In this review of JSA #15, we catch up to the situations in both Gotham City and Starco Labs, as Dr. Fate considers something.
JSA #15
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by GAVIN GUIDRY
Main Cover: DAVE JOHNSON
Variant Covers: LEIRIX
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 1/7/26
This review contains spoilers
JSA #15 kicks off at the Tower of Fate. Dr. Occult is discussing The Spectre with Dr. Fate, Madame Xanadu, Blue Beetle, and Zatara. Occult’s fairly certain that Corrigan can’t handle The Spectre, but Blue Beetle disagrees. Xanadu feels that Corrigan should figure out the Spectre situation on his own, but Dr. Fate is ready to intervene. The group, save for Xanadu and Fate, disperses. She tries to get him to stay out of Corrigan’s Spectre situation, but they both know he can’t keep that promise.
Speaking of Corrigan, Flash is beginning to suspect something with him. Wishing to avoid the subject, Corrigan goes off alone to investigate more about Gordon’s murder. Green Lantern heads off to check out Starco Labs. And that just leaves Flash alone…up until Johnny Thunder turns up. He reveals that he’s been following him, and that the genie he claims to have access to is (to Flash’s surprise) real.
In Gotham, Hippolyta and Atom plan to look further into the local Nazi group, only to run into The Huntress. She tries to stop them, but Hippolyta quickly takes her down.
Moving over to Starco Labs, Sandman and Hourman are still facing off with Cyclotron. He tells them that they still have a chance to leave…but they have no intention of doing so. Not when there are so many answers to be uncovered there. But one thing leads to another, and the pair end up being defeated/thrown into a cell with another experiment.
Back in Gotham, we catch up to Corrigan again, as The Spectre starts to (much to Jim’s dismay) take over again. As he’s struggling with this entity, Fate appears and urges him to accept it, lest all of humanity pay the price.
Story-wise, we’ve got some interesting stuff happening in JSA #15, like the whole situation with Corrigan and The Spectre. He’s not shown as being entirely used to the fact that this other entity has chosen him, but at the same time, the fact that his response to it taking over is “Not again!” as opposed to complete confusion makes it clear it’s not the first time. Which makes me wonder how long he’s been dealing with this. It also makes his insistence that he works alone a little inaccurate, since this entity’s hitching a ride with him and he’d rather it didn’t.
When we pick up on a few more of the threads, Hourman and Sandman are left in a rather dire situation. They’d already found that these labs are hiding some full-on horror movie material, and now they’re trapped there with someone that’s intimately aware of what goes on there.
Of course, this is one way for them to get a few more answers on what sort of hell this place is. But at the same time, the question comes up of how they’d end up getting out of this situation: either figuring their own way out or, since Green Lantern had also had the idea of investigating the labs, getting a bit of backup.
The scene with Hippolyta and Atom brings in a vital, connecting detail: the shipping manifests. They (primarily Hippolyta) figure out that there’s some connection between the local Nazi group and Starco. The suspicions were already pretty strong, but that aspect? It feels fairly damning.
I’m also loving the fight between Hippolyta and The Huntress. The way it’s drawn shows a nice sense of movement. It’s a brief scuffle (but to be fair, The Huntress would already be outclassed by fighting an Amazonian warrior…and even without that aspect, it still would have been a two-against-one), but it works.
I think, though, my favorite element of the artwork in JSA #15 may have to be the expressions, particularly when Flash bumps into Johnny Thunder again. Johnny seems like one of those guys that’s always got a reason to smile, but when he brings the genie out of his pen, there’s an almost manic glee to his eyes. Like he’s been itching to prove to The Flash that, yep, he’s completely on the level about his genie friend. And for Jay himself, the way his face goes from suspicion to: “Well, I’ll be damned” is kind of great.
Final Thoughts
JSA #15 may not be the most dramatic installment of the current JSA tale, but it’s definitely starting to bring a few pieces of the puzzle together.
