As the JSA returns, how should DC handle the fact that they basically failed?
Before anyone pummels me for such inflammatory heresy, please hear me out. Let me start by saying that, in-universe, the JSA certainly saved lots of lives, and did lots of good. That said...
There's been an accepted conceit that the JSA are revered legends, in part because - in-universe, at least - the JSA are regarded as having fought for the world in some of it's darkest hours, and made a better place of it. That conceit has been there since fairly early in the JSA's history ([I]All-Star Comics[/I] #10 characterized them as almost Mount-Rushmoresque-Figures 500 years in the future). Roy Thomas really drove the notion home with the role he gave them and the other GA heroes in [I]All-Star Squadron[/I]. That conceit really worked from the 1960s-1990s because, from the mainstream US point of view, things at least appeared better than in the past.
True, it looked better to people ignoring rising income inequality, or that non-white-straight-male progress was stalling, or that oppression and fanaticism around the world were rising (especially during the 1990s). Still, from the POV of most of DC's customers, the myth that the world was a better place than in the past was pretty easy to swallow. That encouraged writers to depict the JSA as basking in a very similar glow to that which US citizens sometimes attach to Greatest Generation WWII veterans; these were the people that saved civilization, and helped it to prosper.
That's no longer the world in which many Americans live.
The JSA helped conquer totalitarianism. Except that it never went away in some parts of the world, and has returned with a roar in many others, perhaps even more robust than in 1933.
The JSA smashed criminal empires. Except that gangs not only continue to proliferate in urban centers, but heavily armed "militias" occupy centers of government.
The JSA cast down would-be kings. Except that an ever smaller number of people control most of the world's worth, consigning ever larger numbers of people to more fragile existences.
The JSA fought for and helped assure justice. Except that "justice" seems to be applied differently based on who you are, or where you come from, or what you worship.
So, the JSA today will exist in a world that - to some, at least - doesn't look as bright or optimistic as the world the JSA was fighting for. How should the DCU's populace, then, look upon the JSA?
I haven't read all the JSA that's been published in the last 20 years, but it seems like what I have read has largely ignored this change in backdrop. The 1992 series dealt with this a little bit, and so did Robinson's excellent [I]Golden Age[/I], but very little of what I've read has really taken it head on. The focus of the last few titles were on legacy and supervillain rumbles.
As they're brought into today's world, how should writers and editors depict the JSA's image in a world like ours?