Justice Lords

The Justice Lords.

The Justice Lords are fictional anti-heroes or villains who first appeared in the two-part Justice League episode, "A Better World" (airdate November 1 2003).

Biography

The Justice Lords are an alternate version of the Justice League from a parallel Earth. The roster of the Justice Lords was the same as the original DCAU Justice League: an alternate Batman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, Superman and Wonder Woman, only with the exception of The Flash.

The Justice Lords' world diverged from that of the Justice League when their universe's Lex Luthor was elected President of the United States. At some point after taking office, Luthor had the Flash assassinated. Also under his administration, Luthor was bringing the world to the brink of a world war, or perhaps even doomsday. By this time, the alternate Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman had decided to retaliate. They stormed the White House and confronted President Luthor. After Luthor goaded the alternate Superman, the enraged Kryptonian targeted Luthor with heat vision and killed him. This decision led to far-reaching consequences, as Superman liked this new brand of "justice". Soon, the other Lords presumably lost faith in the humanity's ability to do what's right, as well as their own moral compasses.

The initial act of staging a coup eventually led to the Justice Lords taking over the world's governments and ruling with an iron fist. Using their satellite base for global suveillance, the Justice Lords went on to suppress free speech, outlaw elections, and to eliminate all crime by lobotomizing all criminals and supervillains. Although they justified their behavior to the masses as "temporary," and to each other as for the good of the people, it amounted to tyranny.

A Better World

The Justice Lords learned of their normal Justice League counterparts when the alternate Batman came across the League while experimenting with a dimensional transporter he had built. Bored with their own largely domesticated world, the Lords decided to "assist" their counterparts by taking over the League's world. The Lords tricked the League into coming to the alternate earth. Upon the League's arrival, they were trapped in a specially designed prison built by the alternate Batman. Later, they were transferred to cells that had been designed to neutralize their powers, except for Hawkgirl, who had suffered serious injuries trying to escape.

When the Lords came to the normal Earth, they soon encountered Doomsday, a giant monstrous fighter. Doomsday had apparently come to challenge Earth's mightiest combatants, and went on a rampage. The Lords, particularly Superman, were more than happy to fight him. Attacking first and asking questions later, the alternate Superman predicted the Lords would win over the normal Earth people with their brand of justice. The fight ended with alternate Superman lobotomizing Doomsday, to the shock of reporter Lois Lane.

The League escaped from their prisons when the Flash, in an attempt to play on his status as martyr in the eyes of the Lords, sped up his heartbeat to trick the alternate Batman into thinking it had flatlined. The alternate Batman responded by releasing the Flash, and was subsequently knocked out. The League then escaped. Most of the League went to Arkham Asylum to retrieve Hawkgirl, except for the normal Batman, who went to the Batcave to hijack the dimensional transporter. There, he engaged the alternate Batman in a fight. Although the fight ended abruptly with the alternate Batman playing off their mutual tragedy, the normal Batman was eventually able to convince the alternate Batman that the Lords' methods were wrong.

Back on the normal Earth, the League approached Lex Luthor, offering him a presidential pardon in exchange for his help against the Lords. The Lords were defeated when the League engaged the Lords again to distract them long enough as Luthor used a power disruptor to strip them of their powers. The depowered Lords were then arrested and it is implied that they were sent back to their own world.

Divided We Fall

The Lords physical appearances made a cameo in the Justice League Unlimited episode, Divided We Fall. This brief cameo was due to Brainiac creating duplicate androids. However, Brainiac added an android duplicate of the Flash in a costume design almost identical to that of Zoom. This was done to distract the League from his and Luthor's ultimate goal of universal domination. Not only did the androids fight the League, but they also played on their worst fears at the time.

Long term effects

The Justice Lords' proposed alteration to the Justice League's world had repercussions in the first two seasons of Justice League Unlimited. The events of "A Better World" added fuel to Amanda Waller's crusade against the destructive capabilities of the metahuman population if the government left it unchecked. Project Cadmus, which originally created to counter Superman if he went rogue, (as shown in the Superman two-parter episode "Legacy,") expanded its threat list to the whole Justice League. It also led to some increasing paranoia and distrust within the rank of the Justice League, including Batman and The Question, who fear that what happened to the Justice Lords' world would eventually happen to theirs when Luthor was getting close on his victory of presidency as his counterpart did.

Inspiration

Though the Justice Lords are, for the most part, based on the Crime Syndicate of America, the story of a "fascist Justice League" is also very similar to a saga that Dan Jurgens wrote during his run on Justice League America titled "Destiny's Hand". In that story, the Atom dreams about the original Justice League becoming the oppressive rulers of the world. Doctor Destiny tries to make this "dream universe" absorb the mainstream reality, and the modern Justice League fights the "evil" old Justice League.

The premise of a Justice League-esque superteam establishing a totalitarian state for what they see as the good of humanity has also been taken up in Marvel Comics' original Squadron Supreme miniseries, its recent re-imagining of that story, in Wildstorm's The Authority, and the Titans Tomorrow storyline from the Teen Titans comic book.

The idea of having criminals surgically altered to prevent them from returning to lives of crime seems reminiscent of Superman: Red Son, which in turn was inspired by Doc Savage, who brainwashed criminals after his battles with them. It was also a plot point in the recent DC Comics mini-series Identity Crisis and in Marvel Comics' original Squadron Supreme miniseries.

Trivia

The Lords' Martian Manhunter's uniform is similar to the new look of the character from 2006 (DCU: Brave New World) onward, while the Lords' Wonder Woman's costume is similar to the 1980s version of Donna Troy, and includes a Double-W insignia on the chest reminiscent of the late-1980s redesign of the character's costume in the comic books.

In the episode A Better World, Batman says he always uses the numbers 91939 for passwords. The numbers can be a reference to the date (9/19/39 or 9/1939) in which Batman was first published in detective comics in '39.

Lord Batman uses a bat symbol similar to that of Terry McGinnis, the Batman of Batman Beyond. Lord Superman wears an outfit that looks similar to that of the Superman of Batman Beyond, with the addition of a cape giving him a look similar to the Eradicator in the Reign of the Supermen storyline. It also bears a slight resemblance to the containment suit worn by Superman Blue in the comics.

The alternate Hawkgirl's look seems to have been based on the look of characters in Hawkworld.

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