By Derrick Ferguson

Issue Number Nineteen

"Nothing Succeeds Like Success -- Part One"

Hub City

United States Of America

The long black limousine was not a usual sight one found in the economically depressed Bragg’s Bend section and was swanky enough to catch the attention of the street people who made their living by noticing such things and when the limo parked in front of an old abandoned warehouse on the waterfront, fully eleven or twelve young hooligans were lying in wait nearby, licking their lips in anticipation of tearing the limo to pieces and selling the parts for a goodly chunk of ready cash.

The driver’s side was opened and a tall man stepped out. Dressed in a plain black suit, he quite frankly looked quite ordinary to the street toughs. They imagined it would take no time at all to beat him into swift submission and rip the car to pieces. The driver allowed a rare small smile to play around his lips, revealing strong, even white teeth and incisors that looked most uncomfortably like fangs. He swept the surrounding abandoned tenements, ramshackle bars and empty lots, his gaze resting on the hiding places of the street toughs.

One youth nudged his partner. "Yo, G…dat mook’s lookin’ right at us, man!"

His partner shoved the dissident. "Nah, man, he don’t see us but he sure as hell will hear us if you don’t shut yo’ meat hole!"

The driver opened the passenger door and allowed the vehicle’s sole occupant to get out. His thick brown hair was neatly parted on one side and his elegant topcoat fitted his well-built frame well. His sardonic, handsome face still bore the signs of the recent ordeal he had been through, but this man was a survivor from way back.

The driver spoke. "Are you sure this is the place, Mr. Lord?"

Maxwell Lord, international financier, one-time administrative head of Justice League International, mentor to metahumans and most recently a super villain himself nodded. "Ralph Dibny tracked him down for me without ever leaving Europe."

The driver’s lips quirked in grudging approval. "I’d thought that the only things Dibny could do is make bad jokes and twist himself into silly shapes."

"You’re thinking of Plastic Man. Ralph’s actually very funny and when it comes to detective skills, he takes a backseat to no one, except for The Batman. I’ll go in alone. You stay with the car."

"I think I had better. There’s a band of young gentlemen who no doubt have designs on the vehicle."

"Please leave them alive, Gardinel. I don’t want any bad publicity right now. Things are going along just fine and I intend to make sure they stay that way. Am I understood?"

"Perfectly, Mr. Lord. Do you have objections to broken bones?"

"None at all." Maxwell Lord walked over to the warehouse and found a door and went on inside.

Ted Kord lifted his head upon hearing the proximity alerts go off. He had sealed up every entrance in the place save for one that he left open for his visitors. His visitors being former comrades and friends of his who dropped by to check on him from time to time. And then again, every once in a while somebody tried to rob the equipment he had in the warehouse and it made for a good workout.

Ted flipped off the balance beam he had been practicing back flips on and somersaulted over to the security cameras and took a good look at his latest visitor. He whistled long and low in surprise. "If this don’t beat all." He toggled a switch and spoke into a microphone. "Aren’t you supposed to be dead?"

He could see Max stop and look up, searching for the camera. "Ted? Just where the hell are you?"

"Hold on a sec, pal. Like I said, last I heard, Maxwell Lord was dead. Who are you?"

"It’s ME, Ted. Max. I came to talk. I’ve got a proposition for you."

"How do I know you’re really Max Lord?"

"Ask me something. Go ahead."

"What did J’Onn keep under his bed?"

"A locked box of Oreo cookies. What, does EVERYBODY who was once a Justice Leaguer use that to verify a teammate’s true identity? I mean, J’Onn kept his Oreo addiction pretty well hidden, but—"

"Keep walking down the hall. I’ll meet you."

Ted turned from the camera and reached for a towel, wiping sweat from his bare chest and arms while he walked across the makeshift gym/dojo/laboratory/workshop and shortly, the two men were face to face after a very long time indeed.

