Injustice League

The Injustice League is the name of several fictional supervillain teams appearing in comic books published by DC Comics.

Injustice League
The first Injustice League.
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceSilver Age: Showcase #1 (July 2000)
Historical:
Justice League International #23 (Jan. 1989)
Created byScott Beatty
Historical:
Keith Giffen
J. M. DeMatteis
In-story information
Base(s)Injustice League Satellite;
Hall of Doom

Publication history

The Injustice League first appeared in Justice League International #23 and was created by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis.[1]

Fictional team history

Original League

The original Injustice League was the brainchild of the interplanetary conqueror Agamemno. Bored with his dominion, he set out to conquer Earth and their champions, the Justice League. Aided by the alien former dictator Kanjar Ro, Agamemno contacted Lex Luthor and they recruited other supervillains to their cause.

Agamemno then engineered a switch wherein the villains' minds switched with those of the JLA. In the true JLA's absence, other Silver Age superheroes came to clash with the now seemingly evil heroes. Eventually, Green Lantern used the power of Oa's Central Power Battery and a Thanagarian weapon called the "Absorbascon" to reverse the mind swap.

Having spent time in their enemies' bodies, the villains knew their heroic counterparts inside out. To regain the edge, the JLA used the power of Robby Reed's alien H-Dial to transform themselves into totally different heroes. Then, using his power ring through the Absorbascon, Green Lantern removed all knowledge of the heroes' secret identities from the villains' minds.

This incarnation was retconned as the first version of the Injustice League.

Members

Injustice League International

The second Injustice League (the first in publishing history) was created by artist Keith Giffen during his run on the Justice League International comic book. It was composed of Cluemaster, Major Disaster, Clock King, Big Sir, Multi-Man, and the Mighty Bruce. The team would be used, in line with the humoristic tone of the series, as a highly unsuccessful villain team. All the actions of the team would end with humoristic failures. During an Annual of the comic book, Maxwell Lord sent them, along with the incompetent Green Lantern G'nort and his nemesis the Scarlet Skier, to Antarctica to become Justice League Antarctica. It was done so in order to get rid of them, but the team would have their headquarters destroyed by mutant penguins. Afterwards, the Justice League Antarctica were fired.

After Giffen's run in the series, the team volunteered to join the Suicide Squad. On their first mission, Big Sir was killed; Multi-Man was shot through the head (but survived thanks to his powers); and the Clock King and Cluemaster were seriously injured.

Injustice League Unlimited
Promotional image of the Injustice League, from the cover to Justice League of America vol. 2, #13. Art by Ian Churchill.

Lex Luthor and The Joker (widely regarded as the archenemies of the JLA's two primary members Superman and Batman) recently formed an "Injustice League Unlimited", as first seen in the Justice League of America Wedding Special. While it seems the membership is much greater in the promotional image of Justice League of America vol. 2, #13, the core members of the team shown by Wizard magazine are a select group of various arch-nemeses.

The team was created by Dwayne McDuffie, a writer from the animated series Justice League Unlimited, which featured a similar expanded Legion of Doom. Lex Luthor has the idea to bring the villains together, claiming it was a protection racket at first, but with the ultimate aim of dominating the world. During the storyline, the Injustice League splits up and manages to capture the Justice League members in small groups. However, the JLA is freed by Firestorm and battles the Injustice League at its swamp headquarters. In the ensuing melee, many of the villains flee (later to attack Black Canary and Green Arrow's wedding), but most are taken captive by the League. It is revealed at this time that Lex Luthor actually had a secret goal in forming the League. He refuses to reveal details, but mentions that he planned for his capture. The remaining villains are then taken away by Amanda Waller and the Suicide Squad, who plan to ship them away to a distant planet, as seen in DC's Salvation Run storyline.

It is notable that the alternative covers of the second issue of the arc (Justice League of America vol. 2, #13) feature many more villains than were actually in the League, including Amazo, Bizarro, Black Adam, Sinestro, and the Rogues (Heat Wave, Captain Cold, Weather Wizard, Abra Kadabra, and Mirror Master).

