Chapter Twenty: "The Most Powerful Forces of Good ever Assembled!"
Or at least that's what would have happened. Waid did, in fact, not become the regular writer for Justice League, not right away at least; instead the job went to Keith Giffen who created his (in)famous "bwa-ha-ha" Justice League. Waid did, however, write a story that gave Giffen a run for his money. It was called JLA: Year One.
On the surface it was a mere retelling of their origin story that tried so hard to fit in previous continuity that some cynics asked, why bother? The origin remained the same: seven young heroes join forces to fend off seven alien invaders and decide to stick together. It in fact opened mere days after the infant League's route of the Appellaxians and the first issue had the series' villains, a terrorist group named Locus, stealing one alien's body for mad science.
However, with how Waid had been there taking notes the entire meeting, it ensured there was also a depth of characterization not present in the Silver Age issues where these stories originally took place. Gardner Fox had all his characters act alike with no characterization at all. Under Waid it was different. The main draw was in fact not "see Superman punch this" it was seeing seven young men and women become heroes.
For example, Flash was the only normal guy. In contrast to all the others who were born with their powers, or who trained for years or who came from backgrounds where such things were commonplace, Barry Alan was an ordinary man who just got superpowers one day. In his mind at least, he was only pretending to be a superhero in contrast to the real ones: doubly so as he was partly inspired by reading comic books. As the real world's first Silver Age hero, Waid also used him as something of a viewpoint character.
Green Lantern was just the opposite. Hal Jordan was a reckless, hotshot fighter pilot who'd been chosen by the Guardians of the Universe and had traveled across the galaxy. It was a small wonder that he came to the League thinking he was their star player. Curiously, Waid took the hyperbole of his being completely honest and utterly without fear literally to show just how impossible telling painful truths all the time and refusing to lie even for otherwise good reasons made his life.
Martian Manhunter was the most dedicated to seeing it work. He wanted to undo the stigma of the Martian invasion and prove himself to his adopted world. J'onzz was repeatedly the target of verbal abuse from people who had yet to forget Blanx's assault. (It was later retconned that the Martian and Appellaxian invasions were linked to avoid too many coincidences.) With how his old world was lost to him and his new one had yet to embrace him, the League was his family now.
Wonder Woman, for her part, was new to Man's World and bordered on being a man hating straw feminist. It was understandable, though, with how men far weaker than she insisted on "protecting" her. Patriarchy, cable TV, fast food, politicians, the media… UGH! A fairy tale princess from a magic land inevitably would find the modern world a Gordian Knot so confusing that Athena would struggle to solve it. This was doubly so maintaining a secret identity… but that meant that she could be close to Steve right?
Despite a similar cultural milieu, Aquaman had a much easier time being a superhero partly due to his father being a surface man and having given him a normal childhood. Granted, spending half your childhood a hermit in a lighthouse and the other half training to be a superhero wasn't exactly normal but still… As a boy Arthur had always used his superhero career to advocate for more responsible use of the oceans. Now, he hoped that such a high profile team could take his advocacy for the ocean and, yes, Atlantis, to a new level.
Superman was the League's golden boy. He was by far the strongest but more importantly the most noble. He was also the most experienced and respected having already fought for truth and justice for thirteen years as Superboy. Or as Flash said, "When I was pizza face getting ready for my first date, this guy was going on missions to Alpha Centuari!" With all that and with how he had made a new generation of heroes possible, his fellow Leaguers all took it for granted that JSA's heir was their leader. He returned their trust in kind.
Batman, however, was a paranoid loner who saw his teammates as undisciplined overpowered amateurs. The only reason he even joined was his belief that the League's dumb muscle might prove useful under his leadership. His own words? "I can't wear a brightly-colored costume that makes me a target... and I can't afford to trust poorly-trained people who do." The one exception in Batman's mind was Superman who had already proven himself and, frankly, was the only one willing to put up with him.
