WHO IS THIS JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA? Part Two – The Genesis of the JLA by BRUCE MACINTOSH
THE DARK AGE OF COMICS
In the 1950s, superhero comics were nearly dead. If it weren’t for the bright ideas of DC Comics editor, Julius Schwartz we may never have seen the rebirth of the superhero, the birth of the Silver Age of Comics… and we certainly never would have seen the Justice League of America.
But there it was, the mid-1950s. From an estimated readership of 60 million in 1943, comics had sunk to new lows. You could count on one hand the number of comics publishers, down from the dozens of publishers printing hundreds of different titles during WWII. The pantheon of superheroes had been reduced to only three by 1955: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. And where once sales of individual titles numbered in the millions, even the Big Three were on life-support.
Things looked bleak.
AND THERE WAS LIGHT
Until 1956, that is. DC Comics had a series called Showcase, where editors planned on, well, showcasing potential titles and characters. If sales eventually proved positive, they might consider giving the character a regular series. Stories of firemen, adventuring animals and frogmen, failed to capture the public’s imagination. But Issue #4… that started a firestorm that has yet to cool – and led directly to the creation of the Justice League of America three years later.
No one is quite sure what led to the decline in interest in – and therefore sales of – superhero comics after World War II. Some scholars attribute the demise of superhero comics and decline of comics in general to the advent of television. Others attribute it to the Dr. Frederick Wertham book, Seduction of the Innocent and subsequent Kefauver hearings regarding the dubious connection between comics and the moral decline of kids. Perhaps after the Allied victory over the true “Axis of Evil”, Americans felt they no longer needed to imagine a force of all-powerful saviors. Nevertheless, by the early 50s, only the Big Three remained at DC. (Although it should be mentioned that Aquaman, Green Arrow and Johnny Quick made sporadic appearances to battle commies, and the Martian Manhunter appeared in 1955 to test the waters.)
In spite of the moribund state of the superhero comic, Julie Schwartz decided to test the waters with a “new” superhero in Showcase #4. Robert Kanigher and John Broome wrote, and Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert were tapped to pencil and ink, respectively, the first appearance of what is now called the “Silver Age Flash”. Those four and Editor Julius Schwartz collectively redesigned the previous incarnation of the Flash with a… flashy new costume and origin.
At that time sales figures lagged about three months behind an issue’s appearance on the stands, so it wasn’t until then that DC realized that they had a hit on their hands. Showcase #8 was then the next appearance of the Flash, and just to make sure the character wasn’t merely a… flash in the pan, DC called him back for Issues #12 and #13. No question, the character was popular. So they gave him his own book.
Soon, the DC editorial staff wondered aloud whether they could make lightning strike twice, three times, or more. They “re-imagined” a new Green Lantern in Showcase #22 through #24, and prepped Aquaman for his own title in Showcase #30 through #33. Same for the Atom in Issues #34 through #36. See where we’re going with all this?
Meanwhile, Schwartz felt that since the re-launch of superheroes was turning out well in Showcase, perhaps it would also succeed in another title, The Brave and the Bold. Prior to this time, B&B alternated issues among such high-adventure titles as Robin Hood, the Viking Prince and the Silent Knight. However, with Issue #25 DC debuted The Suicide Squad, a top secret team of paramilitary spies who encountered giant ice, bird and sea monsters.
The formula must have worked, because just in time for the sales figures to come in three issues later, Julius Schwartz rolled out his newest super-team.
GENESIS OF THE SUPER-TEAM
At about the same time as the successful relaunch of the Green Lantern character, Schwartz decided it was time to bring back a modern version of the '40s super-team, the Justice Society of America. He chose not to use the same name, however, because Justice Society “sounded too much like a ‘club’ name.” (According to his 2000 autobiography, Man of Two Worlds.) He was also inspired by professional baseball’s National and American Leagues, as well as the National Football League.
In Brave and the Bold #28, cover dated March 1959, “the world’s greatest heroes teamed up to battle ‘Starro the Conqueror’”, as the cover declared. Schwartz decided to use most of the characters who already had a solo feature in another DC comic. The cover of that seminal issue featured Green Lantern, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, the Flash and Martian Manhunter battling for their lives against the evil echinoderm.
