List your 10 or 12 member perfect Justice League of America

[Lee Stone]

Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Huntress
Power Girl
Vixen
Hawkman
Dr. Fate
Mister Miracle
Green Arrow
Black Lightning
Booster Gold

[BatmanJones]

And you've also left out the Phantom Stranger from that group.

I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't know since you're a great comic book historian, but Phantom Stranger was never an official member and never accepted membership. I think it was Len Wein that said he was surprised at people assuming that Phantom Stranger had become an occasional member though that was never intended by the creators or editorial and he never accepted membership in the book.

There were precisely 16 members of the JLA through the Satellite era, with Firestorm being the last to join. 7 founders and 9 more members added over around 25 years. The 8 plus Hawkman (whom Sutekh leaves out for preference) makes 16. @Sutekh has the membership right.

Phantom Stranger occupied a special guest status along with a handful of others like Adam Strange.

[BatmanJones]

Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Huntress
Power Girl
Vixen
Hawkman
Dr. Fate
Mister Miracle
Green Arrow
Black Lightning
Booster Gold

This is really tough to beat. It's representative of each era of the team and of the DCU as a whole. I would love to read about this roster. Well done!

[Sutekh]

Phantom Stranger occupied a special guest status along with a handful of others like Adam Strange.

Yeah, I love me some Phantom Stranger, but he's always felt more like a plot device that pops in to dispense some cryptic plot advancement, and then leaves after that specific event is done, than a member of the team. And I like him that way. He's always felt like he's got more important/specialized stuff to do than sit around the HQ waiting for the Trouble Alert (and it would mess with his mystique, if nothing else!).

Adam Strange, on the other hand, ooh, he'd be a fun addition to a League lineup! Or any sort of cosmic/space League, with a Green Lantern, one of the Hawks, Starfire, the alien Starman, a New God (Orion, or perhaps Barda?), and similar other space themed / alien / otherworldly characters. A space version of 'Justice League Dark,' sort of.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Pretty classic:

Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Martian Manhunter
Flash (Wally, preferably)
Green Lantern (Kyle, preferably)
Green Arrow (Ollie)
Black Canary
Zatanna
Elongated Man (and Sue)
Mister Miracle
Big Barda

[BatmanJones]

1. Oracle (Babs)
2. Nightwing
3. Thunder (Anissa Pierce)
4. Green Lantern (Jessica Cruz)
5. Mera
6. Vixen
7. The Atom (Ryan Choi)
8. Cyborg
9. Element Woman (Emily Sung)
10. Deadman
11. Forager
12. Johnny Thunder (OG)

With special guest, The Spectre: Simon Baz

[MajorHoy]

I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't know since you're a great comic book historian, but Phantom Stranger was never an official member and never accepted membership. I think it was Len Wein that said he was surprised at people assuming that Phantom Stranger had become an occasional member though that was never intended by the creators or editorial and he never accepted membership in the book.

I know during Len Wein's run Phantom Stranger didn't accept membership, but during Steve Englehart's time on the book it seemed that may have changed somewhat.

[BatmanJones]

Nice finds. Well done, Major. I think it's still strictly true that PS was never a member because he never joined on panel. But it's true that other non-members that guested in JLA and appeared on the roster were always marked as special guests.

I'd love to see CBR home page tackle the question of Phantom Stranger's membership. Seems like Englehart and writers before and after him had different ideas.

I'd wondered why I'd also always thought of PS as a sort of honorary member, and I suppose it was most likely from reading these roll calls you posted here.

[KC]

1. Batman
2. Superman
3. Wonder Woman
4. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
5. Flash (Barry Allen)
6. Aquaman
7. Martian Manhunter
8. Green Arrow
9. Black Canary
10. Elongated Man

I think you can see how and when most people posting here started reading JL comics from their line-ups.

[Dr. Poison]

Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Green Lantern(Hal)
Flash(Barry)
Aquaman
Martian Manhunter
Black Canary
Hawkman
Zatanna
Vixen
Black Lightning

[MajorHoy]

Nice finds. Well done, Major. I think it's still strictly true that PS was never a member because he never joined on panel. But it's true that other non-members that guested in JLA and appeared on the roster were always marked as special guests.

I'd love to see CBR home page tackle the question of Phantom Stranger's membership. Seems like Englehart and writers before and after him had different ideas.

I'd wondered why I'd also always thought of PS as a sort of honorary member, and I suppose it was most likely from reading these roll calls you posted here.

Well, on the last page of that Len Wein-written issue (#103, the first issue that I bought for myself), . . .



So, he was voted in as a member, but he didn't stay around to accept/acknowledge it. In Len Wein's eyes, he wasn't officially a member, but Englehart may have looked at it differently.

[BatmanJones]

Well, on the last page of that Len Wein-written issue (#103, the first issue that I bought for myself), . . .



So, he was voted in as a member, but he didn't stay around to accept/acknowledge it. In Len Wein's eyes, he wasn't officially a member, but Englehart may have looked at it differently.

Makes good sense. I haven't read those old JLA issues since I was 12 years old and my house burned down, including my comic book collection--the first of three times I lost my entire collection (once to fire, once to flood, once to parent misplacing them in a move while I was away at college) which ultimately led me to stop trying to collect and just buy to read them. I'm nearly done with re-reading JLA Bronze Age Omnibus 1 and have JLA Bronze Age Omnibus 2 on its way to me in the mail now. That's the one that includes the beginning of Englehart's run and I'm pretty sure his run was my favorite of the Satellite era. I'll be able to confirm that when I re-read it the first part of it for the first time in more than 35 years any day now. Vol. 3 won't be far behind.

I always appreciate your insights and especially your ability to include pages from your collection to support your posts, always so quickly and always right on the money.

[MajorHoy]

I always appreciate your insights and especially your ability to include pages from your collection to support your posts, always so quickly and always right on the money.

Actually, those images are typically ones I grab off the internet.
I can't post from my own collection these days because I have computer/scanner issues, so I've learned where to search for what I want to find.

[BatmanJones]

Actually, those images are typically ones I grab off the internet.
I can't post from my own collection these days because I have computer/scanner issues, so I've learned where to search for what I want to find.

Well, you're awfully good at it!

I agree with your original post in this thread that rosters aren't good/bad in themselves but depend on creators. I wonder if you'd have the same issues with listing your perfect JSA lineup. I know you take that team more personally generally.

I broke the rules of this thread with my proposed roster. It's not my perfect roster; it was just an attempt to create a new roster that felt more inclusive than the all-white team that comprised the Satellite League.

Even so, my ideal 12 would just be a matter of whittling 4 characters from the original 16, since "my" perfect League was the Satellite one. @deku is right. Most people will choose the characters that are most nostalgic to them as their ideal team. And that's entirely reliant on when one started reading comics.

[El_Gato]

1. Superman
2. Batman
3. Wonder Woman
4. Aquaman
5. The Flash (Barry)
6. Green Lantern (John)
7. Martian Manhunter
8. Hawkwoman
9. Shazam
10. Vixen
11. Black Lightning
12. Mera