JSA #85...Raise the Spoilers
I love the JSA because I love Golden Age characters.
The JSA is dealing with the Gentleman Ghost, which is always a difficult villain to write because he's, well, a ghost. You can't hit a ghost. You can't physically assault a ghost at all, and depending on your point of view, you can't mentally confront a ghost either. Depends on what you think of mental powers...like telepathy. Is it just some ability to read thoughts? If yes, then a ghost, with thoughts, would be affected by telepathy...BUT if you believe, as I do, that telepathy is really just a fine tunes form a telekinesis (why the two powers typically go hand in hand), and telekinetically, a person with telepathy "feels" the chemical make-up of the brain and is able to decipher that reading into an accurate "auditory" form of the other person's thoughts, then telepathy would have no effect because there would be no physical brain to read.
Now, Paul Levitz is a good writer, but I think he just decided that the Gentleman Ghost has to be affected at least to some degree by physical assault, probably under the assumption that a ghost's body is made up of physical ectoplasm. He shows, for example, Power Girl hitting Gentleman Ghost from the back, so the assumption being that a ghost has to hold his ectoplasmic body together, and if you catch him unawares, you can get him almost completely in a physical form.
Actually, I think it's Power Girl...it's alluded to that there's some strange and unknown reason why Gentleman Jim felt her attack...so nevermind.
Well, it was enjoyable, and I look forward to the next issue as the JSA continues to try and deal with the Gentleman Ghost's attacks.
The JSA is dealing with the Gentleman Ghost, which is always a difficult villain to write because he's, well, a ghost. You can't hit a ghost. You can't physically assault a ghost at all, and depending on your point of view, you can't mentally confront a ghost either. Depends on what you think of mental powers...like telepathy. Is it just some ability to read thoughts? If yes, then a ghost, with thoughts, would be affected by telepathy...BUT if you believe, as I do, that telepathy is really just a fine tunes form a telekinesis (why the two powers typically go hand in hand), and telekinetically, a person with telepathy "feels" the chemical make-up of the brain and is able to decipher that reading into an accurate "auditory" form of the other person's thoughts, then telepathy would have no effect because there would be no physical brain to read.
Now, Paul Levitz is a good writer, but I think he just decided that the Gentleman Ghost has to be affected at least to some degree by physical assault, probably under the assumption that a ghost's body is made up of physical ectoplasm. He shows, for example, Power Girl hitting Gentleman Ghost from the back, so the assumption being that a ghost has to hold his ectoplasmic body together, and if you catch him unawares, you can get him almost completely in a physical form.
Actually, I think it's Power Girl...it's alluded to that there's some strange and unknown reason why Gentleman Jim felt her attack...so nevermind.
Well, it was enjoyable, and I look forward to the next issue as the JSA continues to try and deal with the Gentleman Ghost's attacks.
posted by Bodog at 5:43 PM
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