Justice League Overview
Hello, I'm Grey Bard, and I'll be your guide to the animated Justice League, predecessor of the new series Justice League Unlimited, and one of this month's small fandoms.
This month, I promise a tasty mix of slash, gen, and het, because this team? Is fun any way you slice it.
Here's an overview of Justice League
The Show
Justice League was a cartoon based upon the DC Comics comic book "Justice League of America", and a sequel to the cartoons Batman: The Animated Series, and The New Batman/Superman Adventures. It aired on the Cartoon Network from 2001 to early 2004, and was replaced by it's sequel and sister show Justice League Unlimited
The Group Portrait
From left to right
Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, the Flash, and Hawkgirl.
The Members
Batman/Bruce Wayne
Oh, like you didn't know they were the same person! Batman claims not to be a member of the Justice League. He's just there to help out. Riiiiiight, Bruce. That's why you own their headquarters and go on every mission that will take you.
Batman is, well, Batman. Playboy industrialist by day, genius vigilante by night, Bruce Wayne resolved to fight crime when his parents died in front of him when he was eight years old. He doesn't have any superpowers, just a lot of gadgets, incredible fighting skills, and the best deductive mind since Sherlock Holmes. Oh, and more issues and paranoia than a boatload of spies.
In any event, Batman has a number of issues with the whole team player thing, and a tendency to butt heads with Superman over who is the Alpha Dog. Bruce worries that having Superman as a leader is not the best idea ever, due to the hero's excessively trusting nature. This worry is not without foundation, given the events of Secret Origins.
It's fairly obvious throughout the series that Batman actually likes and respects his teammates, but that doesn't mean he's open about it or comfortable with the idea. After all, he's Batman.
Superman/Clark Kent
Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! This amazing stranger from the planet Krypton - the Man of Steel, Superman! Possessing remarkable physical strength, Superman fights a neverending battle for Truth and Justice, disguised as a mild-mannered newspaper reporter, Clark Kent. Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane -- it's Superman!
Clark has been Superman for a number of years by the time the series opens, and is still rather traumatized by the fact that the evil alien warlord Darkseid was able to control his mind and take over his body for evil purposes. He has little lines under his eyes not visible in earlier cartoons, and he sounds a little more weary. The fact that he had a significant part in the debacle of Secret Origins certainly didn't help.
Weariness aside, though, Clark seems comforted by the presence and back up of his fellow members of the Justice League.
He's probably the most respected man on Earth, and despite his alien origins, this is his home. Superman is very serious about the League, and is usually considered its leader.
Green Lantern/John Stewart
"In brightest day, In darkest night No evil shall escape my sight For those whom worship evils might Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!" This is a rather dramatic translation of the oath taken by the Green Lanterns, a superpowered intergalactic police force run by the superadvanced Guardians of Oa.
John Stewart, a former Marine, has been a Green Lantern for over ten years. Trained by the Guardians, he has fought evil on a vast number of planets, with his usual jurisdiction being Sector 2814 - the quadrant containing Earth. Given that heroing is his actual job, John considers himself a professional, and takes the Justice League very seriously indeed.
The Green Lanterns are chosen by the Guardians of Oa from all the various intelligent species of the universe, and are selected for courage, imagination, and strength of will. Each Green Lantern is provided with a power ring capable of projecting green forms of energy, mass, or light into any configuration imagined by the user and is fueled by his will.
Despite John's occasional doubts about the methods and attitudes of his teammates, he has a good working relationship with them, and as a trained soldier he is the ultimate team player when in crisis mode. Green Lantern has much in common with Hawkgirl, and has struck up an unlikely friendship with the Flash.
Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz
The last known survivor of a ruthless war of conquest, J'onn J'onzz was once a husband and father, but outlived his loved ones to guard a terrible secret alone in the dark for countless years.
Unwilling to let another planet fall to the same fate as his own, and possibly making up for all the lives he could not save, J'onn has devoted himself to a life of quiet duty since his arrival on Earth.