They were set up in their new headquarters in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, (courtesy of a mysterious backer) and, regardless of their differences, they managed to work together against all manner of mad scientists, mutants, and madmen. It all happened concurrently with the first few years of JLA with several classic stories taking place in the background or even being retold such as Starro's assault or Xotar the Weapons Master (1960's Brave and the Bold #28 and #29). And yes, Snapper Carr was still the one who figured out how to defeat the star fish.
At first, all was good. Their first public appearance/press conference went smoothly and it was there that they got their name. One reporter asked if they were going to announce themselves as the new Justice Society; they admitted that "justice" was always good but that "league" had more of a punch than society. The star-spangled Wonder Woman, who'd grown up hearing about an Amazon who'd gone to Man's World in WWII and joined the early hero team, quickly added, "of America!"
They weren't the only heroes shown far from it. It was in fact, the story of the birth of the DCU. Only quasi-hero teams such as Sea Devils, Cave Carson, and Challengers of the Unknown were left in the wake of the JSA's disbanding. But now, after decades of metahumans having to hide their gifts or adventuring being discouraged, people could dare to be heroes again. The Doom Patrol, the JSA, the Metal Men, and all manner of independents made appearances.
Waid in fact made a point to bring in as many references as he could. The general escorting the body of a dead Appellaxian to the Secret Sanctuary? General Wade Eiling. The reporter asking questions at the press conference? Viki Vale. The politician/businessman that stuck up for the JLA? Max Lord.
That's not to say everything was going fine. That Superman had trained under the JSA was common knowledge and he often namedropped. ("And that," he told Barry Alan, "is how first Flash fought flying enemies.") For their part, the JSA was pleased by their protégé and in fact invited him to come to a party hosted by his mother in Smallville. He was asked to come in uniform, the reason being was that the JSA's other child was in attendance. Wonder Woman had never been trained by the Society but she was friends with Mala, an Amazon who'd been active in WWII and had joined them. Reporters were retroactively calling her the Golden Age Wonder Woman and the current one had decided to crash the party. As far as Diana knew, Mrs. Kent was just a friend of the JSA with no connection to Superman whatsoever.
On seeing the Amazon, Ma Kent urged her son to take her somewhere private. Diana was the only woman on the planet he could get frisky with without pulping into ground beef after all! Superman was aghast at that but she just laughed and said that she just wanted him to have someone to love… and someone with whom he could provide her with grandchildren. As for Wonder Woman she had fun at the little party but when she spoke with Mala she was shocked at the revelation that she had had an affair with a fellow JSAer.
Having grown up on a veritable paradise where nobody ever lied or betrayed anyone else's trust, such an act was unthinkable to her. Wonder Woman was still in her total innocent phase. As she later told Etta Candy she had grown up hearing stories about the JSA and had believed that even if the other males of Man's World were bad, that at least the men of the JSA were good. She had looked up to them as perfect white knights, at least as good as her sisters and perhaps more so. "And then you find out that they're only human," responded Etta.
Diana had no desire to respond. The main reason she had left Paradise Island was to be with Steve and have a happily ever after like Mala. Aphrodite's granddaughter mused that if Mala could betray her love, would the same happen to her? Was it happening already with how she was developing feelings for Flash? On Alan's part it was getting that he had to choose between Diana and his actual girlfriend Iris West.
That something wrong was happening was seen when Locus seemingly sent spies to observe the Justice League in their secret identities. It wasn't really a surprise, though. In the first and second issues, the Leaguers were all met by new acquaintances in their civilian identities and it all seemed fine. (Hint, hint.) Clark Kent met a new photographer at the Planet, Hal Jordan was interviewed by the new FAA inspector, etc. At one point they met up and confessed to shame at their betrayal of friends but assured each other that it was for the common good. The League ultimately learned that there was only one spy and that he was J'onn J'onzz. He'd been using his invisibility and shape changing to stalk them and create multiple identities for himself. When confronted with this information he was not allowed to speak and tried to run.
