The Justice League is DC Comics’ premiere superhero team. As such, they continually have epic battles against nigh-unbeatable foes. Over the decades, a tradition has begun of one-upmanship from one story to the next. Unfortunately, this isn’t always successful— but when it is, it creates comic book gold.
Most of the time, these battles take place over multiple issues of the Justice League series. This follows multiple issues of set up that lead to the climactic battle. The best ones find a way to add tension when so many of the team’s members are capable of the impossible, each nearly unbeatable in their own right.
10 Doomsday Shatters The Justice League
Doomsday was a threat created to kill Superman and it carried into Justice League America #69 by Dan Jurgens and Rick Burchett. At the time, Superman led Justice League America, so they naturally came to his assistance against this threat carving a path of destruction towards Metropolis. Unfortunately, they didn’t fare very well, noted by the point that none of them died.
Blue Beetle did get beaten into a coma by Doomsday, who managed to take down the Justice League one by one. They didn’t function as a team, each going after the villain one by one. Superman wasn’t with them at the time they engaged the creature, but they were hopelessly overmatched.
9 JLA Fights Despero & A Member (Kind Of) Dies
In Justice League America #38-40 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Adam Hughes, and Joe Rubenstein, Despero returns to Earth for revenge against the Justice League of America. With Justice League International taking its place, they get in the way of this revenge. That’s just fine with Despero since one of the Leaguers he wants revenge against is the Martian Manhunter, also in the JLI.
In the course of the battle, Mister Miracle attacked Despero with a JLI cruiser to save Blue Beetle but is killed when Despero blows up the cruiser. Martian Manhunter eventually stops Despero, but the League still has to bury and mourn Mister Miracle. What no one realizes is that the Mister Miracle that died is a robotic duplicate placed by Funky Flashman while the actual Mister Miracle went on an interplanetary tour.
8 Their First Battle With Darkseid Brought the Justice League Together
With the launch of the New 52, a new Justice League origin was shaped by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. This origin centered around the initial threat from Darkseid. It took the combined effort of seven heroes to stop Darkseid, but the villain swore that he would return.
This battle proves the value of superheroes to a world just learning to accept them. The seven heroes joined together as the Justice League. Their new original roster of seven included Cyborg, whose origin was retold incorporating technology from Apokolips. Darkseid remained a looming threat for the Justice League to protect Earth against.
7 “The Nail” Was A Magnificent Elseworlds Battle Against…Jimmy Olsen?
In JLA: The Nail, an Elseworlds mini-series by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer, Superman’s rocket was never recovered by the Kents. The Justice League is being framed by an evil and powerful mastermind. All along, the clues lead to Lex Luthor behind it all— but instead, it’s Jimmy Olsen.
Olsen had become corrupted by the alien technology and DNA found in Superman’s recovered empty rocket. The final battle against Olsen takes the JLA into an Amish/Mennonite village that had found baby Kal-El. When Olsen kills the foster parents of Kal-El, he battles Olsen until the Kryptonian powers begin to break down Jimmy’s body as they did with all the test subjects Olsen used.
6 “Justice” Pit The JLA Against The Legion of Doom
Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and Doug Braithwaite put together a masterful comic series, Justice, that featured an iconic Justice League of America resembling the team of the early 1980s. Over the course of twelve issues, the JLA is targeted by the Legion of Doom systematically. There are many times that readers are left worrying about the fate of a hero.
Of course, the Legion of Doom is undone by the scheming of its members against one another. The Justice League recruits allies in Plastic Man, Supergirl, and the Metal Men, and finds ingenious uses of their powers to stop the death traps of the Legion of Doom. In the end, readers witness the heroes of the JLA at their best.
5 “New World Order” Saw The JLA Take On The White Martians
When Grant Morrison and Howard Porter launched JLA in 1997, they needed to establish a threat for them to meet and set the stakes for the series. A new team came to Earth calling themselves the Hyperclan, and things started to look very bleak for the new JLA. The Hyperclanwas hiding a secret— and of course, Batman was the one to figure it out.
The Hyperclan were secretly White Martians, once again trying to conquer Earth. Batman systematically takes out members of the Hyperclan. It’s the beginning of the defeat of the White Martians and a significant win that causes the new JLA to gel as a team.
4 The Cathexis Split the JLA With Their Secret Identities
The Cathexis were six-dimensional aliens seeking to use a device that granted wishes called the Id. The Id split the Justice League into two people, the super-hero and the secret identity. Of course, it didn’t go very well, as neither could exist well without the other, and the Cathexis couldn’t be stopped without the JLA members whole, the superpowers balanced by humanity.
The Cathexis were seeking to expand their power, and the splitting of JLA was very fortuitous for them. When they began to wield the Id as a weapon, the battle could only be won with the JLA rejoining with their secret identities. The heroes also learned the balance their secret identities give them in their fight to protect people.
3 In “Tower of Babel,” The JLA Fight Batman by Proxy
In the Tower of Babel story by Mark Waid and Howard Porter, Ra’s al Ghul takes out many members of the JLA in highly effective ways. He wanted the JLA out of the way so he could unleash a signal that would make everyone stop understanding language. The added benefit came that the JLA started to distrust Batman because Ra’s tactics came from plans he stole from Batman.
Batman had developed contingency plans to negate every member of the JLA in case they became a threat. Given the propensity for heroes to be mind-controlled or turn completely evil, it wasn’t unwise, but it didn’t do a lot to generate trust among the JLA. After Ra’s al Ghul is stopped, Batman is voted out of the League.
2 “Forever Evil” Had The Justice League Come Back From Nearly Being Destroyed
Following Atomica’s betrayal of the Justice League, the Crime Syndicate nearly wiped out the entire team. This led to a massive event centered around Forever Evil by Geoff Johns and David Finch. The Crime Syndicate traps most of the Justice League and exposes Nightwing’s secret identity. Any villain that doesn’t swear allegiance is murdered.
Batman and Lex Luthor work to stop the Crime Syndicate and free the Justice League. The aftermath sees Luthor and many of the Injustice League considered heroes. It also leads to a larger threat that the Crime Syndicate was fleeing, the Anti-Monitor.
1 The Finale of DC: The New Frontier Was A Magnificent Battle That Formed The JLA
DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke is an awesome series that told a Silver Age style story that was an alternate take on the Justice League’s origin. The final battle against the Centre is epic, bringing together all of the heroes and giving purpose at last to Hal Jordan, making him Green Lantern.
Superman who has been feared dead during the battle is returned by Aquaman, who shows up in a way that doesn’t treat the hero like a joke. It also has a final scene that pays homage to the Justice League’s first appearance battling Starro. The series is a love letter to the Justice League and the Silver Age as a whole.
About The Author