Like all members of his species, the Martian Manhunter can change his own shape and density as well as having psionic powers. In practice this means that not only can he read minds and walk through walls, J'onn is also the perfect shapeshifter, able to take on any form. He prefers to retain his natural green color when he changes, although frequently this is not possible.
Earth has not been kind to J'onn, in all the ways one might fear for a (rather large) green man from outer space. He prefers to live in the Watchtower headquarters of the Justice League because the sheer number of minds on Earth are extremely unrestful for a powerful psychic who has been so long alone. Although he is very hard to read, the Martian Manhunter seems to harbor feelings of a certain affection and amusement toward his teammates.
Wonder Woman/Diana of Themyscira
The amazing daughter of the Queen of the Amazons, Diana has only recently left the Amazonian isle of Themyscira for a chance to see the rest of the world. Given incredible powers of speed, strength, and flight by the Gods, Princess Diana was the finest warrior of her sheltered island home. Aided by bullet deflecting bracelets and an indestructible lasso woven from the girdle of Gaea, Diana is one of the most dangerous members of the League despite her relative inexperience.
Not one to sit by when danger threatens, Diana originally left home when she learned of the world wide crisis in Secret Origins. Although her mother Hippolyta advocates a more isolationist approach to problems, feeling that Man's World can take care of itself, Diana takes a more martial approach to problems of both public safety and social policy. After the crisis passed, Wonder Woman decided not to return home for a while, instead chosing to investigate the world she had found herself in.
Intrigued and often disturbed by what she has seen in Man's World, Diana is never quite sure what to make of the world around her. Coming from an island of Amazons who have not aged since the time of Ancient Greece, Diana is from a warrior's culture of honor, reputation and shame. Although the differences that time has wrought are far greater than that of any gender divide, Diana tends to assume that anything strange about our society is in some way related to the presence of men. This has led to a number of social faux pas.
Wonder Woman is a warrior, and it is among her fellow warriors of the Justice League that she feels most comfortable. Despite a certain arrogance in battle, Diana is a naturally friendly and caring person and generally likes all of her teammates. She is particularly close to Batman, with whom she shares a deep sense of honor, and whose courage she finds impressive.
Hawkgirl/Shayera Hol
A flying terror with broad brown wings and a lethal mace, what Shayera Hol lacks in sheer power, she makes up for in enthusiasum.
A trained undercover police detective from the planet Thanagar who arrived on our planet under mysterious circumstances, Shayera must have a certain skill with disguise and infiltration - how else do you keep a civilian identity on a strange planet where the locals don't have wings and you do.
Shayera would never be able to let a fight pass her by without taking part in it, so it was only natural for her to join the Justice League, and put her skills to work there. Fighting with a beserker fury and ruthless efficiency, she gets into brawls in alien bars for the pure recreation of the thing. More than just a pair of wings and a stong mace, however, Hawkgirl has the keen instincts of a professional police detective when she cares to use them.
Although Hawkgirl can be a little disconcerting at times to the less bloodthirsty members of the League, she works well with the team and has a certain brash charm that has endeared her to Green Lantern. Her relationship with Wonder Woman is more problematic, however, since it is by turns sympathetic and chilly.
The Flash/Wally West
The fastest man in the world, Wally West became the Flash in an electrochemical accident. When you can do almost anything at all in under a second, nothing tends to seem very urgent.
Young, impulsive, and possessed of a sharp sense of the ridiculous, Wally is not the kind of man to take himself very seriously. With a ready wit and little in the way of social caution, he frequently appears not to be taking his work seriously, either. His exact family circumstances are uncertain, but Wally does have very close ties to an orphanage where he may have spent some of his childhood.
While hardly lacking in the brains department, Wally tends to rely more on his instincts and the sheer power of his abilities than on actual thought. Due to the stresses his powers put on his metabolism, Wally is eternally hungry and forever eating. His top speed appears to vary depending on the shape he is in and the amount of stress he is under.
