For most of the past six decades, the Justice League has stood to protect the DC Universe as the greatest collection of heroes known to man working together in the spirit of cooperation to do what even the greatest of them could never accomplish alone. Many of its most honored members stand as iconic heroes in their own right. Others rose to greater heights within the ranks of the League, bolstered by their teammates’ reputations. They’ve stood side-by-side against enough perils for any lifetime, and all who served with the Justice League are remembered within its hallowed halls.
…Well, mostly all. There are a few heroes who had more of a…well, let’s just a call it a day pass. These are eight heroes who you could, under the most technical, broadest definition, call “Justice Leaguers,” but were out the door pretty much by the time they signed up.
Doctor Fate (Linda Strauss)
Induction:
For the first thirty years of the Justice League’s operation, membership stayed pretty solid. Guys like Black Lightning or Metamorpho might get invited onto the team and decline membership, but once you were on it, you were on it. One early exception was Linda Strauss, one of two successors to Kent Nelson as Doctor Fate in the late 1980s, along with her son Eric.
Kent Nelson himself had served a brief seven-issue tenure with Maxwell Lord’s nascent Justice League just as it was coming together. Kent was enlisted to defeat a mystic entity known as the Gray Man—a defected servant to the Lords of Order. When the Lords of Order created a new Gray Man, only for him to rebel against them even more quickly, Linda was prompted to join the Justice League for another ride on the merry-go-round. Once the second Gray Man was defeated, Linda formally joined the League on a more permanent basis…but was soon destabilized in her own title by Eric’s demise. She never reported back for a second mission.
Tomorrow Woman
Induction:
Grant Morrison fans will often count Tomorrow Woman among their favorite members of the Justice League, although she was only with the team for one issue.
Created by the villainous super-scientists Professor Ivo and T.O. Morrow, Tomorrow Woman was designed to infiltrate the Justice League, gain their trust and take them all out as a living telepathic mind bomb in one fell swoop. What the scientists hadn’t counted on, however, was that they had designed Tomorrow Woman’s sense of heroism too well. Learning of her true nature, Tomorrow Woman sacrificed herself during one last battle to save the world and spare her teammates their demise.
Dark Flash
Induction:
After Wally West’s apparent demise in Mark Waid’s “Chain Lightning” saga, he was briefly replaced by a mysterious new darker Flash of unknown origin. In JLA #33, the Dark Flash reveals his identity to the Justice League to gain their trust, though readers at the time were left remaining in the dark—but whatever his secret was, it was enough for them to accept him onto the team. But the Dark Flash—who, in fact, turned out to be an older Wally from an alternate future—would very soon after be replaced by the genuine article once more.
Antaeus
Induction: JLA: Superpower (1999)
Introduced in the 1999 one-shot JLA: Superpower, Mark Antaeus was a genetically and cybernetically enhanced hometown hero of Tripoli, North Carolina whose growing presence caught the interest of the JLA. Unfortunately, the team found that Antaeus was ill-equipped for handling international incidents, finding themselves at odds when Antaeus challenged the team’s unwillingness to kill a foreign dictator. Furious with the team’s inaction, Antaeus went to assassinate the dictator himself. Ten thousand people would die in the power vacuum resulting in his demise. Unable to bear the weight of the consequences of his actions, Antaeus began tearing at his own cybernetics until he destabilized his own plutonium core, killing himself instantly.
The Substitute Justice League
Induction:
In the aftermath of Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis, the Justice League had disbanded in a toxic cloud of mistrust, and Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman had vanished from the superhero scene altogether. During their missing year, Jason Rusch, the new Firestorm, would attempt to assemble a new Justice League to keep the peace in an increasingly chaotic world.
With little cache to throw around as a newer hero himself, Jason wasn’t able to get many big names. Only Firehawk, Bulleteer, Super-Chief and Ambush Bug answered the call. When Super-Chief was killed on their first mission out, they called the whole thing off as a bad idea. Jason, at least, would eventually become a full member of the Justice League himself when it was properly reformed upon the Trinity’s return.
