Justice Guild of America

Justice Guild as shown in the Justice League series

The Justice Guild of America is a superhero team featured in the Justice League animated series two-part episode Legends, an homage to the Golden Age Justice Society of America, and to a degree the Silver Age Justice League of America.

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 also bears more than a passing resemblance to The Village 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, Cat Man, 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 hypothesizes 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.

The JL confront the JGA with this knowledge; shocked, the JGA deny that their existence is a mere illusion. J'onn suspects that Ray Thompson is the key to the bizarre state of this reality. Ray denies knowing anything, but J'onn makes a telepathic link with him, causing him to reveal his true form, a disfigured mutant with the ability to warp reality. Ray's abilities were activated by the holocaust, and he created the time warp as a consequence of their manifestation. With a distorted and nostalgic view of reality, he recreated the world of his childhood and resurrected the heroes he worshiped. Angrily, Ray goes on a rampage and tries to shatter reality, attacking both the JL and the JGA. The Guild heroes are initially unsure of what to do, but eventually decide that they can forfeit their false lives to rebuild Seaboard City as it genuinely is, reasoning that if they could sacrifice themselves once for the citizens, they can do so again. They all attack Ray, overwhelming his mind and causing him to die, shattering the illusion. The League then watches as the JGA dissipate with smiles on their faces.

The Justice League members return to their own Earth using a space/time machine Tom Turbine was working on before his death, powered by Green Lantern's ring; 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.

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 compared to the harshness of the present. The original script of Legends had Ray calling himself Brainwave.^{[citation needed]}
• The idea of Ray's special ability is based on Marvel Comics' Rick Jones summoning the Golden Age heroes in the Avengers' Kree-Skrull War, a story written by Roy Thomas.^{[citation needed]}
• The Justice League staff originally intended to use the Golden Age Justice Society of America, but access to the characters was denied by DC Comics as Paul Levitz felt the story as written disrespected the JSA and the portrayals clashed with the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths JSA in modern comics. However, Levitz agreed to a compromise: The producers could change the names and designs just enough to make the team not quite the JSA, but still get the point across.
• 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. The Streak reflected his era's racism by stating John Stewart is "a credit to (his) people, son".
  • Tom Turbine is a combination of Al Pratt/the Atom and 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. Fox was also the creator of the concept of the DCU Multiverse, and author of the first comic to feature the Multiverse, Flash #123, "The Flash of Two Worlds". 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.

External links

• The Justice Guild Of America
• Legends - Episode Info
• Earth 2.5 timeline