Justice Guild of America
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The Justice Guild of America is a superhero team featured in the Justice League animated series two-part episode Legends, a homage to the Golden Age Justice Society of America, and to a degree the Silver Age Justice League of America.[1]
[edit] Synopsis
At the climax of a fight with a giant robot, the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and J'onn J'onzz end up on a parallel Earth (existing in a different vibrational frequency from the JL's own) in an idyllic 1950s locale, Seaboard City, that more than a little resembles Pleasantville or other such havens. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the seemingly perfect island of The Prisoner and features an ice cream van which plays "Pop Goes the Weasel", a tune regularly employed on that show.
There they meet the Justice Guild of America members -- Tom Turbine, the Streak, the Green Guardsman (not to be confused with Green Guardsman of Amalgam Comics), Black Siren, Catman, and their sidekick Ray Thompson. These were comic book characters on the Justice League's Earth about whom Green Lantern read as a child. Tom Turbine hypothesises that the JGA writer was psychically tuned in to their Earth during flashes of "inspiration"; this is a nod to the explanation Gardner Fox provided for the JSA/JLA link in his September 1961 story Flash of Two Worlds in which the Barry Allen Flash of Earth-One encounters Jay Garrick, his Earth-Two counterpart.
Probing deeper into inconsistencies found in the "perfect" Seaboard City, the Leaguers find that the JGA actually died when their world's Cuban Missile Crisis escalated into World War III, and they perished in the resultant U.S.-Soviet nuclear exchange. Ray Thompson's psychic abilities were activated by the holocaust, and he created the time warp as a consequence of their manifestation. He is either a mutant or was disfigured during a nuclear strike. With a distorted and nostalgic view of reality, he re-created the world of his childhood and resurrected the heroes he worshipped.
The JL confront the JGA with this knowledge; shocked, the JGA deny that their existence is a mere illusion. Ray Thompson, however, goes on a rampage and tries to shatter reality, attacking both the JL and the JGA. Finally, the JGA decide that they can forfeit their false lives to re-build Seaboard City as it genuinely is, reasoning that if they could sacrifice themselves once for the citizens, they can do so again.
The Justice League members return to their own Earth using a space/time machine Tom Turbine was working on before his death; meanwhile, in Seaboard City, the inhabitants are freed from a web of lies, and begin to rebuild their shattered world.
On his own Earth, John Stewart ponders on how much the JGA comics meant to him when he was young and the impact the comics' cancellation in 1962 (the year the actual team died) had on him. He remarks to Hawkgirl that the JGA taught him the meaning of the word hero, a commentary on the bright, optimistic Golden and Silver Age's contrast to the Modern Age's grittiness and angst.
[edit] Homages
- Bruce Timm has commented that Ray Thompson is based on both Roy Thomas, who collaborated on the animated series, due to his famous admiration of the Golden Age comics, and science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury, because many of Bradbury's stories deal with nostalgia for the past, compared to the harshness of the present. The original script of Legends had Ray calling himself Brainwave; this idea never made it to the screen since the producers weren't able to use any Golden Age characters directly.
- The idea of Ray's special ability is based on Rick Jones summoning the Golden Age heroes in the Avengers's Kree-Skrull War, a story written by Roy Thomas.
- The Justice League staff originally intended to use the Justice Society of America roll-call, but access to the characters was denied by DC Comics as portrayals clashed with the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths JSA in modern comics.
- Before coming up with the name JGA, the creative team considered both Justice Battalion of America and Justice Squadron of America.
- Members of the Justice Guild were intended to reflect:
- The Streak resembles Jay Garrick/the Flash. His role as leader of the Justice Guild mirrors the Flash's role as the first chairman of the Justice Society.
- Tom Turbine is a combination of Al Pratt/the Atom and Kal-L/Superman.
- Green Guardsman resembles Alan Scott/Green Lantern, and where Alan Scott's power is ineffective against wood, the Green Guardsman's has no control over aluminium. His alter ego is given as Scott Mason.
- Catman amalgamates Wildcat and Batman; however, the Batman he resembles is closer to Adam West's over-the-top live-action series from the 1960s.
- Black Siren is a pre-feministic Black Canary. The name given on her tombstone, Donna Vance, is similar to that of the original Black Canary, Dinah Drake Lance.
- JGA enemies the Injustice Guild were modified versions of the Injustice Society:
- The Music Master resembles the Fiddler.
- The Sportsman resembles the Sportsmaster.
- Dr. Blizzard resembles the Icicle.
- Sir Swami resembles the Wizard.
- The episode ends with "Respectfully dedicated to the memory of Gardner F. Fox." Gardner Fox was a prominent writer of both the Golden and Silver Age era and co-created both the JSA and the JLA. This is among the DCAU episodes that pay homage to those writers, another being Superman: The Animated Series episode Apokolips... Now! which was dedicated to Jack Kirby.
- Legends was also inspired by the JSA/JLA team-ups pre-Crisis.
- Comics roots were gleaned from Flash of Two Worlds and Crisis on Earths 1 and 2.
- The Justice Guild's world diverged from that of the Justice League (and our own) in 1962, shortly after Gardner Fox's original "Flash of Two Worlds." This may be intended to counterpoint Golden and Silver Age naivety with underlying political tensions, such as the aforementioned Cuban Missile Crisis.