The League had more important things to worry about, however, when it learned that eight, not seven, meteors had crashed to Earth the day the Appellaxians attacked. They began the search and learned that Locus had found the eight alien and had allied with it. The terrorists' idea that life was cheap and belief in genocidal flesh shaping eugenics meant that they were the only humans that the invader would listen to. Why was seen when Locus initiated a series of doomsday machines that would destroy all life on Earth leaving them the only survivors thanks to their new bioengineered host bodies.
While Locus was defeated with the Manhunter's help, the League nevertheless had to ask him why. He said that as much as he wanted to believe they were good that he had seen enough of Earth to know that humans feared what they did not understand. Slavery, the Holocaust, anything that was other had no right to exist. Manhunter couldn't even show his face in public without some nut spitting on him!
The others didn't accept it and soon accusations started flying. It only got worse when Batman took a stand for J'onn by saying that he did the same thing—that the Dark Knight's assured the outraged Leaguers he only used public sources hardly helped. All his life Superman had dreamed of being a great hero and as a boy had caught glimpses of the future where he and others would be just that. He had befriended Batman and had cemented their friendship by revealing their secret identities. If that was the only thing to save the League, it was a small price to pay. In a blur, Superman changed into glasses, suit, and tie and said, "I'm Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper."
And with that all the others knew that there was only one thing left to do.
"I'm Barry Alan, forensic scientist with the Central City Police Department."
"Lieutenant Diana Prince of the United States Air Force."
"Hal Jordan, test pilot for Ferris Aircraft."
"Bruce Wayne, head of Wayne Enterprises."
"In my free time, I am John Jones, a detective for the Middleton Police."
And then Arthur, "Aquaman," Curry joked, "And me without a secret identity!"
Such a thing was just in time because that's when the remaining Appellaxian called in his planet's entire population. Earth with its metahuman population might one day prove a threat to Appellax. More importantly, its defeat of the seven other nobles could not be allowed to stand! It had been a challenge for the League to defeat seven. Now it was thousands.
The League knew it couldn't win alone so after making a token fight, let themselves be captured and taken to the prison where the other heroes were held. That's when the second phase of Batman's plan took effect; drop the disguises, escape the bonds that had been tailor made for other Leaguers, and beat the bad guys. Superman then gathered his fellow heroes, from every team and every generation to say, "The enemy has taken our world. I say we take it all back!"
Each Leaguer led a hero strike force against the aliens to where they'd do the most good. Wonder Woman, Mala, and the Black Hawks liberated Washington from the Crystal Creatures. Aquaman led the Sea Devils, Animal Man, and the Challengers in under water combat against the Mercury Monsters outside Atlantis. Green Lantern along with the Hawks, Black Condor, and other aerial heroes fought Golden Rocs above the skies of Moscow. Kal-El, of course, showed that he wasn't called Superman for nothing; Batman's skill, Flash's speed, Manhunter's telepathy, they all did their part. The battle raged across the world but as the heroes captured Appellaxian after Appellaxian and placed them inside a holding pen set up by Dr. Fate the question was raised: then what?
That's when Vandal Savage, a villain who'd been allied with the invaders prior to their double cross, offered them a way out. He knew this could happen so he had used the information he'd gathered about them to create a telepathic death machine tuned to Appelaxian minds. He admitted that it was genocide in a box but when the lives of billions are at stake what's a little mass murder?
Superman refused saying that he'd fight forever if need be but that he wouldn't kill. Flash said that if they didn't push the button that there would be no forever. That was when J'onn activated the device but filtered the signal through his telepathy to make it excruciating but not lethal—except perhaps to himself. Batman told the nearest telepath to scan the location of homeworld from the nearest Appellaxian mind even as Aquaman added his telepathy to J'onn's and called for Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and the rest to give their strength.
