Justice Guild of America
Superhero team From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Superhero team From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.[1]
At the climax of a fight between the Justice League and a giant robot remote-controlled by Lex Luthor, it falls over, threatening to crush Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and J'onn J'onzz. In trying to stop the robot, Flash creates a tornado-like vortex just as the robot's energy core explodes, transporting the four heroes to Seaboard City, an idyllic 1950s locale in a parallel Earth.
There, they meet the Justice Guild of America members Tom Turbine, The Streak, the Green Guardsman, Black Siren, Catman, and their sidekick/mascot Ray Thompson. They first fight when Green Lantern and Flash stop a robbery by Justice Guild enemy Music Master and the Guild mistakes them for thieves. After the Streak sees Flash save Ray from pieces of a falling building, he realizes the League aren't criminals and stops the fight. The Justice Guild were comic book characters on the Justice League's Earth about whom Green Lantern read as a child. He claims without the comics, he may not have his ring today, as the comics taught him what it means to be a hero. J'onn J'onzz hypothesizes that the JGA writers had a subconscious link to their Earth during flashes of "inspiration" which were actually psychic memories of the Justice Guild's exploits; 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. They help the JGA fight a group of their enemies called the Injustice Guild of America, who are based on Golden Age DC supervillains, consisting of Music Master, Sportsman, Sir Swami, and Doctor Blizzard. The IGA engage in a scheme to pull off a series of crimes based on the four elements of earth, air, water, and fire as part of a contest to see which of them can pull off the best crime related to those elements, and by doing so will lead the IGA in their next criminal activity. Doctor Blizzard wins when he takes Flash and Black Siren as hostages, and leads the IGA in robbing the Seaboard City Mint and escaping by blimp. The IGA are defeated by the JL and the IGA and are handed over to the police.
Meanwhile, Hawkgirl discovers graves of the JGA, prompting her and Lantern to probe deeper into inconsistencies found in the "perfect" Seaboard City, such as how some, if not all dangers in it happen to come from out of nowhere. The two question the driver of the local ice cream truck about their suspicions, but he only responds to their questions with unspecific answers before driving away. They go to a library, where they discover that all the books on the shelves have blank pages, and going to the basement, they find a brick wall behind the basement door. After Hawkgirl smashes through it, they find a battle-scarred subway tunnel, and an old newspaper (dated to the same day as the final Justice Guild comic). The newspaper’s headline reveals that the Justice Guild had been killed in a nuclear war which destroyed Seaboard City forty years prior, causing the Justice Guild comic book to be cancelled on the Justice League's Earth.
Hawkgirl and Lantern show this knowledge to Flash, J'onn and the JGA; shocked, the JGA deny that their existence is nothing more than an illusion. J'onn suspects 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 reality-warping abilities that he used to recreate his destroyed town and resurrect the Justice Guild, making it look like the nuclear war never happened. Angrily, Ray goes on a rampage and tries to kill the JL, while distracting the JGA with a giant red robot. The Guild heroes are initially unsure of what they should do because they know that defeating Ray will undo the illusion and everything in it, including themselves. Ultimately, they decide to stop Ray, reasoning that if they could sacrifice themselves to save their world once, they could do it again. The Guild attack Ray, overwhelming his powers and ending the illusion. Subsequently, the city's residents are freed from the illusion, thanking the League for giving them a future. The League then returns to their own Earth using a space-time machine created by Tom Turbine before his death and powered by Green Lantern's ring.
Back on his own Earth, John Stewart ponders of how much the JGA comics meant to him when he was young and the impact the comics' cancellation in 1962 (the year the actual Guild 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 Bronze and Modern Age's grittiness and angst.
Among the members of the Justice Guild are:
A group of super-villains whose goal is to eliminate the Justice Guild and rule the world. They make their headquarters in a cave somewhere outside of Seaboard City. Among its members are:
Elements of the Justice Guild are seen within the Arrowverse:
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