Black Dragon Society

The Black Dragon Society is a non-fictional Japanese secret society, also known as the Kokuryūkai, which appears in DC Comics. The publisher first used the name in 1942's All Star Comics issue #12 (August 1942) as Japanese saboteurs. They were created by Gardner Fox and Jack Burnley. The same name and concept was also used by several other 1940s comics publishers that were later bought out by DC. A modern reimagining of the group as ecoterrorists was presented in JLA. Publication history The Black Dragon Society is based on a real World War II organization of the same name. As such, three separate comics companies (National Comics, Fawcett Comics, and Quality Comics) used them as villains. The Fawcett Comics version debuted in Master Comics #21 (December 1941), it had Minute-Man fighting against the Society, and was created by Bill Woolfolk and Charles Sultan. The DC Comics version debuted in All Star Comics #12 (August 1942) and was created by Gardner Fox and Jack Burnley, in the story "The Black Dragon Menace" in which a Japanese spy ring called the Black Dragon Society of Japan steals eight American inventions and kidnaps their inventors. Quality Comics' version debuted in Military Comics #24 (November 1943), and was created by Ted Udall and Vernon Henkel. Fictional team history The Justice Battalion are given orders to retrieve eight stolen military weapons, and subdue the agents of the Black Dragon Society who had orchestrated the thefts. Starman took on a huge dirigible which acted as a flying aircraft carrier and the planes it housed. The Society, loyal to Imperial Japan, was to use the planes to attack an American city but Starman prevented this. Because of Johnny Thunder's bumbling, the whole Battalion was transported to the American HQ of the Black Dragon Society. After a quick fight and a call to the US Army, the threat posed by the Black Dragons was over.