Max was impressed with what he saw. Ted Kord had obviously been working out with a mad passion. His arms, chest and back were banded with supple ropes of muscle that rippled. His stomach looked rock-hard and his legs had thickened. "Good to see you again, Ted. Looks like you’ve put on some muscle since I last saw you."

Ted wrapped the towel around his neck. "Yeah, well, I let myself go there for awhile. Got to hitting the booze a little too much as well. Spent too much time hanging out at Warrior’s with Guy Gardner. Damn, Max, what happened to you?"

"It’s a long story. Can we sit down and talk?"

"Sure, c’mon."

Max looked around the well-lit, cavernous room. Various pieces of exercise and gymnastic equipment occupied one side of the room. Punching bags of various weights and sizes were on the other. Several long benches held electronic devices and machinery. Ted led Max to a living area where a cot, a refrigerator, a stove and a color TV were set up. The TV was tuned into SuperVision, the 24 hour a day cable network devoted to news and gossip about the superhero community. Max stopped and looked at the screen. The sound was turned down, but the story was obviously about Hawkman. Various photos of The Winged Wonder were being shown.

"You want a soda? Sorry I can’t offer you something stronger but I’m on the wagon."

"A Soder Cola will be fine. What’s this all about, Ted? Just what exactly are you doing here?"

Ted flipped Max a cold can of soda and took out a quart jug of a protein shake and drank deeply from it before answering. "I’m getting back in shape. I’m planning on returning to the superhero game in a big way. To do that, I needed to get away from everybody and everything for awhile so that I could work on getting myself back in the shape I used to be in when I first started this gig."

Max sat on the cot and sipped his soda. "I heard Captain Atom’s Extreme Justice team didn’t work out so well."

Ted nodded. "Yeah. We tried hard to make it work, but…" Ted’s voice trailed off. "But I still wanted to get back in the game. I got away from the reason I started this in the first place. To keep the name of The Blue Beetle alive, to keep Dan Garrett’s heritage going."

"I always considered you a valuable asset to the team, Ted."

"Even when Booster and I squandered JLI funds to open up that cockamamie casino on Kooey Kooey Kooey?"

Max grinned wryly. "I can laugh about that now. Hell, it WAS pretty funny."

"Maybe so, but looking back, I gotta admit that Booster and I did get way outta hand sometimes."

"You gave the team something to laugh about during some very grim and dark days, my friend. And if you’re serious about wanting to get back into the game, then I’m doubly glad I came here."

"How in the hell did you find me anyway?"

"Ralph Dibny, The World-Famous Elongated Man. Believe it or not, he tracked you down from Paris."

"That stretchy son of a rubber band!" Ted threw back his head and guffawed. "How is Ralph and Sue anyway?"

"Expecting their first child pretty soon. Sue’s six months along."

"I’ll be damned! I heard they were hanging around with that Justice Squadron Crimson Fox organized."

"Which is exactly why I’m here. You want to sign up?"

"ME? Max, are you serious?" Ted’s eyes widened with hope. "I hadn’t even considered looking for a slot on any team. Figured I’d have to re-established myself as a solo act before I could even hope for that."

"Well, to be honest, I was only going to ask you to come aboard as The Squadron’s scientific advisor, but if you’re sincere about making The Blue Beetle a name to be reckoned with once again, I’d be pleased and proud if you’d join up."

Ted eyed Max carefully. "And what’s your deal?"

"I’m doing the same thing for The Justice Squadron I did for Justice League International. Securing funding. Providing administrative support. Recruiting. Handling the diplomatic and political red tape. Only thing is I need an assistant and I haven’t been able to find out just where Oberon is these days."

"Oberon. I miss that little guy. So who else you got lined up for the team?"

"We’ve got Crimson Fox, Maya, Dr. Light and Ralph. But he’s going to be leaving soon, what with the baby on the way and all, but he’s agreed to hang around until a new team can be put together. Hawkman was a member but he left to start his own team and Rocket Red suffered damage to his spine in a recent battle and he’s recuperating. He’s going to need a lot of physical therapy if he’s ever going to walk again."

