JLA/Avengers -- this just in!
Posted by Captain Comics on March 15, 2003 at 00:46:54:
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #220
(Nov 1983)
|
I've been off the Board for a while --
you would NOT believe my work schedule this week -- so I wasn't able to
answer a query from Chris Fluit a while back, and rather than bury my
response, I'm starting a new thread. Because it's a doozy!
Chris wrote:
Hey Cap, first a question then a query.
I
was just wondering how the research is going on the Justice League
roster. Did you need any more help from the Legion of Superfluous
Heroes?
Then, I was
re-reading your Avengers article, and I noticed that you made mention of
various characters that you intentionally left off of the list.
Obviously, the "people who didn't quite cut it" is a lengthier list than
what you described, but I was curious about Captain Marvel III (Genis)
and Songbird. Both were shown as future members of the team and actively
worked alongside current members in the Destiny War (Avengers Forever).
According to your description, that might have been good enough to get
include them.
I didn't
include the Avengers Forever characters, Chris, as I didn't include any
alternate future, alternate dimension, alternate Earth, alternate
timeline or "What If" type characters (like the '50s Avengers). The
reason is twofold: 1) There's too dog-gone many, and 2) they weren't
"official" Avengers on "Earth-Marvel."
On
the former point, the Avengers variants in "What If" alone could fill
two or three columns. And on the latter point, my one exception should
suffice to delineate my "rules" -- I included the alternate-dimension
Swordsman because he actually joined "our" team (in some sort of Honorary capacity).
Of
all of them, I admit, the Avengers Forever characters are the closest
to being "real" Avengers, as it seems a foregone conclusion that they
WILL be Avengers someday ... assuming they didn't come from an alternate
future. The last couple of times Genis-Vell has referenced his ordained
future in the Avengers, he always uses weasel words like "It APPEARS I
MAY become an Avenger someday ..." But even if it is cast in stone, that
was a can of worms I didn't want to open for either team. Just think
what I'd have to do for Flash alone in JLA, through JLA One Million!
And speaking of JLA, Part One is finished, which I present here for vetting by the Legionnaires. Here it is:
Last week I ran a letter from Paul Leighty of Manns Choice, Penn.,
asking me to compile a comprehensive roster for both The Avengers and
the Justice League in anticipation of the Kurt Busiek-George Perez JLA/Avengers. Masochist that I am, I’m obliging him.
Last
week I compiled a chronological listing of who joined Marvel’s Avengers
when -- which alone ate up an entire column. So this week we address
DC’s super-team.
Which is a bit more problematic. In the first place, a Grant Morrison JLA
story once mentioned that the current Justice League considers every
hero on Earth-DC a “back-up” member of sorts. Skipping over that, we run
dead on into DC’s elastic timeline – which establishes how many years
ago each hero began their career and when the League formed (eight years
ago) ... but as “real” time progresses, all these events have begun to
overlap. Finally, there is the ongoing headache of DC’s almost
capricious urge to retcon, with events both big (Crisis, Zero Hour) and
small (the torturous histories of Black Canary and Hawkman).
All
this weary researcher can do is list events in the order they happened,
and let the Legion of Superfluous Heroes judge who is and is not a
member. Even so, the membership of the League is so enormous that it
will take two columns to cover the highlights. This week I’ll cover up
to the final issue of Justice League of America in 1987, followed by next week’s coverage of post-Crisis history.
The
Captain’s usual butt-covering caveats apply, wherein I disingenuously
deny that my knowledge is comprehensive (while attempting to prove it
is), and asking the Legionnaires to write in with addenda, corrections,
and differences of opinion. Ready? Here we go:
-- Aquaman II (Arthur Curry), Batman II (Bruce Wayne), The Flash II (Barry Allen), Green Lantern II (Hal Jordan), Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz/John Jones), Superman II (Clark Kent), and Wonder Woman II
(Princess Diana of Paradise Island) of Earth-1 were established as the
founding members of the Justice League, as first shown in The Brave and The Bold #28 (Feb-Mar 60). The team’s origin had occurred chronologically earlier but was published later (in Justice League of America #9, Feb 62), an adventure in which they gathered in response to an invasion from Appellax.
As
is probably obvious, I designated characters with a “II” that had
previous, Golden Age versions on Earth-2 (established in various JLA/JSA
crossovers over the years). Even Aquaman – long thought to be unique to
Earth-1 – was finally established as having had an Earth-2 counterpart
in All-Star Squadron #59 (Jul 86). Of all the founding members, apparently only Martian Manhunter (who debuted in Detective Comics #225, Nov 55) had no counterpart established on Earth-2 before the concept went away in Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-6). As usual, it’s the green guy who gets left out.
[ Read more JLA/A: JLA Members Part 1 ]
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #220 (Nov 1983) 
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