Imitators of the Justice Society of America

Not surprisingly, the first Justice Society of America imitation came from National Periodical Publications Inc.  itself. The Seven Soldiers of Victory debuted in Leading Comics #1, winter 1941. The team consisted of The Green Arrow and Speedy, The Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy, The Vigilante, The Shining Knight, and The Crimson Avenger. The Crimson Avenger's sidekick, Wing, was only counted as an honourary member. To a degree the Seven Soldier's adventures possessed the same structure as those of the Justice Society of America. They were extra length stories which would begin with the Seven Soldiers somehow learning of some threat to the public safety. The group would then divide up to investigate and combat the threat, only to regroup as a combined force in the climax of the story.

The Seven Soldiers of Victory proved much less successful than the Justice Society of America. The series was cancelled in the spring of 1945, so that Leading Comics #14 would be the last appearance of the Seven Soldiers as a team.  With issue 15, summer 1945, Leading Comics would switch to a "funny animal" format.

Other companies also tried to capitalize on the popularity of the Justice Society of America by creating their own superhero groups, among these Fawcett Comics. In Master Comics #41, August 1943, Captain Marvel Jr., Minute-Man, Bulletman, and Bulletgirl came together for the Crime Crusaders Club. That story regarded a plan by Minute-Man to get criminals to contribute to the war effort. The Crime Crusaders Club only appeared once, although whether the story was ill received or it was simply intended as a one shot is difficult to say.

Timely Comics also tried its hand at a Justice Society imitation. In All Winners Comics #19, Fall 1946, Stan Lee created the All Winners Squad. The group consisted of Captain America and Bucky, the Human Torch and Toro, the Sub-Mariner, Miss America, and Whizzer. As a team they would make only one other appearance, in All Winners Comics #21, winter 1946-1947. It is difficult to say why the All Winners Squad failed, although it must be pointed out that by 1946 superhero comic books were waning in popularity. Had the All Winners Squad only debuted a few years earlier, it might have been a rousing success. Regardless, it would later provide the inspiration for Marvel's Invaders series of the Seventies.

All of this changed in Showcase #4,  with the debut of a new Flash. This Flash had the same powers as the original Flash familiar to readers of All Star Comics, but had a different origin, a different secret identity (Barry Allen instead of Jay Garrick), and a different costume. This new Flash proved to be a hit and so National Periodical Publications revived other Golden Age heroes in new guises: Green Lantern, The Atom, and Hawkman. Eventually they would revive the Justice Society of America after a fashion, as well.

Perhaps the most famous superhero group of all time, the Justice League of America was obviously inspired by their Golden Age predecessors, even down to their name. Even the structure of JLA stories was the same as that of the JSA. They would begin with some the discovery of some threat to the public welfare, after which the JLA members would pair off to investigate or combat various aspects of the current threat, and finally a climax in which the entire JLA banded together to defeat their opponent. Even the name, the Justice League of America, takes it inspiration from the Justice Society.

One major difference between the JLA and the JSA is that characters who had their own titles could be regular members. The original members of the Justice League of America were The Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter. Of these characters, The Flash and Wonder Woman both had their own solo books at the time--Green Lantern would receive his own title after the JLA's first appearance in The Brave and the Bold #28, but before the debut of their regular magazine. Shortly following the group's first appearance, both Batman and Superman would join as regular members.

It was through the Justice League of America that the Justice Society of America was eventually revived. Flash #123 revealed that the DC Golden Age heroes lived in an alternate reality subsequenty labelled Earth II (the Silver Age Heroes lived on Earth I). Following that historic team up between the Golden Age Flash and his Silver Age counterpart, the Justice Society made a cameo in Flash #137, their first appearance in over ten years. Starting with issue 21 of The Justice League of America, the Justice Society of America teamed up with their Silver Age successors, a tradition which would continue annually  twenty two more times.

The Justice League of America could well be the most successful superhero group of all time. Their original magazine continued for 261 issues, after which a new Justice League title debuted. Since then there has hardly been a time that a Justice League of America comic book hasn't graced newstands and comic book store racks. A Justice League of America cartoon was featured as part of The Superman-Aquaman Hour in the late Sixties and it also provided the inspiration for the Superfriends cartoons of the Seventies.