Members

Though the covers featured a large number of villains, membership differed in the actual story. Membership included:

Based on the covers

This section lists those that only appear on the covers.

The New 52

During the Forever Evil storyline as part of The New 52 (a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe), Lex Luthor forms the Injustice League with villains who resisted the Crime Syndicate in order to take them down.[2][3]

Members

Other versions

In the manga "Batman and the Justice League", Lex Luthor establishes an Injustice League, composed of Sinestro, Cyborg Superman, Joker, Reverse-Flash and Ares. Ocean Master was meant to be a member, but left due to his own motivations.

In other media

Film

Television
  • A version of the Injustice League appeared in the Smallville episode "Injustice", featuring Livewire, Neutron, Plastique, Eva Greer, and Parasite. They search for Doomsday. When Tess Mercer assumed control of LuthorCorp, she began recruiting metahumans to form a team of heroes of Earth. Tess then kills Livewire using an explosive chip implanted in her skull. When Clark Kent discovers this and tells Parasite and Plastique, they manage to disable the chips and attempt to form their own group of criminals. They are defeated by Green Arrow and Clark.
  • The Injustice League appears in the Young Justice episode "Revelation".[4] Its members include Count Vertigo, Poison Ivy, Black Adam, Wotan, Atomic Skull, Ultra-Humanite and Joker. They unleash giant plant monsters (modified by Kobra Venom) upon the major cities of the world. The team is assembled by the more secretive supervillain cabal known as The Light (Project Cadmus' Board of Directors consisting of Vandal Savage, Ra's al Ghul, Lex Luthor, the first Bialyan Queen Bee, Ocean Master, the Brain, and Klarion the Witch Boy) to act as scapegoats for them, which is accomplished after the Injustice League is defeated. The Justice League and the Team operate under the belief that the actions of the other villains are simply continuing the Injustice League's plans until the penultimate episode of the season, "Usual Suspects". This is the first incarnation of the Injustice League to actually be referred to as such, as all previous appearances could easily be considered the Injustice Gang or Injustice Society.

Web Series
  • In the season 2 premiere of Harley Quinn, the Injustice League is founded in order to take control of Gotham City after Joker destroyed it and divide what's left between them. This iteration's members consisted of Bane, Riddler, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, and Two-Face. After Harley interferes with their plans, they attempt to negotiate peace with her, but she disagrees with them, so they have her frozen and put on display in Penguin's Iceberg Lounge. She later gets free and murders Penguin. Throughout the rest of season 2, Harley and her crew continue to fight and take down the Injustice League one by one. In "Riddle U", they capture Riddler after learning his territory had power and clean water, and use him to power their mall lair. In "Thawing Hearts", Mr. Freeze sacrifices himself to cure his wife. In "There's No Place to Go But Down", Harley and Ivy defeat Bane while Commissioner Gordon defeats and incarcerates Two-Face.

Video games

Miscellaneous
  • In the Dynomutt, Dog Wonder episode "The Injustice League of America", the Blue Falcon's enemies the Worm, the Queen Hornet, Lowbrow, Superthug, Fishface and the Gimmick join forces as the Injustice League of America (which has no relation to the DC Comics team).
    • A similar group appears briefly in Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, albeit with Superthug and Fishface amalgamated into one character while the Worm is replaced by the Serpent Lady's Ironface form and the Swamp Rat.
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See also

References
  1. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 153. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  2. Esposito, Joey (August 9, 2013). "Geoff Johns Reveals the True Villains Behind Forever Evil". IGN. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  3. "DC Comics' FULL JANUARY 2014 Solicitations". Newsarama. October 14, 2013.
  4. http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=1134
  5. Takahashi, Dean (May 30, 2018). "Warner Bros. unveils TT Games' Lego DC Super-Villains". VentureBeat. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
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