A good natured slacker of a man, it is interesting that the Flash considers Green Lantern to be his closest friend on the team despite, or perhaps because of, the pleasure he takes in bothering the no-nonsense ex-Marine. Despite being an incorrigable flirt, Wally is actually something of a gentleman, since his various advances have never actually offended Wonder Woman or Hawkgirl, instead apparently amusing them. The Flash tries to play well with others, but at times his lack of caution and questionable judgement calls make him hard to work with. Wally likes everybody, except villains and maybe Batman - who occasionally scares him.
The Pairings
Well, you've got Bruce/Diana, Diana/Shayera, Shayera/John, John/Wally, Wally/Clark....
Oh hell.
Just combine any of the characters in any combination you can think of. Really.
The Pilot
All you need to know about the pilot, Secret Origins, that you can get without significant spoilers.
The pilot special for Justice League really tells you all you know to jump right into the series. It's a dramatic episode and a good character introduction and I really recommend it. However, if you just want to know how they all met and what, exactly, did Superman do, here it is.
Lurking Alien Doom has plans for Earth, unbeknownst to Superman or anyone else. The Lurking Aliens get an infiltration agent into the American government, where it becomes an idealistic politician advocating global nuclear disarmament enforced by Superman. The international community goes for it, and Superman is vastly flattered and sets about disarming the world. Only after he is done, do the Giant Scary Alien Ships invade. Ooops.
Batman, who has had Lurking Alien Doom suspicions for a while, is not surprised. Indeed, he is rather snide.
The future members of the Justice League meet up, chase aliens, fight aliens, research aliens, and fight aliens some more. They get captured, but eventually they win.
The various heroes get together in an amazingly convenient new space station, which they name the Watch Tower, and they decide to remain allied in a Justice League order to fend off future threats. Batman tells the rest of the team that they may feel free to use this space station that Bruce Wayne has mysteriously given them, but that Batman will never consider himself to be a full member of the team. Whatever, Bruce.
The End.
Heroically Ever After
Other fan favorite episodes include:
The Brave and The Bold - Featuring mind control, a brilliant gorilla genius, fine buddy movie dynamics and a character spotlight on the Flash and Green Lantern into an enjoyable potboiler of an episode.
Legends - Featuring a bittersweet meeting with the nostalgic alternate world of the Justice Guild, the superhero team Green Lantern fondly remembers from his childhood comic books.
The Savage Time - An epic adventure into time and alternate universes in which the Justice League chases the immortal Vandal Savage as he goes back in time to aid Hitler, creating a more dangerous World War II and a grimmer present.
A Better World - Featuring a chilling brush with an alternate universe in which the Justice League's intentions are not nearly so benign.
Maid of Honor - Featuring Diana's whirlwind encounter with the beautiful Princess Audrey, and Wonder Woman's first meeting with Bruce Wayne.
Comfort and Joy - A holiday special fans can really get behind, with snowballs, bar brawls, an irritating but popular toy, a singing alien and, of course, a super-intelligent gorilla. What *is* it with you and gorillas, Flash? Are gorillas the natural enemy of speed?
Wild Card - A roaring apocalypse of an episode featuring the Joker, the Royal Flush gang, Las Vegas, emotional developments, and all the pyrotechnics one episode can handle.
Starcrossed - The controversial and deeply emotional series finale, featuring romance, betrayal, redemption, and invading hordes of aliens.
Fic Archive and Recs
http://www.justice.slashcity.org/
A pretty nice archive. Some art, some het, some slash, and room to grow.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/jl_fic/
A mixed genre collection of Justice League fic
http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=dcfic_index
The memories section of this journal is an index of DC Comics based fic. Things that have (animated) in parenthesis are almost certainly set in the same universe as Justice League.
http://www.geocities.com/batmanwwarkham/index.htm
A Batman/Wonder Woman archive with some Justice League fic on it
http://www.livejournal.com/community/comics_genfic/
All gen, all the time, and a certain percentage of it is even Justice League.
http://www.jlaunlimited.com/eFiction1.1/index.php
Yes, I know. It says Justice League Unlimited. Oddly enough, there's a whole lot of Justice League there
And, of course
http://www.fanfiction.net
This month, I promise a tasty mix of slash, gen, and het, because this team? Is fun any way you slice it.