Though the most famous superhero group of the Silver Age, the Justice League of America was not the first. According to some sources, the first superhero team of the Silver Age was the Challengers of the Unknown. The Challengers of Unknown were a group of adventurers who faced unusual phenomena, the sorts of things one might find on an episode of The X-Files or The Twilight Zone. Because none of the members of the Challengers of the Unknown possessed superpowers and they almost never battled supervillains (at least not the costumed variety), it could be argued that they were not superheroes. Regardless, the Challengers of the Unknown first appeared in Showcase #6, just a few months after the Silver Age Flash had made his first appearance.

A better candidate for the first superhero team of the Silver Age would probably be the Legion of Superheroes. In Adventure Comics #247, April 1958, Superboy first encountered the superhero group from the 30th century. In that story only three members appeared (Cosmic Boy, Lightning Boy, and Saturn Girl), though the Legion's ranks would eventually swell to such a point that it would easily be the largest superhero group ever portrayed in comic books. The Legion of Superheroes appeared in various Superboy stories in both Adventure Comics and Superboy for the next several years, before receiving their own series beginning in Adventure Comics #300. The Legion of Superheroes proved to be one of DC Comics' most successful creations, still around after 40 years.

The success of the Justice League of America did not go unnoticed in the comic book industry. At Marvel Comics Stan Lee observed the briskness with which issues of the Justice League of America sold. He then decided to try his own hand at a superhero team comic book. The team Lee created, however, would be quite different from those which preceded it. The Fantastic Four would be a standing team of four heroes (Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, the Human Torch, and the Invisible Girl), who generally operated as a team and  rarely fought crime as individuals. They eschewed secret identities (everyone knew Mr. Fantastic was Reed Richards) and even wore the same costumes (except The Thing, who because of his rocky build probably couldn't wear spandex or its 1961 equivalent). The Fantastic Four proved enormously successful, so successful that Marvel Comics would start a new superhero line (including their biggest hit, The Amazing Spider-Man). Just as the Justice Society of America inspired yet other super hero groups, so would the Fantastic Four inspire yet other "superteams." The Doom Patrol at DC Comics and the X-Men at Marvel probably owe their existence to the Fantastic Four. As the inspiration for the Justice League of America, which in turn inspired the Fantastic Four, the Justice Society of America is then the "granddaddy" of the Fantastic Four in a roundabout way. To a lesser degree, as the Fantastic Four sparked a new superhero line at Marvel Comics, it can be said that the Justice Society was at least partly responsible for the rise of Marvel Comics as it is today.

While the Fantastic Four was an extremely original twist on the idea of a superhero team, Marvel Comics' Avengers could quite aptly be described as a Justice Society of America/Justice League of America imitator. The Avengers debuted in the first issue of the comic book of the same name in September 1963. Its original membership consisted of Thor, The Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp. Like the Justice Society and the Justice League before them, The Avengers proved quite successful, eventually inspiring a spin off in the Eighties, The West Coast Avengers.

It was in 1965 that DC Comics would add a novel twist to the Justice Society of America idea. Previous superhero groups, such as the Justice Society of America, had consisted primarily of adults. The Teen Titans was unique in that all of its members were under the age of eighteen. The Teen Titans first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #54, with a member roll of Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad. They appeared again in The Brave and the Bold #60, at which point Wonder Girl joined the group. Following an appearance in Showcase #59, the Teen Titans received their own magazine, starting in December 1966. Unfortunately, the Teen Titans would meet with little success in their early days. Their original comic book only lasted forty three issues. A revival in the mid-Seventies would only last nine issues. The Teen Titans would only meet any real success in the Eighties when they were revived once more, this time as an imitation of the new X-Men.

It must be pointed out that Marvel Comics was not alone in its attempt to revive its superhero line in the Sixties. Archie Comics, which had published many superhero titles in the Golden Age as MLJ Publications, actually tried to revive its superhero line before Marvel Comics entered the market. In August 1959 Archie Comics debuted The Adventures of the Fly, a youthful superhero with the abilities of that insect (often cited as a possible inspiration for Spider-Man). The Fly proved moderately successful, so that Archie Comics would attempt yet other superhero titles, such as The Adventures of the Jaguar. These attempts met with little success, though keeping an eye on the continued success of The Adventures of the Fly and the success which met superheroes at DC and Marvel, they made a concentrated effort to revive their superhero line in the mid-Sixties. To this end they revived many of their Golden Age characters. The Black Hood, The Shield, Steel Sterling, and other MLJ characters once more graced the pages of Archie Comics books.  Eventually they would create their own Justice Society of America imitation, the Mighty Crusaders.