The enemy was driven out, cast away though the opened portal to defeat and so the Justice League saved the world that day. Among the first to congratulate them was Hawkman of the JSA who, with the erasure of the Golden Age Man of Steel, became the leader of the first generation of heroes and was consequently the first to be taken prisoner by the enemy. He had been in touch with his protégé Kal-El through the entire storyline and with the running gag of calling him Superboy. Now? "I want to congratulate you… Superman. All seven of you. On behalf of the Justice Society, consider the torch passed."
Waid's story thus ended happily with the liberation of Earth and the promise of a universe of wonder… and the shot of mystery backer, Oliver Queen, revealing that for some reason he had a Green Arrow costume in his office.
It's worth saying that in the wake of all the reboots and miniseries, the aforementioned Green Arrow was not immune. The Golden Age version was mostly left alone. 1943's More Fun Comics #89 was still cannon with its origin story, "The Birth of the Battling Bowmen," minus of course the civilian name of Oliver Queen. There, a museum curator specializing in Native American cultures went looking for new artifacts after thieves stole his collection. He then found a young orphan who'd been raised by his late parents' Indian servant, Quoag. When the same thieves followed the archeologist and killed Quoag, the Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy used their archery skills to fight the evil men who were soon conveniently crushed to death by a boulder. With Quoag's killers done away with, and having apparently no other family, the archeologist adopted the boy and the two embarked upon a career fighting crime.
Silver Age Green Arrow, AKA, Oliver Queen, was likewise left mostly unchanged. It was Mike Grell who presented readers with a new origin story in Secret Origins vol. 2 #38 (1989) and in 1993's Green Arrow: The Wonder Year. Grell's Oliver Queen was a wealthy playboy with more money than he knew how to spend and was utterly miserable for it. He at one point threw a party on his personal yacht out of sheer boredom and after getting stone drunk fell over the side of the boat. He desperately swam to a nearby island the yacht had passed by only to realize that he was the only person there. Cobbling together a bow and arrow, he learned to survive on the island with bow and arrow. Though filthy, miserable, it was the happiest time in his life.
Queen was eventually rescued but he quickly found himself bored with the daily routine of city life. Yeah he discovered a talent for archery but so what? He searched for challenges like the ones he faced on the island but remained unsatisfied. He might have remained there, a "himbo" who spent his days shooting arrows at golf balls for no other reason than sheer boredom, if not for one costume party where he dressed up as a Robin Hood and captured a criminal who crashed the event. The criminal didn't recognize the costume and described his captor as "that big, green, arrow guy."
Queen thus became a superhero, thinking it would be fun. "God knows I haven't got anything better to do," he said. He even got himself a cave, a car, and a signal in imitation of a more famous vigilante as part of the game. When he got a sidekick, though, it was as much a nod to the original Arrow as it was aping the competition. "This kid was even raised by Indians! Now my Arrow schtick is complete!" he crowed.
(To be precise Roy Harper Junior had been two years old when his single father, forest ranger Roy Harper Sr., died saving a Navajo reservation from a fire. Roy Sr. had personally rescued Thomas Brave Bow, who took in the orphaned Roy and raised him in gratitude. Mr. Brave Bow encouraged his natural skill for archery and marksmanship and when he saw that his health was failing he arranged for Green Arrow to take the teenaged Roy under his wing.)
As for the mom of the family, writers took advantage of the Crisis to restore Black Canary original origin. In order to justify the artists' continually drawing a sexy babe in fishnets the writers said that the Dinah Lance who'd been appearing since the JSA's revival in the 1963's Justice League of America #21 and 22 was the "original's" adult daughter, albeit with the mother's brain downloaded since the mother had been dying and the daughter had been exiled to limbo due to her Canary Cry as a baby by Johnny Thunder's T-Bolt who had then erased everyone's mind of the sad event. No really, it was Justice League of America #220.
In 1987, publisher Jenette Khan deemed it rather unethical and even sexist. (Did DC really have to go through such absurd lengths just to keep drawing her in cheesecake poses?) It was decided that Canary really was that old regardless of her physical youth; she did have superpowers after all. Dinah Lance was thus a foxy lady in her physical forties from the forties, a "cougar" with a taste for little boys who played Robin Hood. Yes, her now being her proper age didn't keep DC from drawing Mother Canary in sexy poses. Her more modest daughter would be another matter however.
