Justice League of America (vol. 2) #0

Quotes

Superman (about Batman): In all our time working together it was the first time I saw Bruce scared. It wasn’t the aliens. Or the diamonds. Or even the Mach 6. It was just the simple and unavoidable realization that there were bigger things on the planet than him. And that’s what terrified Batman. [...] But as he’s done every day since he was eight years old, instead of being ruined by his darkest and most ruthless fears he embraces them.

Wonder Woman: So we’re on again? Once every year?Batman: That’s fine, Diana. But I think we can do better than that. And maybe even invite a few friends along in the process.Wonder Woman: Did you just say friends?Batman: I meant teammates.Superman: We know what you meant, Bruce.

Issue Credits

Writer

Brad Meltzer

Artist

Eric Wight (pgs 1-4), Dick Giordano (pg 5), Tony Harris (pg 6), George Perez (pg 7), J.H. Williams III (pg 8.), Gene Ha (pg 10), Rags Morales (pg 11), Ethan Van Sciver (pg 12), Kevin Maguire (pg 13), Adam Kubert (pg 14), Jim Lee (pg 16)

Penciller

Luke McDonnell (pg 9), Dan Jurgens (pg 15), Howard Porter (pg 17), Andy Kubert (pg 18), Phil Jimenez (pg 19), Ed Benes (pgs 20-24)

Inker

Paul Neary (pg 9), Kevin Nowlan (pg 15), Dexter Vines (pg 17), Jesse Delperdang (pg 18), Andy Lanning (pg 19), Sandra Hope (pg 20-24)

Colourist

Alex Sinclair

Letterer

Rob Leigh

Cover Artist

Michael Turner, Peter Steigerwald

Variant Cover Penciller

J. Scott Campbell

Variant Cover Inker

Sandra Hope

Variant Cover Colourist

Edgar Delgado

Assistant Editor

Jeanine Schaefer

Editor

Eddie Berganza

Synopsis “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”

The trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, like other groups of Leaguers, have always met independently of the monthly Justice League meetings. Since their first loss (the Red Tornado against the Nebula Man) they’ve met annually to discuss the state of the Justice League.

Together they’ve seen the highs and lows of each other’s lives, including the wedding of Wonder Girl, the formation of the Detroit League, Batman’s excitement at recruiting the second Robin and punching out Guy Gardner, the pain of Superman’s death and Batman’s betrayal by the other Leaguers and the lengths it eventually drove him to. A year ago Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime’s machinations led to a fracturing of the Justice League and a loss of trust between the its members. Now after a year-long sabbatical the trinity come together to begin its reformation.

The yearly meetings continue into the near future. Together they’ll see Hal Jordan’s wedding, Luthor’s vengeance, the death of Jonathan Kent, the marriage of Diana, the discovery of a second Earth, another loss of trust between them, and the ultimate death of the Batman.

Continuity

• Wonder Woman. Batman, and Superman were all founders of the Justice League.
• Superman’s wedding gift to Donna Troy was making sure nobody threatened her wedding.
• Batman was excited about training Jason Todd.

Commentary

Variants

A variant of this issue was given away as part of DC’s package for Free Comic Book Day 2007.

Press Clippings

At the time I quoted Wizard‘s coverage of this issue… According to Wizard #175 the new series of Justice League will be getting an issue #0 issue.

“A year has gone by with these three not together,” said the writer [Brad Meltzer] of the jump after Infinite Crisis. “This is where we get to see them [Superman, Batman, and Woner Woman] re-emerge. This issue allows us to center the universe of the JLA before moving on to the first true adventure of the new team in issue #1.”

The art will be supplied by League alumni Dick Giordano, Luke McDonnell, Kevin Maguire, Dan Jurgens and Howard Porter as well as Phil Jiminez, Adam & Andy Kubert and Rags Morales.

“You have each artist doing their League,” enthused Meltzer. “When you do a jam issue, usually it’s just a bunch of good artists, but this one actually matters and has a reason behind it.”

