Banded together from remote galaxies come ten of the most powerful heroes of of all time! Or at least, the next best thing… Welcome to Ten Things: Ten Alternate Justice Leaguers!
Whooshman-Bicarbonate Films, in conjunction with An Amateur Comics Historian and the fact that Hawkeye is canonically the only person to be a member of both the Avengers and the Justice League, Presents:
TEN THINGS: TEN ALTERNATE JUSTICE LEAGUERS!
10) THE ATOM ATOMICA
Initially a spy in the ranks of A.R.G.U.S., Rhonda Pineda even joined the real JLA posing as a legacy for Doctor Ray Palmer, she is in fact from the alternate reality of Earth-3, and a member of the Crime Syndicate. The long-time lover of Johnny Quick, she was devastated at his death, leaving her open to a boot heel death at the hands (feet?) of Prime Lex Luthor.
New 52 JLA is some dark, stuff, friends.
9) HAWKMAN THE AIR MAN
After the murder of his ornithologist father, Drake Stevens channeled his rage and love of birds into revenge. Using a pair of special “gas-filled” wings, Air Man also dropped bombs on his enemies, in keeping with his aerial combat theming. He soon added a jet pack to his repertoire for speed and maneuverability. The Air Man’s 1940 debut comes just seven months after Hawkman, but he was much less successful, appearing only a handful of times.
8) BLACK CANARY BLACK PARTRIDGE
One of Bongo Comics’ two-pronged parodies, in this case combining the Silver Age Black Canary with Shirley Partridge, matriarch of TV’s Partridge Family, Brenda Boyle was first encountered Bleeding Heart while he was searching for a missing teen. Many sources list her as a member of the Superior Squad, Bongo’s premier super-team, but I can’t find any actual issues in which she appears as a member.
7) GREEN ARROW ROBO-HOOD
Discovered hidden in an ancient English castle, the suit of armor that would become Robo-Hood was shipped to a museum in the United States. When security officer Arthur Dodds was shot near it during an attempted heist, King Arthur and Merlin appeared to him, transferring his soul into the mechanical man. Using trick arrows and his nigh-invulnerable form, he fought crime, eventually joining the legendary Round Table of America. During the sixties, his body was destroyed, and an imperfect transfer of Arthur’s soul left him with memories, but no emotions, for maximum pathos.
6) ZATANNA CONJURA
Appearing in the pages of ‘The Super Dictionary’, a 1978 educational co-production of DC Comics and SRA, Conjura’s real name is unrevealed. Since her published adventure is a reworked Zatanna adventure, she uses the same backwards-speaking magic that Ms. Zatara does, along with a couple of mystic trinkets of unknown provenance. Conjura wears a head-covering in all her appearances, making me wonder if the creators weren’t visually coding her as Muslim.
The Super Dictionary is also the source of the “Lex Luthor stole 40 cakes” meme, for those of you who aren’t old enough to remember.
5) GREEN LANTERN LA LUMIÉRE BLEUE
A French superhero and member of Les Heroes de Paris, his real name is unknown, (What’s the French equivalent of Harold?) Wielding the light of truth, La Lumiére Bleue and his allies welcomed The Thing to their ranks when he fled the United States during the first superhero Civil War. Much as he evokes Green Lantern, other members of his team resemble Batman, The Flash, Catwoman and others,
4) THE FLASH THE FLASH
In an as-yet-undesignated alternate reality, it was reporter Iris West and not Barry Allen who became the conduit of the Speed Force and the superhero known as The Flash. When Barry started questioning why he had to take on the winged cowl, he sent his consciousness out through the dimensions to catch a glimpse of a world where he was just Flash’s science guy.
He didn’t seem to like it.
3) WONDER WOMAN POWER PRINCESS
Created in the image of the Power Princess of Earth-712, this version of Zarda Shelton is actually a construct of Mephisto who, with her teammates, serves as a member of the Squadron Supreme of America, under the command of SHIELD agent Phil Coulson. As of this writing, the team is sanctioned by the US Government and operating out of Ohio, and has had several awkward interactions with The Avengers, who remember their predecessors, The Squadron Sinister.
2) BATMAN THE WRAITH
After being attacked by a gang of criminals, Maia Adrianna Montgomery dedicated her attention (and non-inconsiderable fortune) to taking out the weed of crime before it bears its poisonous fruit. With a keen mind and ninja-like resources, Wraith is able to join the Freedom Five even while serving as CEO of her own company. As with nearly all the Sentinels of the Multiverse characters, there is (at least technically) more than one variant of her.
1) SUPERMAN RADIOACTIVE MAN
Bart Simpson’s favorite superhero, Claude Kane III was trapped in an explosion of “pure clean atomic energy”, giving him incredible superhuman powers of flight, strength, energy blasts, and basically whatever else is necessary to get the story over with, in true old-school comics fashion. Though not the brightest bulb at the bottom of the barrel, he makes up for it by also being slow on the uptake, incurious and basically a big dunderhead.
Up and ATOM!
Thanks to Faithful Spoilerite Jason Meunier (@jm_meunier) for this week’s topic, Ten Alternate Justice Leaguers. Feel free to follow along @MightyKingCobra for more Ten Things madness on Twitter or check out the full Twitter archive here! As with any set of like items, these aren’t meant to be hard and fast or absolutely complete, if only because imitation is the sincerest form of comic flattery, barring flat-out duplication. Either way, the comments section is below for just such an emergency, but, as always: Please, no wagering!
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