Today in Comics History, November 22, 1940: Geoff Johns Ruins Everything

from Doomsday Clock #7 (DC, November 2018), script by Geoff Johns, art by Gary Frank, design by Amie Brockway-Metcalf, colors by Brad Anderson, letters by Rob Leigh
...which, thanks to Geoff Johns' fetish for giving dates to historical but vague DC events, means that this happened today.



from All-Star Comics #3 (DC/All-American, Winter 1940), script by Gardner Fox, pencils and inks by E. E. Hibbard, aditional dialogue by yours little stuffed truly
So thanks, I guess, Geoff Johns, for making it canon that the first meeting of the Justice Society of America was on November 22, 1940. (Which was not Thanksgiving, but the Friday before it.)



Now, Johns wasn't just pulling a random date out of his derriere here, to be fair. (Hey, that rhymes!) Way back in '76, the first meeting of the JSA was listed on the usually-impeccable Super DC Calendar 1976 to be July 16:


from Super DC Calendar 1976 (DC, 1975), pencils and inks by E. E. Hibbard, letters by Ben Oda
But that calendar date was retconned to be at least mid-to-late November 1940 in a comic published a couple years later. It starts out after FDR's election victory on November 5:


from DC Special #29 [The Untold Origin of the Justice Society] (DC, August 1977), script by Paul Levitz, pencils by Joe Staton, inks by Bob Layton, colors by Anthony Tollin, letters by Bill Morse
In this story set on the retro world of Earth-2, FDR gathers Batman, the Flash, and Green Lantern to infiltrate Germany and find out Hitler's secret invasion plans, but when that Titanic Trio are captured, Doctor Fate and the Spectre recruit Hourman, Hawkman, the Atom, Sandman, and the big blue kahuna himself, Superman (the one with the curly "S"), to battle and rescue their fellow heroes and stop Hitler's super-bomber from destroying Washington, DC. (Which, y'know, shoulda been a good enough reason to declare war then, right?) At the conclusion of the story, the Justice Society of America is formed! (Johnny Thunder, Wonder Woman, Starman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Mr. Terrific, Wildcat, Black Canary and others would join later.)



The now-no-longer-definitive History of the DC Universe confirms it in November 1940:


from History of the DC Universe #1 (DC, January 1987), script by Marv Wolfman, pencils by George Pérez, inks by Karl Kesel, colors by Tom Ziuko
From there it's not difficult to suggest that the first actual sitting-down-at-a-table meeting of the JSA takes place, and Geoff Johns sets this as November 22. See?:


from The New Golden Age #1 one-shot (DC, January 2023); script by Geoff Johns, pencils and inks by (inhale) Diego Olortegui, J. P. Mayer, Scott Hanna, Jerry Ordway, Steve Lieber, Todd Nauck, Scott Kolins, Viktor Bogdanović, Brandon Peterson, and/or Gary Frank; colors by Nick Filardi, John Kalisz, Matt Herms, Jordan Boyd, and/or Brad Anderson, letters by Rob Leig (exhale!)
So Happy 82nd Birthday, Justice Society! You don't look a day over fifty.