All-Star Comics # 6 (June 1941) begins, as usual, with a JSA meeting, this time a dinner in honor of the Flash. The JSA membership has thus far consisted of eight central members including:
- Flash
- Green Lantern
- Hawkman
- Atom
- Hourman
- Sandman
- Spectre
- Dr. Fate
Batman and Superman were honorary members, but showed up very rarely, as is the case with superheroes who already had a book dedicated to their stories exclusively. With All-Star 6, Flash was joining those ranks with his new comic All-Flash, meaning he was now to be relegated to honorary status. The reason given for honorary status in the stories was that a particular hero had become extremely busy. Johnny Thunder, who had previously guest-starred, now applies for full time membership as a replacement for Flash.
The JSA plays a prank on Johnny, telling him to bring in the notorious "Killer McPanzee." They don't tell Johnny that McPanzee is a frail old weakling who, in search of notoriety, prints fake newspapers with headlines announcing all the people he supposedly killed. Talk about fake news! A guy is so desperate for attention that he pretends to be a serial killer. In real life the guy would be institutionalized. So juvenile were the older comic stories, intolerably lame by adult standards, but comics were for kids back then. The guys writing the stories were practically kids themselves.
Johnny goes to McPanzee's house in a ridiculous disguise, only to find that some counterfeiters have arrived to enlist McPanzee's help in their operation. The Flash must break up the counterfeiting ring while Johnny's Thunderbolt, always summoned accidentally, rescues Johnny from the bottom of the river where the bad guys have put him. Granting Johnny's wish for a pretty girl to comfort him, Dr. Fate's girlfriend, Inza, shows up in her car. Johnny bums a ride and gangsters steal the car to make their getaway from a bank heist. Dr. Fate must intervene.
While Fate deals with the crooks, Johnny falls down a laundry chute in the crooks' hideout and is picked up by the laundry serviceman. He abandons Johnny at a house of horrors entertainment venue where a protection racket must be dealt with by the Sandman.
Meanwhile' Hourman searches for Johnny who hasn't returned to the JSA meeting. He checks the theater since Johnny likes movies, only to find that an African display to promote the latest film about Africa is not populated by mannequins, but by bad guys in the guise of a gorilla and natives. A disgruntled fired employee is planning a robbery for revenge. When the police, as useless as in the previous issue, arrive, they think Hourman is committing the robbery. When will they learn?
Meanwhile, as Johnny wanders the streets he is approached by the proprietors of an illegal gambling house. He thinks that if he can break up their ring, the JSA is sure to vote him in. He gets into trouble resulting in his Thunderbolt alerting the Atom who comes to deal with the crooks.
Meanwhile, the Spectre searches for Johnny, but comes upon headless musclemen terrorizing an engaged couple. This is one of the better stories in the book, reminiscent of nostalgic pulp fiction and pre-code comics. The criminal mastermind has been stalking the young engaged female and then turning kidnap victims into zombies with severed heads to do his bidding. Delightfully creepy, but one could expect no less from the Spectre.
The next segment has Green Lantern breaking up a ring of delivery truck hi-jackers whose boss happens to be named "Fruity Leman." The villains are foiled as the Lantern resorts to using watermelons as weapons.
Johnny, in the meantime, has been swinging from a rope attached to the bottom of a plane in flight. Thunderbolt had granted Johnny's wish to be taken from the gambling house by an airplane. He is later dropped to the deck of a ship where Shiera Sanders, Hawkman's girlfriend, has been kidnapped by bad guys. One who had been standing outside her lawyer's office just happened to overhear the news that she had inherited a fortune. Shiera is the second of only two leading ladies appearing in this issue. Of course Hawkman comes to her rescue.
The Hawkman segment, in spite of some juvenile elements, is probably the best story in the book (with the Spectre's being a close second). The Hawkman art, especially on the segment's final page, is outstanding for its time. We have Sheldon Moldoff to thank. Johnny remains captive on the ship, but is rescued by the Thunderbolt and is (somehow) granted JSA membership.
This issue isn't as rich in 40's vernacular as previous ones. We do, however, have the Flash expressing approval to a suggestion with "That's a corking idea!" Johnny's disappointment in his incompetence is met with the phrase, "I'm some punkins!" Bad guys determine to "make hay" while their opponents are sidetracked.
Interesting superpowers are revealed, like Dr. Fate's ability to absorb matter into his body, including bullets, rendering him essentially bulletproof. He can also follow a vehicle's trail by viewing microscopic remnants of rubber. He rescues Inza's car from a burning garage by putting a magical protective mantle over it. We also discover that Sandman's wirepoon gun can lodge in the bottom of a passing airplane, giving him a lift to the top of a skyscraper.
Overall, good fun if not held to today's standards.