The DC Universe is setting up a climactic battle this year—one where a seriously messed up Lex Luthor (or rather, some version of him) will lead a villainous charge against a Justice League on the back foot. The League are attempting to manage both the potential end of the universe as they know it and the mother of all public opinion crises. They’re pretty screwed at the moment...but help is on the way.
Newsarama has revealed that, after years of teasing their return to mainstream DC continuity since the days of Rebirth #1—and Doctor Manhattan’s canon-messing in the pages of Doomsday Clock—the Justice Society of America, DC’s original superteam, are making their way back into the fold. The Justice Society hasn’t been part of DC canon since the creation of the New 52 in 2011, but it was recently revealed in Doomsday Clock that the “real” reason for this was that Doctor Manhattan had altered the course of history, tweaking the past so that Alan Scott simply died in the train accident where he originally became the first Green Lantern—after which he went on to become a crucial, founding member of the JSA.
That’s no longer the case as of this fall. The JSA will be wrenched back into reality during the events of Justice League #31, from Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, and Jorge Jiminez. Why? Because the League needs all the help it can get in the coming war with Lex, piecing together the tattered remains of the Totality—the literal power source that kickstarted the multiverse—and pitching themselves across time and space in the process:
“The Justice Doom War” part two! The culmination of Lex Luthor’s plan hinges on his beating the Justice League to the prize, ratcheting up the peril as the Year of the Villain continues! The Totality has shattered and its pieces have been tossed across space and time. Thus, the Justice League must also split apart, forming three search teams to comb the past, present, and future to re-combine the Totality before the Legion of Doom can get its villainous hands on the cosmic weapon. What allies will our heroes find in these other timelines? In the future, it’s the Last Boy on Earth, Kamandi! But in the past, there are the familiar faces of the Justice Society of America!
“I’ve been waiting to do it for months and months and months and months and months—really, since we did Metal,” Snyder told Newsarama. “I have really big plans for them. I mean, they play a really crucial role in this story....they’re characters that I’ve been dying to use for a very long time.”
So it seems like the JSA won’t just be lending a hand with the scrap to end all scraps between the forces of the Legion of Doom and the Justice League—but are being brought back into existence with a purpose beyond Year of Villains. Could a brand new Justice Society book be on the way?
We’ll have to wait until after Justice League #31 this September to find out.
For more, make sure you’re following us on our new Instagram @io9dotcom.