10 Times The Justice League Were Utterly Destroyed

The Rock of Ages story arc was created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter, beginning with JLA issue #10 and completed in the phenomenal issue #15. Metron of the New Gods approached Aquaman, Flash, and Green Lantern for their assistance to track down the Philosopher’s Stone. He gave each hero miniature Mother Boxes and sent them through a portal where they traveled to multiple worlds. In JLA #13, the heroes made their way back to their own Earth but in the wrong time period. They awoke in vastly changed bodies. Worse, Darkseid ruled this world.

Aquaman gathered any heroes he could find, including Batman, who was impersonating DeSaad, Darkseid’s chief torturer, for months. Finally confronting Darkseid, no one could defeat his personal shield until Atom deduced that light could penetrate it. Green Arrow shot a flare arrow at the despot, which Atom rode in and destroyed Darkseid’s brain. Realizing that it was the destruction of the Philosopher’s Stone that made this world possible, the three heroes race back to their time.

In the present, the JLA and Injustice Gang were in the middle of a pitched battle. Luthor was about to destroy the stone he used to control the alien Jemm when J’onn received a telepathic scream from Kyle Rayner to protect it. The Manhunter did so, badly burning his hands. Realizing how close their mistakes came to destroying their world, the founding members chose to disband the JLA.