| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
The original line-up, to which the league has often returned, is Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and The Martian Manhunter. Other notable members have included Hawkman, The Atom, Green Arrow, Elongated ManJustice League Unlimited The Elongated Man (birth name: Ralph Dibny) is a comic book superhero in the DC universe. He is an off-and-on member of the Justice League, as well many of its spin-offs. His first appearance was The Flash (Vol. 2) #112 (May 12, 1, Black CanaryJustice League Unlimited Black Canary is a female superhero published by DC Comics. The Black Canary was originally a non-superpowered crimefighter who relied on martial arts and detective skills to combat crime. Later the character was given a superhuman, FirestormFirestorm the Nuclear Man is a DC Comics-owned super-hero, created in 1978 by writer Gerry Conway and artist Allen Milgrom. He starred in two monthly series, Firestorm running for five months in 1978, the other The Fury of Firestorm running 100 issues and, ZatannaJustice League Unlimited in her day job as a stage magician Zatanna is a DC Comics superhero. She is a wizard, the daughter of the wizard superhero, Zatara and shares the family's inherit ability to cast powerful spells by giving mystical commands that ar and Plastic ManPlastic Man is a comic book superhero created by Jack Cole and first published by Quality Comics in August 1941 in the first issue of Police Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. His power is to stretch and shape his body to any form he wants. Plastic M.
The original team first appeared in The Brave and The Bold #28 ( 1960Events January-February January 1 Independence of Cameroon January 9 Aswan High Dam construction begins in Egypt January 11 Chad declares its independence. January 14 Ralph Chubb, the gay poet and printer, dies at Fair Oak Cottage in Hampshire. January 23) as a revival of the Justice Society of AmericaThe Justice Society of America or JSA is a team of fictional superheroes whose adventures have been published by DC Comics. They're a key team in comic book history because they were the first such team to appear in comics. The Golden Age The JSA first ap (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 FoxGardner Fox ( May 20, 1911 December 24, 1986) was an American writer born in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known for writing comics and co-creating numerous comics characters, especially for DC Comics. He received a law degree from St John's College and, 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 .
This comic was initially amongst the most popular of DC Comics' publications, but by the 1970s it had become overshadowed by Marvel Comics' equivalent super-team The Avengers series in sales and quality. Various writers and artists tried to include more complex characterization into the JLA comic, but it proved to be an uneasy fit. Other efforts to improve the sales of the title included swelling the ranks of the team's membership, and moving the team from their cave headquarters to an orbiting satellite. Creators during this period 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, 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. 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 , the team 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.
The team was rebuilt in the 1986 company wide crossover mini series, Legends. This new team was given a less America-centric mandate than before and was dubbed Justice League International (or JLI, originally simply Justice League), 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 humour to the stories, although often edging into silliness reminiscent of the 1960s Batman TV series, slapstick often being Giffen's humor of choice. The titles expanded to a total of five by the early 1990s: Justice League America (formerly JLI), Justice League Europe , Justice League Task Force, Justice League Quarterly, and Extreme Justice . By the mid-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 1995, a new Justice League was announced to be developed by writer Grant Morrison with art by Howard Porter . (though the team first appeared in the series JLA: A Midsummer's Nightmare written by Mark Waid. Morrison was instrumental in returning the JLA to much of its former glory with a new series titled simply JLA. This series used as its core the original seven members (or their character successors) of the team: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green Lantern, the Martian Manhunter, and to a lesser extent, Plastic Man, with various another set of less well known characters brought in at different times. Morrison introduced the idea of the JLA allegorically representing a pantheon of gods, with their different powers and personalities. Morrison left the title, other writers and artists have taken over though none with the success of Morrison's League. In 2003, Keith Giffen returned with a separate miniseries called Formerly Known as Justice League with the humour of his 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 miniseries entitled I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League! was in preparation as of February 2004, though it was delayed by the tragic events shown in the Identity Crisis limited series.