The Olympian
Induction:
When the Justice League International team was relaunched in the New 52, the core idea was that this time they might actually make the team international. This involved the recruitment of such heroes as Russia’s Rocket Red, China’s August General in Iron, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Batwing, Cambodia’s OMAC, the United Kingdom’s Godiva and Greece’s the Olympian. Before the New 52, those latter two were originally members of the Global Guardians, DC’s original international super-team. But while Godiva had been with the JLI from the start of their relaunch, Olympian only managed to make it over in the last issue before the series’ cancellation.
Arthur Light
Induction:
The deeply controversial villain previously killed in Identity Crisis was returned to life in the New 52 as a recruit for Amanda Waller’s Justice League of America, a government-controlled counterpart to the unsanctioned Justice League. The two teams come to arms in their first confrontation when a traitor in the Justice League’s midst forces Superman to kill Doctor Light by manipulating his mind, triggering the “Trinity War.” He was survived by his widow, Kimiyo Hoshi, the current Doctor Light.
We mostly pretend this didn’t happen.
Nubia
Induction:
The early 2020s were a real renaissance period for Wonder Woman’s forgotten sister. (I hate to be the one to tell you this, but we are no longer in the early 2020s.) Originally introduced in the ’70s, Nubia vanished for decades, appearing only intermittently in various reimaginings, until a triumphant return with her own graphic novel, several miniseries and a new position as the ruling Queen of the Amazons after Hippolyta had abdicated her throne.
At the end of 2022, Nubia was recognized not only as an Amazon, but as a hero in her own right, earning full membership to the big show in Nubia and the Justice League Special #1. Unfortunately, the team would immediately be disbanded after her induction thanks to the events of Dark Crisis. Whether she’ll report back in for duty when the team returns in Justice League Unlimited later this month, no one other than Mark Waid, Dan Mora and Tamra Bonvillain can say. Until then, she’ll just have to content herself with her royal day job.
Justice League Unlimited #1 by Mark Waid, Dan Mora and Tamra Bonvillain is in stores November 27, 2024.
Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly “Ask the Question” column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
[[{“value”:”For most of the past six decades, the Justice League has stood to protect the DC Universe as the greatest collection of heroes known to man working together in the spirit of cooperation to do what even the greatest of them could never accomplish alone. Many of its most honored members stand as iconic heroes in their own right. Others rose to greater heights within the ranks of the League, bolstered by their teammates’ reputations. They’ve stood side-by-side against enough perils for any lifetime, and all who served with the Justice League are remembered within its hallowed halls.
…Well, mostly all. There are a few heroes who had more of a…well, let’s just a call it a day pass. These are eight heroes who you could, under the most technical, broadest definition, call “Justice Leaguers,” but were out the door pretty much by the time they signed up.
Doctor Fate (Linda Strauss)
Induction:
For the first thirty years of the Justice League’s operation, membership stayed pretty solid. Guys like Black Lightning or Metamorpho might get invited onto the team and decline membership, but once you were on it, you were on it. One early exception was Linda Strauss, one of two successors to Kent Nelson as Doctor Fate in the late 1980s, along with her son Eric.
Kent Nelson himself had served a brief seven-issue tenure with Maxwell Lord’s nascent Justice League just as it was coming together. Kent was enlisted to defeat a mystic entity known as the Gray Man—a defected servant to the Lords of Order. When the Lords of Order created a new Gray Man, only for him to rebel against them even more quickly, Linda was prompted to join the Justice League for another ride on the merry-go-round. Once the second Gray Man was defeated, Linda formally joined the League on a more permanent basis…but was soon destabilized in her own title by Eric’s demise. She never reported back for a second mission.
Tomorrow Woman
Induction:
Grant Morrison fans will often count Tomorrow Woman among their favorite members of the Justice League, although she was only with the team for one issue.
Created by the villainous super-scientists Professor Ivo and T.O. Morrow, Tomorrow Woman was designed to infiltrate the Justice League, gain their trust and take them all out as a living telepathic mind bomb in one fell swoop. What the scientists hadn’t counted on, however, was that they had designed Tomorrow Woman’s sense of heroism too well. Learning of her true nature, Tomorrow Woman sacrificed herself during one last battle to save the world and spare her teammates their demise.