Interestingly, the fact that the Golden Age Green Arrow was kept on the books allowed a bit of a joke. The first Emerald Bowman was of course a museum curator so he'd have known and been friends with his era's Hawkman who was also museum curator, right? It was retroactively said that they were good friends and when Carter Hall met and befriended Katar Hol he sincerely hoped that he would be friends with the new Green Arrow.
The first Hawkman was terribly disappointed… but Hawk-fans certainly weren't with how the mythos evolved post-Crisis.
If anybody prospered by the 1986 meetings it was Hawkman and Hawkwoman. Tim Truman was put in charge of the Hawks, post-Crisis, and knew that there was a problem. With the Crisis having merged all remaining Earths into one it now meant that the Golden Age's Carter and Shiera Hall were living on the same planet as the Silver Age's Katar Hol and Shayera Thal who went by the Earth names Carter and Shiera Hall. How did you explain that the two later heroes just happened to pick aliases that were the same as the real names of their predecessors? (And day jobs to boot!) How did you explain the coincidence that the JSA Carter Hall had invented an Nth-Metal belt and wing harness all on his own that was identical to the Nth-Metal belts and wing harnesses that the Hawkmen of Thanagar used when he'd never met a Thanagarian?
One was a reincarnated Egyptian prince and the other is an alien police officer. With Flash the two generations were different enough in their costumes and civilian identities to say that the second versions were inspired by the first… but you can't do that with Hawkman. Or couldn't you? As Truman revealed by means of flashbacks and such, that is exactly what happened.
The first Hawkman had originally been a Prince of ancient Egypt named Khufu and who had served alongside half brother Teth Adam (Black Adam) and Nabu (Dr. Fate). It happened then that they found a crashed Thanagarian ship powered by Nth-metal. Khufu recovered the metal and, on seeing its anti-gravity powers, crafted a set of wings and a helmet. It was a hawk helmet to honor falcon headed Horus and the wizard priest Nabu conveyed the true Horus' approval. What Khufu didn't know was that the Nth metal combined with Nabu's magic to create unique properties.
Two thousand years later (as first told in Flash Comics #1), he was Carter Hall, a wealthy socialite and archeologist. After examining some Egyptian artifacts, he was assaulted by visions/memories of being an Egyptian prince named Khufu who had been murdered alongside his lover Shiera by an evil priest named Hath-Set. The murder weapon had been an Nth metal dagger. Khufu swore that he and Hath-Set would both walk the Earth again and that then it would be Hath-Set's turn to die. (Hath-Set never actually stayed dead despite Hawkman's best efforts—nobody ever really dies in comics.)
He became Hawkman and drew close to Sheira. It was a testament to their love that she was willing to prance about half naked in a ridiculous get up just for his sake. (And in a costume that wasn't even chic!) Such worries aside she became a great hero in her own right and a mother in time as well.
Truman also revealed that, early in Carter's career, Thanagar had sent out scouts to various worlds. One such agent was Paran Katar, father of the future Katar Hol, who met and befriended Carter Hall. He was intrigued by what human had done with Nth-metal and, after helping him become Hawkman, returned to Thanagar to establish the planet as a winged society, free of gravity's pull.
And then, in terms of internal chronology came his masterpiece, Hawkworld.
It opened with Katar Hol as a rich young man, barely out of his teens, years before he would come to Earth. His love and study of his planet's old legends however were seen as being rather silly and sentimental. He missed the days when his people Thanagarians made their own art and furniture and wine and weapons. Nowadays his people were content to simply live lives of decadence, enjoying the treasures their empire had plundered from other worlds. Readers saw this when Katar idealistically joined the police force of Thanagar, the wingmen, and he quickly realized that it was a hopelessly corrupt, brutal force.
