The Justice League Paradox.

 Okay . . . so this might be a bad idea. Seeing as what few readers I have probably don't care much about comic book superheroes. At least not to the degree that I have since the age of 11 (Oh, my misspent youth). But I started writing all this for my post on the 1997 Justice League of America pilot, then cut it out and told myself that I'd turn it into a separate post somewhere down the line.

So, what is it?

Well, it's a post about how the Justice League as a concept has been sold to most people both comic readers and folks outside the hobby as a certain platonic ideal that is often fairly distant from what it actually is in the comic books themselves. The Justice League is typically sold as a serious all-star team composed of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, with maybe the occasional substitutions made for the sake of diversity, and only engaging in the most epic of adventures. The truth is not exactly that.

Ahem . . .

Okay, so the first Justice League wasn't actually a Justice League. The concept first appeared in All-Star Comics #3 in 1940 as the Justice Society of America. A group of costumed mystery men banding together into one group. It was the first superhero team ever. It was also a promotional scheme. You see, National Comics and All-American Comics (soon to merge into DC) decided to put all the heroes who couldn't quite get popular enough to have their own monthly feature in one book to give them more exposure. This includes early versions of Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Atom, among others. They would meet at the beginning of the issue, discuss some problem, and then generally go off and have some solo adventure connected to that problem. There was very little actual teamwork for at least the first year. And then when one of the members became popular enough to anchor a monthly magazine, they were moved off the team as an “honorary member” and then a new member came in to replace them.

The original Justice Society of America

Then, after superheroes started making a comeback (their popularity had been surpassed in the '50s by crime, romance and horror comics), DC tried to revive the Justice Society concept in 1960. This time it was renamed the Justice League of America and featured all the superheroes who were already popular enough to carry a title. The roster was: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and the J'onn J'onnz-The Manhunter from Mars! Epic, right?! Well . . . Superman and Batman didn't show up much during the first year. DC editorial didn't think they needed to. It was only later they realized that Superman and Batman's popularity could be used to promote the JLA rather than the other way around. And even before that, the “Big 7” didn't last long as Green Arrow joined in the team's fourth issue. They did have some big science fiction stories, but they felt more like something out of Star Trek or Doctor Who than big blocksbusters. They also very rarely acted together, usually splitting into small groups to handle different parts of an adventure in different locations. And also . . . they were just kind of a club for superheroes. When they weren't out adventuring they just hung out in their Secret Sanctuary (it was a cave. Lots of superheroes hung out in caves) and told adventure yarns to their sidekick/mascot, a hipster teen named Snapper Carr.

The early Justice League of America, including team mascot Snapper Carr.

Moving into the late '60s, the League phased out Snapper Carr and moved their headquarters to an orbiting satellite. Now, this is where the Justice League starts to seem like what was advertised. Mind youy, the HQ wasn't called “The Watchtower” yet. That would come later. But if the “Big 7” is what you think of when you think of the Justice League, then they're going way beyond that. The League at this point consists of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman and Black Canary. The Martian Manhunter had already started to be phased out as well, because his popularity had declined. And to this group of nine, they added such luminaries as Hawkgirl, Zatanna, Red Tornado, PhantomStranger, the Elongated Man and Firestorm. It's not quite the most exclusive team anymore, now was it?

Most of the cast of the Satellite era Justice League of America

And here's where things really go off base.

You see, at this point there was a big shift in how superhero teams were written. Over the years, they had already been leaning more and more into character drama, which was popular with older readers. However, there was also an increase in the popularity of teams of younger heroes with more youthful energy. This was exemplified by the popualrity of DC's own Legion of Super-Heroes and New Teen Titans, as well as Marvel's X-Men.

So, with that in mind and decreasing sales for Justice League of America, writer Gerry Conway had Aquaman disband the League. He then reformed it with fellow remaining members Martian Manhunter (who came back), Zatanna and Elongated Man. To this, they added new, young, fresh members Vixen, Steel, Vibe and Gypsy. The team was at the time without an HQ (the JLA Satellite had been blown out of the sky as part of the previous story) so they relocated to an underground bunker in Detroit, Michigan provided by their new member Steel. This version of the League didn't do particularly well. It lasted for only two years, from 1984 to 1986. It ended with two members, Steel and Vibe, being killed off.

The Justice League during the Detroit period (plus Cosmic Boy and Firestorm)

After this, in 1985, there was a huge time-bending story across all of the DC line called Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Crisis is hard to explain, but its intention was to rewrite DC's in-universe history, streamline some things, revitalize some other stuff and just try to spruce up pretty much everything.