"You got anybody else in mind?"

Max finished the last of his soda and tossed the empty can into a wastebasket. "I hear Captain Atom is working out of Washington DC these days. He and Plastique have made quite a name for themselves there."

Ted nodded. "Will Everett is hanging out there also. You know him…calls himself Amazing Man."

"Really?" Max’s eyes shone with interest. "What’s his deal these days?"

"Putting his life back together. He recently returned from the dead if you can believe that."

A huge grin spread across Max’s handsome face. "It’s going on all the time, Ted…it’s going on ALL the time.."

La Defense was created primarily to preserve the architectural beauty of The City Of Light, Paris. A modern development located to the west and just outside of Paris, it was home to office buildings, hotels, commercial establishments whose designs would have disrupted the architecture of a city that prided itself on its appearance.

La Defense was also home to a six story square office building that was undergoing extensive renovations that were being overseen by a tall, elegantly beautiful French woman who gave rapid clipped orders to the foremen of the various work crews laboring on turning the building into the new Paris headquarters of The Justice Squadron. Constance D’Aramis was well pleased with the way the work was going. The building had originally been home to a private security corporation who were eager to expand and had been more than willing to sell the facility. Constance had been amazed at the way Max Lord had persuaded the French government to pay for the renovations. Max’s powers of negotiation and persuasion were so compelling that they almost constituted a superpower in their own right.

After the Justice League Europe fiasco, Constance would have bet her last twelve million francs that Paris would have no truck with being the host city to a team of metahumans. Max has assured the French government of two things: one, that the team would be comprised of a mix of metahumans from various European countries, not just expatriated American heroes. Max had argued quite compellingly that the team would have to be comprised primarily of American heroes for the time being simply because they were so well known and had greater experience. Experience that they would impart to the newer members of the team. Max assured the French government that he would be most diligent in recruiting European heroes to join the team.

Once the French government had given the green light, it was amazing the way other European countries threw their support and more importantly, their financing into the Justice Squadron coffers. And for that, Constance was doubly grateful. She was one of the richest women in the world, to be sure, but her resources were by no means infinite. Getting this building had been quite the coup. It was already sufficiently wired for the equipment they would need and the building itself was strong enough to withstand a pounding from an ICBM. While Max was off in the States to recruit new members, the rest of the team stayed in France to oversee the renovations.

However, Constance thought wryly, it was actually her who was doing the overseeing. The Dibnys were more concerned these days with securing housing with ample space for the new arrival and had been looking at several chateaus on

the outskirts of Paris. Maya and Dr. Light were doing the female bonding thing, shopping and making the rounds of cafes and restaurants and spending their evenings visiting nightclubs and taking in shows. Not that she blamed them at all. The nightmarish battle with the latest incarnation of The Extremists had taken a mental toll on all the Squadron members and they had all been grateful for the down time.

A cab pulled up to the curb and Ralph and Sue Dibny emerged. Both were dressed in civilian clothes and Sue looked especially lovely, Constance noticed. Pregnancy suited her very well indeed. Ralph gallantly offered Sue his arm and his neck extended thirty feet in front of him to greet Constance while the rest of his body stayed with Sue.

"Hiya, Connie! Everything going okay?"

Constance grinned back at Ralph. "The work is going better than expected, Ralph. We should be able to move in four weeks ahead of schedule. The extra work crews have made astounding progress. Squadron Central is going to be up and running in no time."

"Squadron Central? Is that we’re calling it?" Sue asked, kissing Constance on the cheek.

"I suppose so. That’s what Max has been calling it and who am I to argue with the miracle worker who has put The Justice Squadron back on its feet? But how about you two? How is the house hunting going?"

Ralph shook his head in amazement. "Y’know, it doesn’t sound like a whole lot of money when its francs, but when I calculate that into American money…I’m a world famous detective and superhero, but not a RICH one."