Before Crisis, before Hawkworld, fans were always confused as to why Thanagar tried to invade Earth when up till then it had always been a utopia. That there had been some kind of "equalizer plague" that messed up people's minds had always seemed forced. Now it was different. If Thanagar had always been a world where the utopia was the cities where the master race literally lived in sky whilst the slaves, dregs, and rejects barely managed to survive in the underworld, then no wonder it tried invade Rann and Earth!
As for Katar, his commander, Byth Rok, manipulated Katar into killing his own father, Paran Katar, for secretly smuggling goods to the underworld and helping out its inhabitants. Katar was then exiled as punishment to a deserted island where he saw two alien monks working on a wing harness. In a fit of temporary insanity, he killed one to steal it and escape but then to his horror, he saw that they had natural wings and had been building the harness for him. The other monk, however, chose to forgive Katar for murdering his brother and invited the exile to re-examine his life and dedicate himself to becoming a better man.
When Katar finally returned to civilization he took his father's place as a leader in the underworld and after a few years befriended a female wingman named Shayera Thal. She was an aggressive, angry and volatile woman who felt a strange connection to the "peacock." Together, she and Katar went on to expose Byth's plot but the murderer escaped Katar's justice. Hawkworld ended with Katar getting the winged helmet, a sign of honor, and showed him and Shayera hearing rumors of Byth escaping to a primitive world far away and that one day he and Byth would meet again.
Hawkworld was one of the single greatest Hawkman stories ever told and certainly the most influential; DC even temporarily thought to reboot the character from ground zero. They didn't but one can imagine what would have happened if they had. Who'd have taken Katar's role in Justice League stories, Carter Hall? It could have been a perfect storm with how Roy Thomas' aborted Last Days of the Justice Society would have exiled Golden Age Hawkman to literal Limbo mere months after the Crisis. If so, then who would have taken the Carter's place in between Crisis and Hawkworld, an interim character made up just for that? It was the biggest continuity nightmare that never happened.
Instead Truman showed through miniseries and flashbacks, Katar and Shayera hunted Byth Rok to Earth and Midway City. They then absorbed knowledge of Earth through their "Absorbacon" and sought out Police Commissioner George Till's help, one cop to another. It was very fortunate that they did that because Till had links to the JSA. He called in favors and brought in one Carter and Sheira Hall.
Hall returned Paran Katar's favor and helped to set up his son as a superhero. "Their" son actually because the retiring Hall not only gave history buff Katar his day job as a museum curator, he gave the newcomer his Earth identity: Carter Hall Junior. As for Shayera, she was at first reluctant to turn in her uniform for a gaudy costume and refused to call herself Hawkgirl but she conceded that Earth would more readily accept an alien superhero than an alien lawman. (She insisted on calling herself Hawkwoman though.) It was thanks to the Golden Age Hawk's influence that Katar and Shayera turned in blasters for maces and adopted their Silver Age costumes.
It even led to enriching the Golden Age Hawkman. Before the Crisis, as revealed in Infinity Inc, his real son Hector Hall resented his father for spending more time with his godson, Northwind of Fetheira. After all this, Hector not only had to compete for his father's love with Northwind but Superboy and "Carter Hall Junior"! When your father is so indifferent to you that he creates his own perfect sons rather than care about you how could you not be angry?
It went to hell for the Thanagarians, though, when a series of calamities led to the near ruin of their world and left it ripe for a demagogue. With as bad as Thanagar was retroactively revealed to be post Crisis, it was comparable to the American Civil War's Confederacy turning into Nazi Germany. (Bad to worse.) The planet ultimately decided to invade Earth forcing Katar and Shayera to turn against their people which led to them exposing their secret identity. It also led to Katar being forced to deliberately kill for the first time in his life, a very traumatic experience for him.
As for Carter and Sheira, their son, Hector, by then the Nth-metal armored Silver Scarab, revealed his secret identity and this theirs on live TV.
