Comic Title: All-Star Comics #42
Publisher: DC (National Comics Publications, Inc.)
Address: 480 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY
Cover Date: Aug/Sep 1948
Approx. On Sale Date: June 23, 1948 Copyright Date June 21, 1948
Source: Library of Congress, Periodicals 1948
Until 1958 DC did not report actual on sale dates to the copyright office
The publication dates listed in LoC records are NOT release dates.

Frequency: Bi-monthly
Cover Price: $0.10
Page Count: 48
Editor: Julius Schwartz

Title: "The Man Who Hated Science"
Pages: 32

Feature(s):
Justice Society of America (of Earth-2)

Writer: John Broome
Penciller: Arthur F. Peddy
Inker: Bernard Sachs

Reprinted In:
All Star Comics Archives Vol. 9 HC (2003)

Feature Character(s)

• Justice Society of America (last appearance in All-Star Comics #41; next appearance in All-Star Comics #43)
• Hawkman (last appearance in Flash Comics #98; next appearance in Flash Comics #99)
• Flash (last appearance in Comic Cavalcade #28; next appearance in Flash Comics #99)
• Green Lantern (last appearance in All-American Comics #100; next appearance in All-American Comics #101)
• Atom (last appearance in Comic Cavalcade #28; next appearance in Flash Comics #99)
• Doctor Mid-Nite (last appearance in All-American Comics #100; next appearance in All-American Comics #101)
• Wonder Woman (last appearance in Comic Cavalcade #28; next appearance in Sensation Comics #81)
• Black Canary (last appearance in Flash Comics #98; next appearance in Flash Comics #99)

Villain(s)

• Alchemist (Professor Zobar Zodiak; first appearance; next appearance in All-Star Squadron #3)
• Zodiak's gang (no further appearances)

Other Character(s)

• Galio (a scholar; dies in this story; no further appearances)
• Horace Albrook (a millionaire; dies in this story; no further appearances)
• Professor Michaels (no further appearances)

Comments:
Though he appears to die at the conclusion of this story, the Alchemist is actually transported into the past by Degaton as revealed in flashback in All-Star Squadron #3.

Synopsis:
The Justice Society is contacted by Galio, a man who has lived hundreds of years after discovering four secret artifacts of alchemy. Galio has survived using the elixir of youth, but now the elixir is no longer capable of sustaining him. He hopes to turn over the secrets of alchemy to the JSA, but he dies before he can reveal their location.

Meanwhile, Professor Zobar Zodiak has overheard Galio's secret while spying on the JSA. While the heroes split up to locate the artifacts, Zodiak dons a disguise as the Alchemist and seeks them for his own purposes. First he finds the Philosopher's Stone which can transmute matter into gold; next he finds the Universal Solvent outwitting Atom and Dr. Mid-Nite in the process; next he steals a perpetual motion machine; and finally he obtains the elixir of youth, killing a man in the process.

Members of the JSA try to stop him each time, but they fail. Zodiak captures them and ties them to the perpetual motion machine. The team escapes by turning themselves into children with the elixir of youth. Meanwhile Zodiak has confessed his crimes in open court, believing the new artifacts make him superior to ordinary men. The child-size JSA enters the court and trick Zodiak into restoring their adult bodies with an alchemo-bomb. Zodiak tries to flee, but his plane constructed on alchemic principles fails to fly. The JSA believes the villain has died in the crash.