brutally flogged. Laying before a fire, Johnny swears to go before the Baron and tell him that the Serfs are men, not be robbed and left to die like rats in a trap. Accidently saying his magic word, "Cei-U," Johnny is allowed to speak to the Baron. Trippiung over his own words, Johnny makes the Baron laugh, so Johnny is made court jester. The Baron is so impressed that, if Johnny enters the Knight's Tourney and wins, then he'll consider doing something good for the Serfs. With the help of the Thunderbolt, Johnny wins and is knighted by the Baron....but disappears just as the Baron's [ugly] daughter is brought before Johnny as his bride-to-be.
Genre superhero;humor
Script Gardner Fox
Pencils Stan Aschmeier
Inks Stan Aschmeier
Reprinted in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #5

1 page Hop Harrigan text story "Lead-Lease for China"

Characters Hop Harrigan; Tank Tinker
Synopsis Having just flown a shot-up bomber into the Calcutta airport for repairs, Hop learns that he is to pilot a transport plane, loaded down with engines for the free Chinese forces, to Chungking. "No problem," thinks the young airman, until he learns that every other transport plane to try the same thing has mysteriously vanished without a trace!
Genre aviation
Letters typeset
Notes The last half of page 2 is an ad to order the complete Old Testament Edition of the Holy Bible.
Reprinted in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #5

5 page Atom story "The Test of Time! [chapter 4]"

Characters Atom [Al Pratt](as Nathaniel Pratt in this story)
Synopsis Back to the days of old Salem in colonial America goes the Atom....the scene of the Salem witch hunts and trials. He heads home to his wife Julie, Nathaniel Pratt, where he hears the stories of accused witches being killed. Meanwhile, he is to carry some important papers through a haunted forest in order to be signed....a forest in which the accused witch, Mother Rathlow, lives. He finds her trapped by a tree and saves her. During their conversation, he learns that her knowledge of medicinal herbs brands her a witch to the uninformed people in the town. Later, passing by the meeting house, he hears people arguing about her being a witch, and using his disguise as the Atom, he tackles the mob and tries to convince them that she isn't. Instead, they believe him to be a wizard and flee. Then Mother Rathlow comes by and thanks him for understanding, and that she is going to live with relatives in Virginia. Just then, Atom begins to vanish, making Mother Rathlow to think he actually is a wizard!
Genre superhero
Script Gardner Fox
Pencils Joe Gallagher
Inks Joe Gallagher
Reprinted in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #5

1 page Fat and Slat filler "Unrationed Corn"

Genre gag
Script Ed Wheelan
Pencils Ed Wheelan
Inks Ed Wheelan

5 page Dr. Mid-Nite story "The Test of Time! [chapter 5]"

Characters Dr. Mid-Nite
Synopsis Dr. Mid-Nite finds himself in Paris in the year of 1793, right into the midst of the French Revolution, embroiled in the deep-rooted mistrust and hatred of a royal family that has does much harm to the common people. Losing all knowledge of his true identity, he knows that he is a doctor named M'sieu De Nider. Being told that a man has been seriously injured, the Man of Night heads out to help, being attacked by the common people on the way as a royalist. De Nider tells the man he is riding with that the people have let their new freedom fo to their heads and it's becoming a dangerous situation in France. Re-disguising himself as Dr. Mid-Nite, he travels out into the night to keep the people from trying to kill all noblemen and succeeds only at the last moment.
Genre superhero
Script Gardner Fox
Pencils Stan Aschmeier
Inks Stan Aschmeier
Reprinted in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #5

5 page Spectre, The story "The Test of Time! [chapter 6]"

Characters Spectre [Jim Corrigan]
Synopsis Back to the year 1815 the Spectre is hurled and into the midst of a man named Stephen Hare, who has just invented a tiny motor powered by electricity. Unfortunately, his invention is not well received and the townspeople head out to smash the invention. The Spectre intervenes just as the mob is ready to smash the invention. Afterwards, he convinces Hare to continue with his inventing, that someday people will accept such things rationally. But Spectre's work is not finished, as other inventors are headed for the same treatment. Heading such an attack off, the Ghostly Guardian introduces a young inventor named Robert J. Fulton, who just invented a contraption called the steamboat, to Hare.
Genre superhero; occult
Script Gardner Fox
Pencils Bernard Baily
Inks Bernard Baily
Reprinted in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #5

3 page Justice Society of America story "The Test of Time! [conclusion]"

Characters Starman [Ted Knight]; Dr. Mid-Nite; Hawkman [Carter Hall]; Johnny Thunder [Earth-2]; Atom [Al Pratt]; Wonder Woman [Earth-2]; Johnny Thunder [Earth-2]; Spectre [Jim Corrigan] (all as the Justice Society of America/JSA); Conscience
Synopsis The JSA members return to their HQ after having all succeeded in their assignments. Conscience now identifies herself to the members as the Conscience of Man and tells them that by educating people, their understanding will then overcome their hatreds, fears and prejudices. Conscience then disappears, but the young lad whose dilemma started the whole matter, suggests that the JSA visit his school and start a program of education there. They do, with resounding success!
Genre superhero
Script Gardner Fox
Pencils Joe Gallagher
Inks Joe Gallagher
Reprinted in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #5