Johnny Sorrow
1921 - Johnny Sorrow is born.
1938 - 17-year-old Johnny moves to Hollywood to become an actor.
1941 - 20-year-old Johnny ships out to fight in the Pacific Theater during World War II
1945 - 24-year-old Johnny returns home from the war. He tries to become an actor without much success.
1948 - 27-year-old Johnny steals a prototype subspace device that allows him to become intangible, and begins using it as a superpowered thief. He is confronted by the Justice Society, and in the ensuing fight his device is broken, trapping him between dimensions, where he is eventually found and altered by the King of Tears.
8 years ago - Johnny Sorrow is returned to earth as an avatar of the King of Tears. He assembles the Injustice Society to attack the Justice Society to recover the subspace prototype from their Brownstone. He is defeated, and locked back within the subtle realm.
2 years ago - Johnny Sorrow allies himself with Despero from within the subtle realm. They attack the Rock of Eternity and free the original sins, placing Despero's consciousness within the body of Lex Luthor. They are only defeated by the combined Justice Society, Watchtower, & Justice League. Sorrow is finally destroyed when he is forced to see his own reflection.
Johnny Sorrow is actually a pretty recent, short-lived character, but he was born out of a particular period in the story of the Justice Society, and managed to very dexterously weave himself into the tapestry of their larger history in a way that made him a very prolific, very scary antagonist for the whole team, if only for a little while. Even with a very limited number of appearances he's an almost vital character to include, and that really says something for just how innovative a villain he is.
Johnny Sorrow's Comic HistoryJohnny Sorrow looks and acts like he's a reimagined Golden Age character, but in fact he was actually completely original when he was first introduced in the pages of JSA in 1999, a creation of series writers Geoff Johns & David Goyer. Geoff would go on to be responsible for practically every inclusion of the character ever, so he's very much tied to this one writer's interpretation of the Justice Society.
He showed up leading the reformed Injustice Society, a terrifying throwback to a story we had never actually seen, someone who clearly had a long history with the team. We eventually see the character's origins in flashback, showing him as a classic Golden Age gimmick villain He's a former actor turned thief, using a stolen piece of technology to allow him to become intangible before it is damaged, sucking him painfully into some unknown half-reality. |
We learn that while in this mysterious place he was found by some horrible Lovecraftian entity, the King of Tears, who made him his avatar and sent him out into the world to try to pave the way for his return. It's a really basic, straightforward origin, but it proved remarkable utilitarian, setting up Sorrow as a very capable enemy. This made him an ideal leader for the new Injustice Society, giving the whole group a newfound sense of menace.
While sorrow does have a few appearances in other comics after the run in JSA, most of them are pretty forgettable, with one notable exception; the 2002 Hardcover one-shot JLA/JSA Virtue & Vice again by Johns, and featuring some of the best superhero art you've ever seen by Carlos Pacheco. This is one of my favorite standalone stories in the middle of what I'd argue is the height of DC's worldbuilding. In it, Johnny Sorrow teams up with perennial Justice League villain Despero, together posing a legitimate threat to practically every major superhero of the time. Sorrow's very particular set of powers provided a great challenge to the heros, and this is actually something we want to use here. |
Our Johnny Sorrow StoryIt's actually a testament to how well-conceived Johnny Sorrow is that we really don't have to do much work at all to incorporate him into our story despite his incredibly out-there powers and the bizarreness of concepts like the King of Tears. It all just unfolds very naturally and gives us a great villain that can easily challenge an entire team of powerful heroes. Concepts like the subtle realms and the magical existence of an existential horror like the King of Tears actually already fit in a world where places like Gemworld, Nightshade, and Myrra exist.
We basically are using him for three main stories; his origin, where he begins as a classic gimmick villain before something awful happens to him. There is his initial return, where he assembles the Injustice Society in order to reacquire his subspace prototype... and then there's obviously the story from Virtue & Vice, which really is just as fun a comic romp as you can expect to read. Now, we've ended this story by saying that Johnny Sorrow is finally destroyed by looking at his own reflection... but a character like this really only needs an excuse to be brought back to threaten the heroes all over again. So while he might be done FOR NOW... I'd say all he needs is the right story to come back as strong as ever. |