Here's an overview of Justice League
The Show
Justice League was a cartoon based upon the DC Comics comic book "Justice League of America", and a sequel to the cartoons Batman: The Animated Series, and The New Batman/Superman Adventures. It aired on the Cartoon Network from 2001 to early 2004, and was replaced by it's sequel and sister show Justice League Unlimited
The Group Portrait
From left to right
Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, the Flash, and Hawkgirl.
The Members
Batman/Bruce Wayne
Oh, like you didn't know they were the same person! Batman claims not to be a member of the Justice League. He's just there to help out. Riiiiiight, Bruce. That's why you own their headquarters and go on every mission that will take you.
Batman is, well, Batman. Playboy industrialist by day, genius vigilante by night, Bruce Wayne resolved to fight crime when his parents died in front of him when he was eight years old. He doesn't have any superpowers, just a lot of gadgets, incredible fighting skills, and the best deductive mind since Sherlock Holmes. Oh, and more issues and paranoia than a boatload of spies.
In any event, Batman has a number of issues with the whole team player thing, and a tendency to butt heads with Superman over who is the Alpha Dog. Bruce worries that having Superman as a leader is not the best idea ever, due to the hero's excessively trusting nature. This worry is not without foundation, given the events of Secret Origins.
It's fairly obvious throughout the series that Batman actually likes and respects his teammates, but that doesn't mean he's open about it or comfortable with the idea. After all, he's Batman.
Superman/Clark Kent
Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! This amazing stranger from the planet Krypton - the Man of Steel, Superman! Possessing remarkable physical strength, Superman fights a neverending battle for Truth and Justice, disguised as a mild-mannered newspaper reporter, Clark Kent. Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane -- it's Superman!
Clark has been Superman for a number of years by the time the series opens, and is still rather traumatized by the fact that the evil alien warlord Darkseid was able to control his mind and take over his body for evil purposes. He has little lines under his eyes not visible in earlier cartoons, and he sounds a little more weary. The fact that he had a significant part in the debacle of Secret Origins certainly didn't help.
Weariness aside, though, Clark seems comforted by the presence and back up of his fellow members of the Justice League.
He's probably the most respected man on Earth, and despite his alien origins, this is his home. Superman is very serious about the League, and is usually considered its leader.
Green Lantern/John Stewart
"In brightest day, In darkest night No evil shall escape my sight For those whom worship evils might Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!" This is a rather dramatic translation of the oath taken by the Green Lanterns, a superpowered intergalactic police force run by the superadvanced Guardians of Oa.
John Stewart, a former Marine, has been a Green Lantern for over ten years. Trained by the Guardians, he has fought evil on a vast number of planets, with his usual jurisdiction being Sector 2814 - the quadrant containing Earth. Given that heroing is his actual job, John considers himself a professional, and takes the Justice League very seriously indeed.
The Green Lanterns are chosen by the Guardians of Oa from all the various intelligent species of the universe, and are selected for courage, imagination, and strength of will. Each Green Lantern is provided with a power ring capable of projecting green forms of energy, mass, or light into any configuration imagined by the user and is fueled by his will.
Despite John's occasional doubts about the methods and attitudes of his teammates, he has a good working relationship with them, and as a trained soldier he is the ultimate team player when in crisis mode. Green Lantern has much in common with Hawkgirl, and has struck up an unlikely friendship with the Flash.
Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz
The last known survivor of a ruthless war of conquest, J'onn J'onzz was once a husband and father, but outlived his loved ones to guard a terrible secret alone in the dark for countless years.
Unwilling to let another planet fall to the same fate as his own, and possibly making up for all the lives he could not save, J'onn has devoted himself to a life of quiet duty since his arrival on Earth.