Meltzer also revealed that the covers for the new series will be supplied by Michael Turner.

Additionally, on the flash forwards Brad Meltzer told Wizard that:

The true reason is because some of those moments are happening. Obviously I can’t say which ones in the future are happening, but there are ones that are absolutely, 100-percent happening. Some of those I stumbled upon and said, “This is what I want to do,” and Dan (DiDio) told me we were actually doing that. And one of them I said, “Can we do this?! And he said, “That’s a good idea, we should do that.”

The only artist DC wouldn’t let Brad Meltzer approach about drawing a sequence was Simone Bianchi.

League History and the Big Three

The first flashback is to immediately after the events in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #9 (Feb 1962), just after the foundation of the Justice League – February 1959 in the pre-Crisis timeline. As originally told Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), the Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz), Aquaman (Arthur Curry), and Wonder Woman (Diana) individually fought alien invaders from the planet Appellax. They then came together to fight a sixth invader (the famous wood alien) and tracked a seventh down just in time to see it defeated by Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Superman (Clark Kent).

Over the years there have been a few adventures retroactively added prior to that invasion attempt, notably the White Martian invasion revealed in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #114 (Dec 1974) and the disappearance of Triumph in Justice League America #92 (Sept 1994), but the Appellaxian Invasion is still regarded as the definitive origin of the Justice League. However, Superman and Batman’s role in the formation of the League was not that great. Their original involvement with the League was played down as their respective editors feared that they would be overexposed. Even in the comic book origin their involvement is separate from the other five heroes – they don’t fight the wood alien.

We now jump forward twenty-five years to immediately after the Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC Comics’s decision to reboot the origins of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. It was retroactively decided that these three had never been members of the Justice League. Superman and Batman were removed because they weren’t considered team players and Wonder Woman because she didn’t appear until long after the League debued. She was replaced by Black Canary for a retelling of the origin in Secret Origins #32 (Nov 1988) (by Keith Giffen and Peter David) and for JLA: Year One #1-12 (Jan — Dec 1998) (by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn) a twelve-part mini-series focusing of the League’s early days.

While the replacement of one Diana with another Dinah worked well within the fictional history it didn’t stop the feeling that many people had that the big three should really have been part of the early League. Over the years the timing of Wonder Woman’s debut has slowly slipped backwards in time and flashbacks show her participating in events she wouldn’t have otherwise been around for. Superman and Batman were eventually reintroduced to the League in John Ostrander’s JLA: Incarnations #2 (Aug 2001). The weight of history was slowly reintegrating the trinity back into League history. This was finally acknowledged in Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006) when the realignment of the New Earth allowed DC to state (as shown below) that the big-three had been part of the League all along.

The flashbacks in this issue are really about re-establishing the big three’s place within the Justice League and adding Wonder Woman to the popular Superman/Batman dynamic – the rekindling of the World’s Finest. However, the split between Superman/Batman and the other Leaguers goes all the way back to the DCs Golden Age. In the 1940s Batman and Superman were run by one half of the company while the other heroes were predominately run by the other half of the company (at one point they were actually two separate companies). That’s why the World Finest were only ever bit part players in the Justice Society, Earth-Two Superman’s involvement with the Justice Society is as much a retcon as Black Canary’s addition to the early Justice League.

It’s interesting to compare the last JLA series by Mark Waid, Grank Morrison, and Joe Kelly with the original series by Gardner Fox and his successors. The modern series really focused on the big-three, particularly with Superman as the permanent chairman and Batman as the Morrison-esque Bat-god. While in the classic series the big-three were just normal members who served their month as the rotating chairman. Of the three it’s Batman who has the biggest League involvement as it’s Bruce Wayne who bankrolls the team and he even quits to form the Outsiders when he disagrees with the direction the League is taking. By comparison Superman’s involvement with the League is almost passive.