Dark Flash
Induction:
After Wally West’s apparent demise in Mark Waid’s “Chain Lightning” saga, he was briefly replaced by a mysterious new darker Flash of unknown origin. In JLA #33, the Dark Flash reveals his identity to the Justice League to gain their trust, though readers at the time were left remaining in the dark—but whatever his secret was, it was enough for them to accept him onto the team. But the Dark Flash—who, in fact, turned out to be an older Wally from an alternate future—would very soon after be replaced by the genuine article once more.
Antaeus
Induction: JLA: Superpower (1999)
Introduced in the 1999 one-shot JLA: Superpower, Mark Antaeus was a genetically and cybernetically enhanced hometown hero of Tripoli, North Carolina whose growing presence caught the interest of the JLA. Unfortunately, the team found that Antaeus was ill-equipped for handling international incidents, finding themselves at odds when Antaeus challenged the team’s unwillingness to kill a foreign dictator. Furious with the team’s inaction, Antaeus went to assassinate the dictator himself. Ten thousand people would die in the power vacuum resulting in his demise. Unable to bear the weight of the consequences of his actions, Antaeus began tearing at his own cybernetics until he destabilized his own plutonium core, killing himself instantly.
The Substitute Justice League
Induction:
In the aftermath of Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis, the Justice League had disbanded in a toxic cloud of mistrust, and Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman had vanished from the superhero scene altogether. During their missing year, Jason Rusch, the new Firestorm, would attempt to assemble a new Justice League to keep the peace in an increasingly chaotic world.
With little cache to throw around as a newer hero himself, Jason wasn’t able to get many big names. Only Firehawk, Bulleteer, Super-Chief and Ambush Bug answered the call. When Super-Chief was killed on their first mission out, they called the whole thing off as a bad idea. Jason, at least, would eventually become a full member of the Justice League himself when it was properly reformed upon the Trinity’s return.
The Olympian
Induction:
When the Justice League International team was relaunched in the New 52, the core idea was that this time they might actually make the team international. This involved the recruitment of such heroes as Russia’s Rocket Red, China’s August General in Iron, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Batwing, Cambodia’s OMAC, the United Kingdom’s Godiva and Greece’s the Olympian. Before the New 52, those latter two were originally members of the Global Guardians, DC’s original international super-team. But while Godiva had been with the JLI from the start of their relaunch, Olympian only managed to make it over in the last issue before the series’ cancellation.
Arthur Light
Induction:
The deeply controversial villain previously killed in Identity Crisis was returned to life in the New 52 as a recruit for Amanda Waller’s Justice League of America, a government-controlled counterpart to the unsanctioned Justice League. The two teams come to arms in their first confrontation when a traitor in the Justice League’s midst forces Superman to kill Doctor Light by manipulating his mind, triggering the “Trinity War.” He was survived by his widow, Kimiyo Hoshi, the current Doctor Light.
We mostly pretend this didn’t happen.
Nubia
Induction:
The early 2020s were a real renaissance period for Wonder Woman’s forgotten sister. (I hate to be the one to tell you this, but we are no longer in the early 2020s.) Originally introduced in the ’70s, Nubia vanished for decades, appearing only intermittently in various reimaginings, until a triumphant return with her own graphic novel, several miniseries and a new position as the ruling Queen of the Amazons after Hippolyta had abdicated her throne.
At the end of 2022, Nubia was recognized not only as an Amazon, but as a hero in her own right, earning full membership to the big show in Nubia and the Justice League Special #1. Unfortunately, the team would immediately be disbanded after her induction thanks to the events of Dark Crisis. Whether she’ll report back in for duty when the team returns in Justice League Unlimited later this month, no one other than Mark Waid, Dan Mora and Tamra Bonvillain can say. Until then, she’ll just have to content herself with her royal day job.
Justice League Unlimited #1 by Mark Waid, Dan Mora and Tamra Bonvillain is in stores November 27, 2024.
Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly “Ask the Question” column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.”}]]
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