Home > Comics > Other DC Super-Hero Comics > Comics Featuring the Justice League of America (JLA)

This is a selection of comics featuring the Justice League of America, extending from its debut until the present (with GEMs highlighted).  The list includes links for the following: (a) Wiki page (from the Grand Comics Database, or GCD), (b) e-book (available upon request), and (c) More info on each comic (via optional posts by various contributors).

Please note that the list is sortable by each column. (Multiple levels of sorting are possible by sorting more than one column in succession, from lowest to highest.)  You can also do an instant filtering of the table by entering a character string in the ‘Search’ field.

When the popularity of DC super-heroes began to grow rapidly in the late 1930s, the idea of banding many of them together into one group came to fruition in the early Golden Age of Comics, in the form of the Justice Society of America (JSA).  Creating this team of super-heroes in comic books for the very first time was a truly pioneering concept, and it became the forerunner of the Justice League of America (JLA) which came two decades later.  The JSA comic was only as good as the sum of its parts, however, and after the popularity of the Golden-Age super-heroes waned in the late 1940s, the JSA faded away shortly thereafter.

As mentioned elsewhere on this site (see, for example the Flash section), the comic book industry was rejuvenated in the mid-1950s by the reinvention of many of the super-heroes who were popular during the Golden Age.  The person most responsible for this rejuvenation was editor Julius Schwartz, who championed the revamping of the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and many other characters.  This marked the beginning of DC’s Silver Age.  Julius Schwartz (nicknamed ‘Julie’ by DC insiders) also drove the launch of the JLA in the early 1960s, starting with their debut in The Brave and the Bold #28.  Soon, the JLA had its own magazine, and the title has continued in various forms until today.

The principal writer of JLA Silver-Age stories was Gardner Fox, who had also co-created the JSA two decades earlier.  The JLA artwork during this period was handled by another DC veteran Mike Sekowsky, in partnership with inker Bernard Sachs and others.  Although most of the JLA stories were quite predictable and the artwork was somewhat stilted, the Justice League was a huge hit with readers and it remained virtually unchanged for the next 24 years.  A major highlight of the JLA stories was the array of colorful villains such as Dr. Destiny, Dr. Light, Amos Fortune, Felix Faust and the Weapons Master.

One interesting tradition that was established in 1963 with Justice League #21 was the first crossover story between the JLA and JSA.  To enable the two teams to co-exist at the same time, Julius Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox came up with the novel idea of placing the JSA characters on ‘Earth-Two’, while the regular JLA characters of the Silver Age were placed on ‘Earth One’ (presumably the Earth we live on).  The issue was a big hit with readers, and such JLA/JSA crossovers became an annual event over the next decade, with the stories usually continuing over two or three issues.

As the JLA progressed through the Bronze Age, it evolved to reflect the changes happening in the characters in their individual titles, which were taking a darker turn.  For example, the perfect harmony within the team was replaced by growing discord between the various characters, something that would have been unthinkable during the Silver Age.  Nevertheless, on the whole the JLA basically retained its original membership and essential nature.  However, things changed drastically in the mid-1980s, with the onset of the Modern Age.

After the revamping of the entire universe of DC Comics superheroes with the 1985-1986 crossover series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Justice League went through some major changes, mostly for the worse.  There were several splinter groups formed, since as Justice League International and Justice League Europe, and many lesser-known super-heroes were introduced while many of the original A-list members left.  Needless to say, this version of the JLA was highly unpopular with the readers (though not as disastrous as was the case for Green Lantern), and eventually DC had to return to (mostly) the original cast of the Justice League with a second rebooting in 1996.

The architect of the 1996 rebooting was Grant Morrison, a talented writer and one of many British comic-book creators hired by DC around that time (most notably Alan Moore).  Signaling the start of a new era, the new series was officially titled JLA instead of ‘Justice League of America’, and it re-assembled the original ‘Big Seven’ super-heroes back into one team (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and the Martial Manhunter).  The new JLA stories turned out to be immensely popular and returned the Justice League title to best-selling status.  Thankfully, DC has made no more misguided attempts to change the essential quality of the JLA since then.

For more details on the different comic-book eras of the Justice League of America, please see this link.

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