"We know, honey." Sue said, patting her husband’s cheek. "I’M the rich one."

Constance said, "I don’t know why you two don’t simply take one of my chateaus for your own. I’ve got several that I haven’t used in years. You could do with it as you please. Kimiyo and Chandi are already making use of one."

"Thanks, Connie, but the only woman I sponge off of is my wife." Ralph’s neck elongated, twisting out of the way of Sue’s playing swing. As much as Ralph pretended he was living off his wife’s money, the fact of the matter was that Ralph had made a considerable fortune on his own during his days as an entertainer. He had shrewdly invested much of his money in communications and computer technology and was a considerably wealthy man in his own right.

"You heard anything from Max?" Ralph asked as his neck snapped back into normal. Constance nodded.

"I spoke to him just two hours ago. He spoke with Blue Beetle, who’s agreed to join as both an active team member and our Scientific Advisor."

"Swell!" Ralph exclaimed. "Having Beetle and Booster on the team will—"

"Ralph, it’s only Blue Beetle joining. Max said that Ted wants to get back to being serious about being The Blue Beetle again. He’s tired of being taken as a joke. Anyway, isn’t Booster busy with his Planet Krypton restaurant chain?"

"Serious?" Ralph’s face fell. "Aw, don’t tell me he’s gone and went all grim n’ gritty on us? So help me, if he shows up in an armored Beetle suit with finger claws and a honkin’ huge halogen light on his chest…"

Constance giggled. "No, nothing THAT drastic…from what Max tells me, he doesn’t want the name of Blue Beetle to be associated with pratfalls and tomfoolery any longer."

Sue asked, "Is that creepy Gardinel still with Max?"

Constance shrugged. "I suppose so…why?"

Sue shook her head impatiently. "Why? You guys are taking an awful lot on faith considering that not more than a few months ago, Max Lord was trying to kill the lot of you! And then he shows up one day with this Gardinel character and none of you question him as to where he came from!" Sue suddenly punched Ralph in the arm. "Including YOU, Great Detective!"

"Look, Sue, we all agreed to give Max a chance and so far, he’s come across and delivered everything he said he would. The Lord Havoc persona has been purged from Max completely and I for one trust him completely."

"You’re just concerned for Ralph’s safety with the baby’s arrival being so close, Sue." Constance put an arm around Sue and hugged her tightly. "Not that I can’t blame you a bit! But don’t worry. If Max fills out our roster the way I know he can, Ralph can take a well deserved leave of absence and the two of you can look forward to nothing more dangerous than changing diapers…."

A foreman called out something in indistinct French to Constance who threw up a hand in confirmation. "I’m glad the two of you are here for this. Watch!"

The entire front of the office building shimmered and a giant, stylized JS appeared in view, thanks to hologram projectors. Constance clapped her hands in delight and she and Sue hugged each other. Ralph stretched his grin some five feet across from end to end and threw his elongated arms around both women. "Looks like The Justice Squadron is most definitely here to stay, ladies!"

The five-story brownstone located on a side street in London’s fashionable West End had no nameplate or canopy or any other device to identify that might live there or what organization headquartered there. The impressive looking black woman with short hair and wide, piercing eyes that walked up to the double doors used no key to enter. She simply placed the palm of her hand against the door and it opened. Once inside, she quickly discarded her leather jacket, revealing a pair of energy blasters in holsters under her armpits. She walked rapidly through the house to an elevator, passing quietly talking men and women who were either working in one of the many offices located inside or the laboratories.

The woman took the elevator to the top floor where Director Beta of The Agenda waited for her report. Once there had been three leaders of The Agenda, which had for years been trying without success to create the ultimate soldier through genetic experimentation. To this end, The Agenda had run up against Superboy on several occasions, trying to use his DNA as a template for their ultimate soldier project.

