Why hasn't there ever been a revival of the Satellite Justice League

[caj]

I think most DC readers would agree that the Satellite line-up was one of the best Justice League's we've ever had.

It seems strange that no writer has ever tackled putting those heroes (or the current representation of those heroes) together for a mini-series or storyline. The last attempt was Identity Crisis (although that was kind of a disaster, but still...).

[WonderScott]

The original Satellite era was too Justice League of America So White at its time, but that's kinda what Brad Meltzer tried to do several years ago with his run.

I'd be into it if they expanded the roster and editorial actually let relationships and issues happen between characters in the book and play out, regardless of what's happening in a character's own book. Sadly, those days are gone it seems because of the continuity they want to keep in a character's own title and the broader universe. It means we rarely get the interesting developments that should come from a group of characters like that forming a team and interacting with one another.

[Raijin]

I don't think readers of today would be interested in an All-White, All-Plain Justice League. Especially in a time where people are more vocal about this type of thing. Let's progress instead of going backwards.

[caj]

I don't think readers of today would be interested in an All-White, All-Plain Justice League. Especially in a time where people are more vocal about this type of thing. Let's progress instead of going backwards.

I don't know, Justice by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross was pretty successful about 15 years ago. It wasn't in continuity even when it came out but readers seemed to respond to it pretty well.

[Stick Figure]

I don’t think revisiting an all white all straight group from the 80’s is the best way to pull in fans. DC you is trying to move forward. I don’t have a problem with them having a headquarters in space though. Just make it work. Don’t do it out of nostalgia.

[Güicho]

...group from the 80’s

FYI Satellite era began Justice League of America #78 (February 1970)
And ended in the 80's with the intro of the Detroit League. (October 1984)


But yeah the point is never mind today, it was already glaringly problematic even back then in the 1970s, when Hanna Barbera licensed the Justice League as the Super Friends, DC shamefully only had white characters to offer them , HB aware of this problem, and wanting to better represent their audience had to quickly (and clumsily) come up with and create their own (although they re-purposed Black Lightning) characters, so they wouldn't have an all white Justice League team.
It was already a problem even back then in 1977, it'd be even more of a problem today! LOL!

By the 80's by the time (Black Lightning in the Daily comic strips), Vixen, Vibe, and eventually Kimiyo Hoshi joined, the Satellite (had been destroyed) and that era had already ended.

I think it's fine to acknowledge and celebrate the founding members (who are all great characters!) , revisit for some mini series, or ongoing in elseworld like Ross', but the main U doesn't need to go there again.

Or if they do want to celebrate it, make sure you update them some, if possible with characters actually around or chronology appearing following that era.
One of the easiest is GL rotating with John Stewart, make that era's Hawks Egyptian by default, add Black Lightning (intro-ed 1977), Vixen (intro-ed 1981) Doctor Light (Kimiyo Hoshi 1985) El Diablo (Sandoval 1989) and others... but most important tell good stories with them.
Satellite era was always a growing and rotating roster so if you want just continue it as if it kept going chronologically.

[j9ac9k]

I don’t think revisiting an all white all straight group from the 80’s is the best way to pull in fans. DC you is trying to move forward. I don’t have a problem with them having a headquarters in space though. Just make it work. Don’t do it out of nostalgia.

The OP did mention "current representation of those heroes" which opens to door for more representation. I'd love to see that happen - whether it be in the present day or something that's meant to take place in the past. (and if it's in the past with the white and green League, then pair it with a present-day storyline involving a roster with more PoC)

Also, I'm not sure how much DC is really "trying to move forward." That's certainly up for debate.

[Uncanny Mutie]

I don't know, Justice by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross was pretty successful about 15 years ago. It wasn't in continuity even when it came out but readers seemed to respond to it pretty well.

LOL, a LOT has changed on the social equality front in 15 years.

[Stick Figure]

I like the work Alex Ross does for Marvel but somehow all the DC stuff seems too retro. I know they have the Justice series at my library so I might check it out.

[Agent Z]

I don't know, Justice by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross was pretty successful about 15 years ago. It wasn't in continuity even when it came out but readers seemed to respond to it pretty well.

Key words being "15 years ago". There's a reason modern versions of the League tend to be more diverse.

[Johnny]

I don't think readers of today would be interested in an All-White, All-Plain Justice League. Especially in a time where people are more vocal about this type of thing. Let's progress instead of going backwards.

If readers will choose not to read a book based on how the characters look like, that seems the opposite of progress to me.

