Classic Satellite era Justice League appreciation - best era of the justice league.

[Güicho]

What if... Crisis ended differently and the Satellite Era never ended..?

What was the implication JLA #240 written by Kurt Busiek, which during the Detroit League seemed for an issue to return to the classic Satellite League?
Was it written as a flashback story? Or was it being implied the original team were all still active elsewhere, just not as the main focus of the book?

Also #250 (anniversary issue) during the Detroit League seemed to return for another issue to the classic team.

Again was it a flashback tale, were they implying the Classic League was always still active?

Also the header Triumphant Return of the World's Greatest Heroes, seems not only a slap in the face to what was then the current team, but was it actually their "triumphant return" acknowledging them as the League, or just a guest appearance?

[Lee Stone]

I'd have been fine with this Justice League instead of the Detroit.
Some of them really had no reason not to continue on the League, other than it clashed with the Teen Titans League editorial was set on building.

Aquaman, Zatanna, Vixen, J'onn J'onzz and Elongated Man made it to the final cut of the Justice League Detroit. IMHO, Vixen was the only one of the new additions that really seemed like League material.
The Hawks were involved in something called the Shadow War (sound really interesting, but I never read it. Don't know exactly why this kept them from sticking with the League. Appearently there went outlaw).
Atom was living in the Amazonian Jungle, stuck at a few inches high (a problem that I'm sure could have been fixed, if they so wanted).
There was no serious reason for Firestorm not to have stuck with the League, other than Professor Stein not wantng to.
Green Lantern John Stewart was Hal Jordan's replacement on the corps. No reason for him not to have done the same with the League (with whom he had already worked a couple of times before), other than, suddenly, he considered himself to inexperienced to do so (didn't bother him before).
Batgirl was, if I'm not mistaken, retired at the time. Not much of a problem to fix.
The retirement of the satélite Justice League happened a year or so before Crisis. No reason for Supergirl not to have joined the team in her cousin's place.

So, the fact is: Why didn't something like this happen to refresh the Justice League? Because it was not what editorial wanted. They wanted a Teen Titans League, and it was what they gave us.
I liked the Justice League Detroit, but it wasn't the League for me, and I missed the powerful first line of defense kind of League.

Peace

True.
And if you'd been reading the letter pages at the time, there were several readers that were asking for Batgirl and Supergirl to join for a long time.
They had no idea that they would never see that happen and the League they knew would be changed forever in 1984.

New Teen Titans (itself a variation of the Giant-Size X-Men approach) League is about right.
Not only did the League get put through the "by-the-numbers" membership change (half old guard/half new with each of the new members designed to fit a target demographic and bring diversity- Gypsy-young female Madonna/Cyndi Lauper, Steel-young male cyborg, Vibe-young Hispanic breakdancer, Vixen-young African American and the designated Wolverine/Changeling member), but there was also a move from plot-based storytelling to character-based. Note that most of the character spotlight stories and solo covers were in the Detroit era.

Meanwhile, all of DC suddenly became "self-aware" as a tighter continuity began to creep over the landscape with Crisis.
The League had gone 24 years with barely any reflection of the other books. The only thing I can think of is when Wonder Woman went through her new look and left the team for a while.

I think if the League had been left alone, Batgirl, Supergirl and John Stewart would have become full members and Vixen would have still made it in as long as Gerry Conway was writing.

There are other characters that were League-worthy... but they were held back by being on different worlds: Captain Marvel, Plastic Man, Dr. Fate and Mister Miracle.
Mister Miracle, however, could have probably eventually made it to the League as the New Gods did frequent Earth quite often.
And an Earth-1 Eric Strauss Dr. Fate could have easily been created by the Lords of Order, with Kent Nelson going into temporary retirement on Earth-2 and returning with the old half-helmet to help differentiate the two (like Hawkman).
Huntress and Power Girl were popular enough to have jumped Earths to join but doing so would be unnecessary as Batgirl and Supergirl were readily available.

Matter of fact, the JSA had gone through the "new blood" phase more in a fashion that was expected of a League type team when Huntress, Power Girl, Robin and Star-Spangled Kid joined.
The JLA equivalent could have been Batgirl, Supergirl, Nightwing and Speedy or Garth... or even John Stewart in the Star-Spangled Kid slot since there was no real counterpart.
And with Nightwing busy in the Titans, Conway could push to put Vixen in then.
So Batgirl, Supergirl, John Stewart and Vixen could have been very likely had the Satellite Era not ended.

And the Justice League Unlimited cartoon, removing any characters that weren't originally from Earth-1, could very well have been a mirror of the future of the JLA.

[Buried Alien]

What was the implication JLA #240 written by Kurt Busiek, which during the Detroit League seemed for an issue to return to the classic Satellite League?
Was it written as a flashback story? Or was it being implied the original team were all still active elsewhere, just not as the main focus of the book?

