Doing justice to The Justice League

The Justice League has always been about team work. Originally spawned from the Justice Society of America, the team enjoyed a new resurgence in the sixties. Recently, The Justice League mythos did not translate that well onto the big screen.

Justice League: 100 Greatest Moments: Highlights from the History of the World’s Greatest Superheroes by Robert Greenberger examines the best that the league has to offer since its early inception. The villains and plots were always at a larger scale. As a kid, I always enjoyed the annual meetings of the JLA and JSA. Much has changed since those innocent times. The League has grown in ranks and assembled a different cast of ever-rotating members.

In the hands of dozens of writers and artists, DC Comics Justice League of America (JLA) has experienced moments that can be intensely personal or of great cosmic importance. The comic’s ability to shift in tone has always kept the team interesting and reflects the changing tastes among the readers and the times when each moment occurred.  The Justice League, the team was also known as the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes, have flowered and foundered, seen their ranks swell and shrink, and risen and fallen in sales popularity, but remaining a fixture in pop cultures for decades.  

I always felt that the early stories were just a mishmash of characters of the best-selling core books and a few minor characters thrown in to bolster up the roster. Unlike the core books, there was not much time to explore the personal identities of the characters within the Justice League books. Rarely did the group interact within their secret identities. Superman, Batman and Wonder Women shared that unique bond but the other heroes not so much within the League. I always thought this was the main ingredient always missing within the League. The Avengers, on the other hand, did not have that problem.

This gorgeous, fun-filled book features one hundred of the greatest moments, each one a piece of the mosaic that is the Justice League. From their first rallying issue to the League finally reaching the big screen in the 2017 feature film Justice League, the members and their stories have remained entertaining for readers and watchers alike.

Robert Greenberger explores the vast history of stories where the League had to work together to vanquish the common threat against them. The heroes were called upon to help each other when they could not win the day alone. Sure, perhaps Superman could handle most of these problems by himself but when the numbers were stacked against him, it is only natural to call on his Super-Friends.

Justice League: 100 Greatest Moments: Highlights from the History of the World’s Greatest Superheroes is not an extensive study of the Justice League but the 100 greatest moments from different incarnations of the team throughout the years.

The selections of iconic comic moments to come were not chosen in a vacuum. Moments chosen to consist of nominations from various Facebook fan groups as well as former JLA scribes Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, J.M. DeMatteis, Bob Rozakis, Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman and former DC editors Michael Eury and KC Carlson. Ace researcher and comics historian John Wells and current JLA editor Brian Cunningham also offered input on the most contemporary selections.