Justice Society Of America - Explained

5. What Is The JSA?

The Justice Society of America (or JSA, for short) first appeared all the way back in 1940, as the main feature of All-Star Comics #3. They were DC's first ever super-team, and brought together a number of the publisher's most popular characters into one book, including The Flash, Hawkman and Green Lantern.

While that was the team's original incarnation, it wasn't the most ionic. Today, arguably the most recognisable version of the JSA comes from Geoff Johns' stint on the book in the mid-to-late noughties. Johns collaborated on the comic alongside writer David S. Goyer, who co-launched the rebooted JSA alongside James Robinson in 1999, and it's really where the team experienced their best success in the modern age of comics.

The relaunched JSA took the original team and mixed them with newer characters, placing a key focus on legacy and how integral it was to the DC universe at large. A later 2006 comic (again led by Johns), presented the most identifiable version of the JSA yet, aided in part by a series of covers from artist Alex Ross, who cemented Mister Terrific, Wildcat and others as key figures on the team. This version of the comic followed the idea that they were the WW2 era precursors to the more famous Justice League, but maintained that they were still a group that operated alongside the League in later years.

Sound simple? Good. Because things only get more confusing afterwards. Basically all you need to know is that the JSA are effectively another Justice League, only with more of an inter-generational element at play. Older characters like the original Flash (Jay Garrick) and Green Lantern (Alan Scott) are both key members, but relatively newer characters like Mister Terrific and Stargirl also fill their ranks. Legacy is the name of the game, and the JSA possess it in spades.

Or at least it did, until the retcons came along...