Not sure about revisiting the Satellite JL in particular, but presumably the "5G" JL would be more diverse, so I don't see why they can't launch a separate JL title with a more classic line-up. Who doesn't want to see Guy, Ted and Booster in a JL title again.

[j9ac9k]

Who doesn't want to see Guy, Ted and Booster in a JL title again.

Also too white. Kimiyo was barely there before she left, then you only have Fire for representation and that wouldn't be enough.

[Johnny]

Also too white. Kimiyo was barely there before she left, then you only have Fire for representation and that wouldn't be enough.

"Too *insert color" is not an argument for me. You choose which characters to use based on what story you want to tell, not on how the characters happen to look like. That's like saying they should have Fire, Jaime and Vibe in the book only because the writer's editor told them the book needs to have 3 Latino characters and not because the writer actually needs them for the type of story they plan to tell.

[Vampire Savior]

Also too white. Kimiyo was barely there before she left, then you only have Fire for representation and that wouldn't be enough.

I'm pretty sure Fire is white, too, for what it's worth.

[Jim Kelly]

I didn't think that a thread about the Satellite Justice League would blow up into a discussion of civil rights. And I think if I get too deep into discussing why the comics looked the way they did in the 1960s and 1970s, I will get too far away from talking about the subject I want to talk about, which is the Satellite Era.

And it seems unfair to argue that a revival of this era can't be done, because of the way the comics were coloured back then. There's loads of comics today that use material from the past, but recast and revitalize the characters so they are more reflective of the real world. Although, for all that, the modern comics are very bound up in American perceptions and aren't really that inclusive.

As a Canadian, I was only observing the neighbours over the fence in the 1960s and 1970s. I think that the 1960s were much more about civil rights in regards to African-Americans--and others, like women, native people, gay people, other people of colour and people from other linguistic groups couldn't get attention. A lot of leading Black figures were sidelined by politics that portrayed the Black Power movement as some kind of violent uprising--which made it harder to portray the African-American experience in an acceptable manner for mainstream America. By the 1970s, women's rights were much more in focus--and rather than dealing too much with difficult race politics (although there was some), the Justice League mainly dealt with gender politics and giving female characters a bigger profile in the League. You had Black Canary, Wonder Woman, Hawkwoman and Zatanna--plus guest stars like Batgirl, Supergirl, Mera and Phantom Lady.

It seems to me, if there's a revival series on the Satellite Justice League in the 2020s, it will just do what every comic book does these days: reimagine the characters to be more inclusive.

Granted that in my 1960s Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, the Caucasoid race group includes people of colour--South Asians, Hispanics, Arabs, Jews. But let's say what we're really talking about is too many WASPs in the group (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). I think I can decrease that number.

We have to allow that in the 1960s and 1970s, there were a lot of factors that made characters appear white. Besides all the political and commercial reasons, there was a limit to what the colourists could do. And they were stuck between giving characters an offensive hue or colouring them pink. So most characters were pink. If a character was coloured to be Asian, Native or Arab, they often got a bad colour job. It angered me when I saw Arabs given a purple hue--they didn't look anything like Arab people in the real world. Blue eyes were the most common, because they only need one colour plate. Green needs two, brown and purple need three--comics always defaulted to one colour (blue, magenta, yellow or black) whenever possible.

Now we don't have to worry about economy of colour and we can colour the characters to appear more inclusive. My personal diversity recast (not official, just my own opinion) of the Satellite Justice League goes like this:

• Superman, Hawkman, Hawkwoman (plus Martian Manhunter, although he wasn't active during the Satellite Years) are all aliens. They don't have to appear like WASPs and there are colouring choices and other details that could be changed so they don't look like WASPs.
• Hal Jordan is Jewish; Zatanna is half Jewish, half Persian; Wonder Woman is Mediterranean or Mideastern; Ronnie Raymond is Hispanic/Martin Stein is Jewish; John Stewart is African-American; Aquaman is Atantean; Oliver Queen is Canadian with indigenous roots (possibly Metis); Dinah Lance is Creole from Louisiana; Ray Palmer, I have to think more about him.
• That leaves Barry Allen, Bruce Wayne and Ralph Dibny as the true WASPs in the group. Ralph and Barry just seem so obviously the white guys in the room. And there were several stories in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s that established the Wayne family as having relatives in Great Britain--so Bruce has to be partly a WASP, although he could have Native American or Hispanic roots on his mother's side.