Also #250 (anniversary issue) during the Detroit League seemed to return for another issue to the classic team.

Again was it a flashback tale, were they implying the Classic League was always still active?

Also the header Triumphant Return of the World's Greatest Heroes, seems not only a slap in the face to what was then the current team, but was it actually their "triumphant return" acknowledging them as the League, or just a guest appearance?

Had to be flashbacks. During this timeframe, Hal wasn't GL, and everybody else was neck-deep in the Crisis. Nobody had seen Flash (Barry) since the end of his murder trial.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Lee Stone]

What was the implication JLA #240 written by Kurt Busiek, which during the Detroit League seemed for an issue to return to the classic Satellite League?
Was it written as a flashback story? Or was it being implied the original team were all still active elsewhere, just not as the main focus of the book?

Also #250 (anniversary issue) during the Detroit League seemed to return for another issue to the classic team.

Again was it a flashback tale, were they implying the Classic League was always still active?

Also the header Triumphant Return of the World's Greatest Heroes, seems not only a slap in the face to what was then the current team, but was it actually their "triumphant return" acknowledging them as the League, or just a guest appearance?

I think it was more of an accidental, yet still suspect, use of lettering,
For years, the covers of JLA had "The World's Greatest Heroes!" above the logo, as the general concept of the team was summed up pretty well with that one phrase.
So it had become synonymous with the pre-Detroit incarnation.

Other things that marked the Detroit League, cover-wise were the character-centric covers (#233-236, 239, 242, 244, 245, 248, 255, 256, 259-261) and scenes where they were overwhelmed or having to prove themselves (#238 - "Let's show what we can do!", 241 - Gypsy and Dale Gunn are running away, and what exactly is Vixen doing..?, 243 - the Detroit League defeated and Aquaman, with Mera, to the rescue, 246 - Eviction notice, "And don't come back!", 249 - "Help me..." INDEED!, 255, 259 and 260)

Looking at the Detroit era covers, the only ones that really look like classic JLA covers (aside from #237, 240 and 250, obviously) are #251-254, which also happen to be the Despero issues.
#247 comes very close but it's missing an A-lister and Vixen is being vulnerable while the others are oblivious to her abduction.

[Nomads1]

What was the implication JLA #240 written by Kurt Busiek, which during the Detroit League seemed for an issue to return to the classic Satellite League?
Was it written as a flashback story? Or was it being implied the original team were all still active elsewhere, just not as the main focus of the book?

Also #250 (anniversary issue) during the Detroit League seemed to return for another issue to the classic team.

Again was it a flashback tale, were they implying the Classic League was always still active?

Also the header Triumphant Return of the World's Greatest Heroes, seems not only a slap in the face to what was then the current team, but was it actually their "triumphant return" acknowledging them as the League, or just a guest appearance?

Justice League of América #240 was a fill-in issue (something kind of commun in those days of books sold in drugstores and grocery stores, in which, unlike today, you could not miss the shipping deadline), taken out of the JLA casebook. ie. a flashback tale.
But Justice League of América #250 was an in-continuity tale of the Justice League in which some members of the original team (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern - Hal Jordan, freshly returned to the role, Green arrow and Black Canary) return to pull the fat of remaining members of the Justice League Detroit (J'onn J'onzz - acting leader, Gypsy, Vixen, Elongated man and wife, Vibe and Steel, Aquaman having recently quit the team and Zatanna missing) out of the fire. The adventure was in the JLA's original cave headquarters, which was then being taken over by the fomerly Detroit group, and ended up with Batman returning to lead the team. The resto of the original members returned to their previous lives, leaving the security of the world "safely" in the hands of an even less powerful Justice League Formerly Detroit. That was waaaaaay before the age of the internet, but even by snailmail fans couldn't scream loud enough that they wanted the original World's Greatest Heroes to return, but this was what they got.
As I said, I was actually a fan of the Detroit League (more for the potential I thought they had, then for what we got. I've always had a soft spot for the underdog), but I could perfectly understand those that were not happy with it.

Peace

[silly]

[Güicho]

Justice League of América #240 was a fill-in issue (something kind of commun in those days of books sold in drugstores and grocery stores, in which, unlike today, you could not miss the shipping deadline), taken out of the JLA casebook. ie. a flashback tale.
But Justice League of América #250 was an in-continuity tale of the Justice League in which some members of the original team (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern - Hal Jordan, freshly returned to the role, Green arrow and Black Canary) return to pull the fat of remaining members of the Justice League Detroit (J'onn J'onzz - acting leader, Gypsy, Vixen, Elongated man and wife, Vibe and Steel, Aquaman having recently quit the team and Zatanna missing) out of the fire. The adventure was in the JLA's original cave headquarters, which was then being taken over by the fomerly Detroit group, and ended up with Batman returning to lead the team. The resto of the original members returned to their previous lives, leaving the security of the world "safely" in the hands of an even less powerful Justice League Formerly Detroit. That was waaaaaay before the age of the internet, but even by snailmail fans couldn't scream loud enough that they wanted the original World's Greatest Heroes to return, but this was what they got.