The woman entered Director Beta’s office. Director Beta was dazzlingly beautiful in a Greta Garbo type of way. She smoked a Gauloise that was placed in an amazingly long solid gold cigarette holder. Her black dress hung off her alabaster shoulders with a careless sexiness and her lazy, easy movements and gestures would have given the average person the idea that this woman was just too weary with life to even be bothered to breathe. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Amanda Spence, Chief of Security for The Agenda stood at attention.

Director Beta waved her hand.

Amanda spoke clearly and without emotion. "So far, I’ve been able to throw The Ultramarines off our trail. I’m positive that there’s no link between The Knight’s dead clone that was found here in London and us."

Director Beta swiveled around in her high-backed leather chair. "And have you discovered just HOW that clone was able to escape from the underground facility here, Amanda?"

"No, Director Beta. It had to have help. There was no other way for it to have escaped. I’ll find the traitor we have here and once I do—"

"Once you do, you will take no action."

"But Director Beta—"

"No action! Whoever the spy in our midst is, they are working for someone quite cunning and powerful. They may even be an agent of my ex-husband for all we know! It is of paramount importance that we uncover the hand behind this."

"Yes, Director Beta."

"Now, have you found out anything more about this reformation of The Justice Squadron?"

"It seems as if quite a lot of European governments have committed considerable equipment and money to funding The Squadron. With Maxwell Lord backing them, they’re getting new headquarters, new members…they could be a threat."

"Of course they could be a threat!" Director Beta blew out a cloud of bluish cigarette smoke. "The reason I moved the majority of Agenda operations to Europe is because of the lack of super powered nuisances who have nothing better to do with their time than interfere in my business! The Global Guardians are too disorganized to pose any sort of danger to us and The Justice Squadron concerned itself with other matters. But with Maxwell Lord organizing them, they will begin to take a more pro-active stance."

"And it doesn’t help us that The Knight was a Squadron member. With their increased resources, they may try to finally learn the truth behind the clone that was found."

"You will keep an eye on The Squadron. Take no action. Do NOTHING to alert or alarm them. But if you can confirm that they are indeed going to try and find out what happened to The Knight, you will notify me at once."

"And then?"

Director Beta of The Agenda, known more properly to the world as Lex Luthor’s ex-wife, The Contessa Erica Alexandra DelPortenza, smiled and said in a voice as cold as a bank’s foreclosure; "Then The Agenda will destroy them. Any more questions?"

Captain Atom waved at the crowd of tourists standing on the steps of The Lincoln Memorial and slowed down his flight just enough so that he wouldn’t show up as a blur on their camcorders or digital stills. Couldn’t do anything about the bright late summer sun shining off his gleaming silver skin, unfortunately. After a few seconds, he put on a burst of speed and continued on home.

Not a bad day to be Captain Atom. He’d flown across the country to help out The Titans take down a group of rampaging androids and on the way back had assisted in rescuing some flood victims in Georgia. Nothing earth shattering at all, the fate of the world or countless dimensions weren’t at stake and that was quite all right with him. He and Bette had settled down into a nice routine married life. Bette was taking some courses at the University of Washington DC and as Nathaniel Adam, he was working with The Committee On Metahuman Activities, acting as a liaison between the superhero community and the government. It was a nice, steady job that more than paid the bills and since it wasn’t a secret among those Washington insiders with the proper clearance that Nathaniel Adam was the former Justice Leaguer and ex-Commander-In-Chief Of Metahumans during The Alien Invasion known as Captain Atom, he could pretty much set his own hours.

Captain Atom flew in through the window of the duplex condo he and his wife Bette San Souci Adam owned and he was in the middle of shedding his silver skin when Bette ran in and kissed him eagerly. "Nate, I’m SO glad you’re finally home! Will’s here and we’re got a surprise visitor!"

"Will’s here? Good. I’ve been meaning to give him a call." Will Everett, known as Amazing Man had moved to Washington DC along with the Adams. Will’s powers had somehow returned him to life some time ago and Nate had suggested that Will could do worse than to move to Washington where he could be examined by metahumans experts at S.T.A.R. Labs and gain greater understanding of his powers. And it didn’t hurt that the nation’s capitol gained another resident superhero.

