Andy Helfer's Introduction to the Justice League, Part 1 (from Justice League #2)
"There are heroes...and then, there are HEROES.
All of us have seen both kinds -- the upper case variety, which stir the imagination and keep readers coming back each month; and the lower case kind, which, failing to ignite the fires of enthusiasm, seem to drift away after a few months, eventually being relegated to permanent second-banana status.
Heroes, of both the upper as well as the lower case variety, don't die easy deaths -- after all, it's hard to kill a guy who's just doing the best he can.
But, as the saying goes -- sometimes good isn't good enough -- and so, upon ye olde editor's heavy shoulders fell the task of dismantling the old JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA. I'd worked on the book for about a year before then, clinging to the belief that even the lower case heroes had the potential to slowly but surely rise up, and someday take their place beside the great, upper case heroes -- if not to reach the stature of, say, SUPERMAN, BATMAN, or WONDER WOMAN, well then, at least, to stand proudly beside the likes of THE ATOM, or MARTIAN MANHUNTER.
Alas, such was not to be the case. We looked out onto the great sea of faces that is comic book fandom, and saw red, fevered eyes, yellowed fang-like teeth, and up raised fists. We heard the cries for blood...
...and we gave the people what they wanted.
Not that we blame you guys out there in fandom. Quite the contrary. As an editor, I don't believe I've ever seen a larger group of fans actually ROOTING for a book's success; I'd been practically TACKLED by fans at conventions across the country, accosted by young adults wearing GREEN LANTERN costumes, and even BEGGED by members of the Fan Press contingent (especially one Mark Wade -- thanks for waiting, guy!) -- and all of them would say the EXACT same thing: "PULEESSE make the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA great again!!" They were fans-in-waiting, all of them. They WANTED DC's first Silver Age team book to be the BEST comics had to offer. They really CARED.
It touched us in some way -- though, at first, we found this overwhelming sentiment a bit perplexing. We couldn't figure out WHY fans seemed almost RABID about the success of the JLA... it had to be MORE than a sense of nostalgia that motivated them to implore a change. We thought about it a long while, and came up with this.
The JUSTICE LEAGUE of AMERICA defines the greatest of DC's heroes in a way which "solo" superhero books can not -- that is, it defines the individual heroes in a context of their peers -- it deals with the FRATERNITY OF HEROES, and allows readers, for a few brief moments, to enter into that private world, and see how heroes interact with EACH OTHER, rather than the "ordinary" people the heroes are sworn to protect, or the villains they are duty-bound to battle.
In many ways, this was precisely what the "old" JLA was missing. So the above paragraph became the basis for our attempt to recapture the lost glory of the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, a stepping-stone on the long road back. It was true, it was functional -- but it was just a beginning.
At the point we came up with that paragraph, writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Luke McDonnell were just about ready to begin work on the four-part series-within-a-series that would signal the end of the JUSTICE LEAGUE as we knew it. Fellow editor Mike Gold had just kicked development of the LEGENDS miniseries into high gear, and it had been decided from the stat that its conclusion would serve as a jump-off points for a "NEW" JLA.
That was pretty much all we had to go on -- except for the fact that we KNEW it had to be GOOD. This was, after all, 1986 -- the year that brought readers the most sweeping, comprehensive series of positive changes ever to hut the DC Universe. Beginning in January, with the GREEN LANTERN CORPS, then, in mid-year, with DARK KNIGHT, BATMAN: YEAR ONE, MAN OF STEEL, all three new SUPERMAN TITLES, and last, but not least, the new WONDER WOMAN...whew. Talk about tough acts to follow!
But a creative crew ready to tackle the challenge was waiting at ye olde editor's doorstep. Well, actually...