So, this would be a good time to relaunch the classic Justice League of America, right? Get all the big guns back in one place. Back to an all-star lineup of characters, right? Well, DC editorial thought so at first. There was a problem, though. It turns out that when you rewrite the history of everything, you end up rewriting the history of all the major characters too. Every major superhero DC had was in the process of being revamped and rebooted. And in order to keep their work from becoming more complicated, the editors of all their solo books told the editor of Justice League “hands off”.

So, other than Batman and Martian Manhunter, all the other big name Justice League characters were unavailable. They also got a Green Lantern, but not the classic one Hal Jordan. Instead, they got the ornery and egotistical Guy Gardner (you may remember him from the recent Superman movie). Beyond that, the new writers pick from what they could among the lesser lights, choosing some characters who were brand new, some who were facing a revival and some that were pretty obscure. The roster was flexible, but a basic line-up would be something like Martian Manhunter, Guy Gardner, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Fire, Ice, Captain Atom and Rocket Red. Batman, despite involvement, remained a bit aloof. The new creative team had a few tricks up their sleeve. First was the addition of a mysterious new suppoprting character named Maxwell Lord to head up the team's development. Next, they managed to set the stakes pretty high by giving the League a new political status as a team backed by the United Nations. And the last thing they did was maybe the biggest risk of all: They made it funny. The Justice League International as it was now called was basically a workplace comedy that found humor in how a group of very different people bounced off each other.

And it was wildly popular. Much to the consternation of higher-ups at DC.

There were spin-off titles. Justice League International split into Justice League America and Justice League Europe. Later on, there would be comics with titles like Justice League Task Force and Extreme Justice. The comical tone didn't stay and neither did the original writers and artists, but this version of the Justice League lasted for ten years. I should also note that this is the version of the Justice League that I grew up reading about.

The Justice League International

Despite a respectable run, sales would eventually decline significantly. In 1996, that version of the Justice League ended too. A new title JLA was launched by superstar writer Grant Morrison (note: I will be referring to Morrison as “they” and “them” pronoun-wise because that's what they prefer to be called). They once again brought back the “Big 7” roster, stationed them in the new JLA Watchtower on the moon and used their knack for big concept science fiction to create one of the most lauded runs of the Justice League there is. And even Morrison didn't stick with the “Big 7”. Morrison added characters like Green Arrow, Plastic Man, Oracle, Huntress, Zauriel, Steel (a different Steel than the one in Detroit), Aztek, Tomorrow Woman, Orion and Big Barda. Some of them were just temporary members. Others were part of Morrison's greater theme of the Justice League as a pantheon of modern gods. You see, the new members along with the “Big 7” were supposed to correlate with certain figures from the Greek pantheon (Oracle=Athena, Steel=Hephaestus, Plastic Man=Dionysus, etc).

Anyway, that version was also wildly popular. And it basically became the basis for most Justice League-related media outside of comics going forward. Notably the Justice League cartoon series.

JLA by Grant Morrison and Bryan Hitch

After that, I stopped paying quite such close attention. But it was mostly the same stuff. New writers and artists constructing their own Leagues of both major and minor players. The main difference now seemed to be that they were very hesitant to not have Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman in their lineups. Also, the Justice Society had a revival, though they've evolved from a promotional title posing as a team to a multi-generational extended family of superheroes where the descendants and proteges of heroes from the '40s go to train with what remains of the old guard.

The new generation Justice Society of America

So, why does it keep happening? Well, beyond the obvious cases of editors saying “no”, there's also the fact that a comic book series can be really boring if all you can do with your characters is have them punch things. Most modern comic writers don't have the knack for just big science fiction like Morrison and are more attuned to character drama. So, it helps a lot to have characters they themselves can have full control of. Characters they can change and put through their paces. Characters who can be coupled up in romantic pairings. Characters they can kill off if it serves the story. And it didn't just happen for the League. Over at Marvel, the Avengers stopped being a collection of big stars in 1965.

So, what's the takeaway? Why did I write all this? Well, part of me hopes some Hollywood big shot at Warner Brothers sees it and realizes that Justice League media can be more flexible. I hope for that, but know it's a long shot. At best, maybe I can convince some comic book fans out there that this stuff doesn't need to be taken quite so seriously.

[SIGH]

Anyway, next time will be a subject that's more approachable. Though, I am thinking about taking another shot at writing about superhero comics now. Because I think I can do better than this giant wall of minutiae I just produced. Maybe. It's an interesting challenge at least.