Nate Adam stood in his human form, wearing jeans and a pullover black shirt and a light leather jacket and let Bette anxiously yank him into the living room where Will Everett sat on the couch with a cold beer in one hand, laughing and joking with a handsome man in a jet-black Armani suit that. Nate’s mouth dropped open in total and complete shock.

"Max Lord? Good God, I can’t believe THIS!" Nate laughed and ran across the room to hug Max tightly. "Do you know how much I’ve missed you? When we heard the news that you were alive, we could hardly believe it!"

"You known the first rule among metahumans: Don’t believe ANYONE is dead unless you see the body."

"Even not then," Will chimed in. "Looka me, for instance."

"Ah, yes, fascinating story that. Will and Bette have been filling me in on just what’s been going on with you guys since Extreme Justice fell apart."

Nate visible winced. "Do you have to put it so bluntly, Max? it’s still not easy for me to admit that the team I had promised would be more effective than The Justice League broke up faster than a Hollywood marriage."

"Speaking of marriages, it looks like you and Bette are doing okay." Max reseated himself next to Will and picked up his flute of Bollinger champagne. "Glad to see you guys are still together. The mortality rate among superhero marriages is frighteningly high."

"We do okay." Nate grinned and kissed Bette before sitting in a recliner across from Max and slapping his knee. "But what brings you here? The Max Lord I know just doesn’t pay social calls without an agenda."

"Ah, you are too right, my friend. Just listen to two words and tell me how they sound to your ear: Justice Squadron."

"Ralph Dibny’s European team. They’re a good bunch. I teamed up with them not long ago. We had to go to Maxima’s home planet to rescue the other Extreme Justice members and it ended up with Monarch and I battering each other to pulp." Nate’s face darkened noticeably. Monarch was the huge black cancer in his soul that he could never cut out and discard. "Don’t tell me you’re hooked up with them?"

"Sure am. New HQ is being renovated as we speak and I’ve been to Hub City and spoken with Ted Kord. He’s onboard and I want the three of you to join as well."

"What happened to Ralph and the others?" Bette wanted to know.

"Nothing at all. Ralph, Crimson Fox, Maya and Dr. Light are still going to be around. Dr. Light is having her children brought over from Japan and they’ll be going to school in Paris where the team will be based. But the team has suffered some losses. The Knight’s dead or missing, nobody seems to know for sure. Rocket Red may never walk again. Godiva has refused to answer any of my calls and nobody has any idea how to get in touch with that spook that was a member for a while, that Revenant. Hawkman’s left to form his own cadre of Wingmen here on Earth. The team needs bolstering and I want heavy hitters."

"Why us, Max?" Nate asked.

"I’ve worked with you and Bette before, that’s why. The team is going to need a leader pretty soon, Nate. I don’t know if you guys have heard, but Sue Dibny’s expecting."

"Why, that’s wonderful!" Bette exclaimed. "How far along is she?"

"Five, six months…something like that.."

Bette leaped to her feet in annoyance. "MEN! I bet if she were a football player, you’d be able to rattle off her stats for the past eighteen years! And you can’t even remember how many months she is!"

Max fished out his JS communicator and tossed it to her. "Here, call her up yourself and ask her while I finish talking to your husband." Bette caught the communicator and retreated to the far side of the room where she could talk quietly without disturbing the men.

"Ralph is going to have to leave The Squadron pretty soon and that means the teams going to need a new leader and I can’t think of anybody better suited for the job than you."

"How does Ralph feel about that?"

"Ralph said to tell you that he wouldn’t feel right leaving the team in the hands of anybody else but you." Max turned to Will. "And as for Will here…I’m going to be brutally honest here: I need you not only for your unique abilities, but also for your skin color."

"Gotta fill a quota, huh?"

