The Justice League is also referred to as the Justice League of America (JLA) is based on a team made up of DC Comics’ superheroes. The league first showed up in The Brave and the Bold #28 in 1960.

The league members first included Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Batman, Superman, Flash, the Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman. Over the years the characters changed and new ones came in such as Atom, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Captain Marvel, Plastic Man, and Hawkman to name a few.

Various versions of the team have been published over the years. Justice League of America, Justice league International, Justice League Elite, Justice League Europe, and Extreme Justice League have all been used as team titles.

The league still remains popular with most fans because in any versions the team has very popular DC characters in it. It has also been in other media forms such as the Super Friends animated series that aired on Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1986. Rumor has it that there is also going to be a live action movie release in 2011.

History of Publication

The Justice League of America first appeared in 1960 in The Brave and the Bold #28 and wound up being one of DC Comics’ top selling titles. Gardner Fox was the sole writer of all the adventures of the league in the 1960s. The artist on this project for the 1st 5 years was Mike Sekowsky.

In 1970 the Justice League needed new headquarters that were more secure. They decided to have a satellite that was orbiting as their new headquarters. This appeared in the #78 issue of the Justice League of America in February 1970.

During the seventies several writers were involved in JLA. They included Cary Bates, Gerry Conway, Steve Engelbert, and E. Nelson Bridwell. Dick Dillin was the primary artist during the seventies however. The popularity for the series went up in 1982 when artist George Perez came in due to Dick Dillin's death, but sadly this increase in popularity did not last long.

In 1984 DC changed the JLA heroes to young superheroes attempting to copy the success of the New Teen Titans. They moved the JLA headquarters to Detroit but this did not set well with the fans. The major criticism was that this Justice League was filled with second-rate heroes.

1987 saw the formation of the Justice League International. In the 1990s there were other spin offs such as Extreme Justice, Justice League Task Force, and Justice League Europe. None of which were extremely popular.

This prompted a revamp of JLA during 1996 and 1997. This series, in an attempt at a "back-to-basics" approach, used as its core the team's most famous seven members: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, and the Martian Manhunter. The title wound up becoming DC Comics top selling title.

It has been reported in 2008 that James Robinson and Mauro Cascioli will team up to do a new series on the Justice League. It will simply be named Justice League. According to Robinson, this series will be about "justice and seeking justice, rather than responding to emergencies, letting the problems come to them, and being almost entirely reactive". So the fans have this to look forward to.