The Justice League at 60, Part 7: Pantheon
Throughout the 1960s, Justice League of America was the standard-bearer for DC Comics’ superhero teams. In the 1970s, the series boasted an expanded roster and solid, steady Dick Dillin art. The 1980s brought sweeping, lasting changes, from Detroit to the JLI; and the early ’90s turned the League into a franchise. Still, was any of that ever really cool?
I can’t tell you for sure, but I can say this: starting in the summer of 1996, the Justice League was cool enough for Wizard. The breathless self-appointed arbiter of mainstream superhero comics’ cutting edge was all over JLA in the series’ early years, including a 1997 special issue devoted entirely to the title. It was a super-high concept executed by Grant Morrison, one of the era’s hottest writers. Of course Wizard was going to notice.
Because I couldn’t think of an accessible metaphor that was actually from the 1990s
Specifically, after many years DC had finally managed to wrangle the seven “original” Justice Leaguers back onto the team, and matched them with a writer who a) genuinely loved DC’s Silver Age and b) had amassed a ton of critical acclaim, including proto-Vertigo work on Animal Man and Doom Patrol. What probably seemed like a no-brainer to the fan community must have been the product of massive editorial goodwill – compare Batman overlord Denny O’Neil’s very grounded “urban legend” approach to Morrison’s “most dangerous man on Earth” – but it was simple and efficient.