Although clearly listed as charter members of the team, as evidenced by the “Roll Call” banner at the bottom of the opening splash, Superman and Batman appear only briefly – for two panels each – in this premier issue. Supes is averting a meteor crisis in space (“I’ll signal back I’m temporarily delayed – ask to be excused unless my presence is absolutely imperative!”) and Bats is “closing in on two archenemies”, (but thinks to himself, “I’ll keep in constant touch with the other members… and trust I won’t be needed till I finish this business at hand.”)
Curiously, the decision to omit the DC heavy-hitters was intentional. In an interview JLA writer Gardner Fox commented that the editors of the two heroes’ solo titles (Mort Weisinger for Superman and Jack Schiff for Batman titles) blocked their active involvement in the team for fear that overexposure would negatively impact sales on their own titles. As sales of the JLA title later began to drift south, Superman and Batman appeared more regularly in the team book.
The team appeared in The Brave and the Bold Issues #28 through #30, before being awarded their own title. Justice League of America #1 debuted about eight months later, cover dated Nov. 1960. In that first story, the heroes are used as pieces in a rigged game of chess with the alien Despero. (The following is a commissioned reinterpretation of the cover of this issue in the modern style of the animated Justice League Adventures, by artist Al Bigley.)
THE BIG BANG
The first adventures of the Justice League introduced us to the founding seven members. At the time, it probably felt like a natural progression – to Schwartz, it was likely just another way to promote sales for the characters’ individual titles – but it was monumental event in comics. Probably the most important harbinger of things to come.
It is my contention that the Silver Age of comics didn’t begin in earnest until these seven unrelated heroes came together in The Brave and the Bold #28. True, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman still limped along with their own titles throughout the 50s after the demise of the so-called Golden Age. And true, the new Flash debuted three years earlier, while Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter had their own adventures, often backups in anthology mags. But the difference was that those other comics were just Julius Schwartz “testing the waters”, to see if the time was right again for another genre of comics to supplement the funny-animal mags and western titles that populated the newsstands at the time. At that time, these new superheroes never even acknowledged the others’ existence, and with the sole exception of Superman and Batman’s collaboration in Worlds Finest they certainly never fought evil together.
It wasn’t until Julius Schwartz brought together the seven heroes in one comic that the Silver Age truly began. By putting them together in the same book, Schwartz created a unified “Universe”, where all the heroes knew (or at least knew of) and interacted with each other. He also greatly complicated things for DC’s writers, because Schwartz unwittingly created a need for continuity. (For example, a hero couldn’t destroy a villain in their own title, but battle the same villain in JLA the next month.)
On the other hand, Schwartz greatly enriched the superhero genre, because he opened up hitherto unknown possibilities. Now when Green Lantern’s writer became stuck for an idea for a villain, he could use one of the Flash’s. Now, if the sales of one comic sagged, they could bring in another hero to spice things up. Finally, by replacing gangsters and thugs with space aliens with plans of world domination, Schwartz tapped into the true interests of their baby-boomer readership in a post-Sputnik world.
Additionally, by giving each hero their own (fictional) city as a base of operations, Schwartz and the other DC writers like Gardner Fox and John Broome made it possible for the heroes to interact on a monthly basis in JLA (and periodic team-ups in The Brave and the Bold and Showcase, and later – their own individual titles), but still not stumble over each other in their solo mags. (Something that Stan Lee later turned on its head in the “Marvel Universe”, by having all heroes interact in New York City.) Superman operated in Metropolis, Batman in Gotham City, Green Lantern in Coast City, Atom in Ivy Town, and so on. They all came together in the supposedly centrally-located Happy Harbor with each monthly crisis.
Between the 1959 debut of the JLA and their origin story in 1962 (see the next installment of this series on The Pulse), Schwartz and his writers had created a new Universe of heroes, and a new universe of team-up possibilities. Now, anything was possible – each villain more fantastic than the last, each adventure held the fate of the entire planet in its story. It wasn’t until more than two decades later that the template for infinite heroes, villains, stories and cross-overs got so complicated that DC said “enough” and decided it was necessary to hit the reset button. Meanwhile, they gave us a crazy ride.
