Justice League of America:
Truth and Justice
Synopsis: The Justice League of America. Heroes. Champions. Protectors of all that is right and good in the world. Yet all that it took was one shameful secret to tear them apart. From the very beginning, the league struggled with their own power and what it meant for the world. This is their story… from the very beginning.
Category: Marvel
Genre: Drama/Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13 for dealing with adult themes, language, and situations.
Author's Notes: Every story that I have written thus far has been planned with a beginning, middle, and end, so I thought that I would give a shot at a more open ended story. I can't think of a better one than the untold history of the JLA. I will not try to dead-lock this story to the league's true history but rather use the strength of the characters to create my own mythology. It could be considered AU but what I am trying for is a story more true to what canon should be. Please R&R because it has been a while since I wrote anything and I would like to know if I climbed back onto the right side of the horse.
"The greatest lies are told in the name of truth. The greatest crimes are committed in the name of justice."
George Orwell
Prologue:
"Tell me a story, Grandpa." The little girl with the black pigtails asked the old man, big blue eyes flashing in the light of the campfire.
"Does that mean that you are sick of magic tricks?" the old man laughed.
"Maybe a little." She said, her little face scrunched up.
"Well, people tell stories for a lot of reasons. They may tell them to scare little children into behaving themselves, or teaching the kind of lesson that only life can provide. Why would you like to hear a story?" The old man asked.
"Because your stories are always fun!" She chirped.
"Hmm. Fun. Quite." The old man smiled as he scratched his white beard.
"You always know stories that nobody else does." She elaborated with the persistence of a child used to getting her way.
"So you would like to hear something that nobody else could possibly know?"
"Yes!"
"Well, it seems to me that most often, old men dwell too much in the past, and it colors their stories. So how about we dispense with that. Instead of that, would it not be better to hear a story about what could be instead of what was?"
"What do you mean, Grandpa?"
"A story about the future." The old man smiled.
"The future? You know the future, Grandpa?"
"In our own way, I think that all of us do. It is just that most go through their lives with their eyes closed."
"Is this story true?" She asked with a look on her face devoid of the cynical skepticism that adults so often let overpower their lives.
"Of course!" He said "Moreover, it is a story about truth."
"Tell me, grandpa!" She chirped, barely able to hold her excitement in any longer.
"Very well. Since it was not once upon a time, we can hardly begin it in the conventional manner, can we? Rather, we shall have to say that one fateful day it shall come to pass that the world cannot stand on its own. It will face a threat it is unprepared to face, and it shall fall to a small group of people to put aside their differences and become who they were born to be."
"Who"
"Let us let the cards tell the story." The old man said as he removed a dusty old deck from his jacket pocket.
He threw down the first card, and it landed with unnatural symmetry on the ground before him. It was the card of the hermit, on a barren landscape holding his lantern.
"It will all begin with a hunter… a hunter from the stars. The last of his kind he will come from the very sky above as both harbinger and savior."
The little girl sat enraptured as he threw another card.
"The King of Pentacles; the tough old farmer within the brave young man. He is as alien to this world as the hunter from the stars. Yet very much of the earth… perhaps more so than any of us. An interesting contradiction. It will be he who will carry them all on his shoulders, and he will be more than strong enough to bear the weight."
The next card landed further away from the others.
"This one stands alone… The Fool. With his little dog warning him of impending danger, he heeds not the warning because he believes himself to be without fear or corruption. Would not such a being be infallible? He shall find that he needs others much more than even he shall ever know."
The next fell between the two closer cards and the girl's watery eyes smiled in the firelight. Something was special about this one, she could tell, but didn't know how to say it.
"The Hanged Man." He paused, as if troubled. "This is a doomed champion that comes, with troubling foreknowledge of his fate and troubling lack of trepidation because of it. Those lights that are twice as bright burn out in half the time. He will not be able to outrun his fate."
"I know him, don't I?" She asked.
The old man smiled a sad smile. "You will… in time."
Another card sailed through the air.
"The King of cups." The old man said, looking down to the card. "Perhaps more a king than the other of pentacles. He will be of the seas, and like the seas he will be both temperamental and gentle. Oceans have great power; to separate people or to bring them back together."
The next car fell far away from the others, directly opposing the fool.
"The Knight of Swords." The old man was silent for a moment, as if considering his words carefully. "As close to a handsome prince as will ever come to this story… yet… something else underneath. Something darker. He would fight for justice… but he would die for truth."
The next that fell showed two nude angels with wings spread wide, one male and one female, entwined in a passionate embrace.
"Icky." The little girl said. "Daddy told me never to look at that card."
The old man just chuckled.
"The lovers can often be one, but in this case are two so close as to be one. The only thing more fierce than their love for each other shall be the ferocity with which they fight for this world."
The next card crossed the king of pentacles.
"The Queen of Swords." The man said. "More Dangerous than she seems at first. A born warrior. A leader. Yet in her own way so very naïve about the ways of the world. Her growing pains will be felt by many."
The next card fell upside down. "Ah. The Page of Wands is inverted. He would only play a small part in the unfolding drama if he could. Yet he is destined to do more. Perhaps, deep inside, that is the way he would have it. Not even he knows, for he is a walking contradiction. Sometimes the smallest of players can have the biggest part of all."
The final card fell in the center of all, and the old man simply sat quietly. He looked to his granddaughter with a question in his eyes, as if asking her to interpret it.
"Who is this, Grandpa?" She asked with trepidation.
"Don't you know?" He asked.
She looked to the car of the Magician, opened her mouth as if to answer, then simply shook her head.
"This, Zatanna, is you."
Next: How did a collection of heroes come to become the greatest group of champions the world ever knew? Find out in the first issue of JLA: Truth and Justice.