Keith Giffen used to slip nasty notes UNDER my office door. They said things like "GIVE ME JUSTICE LEAGUE!" and "I WANNA WRITE THE JLA!" This had been going on for well over a year, and, coupled with his shouting after me down DC's editorial office hallways, I got the feeling he wanted to work on the book. When the chance came, we both jumped at it. Keith is, without a doubt, one of the most imaginative plotters I've ever met in this business. His ideas come in blinding, rapid-fire succession -- it's a dizzying experience, but a truly rewarding one. Chances are you've just read the product of at least one of our periodic plotting sessions, in which Keith talks, and I eat -- and we promise that both storylines and plotting sessions will get even wilder and weirder as time goes by.
Well, Keith's arrival handled the basic problem of finding a writer to work with in developing the series. Now we needed an artist. Luke McDonnell had decided to take on another new book, which should be out as you read this. It's called SUICIDE SQUAD, and we won't change the subject by saying anything more than "it's good. Buy it." So, we needed an artist -- preferably someone who would set the world on fire with a bold new style. No problem.
Kevin Maguire used to work in Marvel's bullpen, as one of "Romita's Raiders," an apprentice program of sorts, which grooms young up-and-coming artists for comic work. He (and his work, presumably) were spotted there by DC writer Kurt Busiek. Kurt immediately rushed Kevin (and his work) over to DC's offices, and proposed him as the artist for Kurt's upcoming WILDCARD miniseries. We agreed -- but we were SO taken by the dynamic range of Kevin's artwork that we countered Kurt's proposal by offering Kevin BOTH the WILDCARD miniseries, as well as a permanent place as pencil artist on the new JUSTICE LEAGUE. You'll be seeing Kevin's work on WILDCARD in the not-too-distant-future, but for now, this is where you can find his stuff.
Okay, well, we had a writer, and an artists -- now all we needed was a DIRECTION. Perhaps the hardest part of all, it was MORE than just doing the job of chronicling the adventures of the JLA correctly that was necessary here -- that was a given. In addition, we had to REDEFINE the group, just as the other creative teams had cleaned their houses of the flotsam and jetsam that had accumulated over the years to reveal new interpretations of the great upper case HEROES.
And more than even that -- we had to find a reason, as the others had done with their characters, for why this new JLA DESERVED to be blessed with a new beginning -- that's right: a new FIRST ISSUE. We could not simply return to the old glory days here -- this was NUMBER ONE all over again, so there had better be a good reason for it.
There was. First things first, though. We'd immediately decided that the "OF AMERICA" part of the logo had to go. Despite what Ronald Reagan might tell you, these times are somewhat different then the "good old days" when the JLA first hit the scene. Sure, we're still proud of our country, and yes, we still sometimes fear the same foreign influences we did way back then. But this planet is a lot smaller than it used to be. In a world where trans-global communication is an everyday fact of life, where the term "Global Village" is as commonplace as "Chicken McNuggets," the old rules don't apply. So we were no longer dealing with a group of card-carrying Americans here-- instead, these heroes are citizens of the WORLD -- and though their group affiliation TITLE never really 'fessed up to it, they always were.
Even in the old days, the emphasis on America was down played. The JLA saved the WORLD, the UNIVERSE, every month -- the considerations of America were almost petty in comparison. Even though they consistently stated their national affiliation (and even though there always seemed to be at least one MARTIAN in the group) the JLA always represented the interests of more than a single country. They played for the BIG STAKES -- and perhaps the insistence on maintaining the "America" led to some confusion on the part of readers. Perhaps. We don't really know. Either way, though, we immediately dropped the "Of America."
And THAT led to the BIG IDEA. It was a natural outgrowth, really -- and since we would LOVE to extend these ramblings long enough for us to start getting your cards and letters to reprint (hint hint), we'll save that part for next month. In addition to that, we'll tell you a bit more about Keith and Kevin, as well as giving you some insights into the strange return of J.M. DeMatteis into the JLA fold, and the last of our top-line editorial arrivals, inker, and part-time rock 'n roller, Al Gordon.
And if you're the kind that like to hear about next month's issue as WELL as next month's text page, we'll tell you that #3 features our very first in what promises to be a LONG LINE of new additions to the JUSTICE LEAGUE fold. And no, we ain't gonna tell you who he is here-- so quit askin'!
-- Andy Helfer
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