The Justice Society in Comics

          When Flash became popular enough to merit an independent title (All-Flash Comics), he was removed and replaced with Johnny Thunder. Characters with solo titles were barred from JSA membership lest they overshadow the other heroes. When Starman became popular, Hourman was dropped and Starman joined the JSA. When Green Lantern earned a solo title, he was replaced with Dr. Mid-Nite. In 1942, Wonder Woman became a honorary member but, to maintain the paradigm, did not participate in adventures. Eventually, Superman and Batman made appearances as honorary members (All-Star Comics #7, All-Star Comics #36) and Sensation back-ups Wildcat (All-Star Comics #24 and #27) and Mr. Terrific (All-Star Comics #24) also made guest shots that ultimately translated into JSA membership. When the popularity of Wonder Woman inspired the creation of more heroines and Black Canary replaced Johnny Thunder in All-Star Comics #38.

All-Star Comics was one of bastion titles of National Comics throughout the war years and lasted until 1951. By this point, most of the other super-hero comics had been cancelled or changed over to non-JSA member titles More Fun Comics, for.instance, ended Dr. Fate and the Spectre, replacing them with Johnny Quick, Aquaman and Green Arrow. Thus, Flash, Green Lantern , Black Canary, the Atom, Hawkman and Dr. Mid-Nite had their last Golden Age appearances in All-Star Comics #57. At this point National/DC comics continued with a broader variety of material including Western and Romance comics in addition to the mainstream Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman related titles.

During the intervening years between the Gold and Silver Ages, perhaps the biggest Justice Society fan in history began to work feverishly for the return of his heroes. Jerry Bails sent a steady stream of letters to DC reminding them of the past glories of the Justice Society in All-Star Comics. In 1956, the revival of the Flash heralded the Silver Age of DC Comics. Bails and an another diehard JSA fan Roy Thomas unknowingly simultaneously bombarded Julie Schwartz with letters begging the return of the JSA. Bails went so far as to write a barrage of letters under a variety of names and addresses, all to the same point. In 1963, he got his wish when the first of them was re-introduced in Flash #123 with the revival of Jay Garrick, the original Flash.

With the resurgent popularity of super-heroes, the Justice Society was revived in The Flash #137 in 1965 (an event foreshadowed in Flash #129). Throughout the Silver Age, the Justice Society made scattered guest appearances primarily as part of the annual Justice League-Justice Society team-ups. In 1976, the Justice Society again got it's own title with the revival of All-Star Comics. The title ran for just two years, ending with issue #74 in 1978. In 1979, Adventure Comics expanded to dollar-priced giant sized books and the the JSA received a regular feature beginning with #461. This run ended early in 1980 with #466 and the reduction of Adventure comics back to regular format. The Justice Society remained in Limbo for the next several years, appearing only as wartime characters of the All-Star Squadron, a book primarily devoted to the lesser lights of the wartime years, as supporting characters in Infinity Inc. , a novel super-team founded by one-time JSAer Star-Spangled Kid, and of course, the annual Justice League/Justice Society team-up. In 1985, DC Comics decided that their long history was finally more of a burden than a boon. They created a mini-series called Crisis on Infinite Earths, the ultimate act of which was to compress the myriad Earths in DC Continuity into one. Earth-2, it's history and all of it's redundant characters were lost in the compression. Furthermore, they decided that the Justice Society was simply too old and out of sync with modern comics to be a viable concept. Roy Thomas then wrote what was supposed to be the final Justice Society story, "The Last Days of the Justice Society". Rather than kill off his beloved characters, Thomas penned a story in which the JSAers replaced the Gods of Norse myth, staving off Ragnarok by repeating the battle throughout eternity. This placed the JSA in a comic book limbo where they would in theory remain forever.

The JSA, however, has become a comic book institution and demand for their return was high. In 1991, an 8 issue limited series was offered featuring several JSA members in a post-war struggle with Vandal Savage. In 1992, the mini-series Armageddon Inferno returned the JSA to the mainstream DC Universe and they were almost immediately given their own series, the first with the actual name of the group in the title. After 10 issues however, the title was cancelled. Within a year, DC began it's Zero Hour cross-overs, a "clean-up" operation designed to correct the dangling continuity threads from "Crisis". The first thread to be tied off was the Justice Society, who engaged the series antagonist in issue #3. Each of them were aged into advanced senescence, and several were slain out right. At the end of the series, the JSA was pronounced permanently disbanded.

As has gone before, DC Fandom was not content to let the legendary heroes disappear into history. In 1999, a new efforts were made to revive the characters include an entire week of titles dedicated to JSA members, a series called JLA/JSA in which the history of the characters post-Crisis was fleshed out and a new series, starring the heirs of the JSA was created. After 60 years of dedicated effort, the Justice Society still has a role in the comics of today.