Help me understand the Justice Society through the years

[Tzigone]

I'm a fan of the E2 concept because it allows the characters to exist as created. The monthly properties have to be adapted to the current times (and should be). Nonetheless, I enjoy a visit to the source from whence Superheroes came.

But they don't exist "as created". They were adapted, too. And after a long break, so more abruptly than the gradual (but absolutely evolving over time) ones that did so more slowly. They don't hold the same opinions and characterizations they did in the 1940s. They don't, as a whole, act like people of that time (or even necessarily how they acted in their 1940s comics). They are much more like historical fiction where character often have more modern attitudes despite a historical setting. Not that Earth Two originally had a historical setting. So at least them changing made sense in light of people changing as society changes all the time, and there being a timeskip. Or maybe it's more like alternate history fiction?

[tib2d2]

Ok how does this revised timeline look?

1941-1951 JSA was main earth's team of superheroes

1951-1961 No JSA around

1961-1985 JSA was Earth-2's version of the Justice League, with regular team ups between the JSA and JLA when the multiverse was threatened.

1986-1992 Post COIE, JSA now on Earth One, get trapped in a limbo fighting off Ragnarok, with only a few JSA members escaping the limbo

1992-1994 JSA returns from limbo to Earth One, some are killed off in Zero Hour, other survivors retire due to old age.

1994-1999 JSA mainly inactive on Earth One, some are reserve members of JLI

1999-2005 New JSA team created with mix of old members and new younger members on Earth One.

2005-2011 Few JSA members return to the newly recreated Earth 2 from Infinite Crisis and start up a new team

2011- Now??? Not sure where the JSA was when the New 52 started, I remember Power Girl and Huntress were on Earth One because of something bad happening to Earth 2.


How'd I do? Any help with 2011 to now? As you can see I'm really trying to keep track on which Earth they are on throughout this.

[achilles]

Ok how does this revised timeline look?

1941-1951 JSA was main earth's team of superheroes

1951-1961 No JSA around

1961-1985 JSA was Earth-2's version of the Justice League, with regular team ups between the JSA and JLA when the multiverse was threatened.

1986-1992 Post COIE, JSA now on Earth One, get trapped in a limbo fighting off Ragnarok, with only a few JSA members escaping the limbo

1992-1994 JSA returns from limbo to Earth One, some are killed off in Zero Hour, other survivors retire due to old age.

1994-1999 JSA mainly inactive on Earth One, some are reserve members of JLI

1999-2005 New JSA team created with mix of old members and new younger members on Earth One.

2005-2011 Few JSA members return to the newly recreated Earth 2 from Infinite Crisis and start up a new team

2011- Now??? Not sure where the JSA was when the New 52 started, I remember Power Girl and Huntress were on Earth One because of something bad happening to Earth 2.


How'd I do? Any help with 2011 to now? As you can see I'm really trying to keep track on which Earth they are on throughout this.

2011 to now is easy, the JSA did not exist and was not published by DC during that period. Or in fact from Flashpoint till now; Flashpoint marking the last time the JSA was shown in action till Doomsday Clock seems to have revived it. The nu52 characters never AFAIK actually called themselves the JSA, or even seemed to think they were a team, rather than people fighting together. They existed mostly in the nu52 Earth 2 universe.

The Doomsday Clock version seems to be the classic modern era JSA. We have yet to see them in any of their own action.
Just prior to Flashpoint, TWO JSAs existed, the main JSA with the original members plus a few others, and the JSA All-Stars, headed by Power Girl and with Stargirl among others.

[tib2d2]

Just to confirm, after Infinite Crisis, the JSA was back on Earth 2 for the first time in a while right?

[sifighter]

Just to confirm, after Infinite Crisis, the JSA was back on Earth 2 for the first time in a while right?

Kind of, they remember that they are from Earth 2 and do get transported to it, but they are the only ones on that world. It was more a facsimile created by Alexander Luthor if I am being honest.

[achilles]

Just to confirm, after Infinite Crisis, the JSA was back on Earth 2 for the first time in a while right?

Not really, it's complicated, and my computer just ate my post explaining it all, so I'll stick to the basics; after that story, their were two Earth 2's, neither one the "real" Bronze Age version. One at least aped an extension of one, and the other was a JSA in name only, and they never even bothered with that IIRC.

[Stingo]

Ok how does this revised timeline look?

1941-1951 JSA was main earth's team of superheroes

1951-1961 No JSA around

1961-1985 JSA was Earth-2's version of the Justice League, with regular team ups between the JSA and JLA when the multiverse was threatened.

1986-1992 Post COIE, JSA now on Earth One, get trapped in a limbo fighting off Ragnarok, with only a few JSA members escaping the limbo

1992-1994 JSA returns from limbo to Earth One, some are killed off in Zero Hour, other survivors retire due to old age.

1994-1999 JSA mainly inactive on Earth One, some are reserve members of JLI

1999-2005 New JSA team created with mix of old members and new younger members on Earth One.

2005-2011 Few JSA members return to the newly recreated Earth 2 from Infinite Crisis and start up a new team

2011- Now??? Not sure where the JSA was when the New 52 started, I remember Power Girl and Huntress were on Earth One because of something bad happening to Earth 2.


How'd I do? Any help with 2011 to now? As you can see I'm really trying to keep track on which Earth they are on throughout this.

Looks great, but small correction: The Justice Society of America made their debut in the autumn of 1940.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

Not really, it's complicated, and my computer just ate my post explaining it all, so I'll stick to the basics; after that story, their were two Earth 2's, neither one the "real" Bronze Age version. One at least aped an extension of one, and the other was a JSA in name only, and they never even bothered with that IIRC.

Put simply, after Infinite Crisis and up until Flashpoint, the JSA that readers had been reading about regularly continued to reside on the main Earth along with all the other heroes. The impression I'm getting from tib2d2 is that he thought they were permanently relocated onto Earth 2 after IC.

[Jim Kelly]

The thing is Infinite Crisis established that the original Crisis didn't work and there were fragments of other continuity--including that of the old Superman from Earth-Two--and this was making the one Earth unstable. So 52 universes were created and as laid out in 52 the weekly series those 52 universes eventually became distinct from each other. So in this multiverse of 52, there was an Earth-2--but that wasn't given much attention. And the Justice Society that we knew continued to exist on the main Earth.

At least, I think that's how it was. It's difficult to keep straight in my head.

[MajorHoy]

The thing is Infinite Crisis established that the original Crisis didn't work and there were fragments of other continuity--including that of the old Superman from Earth-Two--and this was making the one Earth unstable. So 52 universes were created and as laid out in 52 the weekly series those 52 universes eventually became distinct from each other. So in this multiverse of 52, there was an Earth-2--but that wasn't given much attention. And the Justice Society that we knew continued to exist on the main Earth.

At least, I think that's how it was. It's difficult to keep straight in my head.

After 52, when it was revealed that the Multiverse was back with 52 versions, there was a version of the Justice Society on recreated Earth-2 known as the Justice Society Infinity

but they were separate from the Justice Society of America that was still set on the main DC Universe Earth.

Also for the record, the first appearance of the Justice Society of America as a group was in All Star Comics #3 (cover-dated Winter 1940; on-sale date is said to be approximately November 22, 1940)

Their "origin" story didn't happen until many years later, in DC Special #29 (August-September 1977).


That story was written by Paul Levitz with pencil art by Joe Staton (and inked by Bob Layton).
Levitz and Staton were also the writer and artist for the story that first revealed why the JSA disbanded in the early 1950s, and that was published in Adventure Comics #466 (November-December 1979).