Would a Return to the Satellite-Era Lineup For Justice League Be a Hit?

[Will Evans]

I totally agree. It's my favorite JLA line-up of all time. My favorite used to be the satellite-era team but this eclipsed it with the inclusion of Vixen, Dr. Light, and Black Lightning.

Geo-Force was there too for a hot minute

[skyvolt2000]

If that line up would have lasted and had a chance to get multiple adventures under it’s belt I think it’d have a spot in the top 5 best JLA teams.

McDuffie had it planned out to issue 50 with everybody in the book.

For all the talk of wanting diversity, why doesn't DC just give the Global Guardians a reboot and a real push? Representation (at least in terms of countries) is literally the point of that team.

Because the usual suspects would throw a FIT the moment that book got announced.

Followed by store owners-who seem to forgot ordering a book is NOT required for every DC or Marvel book.

Followed by entitlement fans who would gladly toss out "why is (creative team) WASTING their time on that book. We need to get it axed so they can do yet another Batman book."

All this DESPITE the fact it's doing what so many won't stop crying about-using EXISTING POC.

It's my favorite incarnation, but we also need to accept it's in the past and we shouldn't chase it too much at the expense of more modern, diverse options. We could use it as a basis and do what it did back then: expand the membership to include more diverse characters and rotate out the characters depending on the arc. That way we get the original Satellite line up but be additive, not subtractive.

An OGN would not be out of the question.

Or if Dc wanted to be progressive-do the book.

Have the lack of diversity bought up. When they say "we needed the most powerful people" have someone point out POC who are just as powerful. Show POC rejecting an offer. Some say they are defending their community, others are not interested and so.

Address the elephant in the room the first issue.

[razzmatazz360]

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Here is the new JL

[Holt]

In this day and age I don't see them doing a Justice League line-up with zero minority characters.

[Riv86672]

McDuffie had it planned out to issue 50 with everybody in the book.

Damn that’s hard to learn.

In this day and age I don't see them doing a Justice League line-up with zero minority characters.

The Big 7 has no minorities.

Well, there’s Superman and J’onn, Kryptonians and Martians are nearly extinct.

[DrNewGod]

Well, John GL and Jason Firestorm might help it work.

[Tzigone]

Trying to go with nostalgia and repeat old formulas that succeed in their moment have proved to be a failure.

I really enjoyed those stories (and they were written before I was born). But I agree that appealing to nostalgia isn't the way to go. Even besides the aforementioned demographics, it wouldn't work. The characters have changed too much to have anything like the same interpersonal dynamics and many are at different places in their lives than they were then. And I, sadly, expect we'd just get more Batgod and Identity-Crisis-like crapping on their morality and lots of grimdark and big destruction. Which we didn't have then, despite having some serious storylines and more in-depth characterization and plots than the silver-age it followed. The lineup wouldn't be enough for success on nostalgia grounds. So, if we're going to get back to something, I'd like it to be more heroic heroes, more balance on characters getting attention, higher and lower tier heroes regarding each other as equals, less grimdark, etc.

[TheBatman]

Honestly, we've never really gotten a reunion of the original 7 either. Can't remember the last time we had a JL story where it was just them.

In any event, it'd be cool to reunite them for a one story. Other than that? Let's get a 15 person roster, but with more diversity. In 2020, I'd rather see Black Lightning, Vixen, and Blue Beetle Jaime on the team instead of Red Tornado, Elongated Man, and an extra Hawkperson we don't need.

[Tzigone]

Honestly, we've never really gotten a reunion of the original 7 either. Can't remember the last time we had a JL story where it was just them.

In any event, it'd be cool to reunite them for a one story. Other than that? Let's get a 15 person roster, but with more diversity. In 2020, I'd rather see Black Lightning, Vixen, and Blue Beetle Jaime on the team instead of Red Tornado, Elongated Man, and an extra Hawkperson we don't need.

I say yes to Vixen and Black Lightning. No real desire to see Jaime on a JL team (I adored his 2006 series, and love him and his family, and would like to see more of him as a solo, but have no desire to see him on any sort of team, and if I did, it wouldn't be JL until he was at least a couple years older).

[The no face guy]

I don't know if it was the racial demographics that have changed so radically, just that TPTB at the time had no interest in appealing to anyone other than the straight white majority.

For all the talk of wanting diversity, why doesn't DC just give the Global Guardians a reboot and a real push? Representation (at least in terms of countries) is literally the point of that team.

In 1980 Caucasians made up approximately 80% of the population, today they make up only about 60%....so I would say a good 40% of the JLA should be racially/culturally diverse to represent the present...but that is just my opinion.

As for the Global Guardians, I love them, bring it on!

[Holt]

The Big 7 has no minorities.

Yes and there hasn't been a dedicated series based solely around the original Big 7 in quite some time. They literally retconned Cyborg into founder status after Flashpoint for that exact reason.

[John Venus]

I remember when Morrison did his JLA, he had the League be analogues to the 12 Olympians. But I think the 'Big 7' is too entrenched now, both because of the iconography and because 7 is the most ideal number of characters to juggle in a book.

Still, I like Hawkgirl, Zatanna, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Elongated Man and it doesn't feel right that they spent a good chunk of their publishing history as JL members but somehow aren't considered 'real JL' members. Same goes for Steel and Barda who had cool moments in the Morrison era but don't make the cut. Or characters like Vixen and Black Lightning who are deserving of membership but are frequently cut out. Then you have characters like Cyborg, Faith and Hawkgirl who were founding members in specific incarnations of the League.

Probably the best way to go is to have multiple JL books. I think they've tried this with JL Odyssey. One space based team with Superman, Martian Manhunter, John Stewart GL, Hawkgirl, Red Tornado, one earth based team with WW, Batman, Zatanna, BC, Green Arrow, Elongated Man and one city based team with Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner and Big Barda that's more of a work place comedy. You can have characters moving from one book to another, maybe the space JL needs Zatanna for some magic crisis, maybe Superman drops by the JLI head quarters to check up on Beetle. You could divide the multiple GL's and Flash's among the teams as well.

[Sutekh]

I would like to see that team minus the big 7 and add a few other members.

So Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Atom, Zatanna, Red Tornado, Firestorm, plus a few others like Vixen, Dr Light and Shazam and a younger character like Element Woman.

It would be interesting to see the dynamics without a trinity driving the leadership. Or without GL and Flash stalwarts.

Yeah, I'd love a series based on the less used members of the Satellite League era, particularly Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkwoman, Atom, Red Tornado, Firestorm, Elongated Man and Zatanna, but you could add Black Lightning, Vixen (who is literally my favorite non-big-seven Leaguer), Element Woman, Manitou Raven (in place of Zatanna?), Fire/Green Fury, etc.

[Riv86672]

Yes and there hasn't been a dedicated series based solely around the original Big 7 in quite some time. They literally retconned Cyborg into founder status after Flashpoint for that exact reason.

For as much as I dislike that type of shoehorning, I was okay w. Cyborg’s inclusion, as it was a nice callback to the short lived The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians cartoon. Now if only Ronnie/Stein Firestorm had managed to hitch a ride w. him...

[marvelprince]

As was already pointed out McDuffie’s lineup was similar to this but I think the actual modern incarnation of the Satellite era league was Brad Meltzers lineup. That’s where he brought in Red Tornado (featured heavily in the first arc) and Black Canary with some new elements like making Roy Red Arrow, adding Geo Force, Black Lightning and Red Arrow. I really liked the Kendra / Roy pairing myself honestly. Feel that lineup is underrated.