Justice League of America

The Justice League of America
First Appearance	The Brave and the Bold #28 (February/March, 1960)
Creators	Gardner Fox
HQ	Justice League Watchtower, Justice League Satellite, The Hall of Justice, The Secret Sanctuary
Members	Superman (Leader), Batman (Leader), Wonder Woman (Leader), The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Green Arrow, The Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, Red Tornado, Cyborg, Vixen, Hawkman, Black Canary, The Atom, Hawkgirl, countless others
Rallying Cry	None
Allies	Justice Society of America, Teen Titans, Green Lantern Corps, Doom Patrol, Outsiders, Young Justice, Birds of Prey, Global Guardians, Batman Family, Superman Family, Team Arrow, Flash Family, Amazons, Atlanteans, New Genesis, Avengers, Legion of Super-Heroes, WildC.A.T.s
Enemies	Various

The Justice League of America (sometimes simply called the Justice League or the JLA) is a superhero team in the DC universe composed of its most powerful heroes.

The Justice League regularly appears in several monthly comics and in TV, video games, direct to video films and other forms of media.

Origin

When the world was threaten by a malevolent alien force, the world's greatest heroes banded together to defeat it and became the world's most powerful superhero team: the Justice League.

History

The Silver Age

The Justice League first formed when a group of disparate heroes (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Aquaman, and The Martian Manhunter) found themselves facing the same enemy; an alien invaders named the Appelliax. When they found themselves unable to defeat the threat on their own, they found the strength to defeat them once they joined forces and seeing the good they could do as a team, decided to remain together. They created their own HQ in a cave called the Secret Sanctuary, located in Happy Harbour, Rhode Island. Later on, the team battled the alien menace known as Starro, only to gain assistance from a young teen named Snapper Carr who had discovered the alien's weakness and became an honorary member of the League and one of their biggest civilian supporters.

Though Superman and Batman had more diminished roles on the team (not even participating in the Starro adventure), the League was still strong, defeating such menaces as Xotar, Amazo, Despero, Simon Magus, and Kanjar Ro. During a mission, the team was trapped by the alien Carthan and were rescued by the Green Arrow, who helped them defeat the alien menace and was granted membership. With Arrow in tow, the Justice League battled other new threats such as Felix Faust, Amos Fortune, The Demons Three, The Lord of Time, Dr. Light, and Zed Brann, among other villains, making their legend grow.

Eventually, The Atom is voted into the League and joins while helping them deal with Amos Fortune, who has given all of the members amnesia while using their greatest enemies (and a completely amnesiac Batman) to try to defeat them. The League would go onto battle stone giants from space and villains such as the Maestro, and The Tornado Tyrant (their encounter would later cause the Tyrant to become a hero). During an adventure where they where framed by the villain Dr. Destiny, the League members all revealed their alter-egos to each other so that they could clear their names using their civilian identities. This brought the League's members closer together and allowed them to communicate with each other outside of their superhero identities.

The Justice League would go onto discover the existence of a parallel reality they referred to as Earth Two. On Earth Two, they would discover the superhero team the Justice Society of America. The two end up teaming up to defeat the villains from both of their universes and when they succeed, they return to their respective home dimensions.

Following this, the League would face many new villains, such as Queen Bee and Headmaster Mind, as well as old foes like Kanjar Ro and Despero. They would also be turned evil for a time by the villain known as Antithesis. However, they were eventually stopped and returned to normal by many of the heroes young sidekicks, who formed their own superhero team, calling themselves the Teen Titans, who would remain one of the world's greatest superhero teams.

The Justice Society and the Justice League would be forced to team up once more to face the Crime Syndicate of America. The Crime Syndicate was a supervillain team that originated from the alternate universe of Earth-Three, where they had used their vast power to conquer the Earth. Out of boredom, they decided to battle the Justice League and quickly defeated them with the magic word "Volthoom". However, when the CSA attacked the Justice Society on Earth-Two, the League arrived to defeat them in the rematch, forcing them to return home.

Hawkman was next to be recruited into the Justice League, at the recommendation of the Atom. In his first mission he helps the Justice League defeat Joe Parry (a small time crook who acquired an alien device) and the team would go on to fight villains such as Brain Storm, Alien-Ator, Johnny Thunder of Earth-One and the Key as well as facing off against old foes like Dr. Destiny and the Demons Three.

After many adventures, they decided to expand their ranks to include Metamorpho, a shapeshifting superhero who could transform into any element but was unable to return to his human form.  At the same time, a vein creature named the Unimaginable insists that he join the group at any cost, causing Metamorpho and the Justice League to work together to defeat it.  Though Metamorpho chose not to join the team on a permenant basis, he agreed to be a reserve member for emergency situations.

The Justice League would go on to face new villains such as the Royal Flush Gang, the Anti-Matter Man (who they defeated with the help of the Justice Society) and the Shaggy Man, as well as helping the superheroine Zatanna find her missing father.  The League went onto fight old foes as well and on a few occasions, reunited with the Justice Society to fight interdimensional threats.

Later the team would re-team with the Justice Society to stop the villain T.O. Morrow, who invented a new robot to help him with his evil plans: the Red Tornado.  The robot was designed to want to assist the Society and would inadvertently assist T.O. Morrow with his plans. Using energy duplicates of the Justice League friends and loved ones, Morrow managed to kill several members of the Justice League. However, Red Tornado was able to overcome Morrow's plot and devised a plan to restore the fallen members of the Justice League. With Tornado proving his worth to the superheroes, he is offered membership within the Justice Society, though Tornado politely declines, instead deciding to understand himself better first.

The Justice League would go on to thwart an attempted invasion of America as well as an attack by an entity known as Neverwas. However, the team faced their biggest shake up when longtime member Wonder Woman decided to leave the team following the loss of her superpowers.

The Modern Age

TBA

See Also

• List of Justice League of America members