The Justice Society of America, precursor to the Justice League, was the first comic book superhero team, first appearing in 1940's All Star Comics #3. As the years went by, DC would introduce the concept of alternate Earths with the JSA belonging to Earth 2 while the JLA was formed on Earth 1. The teams would join forces regularly during epic "Crisis" crossover events. In spite of being first, the JSA has been less favored by onscreen media, owing in part the team's membership of lesser known heroes compared to those on the Justice League.
While previous animated series had chosen to focus on the Justice League
of America, or simply the Justice League, Batman: The Brave and the
Bold in its typical fashion gave preference to the underdog. Although
both the Justice League of America and Justice Society appeared in the series, the
Justice League International was the premier super team with which this
Batman chose to associate.
In honor of today's relaunch of the DC Universe with Justice League #1, I thought it fitting to honor the Leagues own base of operations. Though best known for the fictional radio station WKRP, Cincinnati Ohio's more heroic, though lesser known claim to fame is that the Queen City is home to the building which inspired the Justice League's own Hall of Justice.
Fisher Price has gone above and beyond to promote their DC Super Friends line of Imaginext toys by creating an animated short titled The Joker's Playhouse. While Superman and Batman were showcased, Green Lantern, Cyborg, Hawkman, and Flash also did their best to convince kids they were toy worthy. The toys have been around for a couple years, but a new wave looks to be arriving in 2011.
The clip opens with an homage to the old Super Friends show, but Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Robin don't actually appear in the episode- but even Booster Gold got a cameo.
The heroes face off with the Joker in the Hall of Justice along with a couple of other baddies who may end up as toys including Gorilla Grodd, an "ice-sliding" Mr. Freeze, and Solomon Grundy. This is the kind of commercial you just don't mind sitting through.
Although Batman: The Brave and the Bold is primarily a team-up series, the episode Sidekicks Assemble gave us a glimpse of that world's Justice League. Members included Red Tornado, Flash, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, Fire, Aquaman, Batman, and Green Arrow. Although Superman and Wonder Woman's were only seen from the rear, they will be presented in all their glory in an upcoming episode of the series.
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.
In February, DC animation experienced its first Crisis event in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. In the adventure, the Justice League crossed over to a parallel world where evil counterparts ran a mafia style Crime Syndicate. Ultraman (a Superman analog) was the mob's leader though his susceptibility was to blue Kryptonite. Superwoman, who at first glance seemed a Wonder Woman mirror actually had more in common with Miss Mary Marvel (of the Shazam! clan). Owlman (like Batman) was the brains of the organization. Johnny Quick was a speedster and Power Ring wielded, well, a power ring.
J'edd J'arkus of green alien descent was also one of the big guns with the Hawk-like Angelique at his side.
Each of these big six had several "made men" and super-powered lieutenants serving under them and a lot of the fun was identifying their Justice League counterparts. Superwoman actually led a Super Family of Captain Super, Captain Super Jr., and even Uncle Super inspired by DC's Marvel family better known as Captain Marvel AKA Shazam!, Uncle Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr.
So who was Wonder Woman's doppelganger you may be asking? None other than Olympia.
Although a glimpse of the organization was revealed with villainous versions of Mr. Terrific, Cyborg, Wildcat, Sandman, Blue Beetle, Zatanna, Metamorpho, Doctor Fate, and others show, Syndicate members that received the most actual screen time were based on obscure members of the Justice League Detroit and the Outsiders.
Breakdance was their Vibe (as seen in Justice League Unlimited cameos)
Animal powered Vamp was their Vixen (a regular on Justice League Unlimited).
Model Citizen filled in for Looker (making her on screen debut).
Sai fought with sai rather than a katana, weapon of choice for Katana (member of the Outsiders in Batman: The Brave and the Bold)
Aurora was inspired by Halo (never before seen outside of comics).
Gypsy Woman had a lot in common with Gypsy (a Where's Waldo of Justice League Unlimited).
Extruded Man had a questionably better name than Elongated Man (who had a couple of lines of dialogue on Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold).
Aside from the core team a few new Leaguers were recruited including Red Tornado, Aquaman, Black Lightning (making his second on screen appearance after his debut in the last DC DVD Superman Batman: Public Enemies), Firestorm (hot off of his first appearance in 20+ years since Super Friends on Batman: The Brave and the Bold), and Black Canary.
Though Green Arrow was no where to be seen (though he was a major player n Justice League Unlimited) Archer played a big role for the Crime Syndicate.
The already questionable Lobo's counterpart Warwolf was another of the made men.
And Jimmy Olsen AKA Mr. Action was Ultraman's Pal.
It should be mentioned that the good guys in the counter Earth also formed a Justice League, though it only has two members: Alexander Luthor and Jester (plus Jester's monkey Harley).
The other Earth's President Slade Wilson is better known in comics as Deathstroke the Terminator AKA Slade for fans of the animated Teen Titans series. In comics, his daughter Rose AKA Ravager was a member of the Teen Titans.
Although originally dubbed World's Collide, this tale was penned to fill the gap between Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, explaining bits of tid like how Wonder Woman obtained her invisible jet and how the League grew in numbers. The story was rewritten and stood just as fine on its own though it may end up adopted a s apocryphal to the cannon of DC animated continuity. It was also a treat to see an homage to the classic cover of Brave and the Bold #28, first appearance of the Justice League, showing the team fighting the dreaded Starro.
In 2008, DC released a direct to DVD feature based on the popular graphic novel DC: The New Frontier. The movie, set in the 1950's, depicted the formation fo the original Justice League to fight a global alien threat called the Center (which was actually a telepathic floating island that spewed out dinosaurs).
The team included the "Big Three," namely Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Batman was shown revising his look to be a bit less scary to kids - though he remained a vigilante - playing by his own rules in an age where masked heroes were not trusted and where the Justice Society had been disbanded.
Superman played the typical boy scout and was essentially a US government agent. He was taken out early in the big battle, necessitating that some of the other big guns step up.
Wonder Woman was still very much at odds with the male dominated society.
But the real heroes of the movie were Hal Jordan and the Flash. Hal's origin was told and he cam eto grips with his new found powers. He also got a large percentage of the screen time and became the hero Green Lantern that we all know and love.
Following the Center's defeat, a new age of heroes was ushered in.
Up Next: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
And that's all for now folks. The upcoming Crisis on Two Earth's movie has just been announced and should be released in Spring 2010 at which time the Super Friendly Tour will continue. In the meantime, a new weekly segment will begin next week titled: Evolution of the Batman. Stay tuned.