As for the rest of the classic Leaguers, their histories remained mostly the same. Zatanna was still the Mistress of Magic and Red Tornado was still the whiny android the original continuity said he was. Ditto Elongated Man. The biggest revelation however was that Super Friends was cannon.
It's worth saying that when E Nelson Bridwell wrote the Super Friends comic, he always meant for it be cannon and repeatedly referenced mainstream DC comics. Yet while those stories were brought into continuity it was revealed that it had mostly been a PR stunt: save the world as the Justice League, do PSAs and charity events as the Super Friends. As for Marvin and Wendy, wannabe Snapper Cars from the cartoon, they were retroactively said to be Snapper's replacement as the JLA's mascots. With how far the League was removed from Happy Harbor in the wake of Snapper Carr's betrayal of the League to the Joker though, it only lasted for a few months (comic book time).
Zan and Jayna, the Wonder Twins, had more luck both in the real world and in-continuity. As per Bridwell's origin, they were orphans from Planet Exor whose superpowers branded them as freaks. They were sold to a local circus but were befriended by a clown who gave them Gleek the monkey as a pet. One thing led to another and they wound up on Earth where they were taken in by Professor Carter Nichols and trained in their powers by the Justice League. They have long since gone on to be independent and successful, if minor heroes.
By that time, the Justice League reached the Satellite Era, all retcons and revision were over and the comics (minus the multiverse) could be taken at face value in terms of cannon, however. That in turn meant one thing: the Justice League went on to become what the Super Friends narrator said, the most powerful forces of good ever assembled. It was the iconic JLA everyone remembered from the era everyone remembered. The League was at its most powerful and its victories were always assured. Yes, it began with the heroes leaving Happy Harbor due to Snapper's betrayal but by then it had so outgrown its original purpose in the sheer grandeur of its adventures that it would have abandoned the old base anyways. It was this League that inspired the DCAU's cartoon series. It was this classic League that all subsequent versions measured themselves against. It was fair to say that this was the League's Golden Age
… It was too good to last…
It was all summed up in 1982's JLA #200 where the Appellaxians whom the League had bested in the beginning returned for one final battle. They had not died not had merely gone dormant and forced the original Leaguers to do battle with their newer teammates. They, of course, broke free of this control and the combined League saved the day. Blogger Rob Kelley said "Its one of my all-time favorite comic books ever, and certainly my all-time favorite superhero comic, ever. […] To me, this book sums up everything that is fun about the world of superhero comics, and what drew me to the Justice League so passionately at such a young age-camaraderie, action, humor, plus a sense of enormous history. Not too long after this, the Crisis would take place, forever putting the DCU I knew and loved into the Past Tense."
He was right because by the 1985, the League had gone to hell in a handbasket. Green Arrow quit due to the League's refusal to get involved in matters like poverty and world hunger. Batman left to form his own group, the Outsiders, when the League wouldn't rescue industrialist Bruce Wayne's right hand and best friend, Lucius Fox, due to US foreign policy concerns. Wonder Woman renounced Paradise Island and her heritage after she found out that she'd been mind raped by her own mother in an attempt to make her forget about Steve Trevor—who died and then came to life and then died again before she met a Steve Trevor from another dimension. Green Lantern had just barely returned from a months long space mission to find out that the life he hoped to return was in shambles and he ultimately resigned from the Corps and with it the League in a doomed attempt to get back with Carol. Superman was the only one who was doing alright and that was the point; he was stagnating going through the exact same motions over and over. Flash was on trial for killing the man who killed Barry Alan's wife: "police brutality" at best, murder at worst (and a widower unbeknownst to all). Atom went to South America and just... disappeared. Aquaman was on the ropes due to his son's death—and his wife would leave him too. Hawkman, as said, was suffering PTSD due to killing a man. Lastly, Martian Manhunter was exiled from his people the Greens and this time it was forever.