Opinion

The pressure on Brad Meltzer to deliver with this new series was immense. As Wonderfly put it on the Toonzone Forums:

Two years ago, Brad Meltzer tore the Justice League apart in the now infamous Identity Crisis miniseries, and now he begins the process of putting them back together.

He set the bar so high in Identity Crisis that I was afraid he’d have been hard pressed to match it. However, match it he does. This zero issue is arguably the best of his run (baring the Eisner winning Vixen/Red Arrow issue). In Comic Bulletin’s review jam Kevin Brown described the issue succinctly,

Meltzer has written a near masterpiece here. He’s done what damn few writers are capable of doing: keeping all of the continuity relevant and not trying to over explain it. It’s essentially one page of “1960,” one page “sometime in the future,” then one page “1973,” and so on and so forth. At first it’s a little disconcerting, but that has more to do with the wide disparity of artwork presented in this issue. Though once you’re able to fully see what Meltzer is doing, you’re totally sucked into the story.

It’s a marvellous trick using the style of each area. Many liked it, but there were dissenting voices like Adam White who argued that

In each era represented Meltzer portrays each of the Big Three with their various personalities from the histories of their individual books; while he does so accurately, all this does is serve to confuse any new readers and frustrate existing ones because the story lacks any real point.

I would agree that its hard to judge this zeroth issue as it’s a bridging piece between the dissolution of the League during the Infinite Crisis and its reformation next issue. In this context the alternating flash-backs and flash-forwards work well and the different artists are a good match to their eras. I particularly like George Perez’s Wedding of Donna Troy and Kevin Maguire’s One Punch. In general the flashbacks work better than the flash forwards, but the second Earth has certainly got by curiosity peaked.

While the story is essentially about the trio, the real focus of the flash-backs and the flash-forwards are Batman and his relationship with the League. Meltzer gives an interesting spin to the evolution of Batman’s character. His excitement and commitment to the League really makes the Identity Crisis mind wipe much more hurtful. The same sense comes through with his excitement about the new Robin. This is a side of Batman that we rarely see, but the fragility of his feelings sets up his reactions to the deaths of Jason Todd and Superman. Handling loss so badly starts to explain why he pushed everybody away from himself and slowly succumbs to the paranoia that plagued his later pre-Infinite Crisis appearances.

The Verdict

Characters

I’ve been a bit fast and loose with the way I list characters. Murray Ward’s original JLA Index series listed seven categories:

The seven character categories are: Feature Characters, characters to whom the title of the features refers; Guest Stars, characters from other comics who have a major role in the story; Supporting Characters, characters who appear frequently in stories with the feature characters; Villains, the antagonists of the feature characters, Guest Appearances, characters from other comics who have a minor role in the story; Other Characters, characters who do not fall into any one of the five previous categories; and Cameo Appearances, characters who do not actually appear in a story but whose images are seen, for example, in photographs, flashbacks, or reminiscences.

I’ve always tried to follow the spirit of that, but the lines behind what is a Guest Star, Guest Appearance and Other Characters have become blurred. This quote appears above as a reminder to me of what I should be working towards.

Feature Characters

Justice League of America (technically still disbanded)

• Batman (Bruce Wayne)
• Superman (Clark Kent)
• Wonder Woman (Diana Prince)

Villains

• Lex Luthor (splash page flash forward)

Guest Appearances

• Donna Troy (flash back to her wedding to Terry Long)
• Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen, flash forward to Hal Jordan’s wedding)
• Green Lantern Hal Jordan (single-panel flashback & flash forward to his wedding)
• Robin I (Dick Grayson, flashback to Donna Troy’s wedding)
• Robin II (Jason Todd, behind-the-scenes, Batman talks about recruiting him)

Other Characters

• Martha Kent (Superman’s adopted mother, flash forward to just after Jonathan Kent’s funeral)
• Terry Long (flashback at his wedding to Donna Troy)

