10 Worst Things The Justice League Has Ever Done

While very well intentioned, this Silver Age story was maybe not very well executed.

The Case of the Disabled Justice League saw the team attempting to inspire a hospital full of children dealing with different disabilities. To prove to the children that they are just as capable of being heroes as anyone else, each member took on a different disability as they did their hero business, and still managed to succeed. Superman lost his sight, Flash lost his legs, Green Arrow lost his arms, Hawkman got asthma, and Green Lantern developed a stammer. This was a nice idea, but a clumsy execution made the League come across more like patronising bullies than inspirational role models.

From the way they interact with the children, the JLA seem to be of the weird opinion that the only thing stopping the kids from being superheroes themselves is their bad attitudes. It's got nothing to do with, say, their life-altering paralysis or incurable blindness, for example.

The children, for some reason, delight in being talked down to like this. They promise to stop complaining and do something with their lives, now that they've been taught their disabilities are all in their heads.

It's a shame that the writers just couldn't nail the nuance of the issue, and instead turned the whole affair into something so dispiriting.