The Justice League of America first debuted in 1960 in The Brave and the Bold #28, in a classic story that gathered together the seven most popular heroes of the era, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and The Martian Manhunter.
At the time, superheroes were experiencing a resurgence and it was thought that an updated version of the Justice Society team would sell books. As expected, the new team was a hit and The Justice League of America #1 was published in 1961. In one form or another, the Justice League has been in print ever since.
While the comics incarnations are many and will be explored in another article, the team has made inroads in several other media areas.
Animation
The very first appearance, outside of comics pages, of the Justice League was in three episodes of 1967's The Superman/Aquaman hour. Crudely animated, the League fought monsters that threatened the Earth.
From 1973 to 1986, several variations of the Justice League found their way on to Saturday morning television in shows entitled Super Friends (1973-74), The All-New Super Friends Hour(1977-79), Challenge of the Super Friends(1978-79), The World's Greatest Super Friends(1979-80), The Super Friends Hour(1980-82), The Best of Super Friends(1982-84), Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show(1984-85) and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians(1985-86).
The roster included Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and a host of heroes both known and obscure. Some ethnic heroes were specifically created for this series, in the hopes of giving it a racial balance. Ironically, many of the portrayals of ethnicity were little more than offensive stereotypes.
During the run of Batman Beyond, a futuristic version of the Justice League appeared. Shortly after that, Justice League debuted in 2001, with a line up very similar to the one that appeared in the first comic book incarnation. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash are all included, as are John Stewart, an African American Green Lantern and rounding out the team is Hawkgirl. Replacing the caucasian Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern and Aquaman with John Stewart and Hawkgirl was an effort to bring a racial and gender balance to the team and it succeeded far better than similar efforts attempted in the Super Friends era.
The series ran for two seasons, followed immediately by three seasons of Justice League Unlimited which opened up the roster to include dozens of other DC Comics characters.
The League also appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of The Batman.
Recently, Justice League: The New Frontier has been released direct to DVD. Set in the sixties, it chronicles the coming together of the greatest heroes in the DC Universe to battle a massive threat calling itself The Center. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, The Martian Manhunter and the Hal Jordan Green Lantern all figure prominently.
Next: Live Action
James Richardson - James Richardson is a freelance writer of fiction and non-fiction. He is the resident critic and recap writer of the television show LOST ...
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