Like all members of his species, the Martian Manhunter can change his own shape and density as well as having psionic powers. In practice this means that not only can he read minds and walk through walls, J'onn is also the perfect shapeshifter, able to take on any form. He prefers to retain his natural green color when he changes, although frequently this is not possible.
Earth has not been kind to J'onn, in all the ways one might fear for a (rather large) green man from outer space. He prefers to live in the Watchtower headquarters of the Justice League because the sheer number of minds on Earth are extremely unrestful for a powerful psychic who has been so long alone. Although he is very hard to read, the Martian Manhunter seems to harbor feelings of a certain affection and amusement toward his teammates.
Wonder Woman/Diana of Themyscira
The amazing daughter of the Queen of the Amazons, Diana has only recently left the Amazonian isle of Themyscira for a chance to see the rest of the world. Given incredible powers of speed, strength, and flight by the Gods, Princess Diana was the finest warrior of her sheltered island home. Aided by bullet deflecting bracelets and an indestructible lasso woven from the girdle of Gaea, Diana is one of the most dangerous members of the League despite her relative inexperience.
Not one to sit by when danger threatens, Diana originally left home when she learned of the world wide crisis in Secret Origins. Although her mother Hippolyta advocates a more isolationist approach to problems, feeling that Man's World can take care of itself, Diana takes a more martial approach to problems of both public safety and social policy. After the crisis passed, Wonder Woman decided not to return home for a while, instead chosing to investigate the world she had found herself in.
Intrigued and often disturbed by what she has seen in Man's World, Diana is never quite sure what to make of the world around her. Coming from an island of Amazons who have not aged since the time of Ancient Greece, Diana is from a warrior's culture of honor, reputation and shame. Although the differences that time has wrought are far greater than that of any gender divide, Diana tends to assume that anything strange about our society is in some way related to the presence of men. This has led to a number of social faux pas.
Wonder Woman is a warrior, and it is among her fellow warriors of the Justice League that she feels most comfortable. Despite a certain arrogance in battle, Diana is a naturally friendly and caring person and generally likes all of her teammates. She is particularly close to Batman, with whom she shares a deep sense of honor, and whose courage she finds impressive.
Hawkgirl/Shayera Hol
A flying terror with broad brown wings and a lethal mace, what Shayera Hol lacks in sheer power, she makes up for in enthusiasum.
A trained undercover police detective from the planet Thanagar who arrived on our planet under mysterious circumstances, Shayera must have a certain skill with disguise and infiltration - how else do you keep a civilian identity on a strange planet where the locals don't have wings and you do.
Shayera would never be able to let a fight pass her by without taking part in it, so it was only natural for her to join the Justice League, and put her skills to work there. Fighting with a beserker fury and ruthless efficiency, she gets into brawls in alien bars for the pure recreation of the thing. More than just a pair of wings and a stong mace, however, Hawkgirl has the keen instincts of a professional police detective when she cares to use them.
Although Hawkgirl can be a little disconcerting at times to the less bloodthirsty members of the League, she works well with the team and has a certain brash charm that has endeared her to Green Lantern. Her relationship with Wonder Woman is more problematic, however, since it is by turns sympathetic and chilly.
The Flash/Wally West
The fastest man in the world, Wally West became the Flash in an electrochemical accident. When you can do almost anything at all in under a second, nothing tends to seem very urgent.
Young, impulsive, and possessed of a sharp sense of the ridiculous, Wally is not the kind of man to take himself very seriously. With a ready wit and little in the way of social caution, he frequently appears not to be taking his work seriously, either. His exact family circumstances are uncertain, but Wally does have very close ties to an orphanage where he may have spent some of his childhood.
While hardly lacking in the brains department, Wally tends to rely more on his instincts and the sheer power of his abilities than on actual thought. Due to the stresses his powers put on his metabolism, Wally is eternally hungry and forever eating. His top speed appears to vary depending on the shape he is in and the amount of stress he is under.
