Superhero Shows: Infinite Earth's Justice Leaguers

04 March 2010

Infinite Earth's Justice Leaguers

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths was not the first, nor dare I say will it be the last time that members of the Justice League had run ins with alternate versions of themselves.

Universe of Evil

The first such show depicting such shenanigans occurred in the Universe of Evil episode of The World's Greatest Super Friends. In the adventure Superman traded places with a Super Enemy version of Superman from a parallel world.

While the evil Superman was dealt with by the Super Friends, good Superman had to contend with a pink Batman and mustached Robin,

an eye-patch wearing Aquaman, an ugly mug Wonder Woman,

and even an evil Gleek. The episode was a big hit.

Brave New Metropolis

Though not formally introduced, Superman caught a glimpse of himself that could have been had he ever lost his love Lois Lane. In the episode Brave New Metropolis of Superman: The Animated Series, a parallel world Superman teamed up with Lex Luthor to bring order to chaos. This Superman was essentially the same good-intentioned alien, but maybe a bit dumber for ever trusting Luthor. He did have a talented tailor though.

Legends

The Justice League animated series loved alternate worlds. The first was depicted in the episode Legends in which League members met up with characters very similar to the Justice Society. This team, named the Justice Guild, contained The Streak an analog of the Jay Garrick Flash, the Green Guardsman, patterned after Green Lantern Alan Scott, Catman a blend of Batman and Wildcat, Black Siren an obvious clone of Black Canary, and Tom Turbine who was a bit The Atom Al Pratt with a dash of Superman mixed in.

The Savage Time

In The Savage Time, Vandal Savage altered history by influencing the outcome of World War II. Fortunately, most of the League was shielded from a temporal ripple that rewrote history. Batman was not. Ever the crusader of justice, the revised world Batman still came to be as leader of an underground movement against Savage.

A Better World

Shockingly, the Justice League episode A Better World opened with Superman murdering a corrupt President Lex Luthor. Turns out, this was a parallel world were the League dubbed themselves the Justice Lords and imposed a stricter order on the world. There were Lord versions of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl, and Green Lantern, but their Flash was dead (full disclosure, the image is actually from a different episode, but this was the only picture I could find of the whole team of Lords). Eventually Leaguers and Lords clashed and of course, it was the Batmen that turned the tide.

Deep Cover for Batman!

In the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode Deep Cover for Batman!, Batman and Owlman traded places. In Owlman's world, all of Batman's former allies had evil counterparts. forming the Injustice Syndicate. In the mirror world, The Atom, Plastic Man, Green Arrow, Red Tornado, Blue Beetle, Aquaman, and Fire were called Dyna-Mite, Rubber Man, Blue Bowman, Silver Cyclone, Scarlet Scarab Barracuda, and Blaze.

In this world, the villains were good guys with Red Hood replacing The Joker as their leader with other heroic villains resembling Gorilla Grodd and Black Manta.

The showdown with Owlman himself would have to wait until the next episode.

Game Over for Owlman!

In order to defeat the team-up of Owlman and scads of other villains, the Season 1.0 finale of Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode Game Over for Owlman! allowed Batman to assemble a team of elseworlds Batmen to even the odds. Among the recruits were the cowboy themed Batrider, hulking Bat Ape, vampiric Bruce Wayne of Earth-43 mechanical War-Bat, swashbuckling Leatherwing, and thoughtful Batbrain.

The Super-Batman of Planet X!

In another episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold titled The Super-Batman of Planet X!, Batman traveled to the world of Zur-En-Arrh where he met a crime fighting Batman with a secret identity as a mild-mannered reported. Though this worlds Batman had no super powers, the original Batman developed Superman like skills.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

In Crisis on Two Earths, the Justice League crossed paths with a Crime Syndicate - hero doppelgangers that formed a mafia like crime family. Ultraman led the pack along with Power Ring, Johnny Quick, Super Woman, Owlman (fun fact: owls hunt bats), and alien J'edd J'arkus.

Like Mary Marvel, Superwoman was a member of a super powered family, evil versions of Captain Marvel, Uncle Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr. Other Syndicatees included Hakgirl's analog Angelique, Black Lightnings' Black Power, Vibe's Breakdance, Elongated Man's Extruded Man, Vixen's Vamp, Looker's Model Citizen, Katana's Sai, Gypsy's Gypsy Woman, Halo's Aurora, Wonder Woman's Olympia, Lobo's Warwolf, Black Canary's Scream Queen, Green Arrow's Archer, and even little Jimmy Olsen's Mr. Action (click for more info).

Jester and Alexander Luthor were alterna-worlds good guys and in the parallel Earth the President was Slade Wilson better known in comics as Deathstroke the Terminator; His daughter Rose in other worlds is known as Ravager member of the Teen Titans.