Strangely, it was that same Martian invasion that led to dissolution of the League. Up till that point the League had been more of a social club than anything else with members cracking jokes as they saved the day. It was that devil may care attitude that led to Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern (before his loss of power) to go on a random adventure when the Earth/Mars War happened. The League was thus left without its most powerful members and Earth very nearly enslaved. Aquaman said, rightly, that a full time League, regardless of power level, could have turned it aside without relying on a last minute save from the Manhunter. Thus he disbanded the JLA and created a new one in the hopes that it would be the Justice League the world deserved.
That did not quite happen though. Instead, "the Justice League of Detroit" as the new team was called replaced the world's greatest heroes with a band of undisciplined weaklings whose only claim to fame was that they tried real hard. Make no mistake Gypsy, Vibe, Steel, all had their hearts in the right place but either by accident or design it meant that the greatest threat that the DC Universe ever faced was met by the weakest JLA it ever had.
George Perez, author of Crisis on Infinite Earths, noted the irony by having the good Lex Luthor from Earth-Three send his messianic son to the safety of the JLA's satellite mere moments before his homeworld was destroyed by Anti-Monitor. Surely the League would be there to find the baby and save the day!
The boy would have died aboard the abandoned and nearly destroyed satellite if the Monitor hadn't found him. The Justice League had been made for challenges like these (the Crisis' very name originated from the dimension spanning crossovers in their comic book!) but Manhunter's Justice League lite barely rated compared to the other teams seen in the Crisis—and without a central leadership the heroes were far less effective than round two when the Anti-Monitor returned.
The Detroit League was a joke and was said so in the issues after the Crisis. In the post-Crisis timeline, people had even began to ask if there was even a need for a Justice League. Yes, when the new age of heroes began they were it but by then the Justice Society was back, their children Infinity Inc were active, Batman had his Outsiders, the Teen Titans had come into their own, Uncle Sam's Freedom Fighters were fighting for freedom, the Marvel Family was at work, and there were various adventurers such as the Forgotten Heroes and the Challengers of the Unknown. This only accelerated when a neurotic and guilt ridden Detroit League just fell apart. With so many fine hero teams out there who needed them?
Short answer: no one did.
Meanwhile, in the old Happy Harbor Sanctuary, the world's three greatest heroes gathered. A Man of Steel, a Dark Knight, and an Amazing Amazon. They would see to it that League would be rebuilt and this time, it would be much greater.
Author's Notes: Today's date is 11/26/2014. Hi everyone and in case I don't get another chapter in before December 25th, here's an early Christmas present: Justice League!
The story goes from Year One to immediately after the Crisis, basically how League history might have turned out with the alternate universe I've made. Part II, which I am outlining, will go from the post-Crisis era to "modern day." As to how that will develop, something that always struck me is that the Satellite Era JLA disbanded at the worst possible time: the Crisis. I don't know if DC did it on purpose or if DC just took advantage of it but that's how it happened.
Thus instead of Superman, Batman, and the other great DC heroes facing the Anti-Monitor we saw them scattered and disorganized with the JLA, the team that should have saved the universe, as a team of weaklings that barely made a difference. Perhaps the single greatest incarnation of the Justice League, certainly the most fondly remembered, ceased to exist when the DC Universe needed it the most. Part II, as hinted will see the Trinity redress that imbalance. ;-)
Now time to dip into the lettercol!
Sit Thames: As always you kind words are a pleasure. ;-)
Wolvbm: You got to give some of that to Ultimas! A good part was his idea. As for Mark Waid's JLA... things turned out differently. To be precise, Giffen will make his JLI era League and then Grant Morrison and Mark Waid will come along. Its worth saying that I never thought of getting rid of the JLI. As silly as the bwa-ha-ha era League was, I always found its portrayal of politics interesting. I mean, something as big as the League would have to deal with world governments and have to have a budget and a staff. Simply, Part II will see the JLI with the Trinity to make it a League people would justly call the League and after that bring in the Morrison/Waid era
Lord Ultimas: Thank you LU. I was glad to have your help. :-)
Everyone else: Love it, hate it, leave me a line and I'll gladly respond.
That's all for now and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!