Cameos

• Aquaman, Atom I, Atom II, Black Canary, Captain Marvel I, Cyborg, Doctor Mid-Nite I, Elongated Man, Firestorm I, Flash I, Flash II, Green Lantern (Alan Scott) Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Hawkman I, Hawkgirl I, Hourman I, Martian Manhunter, Power Girl, Red Tornado II, Sandman I, Spectre I, Starfire, Supergirl II, Vibe, Vixen, Zatanna (single-panel photos or flash forward/back cameos, where not otherwise mentioned above)

Annotations

Pages 1-4: Art: Eric Wight. Flash back 1. Wight began his career in animation, but was enlisted by O.C. writer Allan Heinberg to produce art for a subplot that involved one of the OC’s characters becoming a comic book artist. It was also Heinberg who suggested Wight’s name to Brad Metlzer when he heard he was looking for somebody to duplicate Mike Sekowsky’s style for the opening segment of this issue. It’s implied that the old World Finest adventures are still canon – Superman and Batman know each other’s secret identities and Robin is mentioned despite Batman not recruiting Robin until later in the fictional timeline. These could all be retcons, but it’s just as likely that the flashbacks are being told using the canon that was established when they were set.

Page 5: Art: Dick Giordano. Flash back 2. Dick Giordano was JLA inker during the early 1970s, his professional line lifted many pencillers work and he was the inker of choice for many League covers. His first issue was Justice League of America (vol. 1) #102 (Oct 1972) where the Red Tornado “died” and the issue just before this flashback. It was the League’s biggest story to date and spun out of the League’s one hundredth issue. The Seven Soldiers of Victory were DC’s second superhero team after the Justice Society. In Justice League of America (vol. 1) #100 (Aug 1972) it was revealed that they’d been lost throughout time during an encounter with the Nebula Man. A joint team of the JSA/JLA combined their might to find the missing heroes and to finally defeat the Nebula Man, but the Red Tornado was killed in the conflict. At the time the he was a member of the Justice Society and was not yet a member of the Justice League. The Seven Soldiers team was revived as a connected wave of mini-series by Grant Morrison.

A side effect of adding Wonder Woman back to the start of the League is that it shifts her modern origin back by about five years on the fictional DC timeline. We don’t know what Wonder Woman’s adventures were during that time, but her appearance in the second flashback would imply that some of her pre-Crisis adventures – notably her depowerment as Diana Prince – have been reintroduced to the canon.

Page 6: Art: Tony Harris. Flash forward 1. The Wedding of Hal Jordan. We are not given that many clues about the timing of the flash forwards. The implication is that Hal’s the last one to get married of the old Leaguers. Oliver Queen’s the best man. The bride is blond, but her face isn’t shown. Her skin colour would rule out the Green Lantern Arisia. The caption seems to imply that Clark is left out of the trio for some reason, could a deeper connection been Bruce and Diana be in the works. Joe Kelly and the JLU cartoon played with the idea of attraction between Batman and Wonder Woman, but nothing ever came of it.

Diana mentions Donna’s weddings plural (see below). She also mentions “What Dick did with Harvey” which could mean that Dick Grayson has reformed Two-Face – an allusion to Dick’s recent time with Batman. It matches a similar quip by the Batman of the 851st century during the DC One Million cross-over who says that Batman II reformed Two-Face II.

Page 7: Art: George Perez. Flash back 3. The marriage of Donna Troy (the first Wonder Girl, Diana’s sister) to Terry Long from Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (Feb 1985) recreated here by George Perez, its original artist. This is Donna’s first marriage, her “second marriage” was to the Titan of Myth Coeus. Diana’s mention of Dick not yet surpassing Bruce is a back reference to the first flashback where its implied that Dick has actually surpassed Bruce by managing to reform Harvey Dent, something Bruce recently failed to do at the start of the One Year Later continuity.

