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<HEAD><TITLE>Don Markstein's Toonopedia: The Justice League of America </TITLE> <script language="JavaScript"></script> <META name = "author" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "description" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "subject" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "keywords" content = "comic books animated cartoons animation comics comix syndicated comic strips"> <META name = "publisher" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "format" content = "text/html"> <META name = "language" content = "EN"> </HEAD><BODY> <body onload="if (self!= top) top.location = self.location"></body> <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="0000EE" VLINK="551A8B"> <TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=350 VALIGN="CENTER"><IMG GALLERYIMG="NO" ALIGN="LEFT" HEIGHT=217 WIDTH=340 ALT="L-R: Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Atom, Aquaman, Superman, Batman, Martian Manhunter, Flash. Artist: Mike Sekowsky." SRC="jla.jpg"> <TD VALIGN="CENTER"><H1>THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA</H1><FONT SIZE=4> <B>Medium:</B> Comic books <BR><B>Published by:</B> DC Comics <BR><B>First Appeared:</B> 1960 <BR><B>Creator:</B> Julius Schwartz<FONT SIZE=3> <! BEGIN DONATION CODE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="993366"><CENTER> If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, <BR>Please contribute to its necessary financial support. <BR><A HREF="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1237L0BCY25QA" TARGET="_blank">Amazon.com</A> or <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=don%40toonopedia.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_cod e=USD" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> </FONT></CENTER><HR> <! END DONATION CODE> <P><A NAME="cont"> As the 1950s drew to a close, <A HREF="dc.htm">DC Comics</A> editor <A HREF="schwartz.htm">Julius Schwartz,</A> having good reason to believe <A HREF="glossary.htm#superhero">superheroes</A> were  <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="#cont"><FONT SIZE=2><I>continued below</A></FONT> </TABLE> <CENTER><! BEGIN ADSENSE "LEADERBOARD" CODE> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <! END ADSENSE CODE></CENTER> <P><TABLE><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> on their way back, revived the old <A HREF="jsa.htm">Justice Society of America</A> — but because Justice "Society" sounded a bit hoity-toity to him, he gave it a slightly different name, The Justice <I>League</I> of America. He gathered together nearly all of DC's then-extant superheroes (<A HREF="aquaman.htm">Aquaman,</A> <A HREF="batman.htm">Batman,</A> <A HREF="flash2.htm">The Flash,</A> <A HREF="lantern2.htm">Green Lantern,</A> <A HREF="jonnjonz.htm">The Martian Manhunter,</A> <A HREF="superman.htm">Superman,</A> and <A HREF="wonderwo.htm">Wonder Woman</A> — somehow, he overlooked <A HREF="grnarrow.htm">Green Arrow,</A> but made him the first addition to the group) and teamed them up to fight an alien menace named Starro the Conqueror. This occured in the March, 1960 issue of <I>The Brave & the Bold,</I> a comic book title which then functioned as a try-out arena, where concepts that had not yet proven themselves were tested before receiving their own series. <P> It was a successful trial. The <I>Justice League of America</I> title went into regular publication only four months after winding up its three-issue test run. That series was to last over a quarter of a century. <P> Before long, Schwartz introduced revamped versions of two more 1940s characters, <A HREF="atom2.htm">The Atom</A> and <A HREF="hawkman2.htm">Hawkman,</A> and added them to the mix. That completed what fans generally consider the "classic" JLA, although quite a few other costumed do-gooders, including <A HREF="elongman.htm">The Elongated Man,</A> <A HREF="bcanary.htm">The Black Canary,</A> <A HREF="firestor.htm">Firestorm,</A> <A HREF="tornado2.htm">The Red Tornado,</A> <A HREF="zatanna.htm">Zatanna,</A> and even <A HREF="phanstrn.htm">The Phantom Stranger,</A> became members later on. <P> By 1963, many of the old 1940s characters had been brought back in their original forms, at least for cameo appearances. Writer Gardner Fox, who, two years earlier, had begun the process of re-introducing them, brought the whole crowd together that year for the first of what would become an annual team-up of the Justice League and Justice Society. The story was spread out over two issues (titled "Crisis on <A href="earth1-2.htm">Earth-One</A>" and "Crisis on Earth-Two"), both of which have since become highly prized collector's items. <P> Until fairly recently, The Justice League of America was never animated as such except as occasional back segments on Aquaman's 1968 TV show. However, a version of it entitled <A HREF="super_fr.htm"><I>Super Friends</A></I> had several incarnations on Saturday morning TV, starting in 1973. <P> All through the 1960s and '70s, the JLA series functioned as a meeting ground for DC's super characters. But in the '80s, a downturn in circulation led DC's decision makers to think it might be growing stale. In an apparently desperate attempt to juice it up, they made an unfortunate decision to jettison the traditional characters and pack it with a bunch of ethnically-diverse unknowns — perhaps the worst of which was a Puerto Rican super-breakdancer named Vibe. Sales plummetted, and the group disbanded — meaning the comic was cancelled — in 1987. <P> Later that year, a new Justice League was formed, without "America" in the title. Since then, there have been several spin-offs and revivals, with varying degrees of success — including a couple of animated TV series, starting in 2001. But however enjoyable these may be to modern-day readers, the JLA of old is gone. <P ALIGN = "RIGHT">— DDM <P><A HREF="index.htm">BACK</A> to <I>Don Markstein's Toonopedia</I> Home Page <BR><A HREF="today.htm">Today in Toons:</A> Every day's an anniversary! <P><B>Webring:</B> <! JLA/JSA Justice for All><script language=javascript type="text/javascript" src="http://ss.webring.com/navbar?f=j;y=don_markstein;u=10107076"> </script><noscript><center> <table bgcolor=gray cellspacing=0 border=2><tr> <td><table cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td align=center> <font face=arial size=-1>This site is a member of WebRing. <br>To browse visit <a href="http://ss.webring.com/navbar?f=l;y=don_markstein;u=10107076"> Here</a>.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table> </center></noscript> <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE BANNER CODE><CENTER> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </CENTER><! END ADSENSE CODE> <TD WIDTH=10><TD WIDTH=180 VALIGN="TOP"> <! BEGIN ADLINKS CODE><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><! END ADLINKS CODE> <P><! 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