Justice League by Scott Snyder

The Justice League has always been my favorite superhero team of all time. Initially featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, whom would all eventually be referred to as the “Big 7” (regardless of who might hold a specific identity at any given time- e.g; Kyle Rayner and Wally West), their adventures started in the 1960s with a three issue stint in the Brave and the Bold. They graduated into their own title and went thru several incarnations including roster shakeups, retroactive continuity and even complete universe reboots in the ensuing years. I personally have always been a fan of the 1970’s Satellite Era which if you’ve read prior columns you already knew. What I loved most about that era is the character roster which included 6 of the 7 founders, my personal fave Black Canary, plus Zatanna, Hawkgirl, Red Tornado, Firestorm, Elongated Man, The Atom, Green Arrow and Hawkman. That era was followed by the Detroit era which inducted new characters like Steel, Vibe, Vixen and Gypsy into the League’s roll call. Following DC’s Legends event, the Detroit lineup was replaced with Justice League International which lasted for nearly a decade and was then replaced with Grant Morrison’s JLA. Morrison’s JLA initially started with the “Big 7” and then took on more team members before being stripped back to basics sans Morrison and then was eventually succeeded by Brad Meltzer and later Dwayne McDuffie’s JLA runs. After a disastrous run by James Robinson which had a great lineup that sounded better than what was actually published, we got the Geoff Johns and Jim Lee take which subtracted Martian Manhunter and added Cyborg as a founding member for the first time, followed by the recent Rebirth era series and the JLA book written by Steve Orlando. In between most of these post-80’s runs there were also additional JL titles such as Justice League Task Force, Justice League Europe, Justice League Dark and more.