Page 8: Art: J.H.Williams. Flash forward 2. Luthor has the kryptonite signet ring. Luthor has two “sons” that we know about. The first was Jerry White, the result of an affair with Perry White’s wife, the second is Connor Kent, the recently deceased Superboy. Superboy was a clone of Superman, but Cadmus scientists couldn’t completely decipher Kryptonian DNA so they used human DNA as a template – Luthor made sure it was his DNA that was used as a template meaning that Superman and Luthor are both Connor’s “fathers.” This confrontation would presumably be Luthor’s revenge against the League for the death of Connor during Infinite Crisis #6 (May 2006) in an alternative future where Conner didn’t come back to life (Final Crisis Legion of Three-Worlds).

Page 9: Art: Luke McDonnell and Paul Neary. Flash back 4. McDonnell was the last penciller of the original Justice League of America series during the end of the Detriot era League and Neary was the inker during Brian Hitch’s short time as JLA penciller. The Detroit League was created by Gerry Conway as an early 1980s relaunch of the Justice League. The satellite was destroyed by an alien invasion (that’s why the trio are meeting in Challengers Mountain) that the League barely defeated because members weren’t able to respond. Rotating chairman Aquaman disbanded the League and reformed it with a handful of old Leaguers and four new heroes – Vibe, Vixen, Gypsy, and Steel II (not John Henry).

At the time of the invasion Superman and Wonder Woman were visiting Earth-Two and confronted Aquaman about the change in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #239 (June 1985). This flash back presumably happens shortly after than confrontation. Batman is referring to Vixen when he mentions “only one of them has has training” as she’s the only one of the four to have appeared before joining the JLA. Diana suggests that Batman helps train them. He turns her down here, but changes his mind in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #250 (May 1986).

Page 10: Art: Gene Ha. Flash forward 3. Shortly after the funeral of Jonathan Kent. This scene is based on a mix of old school Superboy and Superman the Movie. In the original comics both Jonathan and Martha Kent were dead. John Byrne’s reboot kept them both alive whilst the movie series only kept Martha Kent alive. The death of Jonathan Kent would move the comics continuity even closer to the movies. The tunnel was built by Clark as Superboy so that he could exit the Kent Farm without being spotted. This is the first sign that it exists post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Jonathan Kent character was still alive when this appeared in 2006, but he died of a heart attack in Action Comics #870 (December 2008).

Page 11: Art: Rags Morales. Flash back 5. The Batcave just after the first appearance of the second Robin, Jason Todd. Diana mentions Donna’s reaction if she ever took on another apprentice, but she’d do that herself years later with Cassie Sandsmark. This scene seems to back up the idea that we’re seeing scenes set in the old continuity as that’s Jason Todd’s pre-Crisis circus costume in the glass case. Pre-Crisis Todd’s origin was a duplicate of Dick Grayson’s circus origin (Detective Comics #526 (May 1983)), post-Crisis he was a just street punk. Todd was killed by the Joker and Batman kept his Robin costume in that case as a memorial. Todd was returned to life as a side effect of Superboy-Prime’s actions in Infinite Crisis.

Page 12: Art: Ethan Van Sciver. Flash forward 4. Paradise Island shortly before the marriage of Diana to an unnamed male. Clark and Bruce are both married. Note the Batman Begins style ribs on Batman’s cape. Diana loosing her immortality by marrying a man is a very pre-Crisis idea, not sure if this has been established post-Crisis. If this really was following pre-Crisis continuity then the only man she could be marrying is Steve Trevor.

Page 13: Art: Kevin Maguire. Flash back 6. The punch that they’re discussing occurred in Justice League #5 (Sept 1987). Batman was leader of the League and Green Lantern Guy Gardner had been constantly undermining his authority. Gardner finally tried to pick a fight, but Batman knocking him unconscious with a single punch.

Maguire was the regular artist on Justice League and illustrates this flashback. If Batman’s pose in the last panel is familiar it’s because its identical to Gardner’s stance moments before Batman punches him. This scene would have had to happen a little while after the real incident as the JLI Embassy(s) weren’t established until Justice League International (vol. 1) #8 (Dec 1987).