The Mighty Crusaders debuted in 1965 in the first issue of the magazine of the same name. Its membership consisted of The Shield, Fly Man (formerly The Fly), Fly Girl, The Comet, and The Black Hood. It met with little success and lasted only seven issues. About the same time Archie Comics abandoned its superhero line entirely. The Mighty Crusaders would be revived again in 1983 for a brief eight issue run.

A much less successful imitation of the Justice Society of America arrived from Marvel in the form of The Champions. The group debuted in October 1975, with a membership of The Angel (formerly of the X-Men), Ice Man (another former X-Man), The Black Widow, Hercules, and Ghost Rider. The Champions were supposed to be a superhero team for the common man. Unfortunately, The Champions failed to attract an audience. The Champions lasted a mere seventeen issues, ending its run in January 1978.

Marvel met with much greater success with their revival of the X-Men in 1975. To some degree viewed by many as a low rent Fantastic Four, the X-Men had met with little success after their debut in September 1963. In fact, new stories featuring the X-Men ceased to be published with issue 66 of The X-Men and the book switched entirely over to reprints. There was still demand for the X-Men, however, so that repeated requests from fans led Marvel to revive the X-Men in Giant Size X-Men #1 in 1975. The new team made their first appearance in the regular magazine  in issue 94.

The new X-Men was rather unique for a superhero group. Like the Fantastic Four, they were a standing superhero team whose members rarely operated on their own. At the same time, however, the membership of the X-Men rotated much as the Justice Society of America or The Avengers would, with members coming and going after several issues. Regardless, The X-Men proved enormously successful in the late Seventies and early Eighties. Eventually other titles would spin off from The X-Men: The New Mutants, X-Factor, and X-Force among them. DC, observing the success of The X-Men, would revive The Teen Titans in 1980 as an X-Men imitation. Eventually they would revive The Doom Patrol in 1987, initially as an imitation of the new X-Men. When Image Comics first arrived on the scene in the early Nineties, it seemed as if over half their titles were mere X-Men imitations. The X-Men's influence has been far and wide since their revival in 1975 and for much of the Eighties one would be hard put to find a superhero group that had escaped that influence.

Despite this, the Eighties would see groups which may have owed more to the Justice Society than the X-Men. The first of these, The Outsiders, appeared in the final issue of The Brave and the Bold (issue 200, July 1983). They were given their own title the next month. The Outsiders was formed by Batman after he became dissatisfied with the Justice League. Its membership consisted of both old and new characters from DC Comics: Metamorpho, Black Lightning, Geo-Force, Halo, and Katana. Despite the presence of the Caped Crusader, Batman and the Outsiders never really found an audience. Batman's departure in April 1986 (after which the magazine's title was changed to Adventures of the Outsiders) may have only hastened the series' death. The Adventures of the Outsiders ended its run in June 1987. An attempt was also made in 1983 to revive Archie Comics' superhero group, the Mighty Crusaders.

In October 1985 Marvel Comics created a spin off from The Avengers, West Coast Avengers. The only real difference between The Avengers and The West Coast Avengers, beyond their membership rosters, appears to have been their location. Not surprisingly, then, The West Coast Avengers fell short of The Avengers' success.

The Avengers would not be the only Justice Society clone to spin off its own titles, however, as the Justice League would as well. Following Crisis on Infinite Earths (DC Comics' attempt to clean up their continuity), DC debuted a new Justice League title. The new title proved successful enough that the group opened a branch in Europe,  hence Justice League Europe debuted in April 1989. Both Justice League (later renamed Justice League International and  then Justice League America) and Justice League Europe would last until they were cancelled to make way for a new Justice League of America book written by Grant Morrison.

For the sixty years since its conception, the Justice Society of America has had a lasting impact on comic books. To a greater or lesser degree all superhero teams, from the Crime Crusaders Club  to the Uncanny X-Men, owe the Justice Society their existence. The Justice Society of America proved that heroes banded together in an organisation to fight crime could attract just as big an audience, if not a larger one, than a superhero fighting crime alone. In doing so it paved the way for all superhero groups to come.

The Justice Society of America, The Justice League of America, The Seven Soldiers of Victory, and all characters, titles, and covers associated with them are trademarks and copyright DC Comics Inc. This site is not officially associated with DC Comics Inc. in any way, shape , or form. Cover images used on this web site are protected under the fair use principle of American copyright law for nonprofit, educational purposes.

 Unless otherwise stated, all text on this site is © 1999 T. L. Canote