"Part of the deal I made with The French government to secure initial funding for the team is that I would actively work to make the team as diversified as I could. Not only with respect to recruiting as many European heroes as I could, but also ethnically diverse as well. It would be a great boost for the team to have an African-American on board."

"I’m not African-American, Mr. Lord. I’m American, period. I was born and raised right here in the USA just like you and Nate."

Nate looked at Max with something like amazed disgust. "I would never have believed you could be so insensitive Max…to want Will just because of his skin color—"

"That’s okay, Nate. I don’t mind. I’m relieved in fact."

Nate frowned. "I don’t understand…"

"For years and years, blacks have known that a lotta times we get hired or promoted not because of our talent or skill or experience, but just to fill somebody’s lousy quota. It stinks like three-day-old fish, sure, but that’s the reality we gotta live with. Everybody tries to pretend that ain’t the case, but we know better. At least Mr. Lord’s got the balls to be a man and admit to my face he wants me on his team to fill a quota. I can work with a man who can be that honest." Will stuck out his hand. "You want Amazing Man, you got Amazing Man."

As Max firmly shook Will’s hand, he said. "I hope you don’t harbor any ill feelings toward me about the quota thing. But I’m willing to do just about anything and everything to get The Justice Squadron on its feet and going."

Bette ran over to Nate and said excitedly, "Nate, Sue sounds so happy! If we joined, we wouldn’t be the only married couple there! We could go to dinner and shows with Ralph and Sue! And I’d be home again! It’s been so long since I’ve been home!"

Nate looked at Max’s sly grin and said, "Okay, Max, you win…where do we go from here?"

EUROPINIONS

Derrick Ferguson here…as you have no doubt perceived, I’m the new writer of JUSTICE SQUADRON. How’d that happen, you ask? Blame it on that Barry Reese character. Barry had a MON-EL story he was just itching to tell and he casually suggested that I might like to take over JUSTICE SQUADRON…just a friend title swap between buddies. Hah. Beware The Naked Man Who Offers You The Shirt On His Back. I sat down one quiet Sunday afternoon and not only read Barry’s JS run but his highly entertaining EXTREME JUSTICE miniseries all at one sitting and when I was finished, I was convinced I couldn’t do it. First off, I wanted to get away from doing a team book. I mean, I’m already doing CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, DOOM PATROL and MON-EL (which isn’t a team book but does have a sizeable cast of characters that would put a soap opera to shame). I wanted to finish rewriting either the CREEPER story I’ve been working at off and on for almost 10 months now or work on the QUESTION story I started last month. Both stories have one main character, smaller supporting casts. Fewer headaches. And then again, Barry had a number of unresolved plot threads that I just KNEW he would expect me to tie up and I was totally unfamiliar with half the cast and I knew next to nothing abut their backgrounds, which meant I had to do some research, which I hate doing with a passion (hey, I am a WRITER, y’know…I’d rather make up a fact than crack open a book and confirm it). In addition, I had never before taken over a series from another writer and to be honest with you guys (after all, we’re all friends here, right?) I didn’t know if I could step in and pick up the baton and continue with the race.

However, I’m one of those hardheads who believe that in order to become a better writer, you have to continually challenge yourself and do what’s hard sometimes. So despite my petty fears and misgivings, I dove into the deep end of the pool and the results you’ve just read.

"Nothing Succeeds Like Success" is going to be a three-parter so as to give all of us time to ease into this latest era of the JUSTICE SQUADRON’s adventures and I hope you’ll stick around and give it a chance. Condemnations, compliments, caterwaulings and condiments can be sent to me at DerrickFerguson1@aol.com and now I see its time for our old friend…the NEXT ISSUE blurb…

NEXT ISSUE: Where’s Doctor Light and Maya been while all this has been going on? We’re going to find out and it could lead to a dangerous first mission for the reformed Justice Squadron! Plus, who’s this mysterious Gardinel and what’s his relationship to Maxwell Lord? The new members meet the old and Max gets a new assistant! All this and more in Part Two of "Nothing Succeeds Like Success"!