Page 14: Art: Adam Kubert. Flash forward 5. Probably the toughest flash forward to decipher. Its a new incarnation of the JLA Satellite, Superman’s alone as Batman and Wonder Woman haven’t turned up. Something has driven a wedge between them again, possibly something Batman’s done. I think the main point of this scene is to tease us with a “New Satellite”. I’m not sure if we’re meant to read something from the Trophy Room, but the items on display are (left-to-right) Aztek’s helmet, a globe (origin unknown), Green Arrow’s arrows, a box of something (wooden splinters from the wood alien?), a Starro fish, an Amazo, Despero’s infamous chessboard, and that looks like Bizarro’s head.

Page 15: Art: Dan Jurgens & Kevin Nowlan. Flash back 7. The Death of Superman. Dan Jurgens was writing and drawing JLA at the time, he brought Superman back into the League after a long absence and tied the title into “The Death of Superman” (which he was also co-writing and drawing). In terms of League history the Death of Superman is important because, in my opinion, it started the slow rot that finally resulted in the franchise being culled and relaunched with the third series. Superman’s tattered cape on the pole is Jimmy Olsen’s iconic photograph and the cover of Superman (vol. 2) #75 (Jan 1993).

Page 16: Art: Jim Lee. Flash forward 6. The discovery of a new Earth. As they note this isn’t the first time they’ve encountered a parallel Earth. The note about the Flash finding the new world is a nod to the first appearance of Earth-Two in The Flash (vol. 1) #123 (Sept 1961). This seems a very generic flash forward, but the League did have their own crossover with the Tangent Universe a couple of years later. It was set-up in issue #16 (Feb 2008) and then followed up by Tangent: Superman’s Reign (2008).

Page 17: Art: Howard Porter & Dexter Vines. Flash back 8. This is a flash back to just after the epilogue to “Tower of Babel” (JLA #43-46 (July — Oct 2000)). Howard Porter was the main artist during Grant Morrison’s JLA and this story (Mark Waid’s first) was the last one he illustrated. Wonder Woman mentions the death of Jason, the second Robin who Batman was so excited about in Flash Back 5. It was his death that prompted the change in Batman’s characterisation to the increasing brutal loner who pushed all of his friends away. His increasing paranoia made him keep secret files on his JLA team-mates. “Tower of Babel” was about those files falling into the wrong hands and the League’s reaction to they’re existence. It many ways it was the first shot in the disintegration of the trio’s relationship that eventually led to the events of Infinite Crisis.

Page 18: Art: Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang. Flash forward 7. This flash forward is an homage to Frank Millar’s The Dark Knight Returns setting – a bleak and dark future where Batman went under ground and was forced to fight Superman. Clark mentions he’s glad Diana came back which could be a reference to the split implied in Flash forward 5. Crime Alley, the setting for their meeting, is where Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered.

Page 19: Art Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning. Flash back 9. The first panel is from Infinite Crisis #1 (Dec 2005) when the trio met in the wreckage of the JLA Watchtower. Panels 3 and 5 are from the end of Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006) when they decided to each take some time off, Clark had lost his powers, Bruce needed to reconnect with Dick and Tim, Diana went elsewhere, and then meet up again one year later. That skipped year is played out in 52. Jimenez and Lanning illustrated Infinite Crisis. The other two panels are a flash back to the Batcave meeting at the start of this issue.

Pages 20-24: Art Ed Benes and Sandra Hope. The Present. The meeting one year after the last flash back so this is the first meeting after the three “One Year Later” stories by James Robinson in Detective Comics/Batman, Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns in Action Comics/Superman (vol. 3), and Allen Heinberg in Wonder Woman (vol. 3). The photographs scattered on the table are Supergirl, Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, Vixen, Hawkman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Red Tornado, Black Canary, Flash, Aquaman, Power Girl, Zatanna, Cyborg. I think the one on the edge next to Zatanna may be the Huntress.