Justice League: Encyclopedia II - Justice League - History

Justice League - History

Justice League - Silver and Bronze Age versions

The original team first appeared in The Brave and The Bold #28 (1960) as a revival of the Justice Society of America (or "JSA") under a new, more dynamic name of "League" and soon gained its own title that same year. The creator was a writer named Gardner Fox, who was inspired by the Justice Society to create a similar, contemporary concept, and who decided upon the word "league" influenced by the National Football League and Major League Baseball. The artist for the first five years of the comic was Mike Sekowsky.

The JLA comic was initially amongst the most popular of DC Comics' publications, but by the end of the 1960s, it had become overshadowed by Marvel Comics' equivalent super-team, the Avengers, in sales and quality. Various changes were made as an attempt to boost sales; the first of these changes included dropping Snapper as a "mascot." As told in Justice League of America #77 (December 1969), Snapper was tricked into betraying the secret location of the cave headquarters to the Joker, which resulted in his resigning from the team in shame. After this, the Justice League was shown moving into a new orbiting space station "satellite" headquarters (in Justice League of America #78, February 1970). The 1970s would present the team's membership as occasionally varying in makeup and size.

Those involved in producing the Justice League of America comic during the 1970s included writers Cary Bates, E. Nelson Bridwell, Steve Englehart, and (longest of them all) Gerry Conway, while the art chores were primarily handled by Dick Dillin. The JLA comic had a brief spike in popularity in 1982 when artist George Pérez stepped in following Dillin's death, but the commercial success was short-lived.

In 1984, in an attempt to emulate the success of DC's most successful comic at that time, The New Teen Titans, an editorial decision was made to have most of the regular members leave the team, to be replaced by young unknowns. It was also decided to have the team move from its orbiting satellite headquarters into a new base located in Detroit, Michigan. This move was highly unpopular with readers, who dubbed this period of time the "Justice League Detroit" era. Created by Conway and artist Chuck Patton, this version of the Justice League was eventually disbanded by writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Luke McDonnell. The final issue of the original Justice League of America series was #261.

Justice League - Modern Age versions

The team was rebuilt in the 1987 company wide crossover limited series, Legends. This new team was given a less America-centric mandate than before, and was dubbed the Justice League International (or "JLI" for short); the new comic was written by Keith Giffen and DeMatteis, with art by Kevin Maguire. This new and very popular series added a quirky sense of tongue-in-cheek humor to the stories, with an occasional slant toward excessive silliness.

In 1989 Secret Origins #32 updated the JLA's classic origin from Justice League of America #9 (1962). See more below in "Origin of the JLA".

The Justice League titles expanded to a total of five by the early 1990s: Justice League America (formerly Justice League International), Justice League Europe, Justice League Task Force, Justice League Quarterly, and Extreme Justice. By the 1990s, however, with the departure of Giffen as writer, the humor prevalent in the early JLI-era had disappeared in favor of more serious stories, and as the commercial success of the series faded, each of the titles were cancelled.

In 1997, a new Justice League series titled JLA debuted, written by Grant Morrison and with art by Howard Porter and John Dell (though the new version of team first appeared in the limited series JLA: A Midsummer's Nightmare, written by Mark Waid and Fabian Nicieza). This series, in an attempt at a "back-to-basics" approach, used as its core the original and most famous seven members (or their character successors) of the team: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash (Wally West), Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), and the Martian Manhunter. Added to this core roster was the character Plastic Man, as well as a new headquarters for the team, the "Watchtower", based on the moon. Morrison introduced the idea of the JLA allegorically representing a pantheon of gods, with their different powers and personalities. Since Morrison left the title, other writers and artists have taken over, though none with the success of Morrison's version of the Justice League.

In 1999, storytellers Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson re-tooled and expanded the Secret Origins origin with the limited series JLA: Year One.

In 2003, Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire returned with a separate limited series called Formerly Known as the Justice League with the same humor as their Justice League run, and featuring some of the same characters in a team called the "Super Buddies" (which parodies the Super Friends). A follow up limited series, entitled I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League, soon began to be prepared, though it was delayed due to the events shown in the Identity Crisis limited series.

Also in 2004, George Perez and Kurt Busiek came out with a Justice League/Avengers crossover, an idea that had been delayed for 20 years due to various reasons. In this limited series, the Justice League and the Avengers were forced to find key artifacts in one another's universe, as well as deal with the threats of villains Krona and the Grandmaster.

In 2005, a story arc by Geoff Johns and Alan Heinberg called Crisis of Conscience (JLA #115-120) led to the dissolution of the Justice League of America. The breakdown of relationships shown in Identity Crisis reached its zenith. As in the time of the Detroit JLA, the team disbanded again, leaving it to the Martian Manhunter to again rebuild the team, with Superman's blessing.

Later, someone, recognized by the JLA Watchtower's systems as the Man of Steel, blows the Watchtower apart, in the very moment in which the Martian Manhunter found, and was about to tell the others, a connection between the team dissolution, the rise of the OMACs, the intergalactic war between Rann and Thanagar, the creation of a new Secret Society of Super-Villains and the rampage against magic by the Spectre. This intruder is later revealed to be the Earth-Prime Superboy. So, in the beginning of the Infinite Crisis, the JLA will be disbanded again.

DC Comics has announced that the current JLA series will come to an end with issue #125, to be released February 2006. This is one of several titles to be cancelled at the conclusion of the Infinite Crisis storyline, specifically as part of the "One Year Later..." event focused around the upcoming weekly series 52.

In 2004, Morrison teamed with artist Ed McGuiness to produce an ongoing series called JLA: Classified. The story involved Batman's efforts to stop Gorilla Grodd's subjugation of humanity while the rest of the core JLA pursued a mission inside a cubical "proto-universe". Since then, the JLA: Classified title has been turned into a regular series; Keith Giffen, Warren Ellis and Gail Simone have all written story arcs.

In 2006, Brad Meltzer will being joining Ed Benes on a new Justice League of America in the summer.

In October 2005, DC began publishing Justice with stories by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross and art by Ross and Doug Braithwaite. In this new maxi-series, the Justice League faces an enemy whose strength is in a class all its own. It is not a single foe that they face though, but rather the combined forces of the most infamous criminal masterminds ever to grace DC's pages, e.g. Lex Luthor, Riddler, Joker, Brainiac, Black Manta, etc. It seems the bad guys have learned how to work as a team toward a common goal; a goal that will come as a surprise to many. Instead of using their combined strength for destructive ends, the new criminal mega-team is using their unified power to attain humanitarian aid the likes of which the Justice League can only imagine. But are their seemingly charitable acts sincere or another stratagem crafted to divert attention from their far more sinister plans; we'll have to wait and see. Whatever their ulimate goal may be though, their efforts have left the League with a tarnished public image.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki