Star Earns Her Stripes

Blue Valley, Nebraska - In an almost surreal epilogue to World War II, the youngest member of the re-formed Justice Society of America participated in the capture of one of the most wanted Japanese war criminals and the revival of a missing hero.

After a bizarre procession of super-villains appearing in Blue Valley, sights unseen since the time that Kid Flash resided in this small midwestern town, the book has been closed on the Dragon King, a top-level spymaster in wartime Japan who had until now remained at large. His Black Dragon society stole numerous American secrets until it was shut down by the Justice Society in early 1942. In addition, according to one of the stories regarding the absence of super-heroes in the war theaters during World War II, his possession of the magical "Holy Grail" would have turned any super hero attempting to infiltrate Japan and its possessions into agents of the Axis powers.

According to S.T.R.I.P.E., the armored man who once operated as the super-hero "Stripesy," Dragon King's presence in Blue Valley was discovered by the wartime heroes Shining Knight and Firebrand (the female). The Shining Knight, true to his Medieval English origins, began to hunt for the Dragon King some time after the war in order to locate the Holy Grail. What he found was far more than he expected. Upon locating the Dragon King in Blue Valley, he was defeated by the criminal, and it cost him his winged horse and his memory. In addition, Firebrand is believed dead at the Dragon King's hands.

The Shining Knight had kept in touch with Stripesy, an old teammate of his with the Seven Soldiers of Victory. When contact with the Knight was lost, Stripesy began operating out of Blue Valley using the armored suit called S.T.R.I.P.E. and with the new Star Spangled Kid in tow. The two of them have been active in the battle against the Dragon King's minions, all of them based in the Blue Valley High School, such as Paintball and Skeeter. Since the defeat of the Dragon King, it has also been discovered that the "principal" of the school was a Dragon King-designed robot.

The Dragon King apparently based himself in the school in order to have a wealth of youthful subjects on which to train his mind-control ray. Due to the more suggestible nature of childrens' minds, the ray was more effective on them than on adults. For this reason, the Dragon King's attempts at controlling the Shining Knight's mind only temporarily removed his memory, and he worked as the janitor in the high school until contact with Star Spangled Kid and S.T.R.I.P.E. jogged it. The intentions of the ray was to turn Blue Valley's, and eventually, America's youth into his own personal army to conquer America and install him as a world dictator. His plan might have also involved turning people into reptiles, something he had done to himself in order to maintain his vitality over the past few decades.

S.T.R.I.P.E. was quick to share credit for the victory with the Kid, even though it now appears that a technological fluke was all that had stood between her heroism and her being mind-controlled by the Dragon King as well. "She's shown that she has what it takes to be a true hero. I've known it, the J.S.A. knows it, and now the world knows it."

The Shining Knight echoed these thoughts. "Verily, she is a lass of true valor," said the Knight. "I see in her my beloved Firebrand's spark burning strong."

The new Star Spangled Kid has also recently gotten the approval of Merry, a member of the team known as "Old Justice" and the sister of the original Star Spangled Kid. "Sylvester [the original Kid] would be proud of her," Merry is quoted as having said after the age-twisting events that occurred at the "Justice For All" march in Washington, DC.

The Shining Knight has been vague as to his plans for the future. According to S.T.R.I.P.E., he plans to get re-acquainted with old friends and investigate a few mysteries still unsolved since the days of the Seven Soldiers of Mystery. It is to be assumed that this includes continuing his search for the Holy Grail, as it was not found in the Dragon's lair following his defeat. It might also include a mop-up of the Dragon King affair, such as the capture of the Dragon King's assistant Shiv, who disappeared during the fight.

Gotham Gang Wars Return

Gotham City - When Congress cut Gotham City off from the rest of the United States, it was hoped that this would bring an end to the city's problems by forcing the city to eradicate them for the sake of survival.

When Gotham City was later readmitted to the country, it was hoped that new development and social programs would keep it from slipping back to its old ways.

Indications are not good for this attempt at municipal rehabilitation. First and foremost, organized crime has quickly gained a toehold in the new Gotham society and the various factions are at war with one another in jockeying for power. Secondly, one of the more promising criminal-rehabilitation experiments, privately-run detention centers with an emphasis on reward and trust, has been deflated by a riot amongst the inmates.

The gang war has only recently become obvious, with various ethnic gangs becoming uncharacteristically violent toward one another. Several high-ranking members of the Russian mob, the Chinese Tongs and the old Italian Mafia are dead, and each is blaming the others for these deaths. Commissioner James Gordon has blamed the recent escalation of the wars on an unidentified outside agitator, who apparently has metahuman abilities. He has refused comment on the presence of these mobs in the first place, saying only, "There are no easy solutions to old problems."

This would, apparently, include the "old problem" of rehabilitating criminals. The attempts to steer first-time offenders to privately-run detention centers rather than genuinely punitive prisons has taken a huge hit when career criminal Catwoman and Harley Quinn, the Joker's recently-acquired gun moll, were placed in one. Rather than conform to the system intended to encourage reward for work and trust-building measures, Catwoman, aided and abetted by Quinn, organized a takeover of the center instead. They kept the center's staff as hostages, forcing the Gotham City police to attack the center that they had hoped would lead to more peaceful solutions to criminal problems. The two ringleaders managed to escape capture after holding Commissioner Gordon hostage despite the direct intervention of the Batman.

Gotham's correction commissioner has insisted that the model can work, and that it was an error allowing two hardened criminals to slip into a system designed for the less experienced. The detention center has since been re-opened, and no further incidents have been reported from there or from any of the other detention centers that have been established.

Titan Abused as Child

Hopi Indian Reservation, Arizona - Although the super-hero team the Titans has attempted to keep details quiet, this newspaper has learned that one of their members, Damage, had been sexually abused as a child.

Damage, who first appeared in Atlanta and nearly destroyed the city, was believed to merely be new to his power and not in control of it. However, these new revelations might shed new light on the troubled young man who controls an explosive power. It appears that he had kept these memories, and the associated anger, deeply repressed until a recent heart-to-heart with teammate Arsenal, who steered him toward the Indian reservation as a place of serenity where he could come to grips with his issues.

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