A good natured slacker of a man, it is interesting that the Flash considers Green Lantern to be his closest friend on the team despite, or perhaps because of, the pleasure he takes in bothering the no-nonsense ex-Marine. Despite being an incorrigable flirt, Wally is actually something of a gentleman, since his various advances have never actually offended Wonder Woman or Hawkgirl, instead apparently amusing them. The Flash tries to play well with others, but at times his lack of caution and questionable judgement calls make him hard to work with. Wally likes everybody, except villains and maybe Batman - who occasionally scares him.
The Pairings
Well, you've got Bruce/Diana, Diana/Shayera, Shayera/John, John/Wally, Wally/Clark....
Oh hell.
Just combine any of the characters in any combination you can think of. Really.
The Pilot
All you need to know about the pilot, Secret Origins, that you can get without significant spoilers.
The pilot special for Justice League really tells you all you know to jump right into the series. It's a dramatic episode and a good character introduction and I really recommend it. However, if you just want to know how they all met and what, exactly, did Superman do, here it is.
Lurking Alien Doom has plans for Earth, unbeknownst to Superman or anyone else. The Lurking Aliens get an infiltration agent into the American government, where it becomes an idealistic politician advocating global nuclear disarmament enforced by Superman. The international community goes for it, and Superman is vastly flattered and sets about disarming the world. Only after he is done, do the Giant Scary Alien Ships invade. Ooops.
Batman, who has had Lurking Alien Doom suspicions for a while, is not surprised. Indeed, he is rather snide.
The future members of the Justice League meet up, chase aliens, fight aliens, research aliens, and fight aliens some more. They get captured, but eventually they win.
The various heroes get together in an amazingly convenient new space station, which they name the Watch Tower, and they decide to remain allied in a Justice League order to fend off future threats. Batman tells the rest of the team that they may feel free to use this space station that Bruce Wayne has mysteriously given them, but that Batman will never consider himself to be a full member of the team. Whatever, Bruce.
The End.
Heroically Ever After
Other fan favorite episodes include:
The Brave and The Bold - Featuring mind control, a brilliant gorilla genius, fine buddy movie dynamics and a character spotlight on the Flash and Green Lantern into an enjoyable potboiler of an episode.
Legends - Featuring a bittersweet meeting with the nostalgic alternate world of the Justice Guild, the superhero team Green Lantern fondly remembers from his childhood comic books.
The Savage Time - An epic adventure into time and alternate universes in which the Justice League chases the immortal Vandal Savage as he goes back in time to aid Hitler, creating a more dangerous World War II and a grimmer present.
A Better World - Featuring a chilling brush with an alternate universe in which the Justice League's intentions are not nearly so benign.
Maid of Honor - Featuring Diana's whirlwind encounter with the beautiful Princess Audrey, and Wonder Woman's first meeting with Bruce Wayne.
Comfort and Joy - A holiday special fans can really get behind, with snowballs, bar brawls, an irritating but popular toy, a singing alien and, of course, a super-intelligent gorilla. What *is* it with you and gorillas, Flash? Are gorillas the natural enemy of speed?
Wild Card - A roaring apocalypse of an episode featuring the Joker, the Royal Flush gang, Las Vegas, emotional developments, and all the pyrotechnics one episode can handle.
Starcrossed - The controversial and deeply emotional series finale, featuring romance, betrayal, redemption, and invading hordes of aliens.
Fic Archive and Recs
http://www.justice.slashcity.org/
A pretty nice archive. Some art, some het, some slash, and room to grow.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/jl_fic/
A mixed genre collection of Justice League fic
http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=dcfic_index
The memories section of this journal is an index of DC Comics based fic. Things that have (animated) in parenthesis are almost certainly set in the same universe as Justice League.
http://www.geocities.com/batmanwwarkham/index.htm
A Batman/Wonder Woman archive with some Justice League fic on it
http://www.livejournal.com/community/comics_genfic/
All gen, all the time, and a certain percentage of it is even Justice League.
http://www.jlaunlimited.com/eFiction1.1/index.php
Yes, I know. It says Justice League Unlimited. Oddly enough, there's a whole lot of Justice League there
And, of course
http://www.fanfiction.net