In our coming installments of our Justice League retrospective, we will review the belated “origin” of the team and investigate why they decided to break with their individualistic tendencies and band together when the need arose. We’ll also look at the team’s early adventures and watch as the team’s ranks swelled with the addition of new members. We’ll investigate how Schwartz continued to introduce new characters in Showcase and The Brave and the Bold, only to bring them into the DC “family” with their inclusion in the JLA.
You can read more of this series of articles here:
posted
This was a pretty good argument for the importance of the JLA to the development of Silver Age Comics. Its mere existence probably helped encourage DC to publish more revamps of their Golden Age characters.
One small correction: my impression is that, though Batman and WW sales figures in the 50s were probably nothing to shout about, Superman was probably quite well off, thanks in part to the early-50s TV show. Publishers don't do a lot of spinoffs from characters who are tanking.
Posts: 5907 | From: Houston, TX | Registered: Sep 1999
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quote:Originally posted by gene phillips: This was a pretty good argument for the importance of the JLA to the development of Silver Age Comics. Its mere existence probably helped encourage DC to publish more revamps of their Golden Age characters.
Absolutely correct! This is essentially the unifying theme in this series of articles: First, that the JLA helped revitalize the superhero-comic genre in the late 1950's. Second, that - although it may be too soon to tell yet, the new JLA series may do the same for superhero comics 50 years later.
As for the regenesis of the Golden Age characters themselves, stay tuned: We'll be visiting those characters in a few weeks, with an analysis of the great JLA-JSA team-ups in the first series of the Justice League.
One small correction: my impression is that, though Batman and WW sales figures in the 50s were probably nothing to shout about, Superman was probably quite well off, thanks in part to the early-50s TV show. Publishers don't do a lot of spinoffs from characters who are tanking.
Superman and Batman (and to some extent, Wonder Woman) were recognizable icons for DC, and sold well enough to keep around, but I don't think even the sales of Action or Superman were "well off" (certainly not in comparison to the 1940's). It wasn't that the the sales of Superman's comics were so great warranted a radio or tv series. (The reverse is probably more accurate: The exposure from the radio and TV shows probably boosted the sales of comics a bit.)
After all, just look at movies and TV shows based on comics these days - sales figures were certainly not the motivating factors for Catwoman or even Hellboy. (Another good example is the Batman TV series in 1965: Sales figures were so dismal that Batman's comics were "this close" to being canceled until the show resuscitated the title.)
There aren't many of the original creators left to tell us about the sad state of superhero comics at their nadir of the mid-1950's, but I did manage to get a quote from Carmine Infantino who was right there on the ground floor. It confirms my assertion that even Superman and Batman were barely limping along: “Things got bad” in the 1950s. “Superheroes didn’t sell.” Only Superman and Batman sold at the “bare minimum” (with a circulation of about 175,000). (You can see the entire panel report by clicking this link Carmine Infantino San Diego 06 panel)
posted
I agree that the TV show boosted the Superman comic and not the reverse, but I've always thought that sales were better than the figures you've related. No question that Superman's sales weren't as good as in his heyday, but I still don't know why, if sales were so low, they went ahead with Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane comics in the 50s-- unless the publishers conceived them as having crossover appeal. Or editor Mort Weisinger simply wanted to feather his nest more.
I wasn't arguing against the low sales of Batman since those have been frequently cited.
Posts: 5907 | From: Houston, TX | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
I would guess they did a Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane comic book series because the characters were featured in the Superman TV show. Plus with both readers could identify with being the "normal" person in a superhero's life. You could imagine being the best friend and going on adventures or being the girl friend and trying to trap that man! Hey ... wait a second ...
quote:Originally posted by Jennifer M. Contino: You could imagine being the best friend and going on adventures or being the girl friend and trying to trap that man! Hey ... wait a second ...
Hmmm... signal watch or pillbox hat? Posts: 3415 | From: San Bruno | Registered: Aug 2002
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