Ah thanks, it seems like they had to be aware of the fans call to return to the more classic League, hence the Anniversary issue teased their "return".

As I said, I was actually a fan of the Detroit League (more for the potential I thought they had, then for what we got. I've always had a soft spot for the underdog), but I could perfectly understand those that were not happy with it.

Peace

I do wish instead of killing and retiring them, they had reworked them a bit, and just merged them into the classic League, with a rotating roster.
But they went in a very different direction.

[Güicho]

Nice Timm style homage, i like that they added the oft left out hawkwoman.



Not sure if this is somewhat Alex Ross' take on it ...

[Buried Alien]

It is interesting that after the Detroit JL of A folded, the next move wasn't to restore the classic satellite lineup (except with Wally as the Flash), but to go with the even *more* nonstandard lineup of JLI. Another decade would pass before a "classic' lineup Justice League (Grant Morrison's) would emerge.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Güicho]

Someone else posted these here a while back...




Answers (as if anyone needs them) :P - http://i.imgur.com/Di1rwBc.jpg

[Güicho]

More near full cast group shots....







This last one is pretty epic! (although I digitally tweaked it a bit and added Zee)

[Güicho]

Satellite era mailroom header...




From the NY Daily News comic strip, kind of embed as my image of the JL...



Paul Smith

[Lee Stone]

It is interesting that after the Detroit JL of A folded,the next move wasn't to restore the classic satellite lineup (except with Wally as the Flash), but to go with the even *more* nonstandard lineup of JLI. Another decade would pass before a "classic' lineup Justice League (Grant Morrison's) would emerge.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Disclaimer: the following is an opinion based on observation and speculation.

I believe JLI was created as one thing and morphed into another by the end of the first year.
From the start, JLI was basically DC flaunting the new post-Crisis DC Universe with a team that was very likely editorially mandated (Dr. Fate from Earth-2, Mister Miracle from New Genesis/Earth-14, Captain Marvel from Fawcett/Earth-S, Blue Beetle from Charlton, Guy Gardner - Green Lantern legacy, Dr. Light - connection to Crisis and JLA villain namesake, Batman and Martian Manhunter from the previous JLA, and returning member Black Canary who just so happens to singularly embody what Crisis was all about - the merging of histories and Earths into something new yet familiar).
Booster was probably added to spotlight being the first new Post-Crisis hero for DC (he totally missed Crisis and was a posterchild for the "New DC"), then Captain Atom (USA) and Rocket Red (Russia) were added for the culmination of the initial concept of JLI.

Meanwhile, Giffen and DeMatteis made the book their own with a focus on characterization. And by #8 (Moving Day) the foundation was made for what JLI would become.
I believe all the members up to #7 were editorially mandated to reflect a Post-Crisis melting pot DCU and then reach an International status. Fire & Ice were most likely the first new members that Giffen & DeMatteis actually requested for the book (to add more females and broaden the International feel).
The JLI, as it started, was really a modern day JLA with the 'World's Greatest Heroes' again.
Matter of fact, three (Dr. Fate, Captain Marvel and Mister Miracle) would have been prime candidates for JLA membership, already being in Super Powers and even having their own action figures. But it couldn't have easily happened Pre-Crisis. They had already played that card, twice, with Black Canary and Red Tornado and it would run the risk of being a cliché.
Unfortunately, DC was still trying to figure out how to balance a Post-Crisis reality of a tighter continuity with a JLA-type book. So Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash were off-limits to avoid questions of how can they be in two places at once. Things readers overlooked Pre-Crisis suddenly became taboo. The new universe had to make sense as a whole. Where does this book fit with that..? That issue with this..? Continuity was "in".

I don't think they relaxed the continuity again until sometime after Zero Hour.
I think Pre-Crisis was pretty carefree and fast'n'loose, Post-Crisis was held in a rigid iron hand and Post-Zero Hour was like a sweet spot between the two.

Interestingly, the formation of the JSA (JLA's predecessor) went against the ideals of the post-Crisis DCU.
The eight members were headliners of DC's anthology titles, being chosen because they were appearing in the other books but didn't have their own solo comic (which is why Batman and Superman were reserves).
In Post-Crisis, a team book featuring eight characters that all appeared regularly in other titles would have been an editorial nightmare.

[OBrianTallent]

Satellite era mailroom header...




From the NY Daily News comic strip, kind of embed as my image of the JL...



Paul Smith

That Paul Smith is gorgeous! I don't think I've ever seen him do anything for DC before.

[Nomads1]

That Paul Smith is gorgeous! I don't think I've ever seen him do anything for DC before.

Then you REALLY should try and track this down:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...s=books&sr=1-6

Peace