General Glory

Created by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and ??

Joseph Jones was just an ordinary Joe, an American G.I. in World War II. During the liberation of a French town from the Nazis, Joe was caught in a barrage of gas bombs. All of his platoon died, except him. A vision of Lady Liberty appeared before him with a tablet that read...

"Lady of Liberty, hear my plea —
For the land of the brave —
And home of the free!"

With these words he could become General Glory. Throughout the war, General Glory helped defeat the Third Reich. Newkirk Sharp became the hero's contact with the U.S. Government and wanted to keep his existence a secret. Sharp arranged for a cartoonist to chronicle the General's exploits in a General Glory comic book, so people would think he wasn't real.

One day, a young adjutant, Ernie, a.k.a. Ernest E. Earnest, saw Joe become General Glory, and became his sidekick. General Glory also met and fell in love with a girl named Irma. On a mission to destroy a secret Nazi installation, Glory parachuted over the Arctic Circle. He remembered watching in helpless horror as a plane carrying Sharp, Irma and Ernie, exploded. He plummeted into the icy waters and blacked out.

Joe was rescued, but he'd forgotten the magic words to activate his power. Decades later, he came across a copy of General Glory for sale at auction. Unfortunately, he was outbid by Guy Gardner (Green Lantern of Justice League America). Though he was outbid, Joe read the magic words from the book and once again became General Glory. Ironically, he was arrested for desertion by none other than Ernie, now grown up and a member of Sharp's staff. Glory had been Gardner's childhood hero and he vowed the JLA's help in clearing Jones' name.

They discovered Agent Sharp had secretly loved Irma and worked with Nazis to destroy the General. Ernie confronted Sharp, who shot him. It turns out Sharp had injected Glory with a mind-numbing drug just before he parachuted, and he had landed unconscious. He had been taken to a secret installation, given a new identity, and placed back into society. Gradually, his memory returned.

He was reborn into a whole new world, and the members of the JLA helped him adjust. He joined the League and served with them for a short time. (Justice League America #50-60) He apparently died of a heart attack and passed the mantle of General Glory onto Donovan Wallace. (Justice League Quarterly #16)

Donovan Wallace was a New York City policeman who risked his life to save a child from gangsters. He was paralyzed and wound up in the same hospital room as Joseph Jones, General Glory. Jones was suffering from heart troubles but told Wallace inspiring stories about his adventures as Glory. Initially skeptical, Donovan eventually came to believe in the spirit of glory and he was able to tap into the same energies that once powered Jones. He manifested great strength and agility, wings and throwing razors. He left his hospital bed and crushed the gangs that had crippled him. When he returned to the hospital, Jones was in cardiac arrest. Wallace is known to be estranged from his wife and child. He has not been seen since.

Wallace's activities were not well documented and he was ultimately killed by the Fourth Reich. (Justice Soceity of America #3) This group's mission was to destroy the legacy of all American heroes whose identities were closely tied to America itself.

SOURCE: Who's Who #11 (July 1991)

General Glory carried no weapons, for he believed a man's natural talents could overcome all obstacles. He could lift a tank, run for days in the desert, and possessed a small degree of invulnerability.

Justice League America #46-50  Justice League Europe #20  Justice League Quarterly #16

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