The Justice League is the greatest assemblage of heroes in comics, and they came out of the ’90s in a very good place. Grant Morrison’s run on JLA made the team big business again, and JLA entered the 21st century as one of the most beloved DC comics being published. However, the ’00s weren’t exactly the best time for the League. While the team had some excellent runs from A-list creators, it also had a few years of diminishing returns, before Infinite Crisis changed DC for the rest of the decade. What followed were several years of uneven Justice League, but fans had gotten used to that. The ’00s were a tumultuous time in general and the League suffered from that more than any other DC team. However, there definitely still a lot of great Justice League stories in the ’00s.
The Justice League had some amazing adventures in the ’00s. We got to see the team in a new light, and had a throwback to the League’s most creative era. The best Justice League stories of the ’00s took a team in flux and showed them in the possible light, and readers were given multiple stories that showed just how great the Justice League could be. These 10 Justice League stories are the best of the ’00s, giving readers the kind of JLA stories that would last the test of time.
10) Justice League Elite
Justice League Elite, by Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke, spun out of the classic Action Comics #775 and Kelly and Mahnke’s JLA run, which is one of the most underrated JLA runs (honorable mention to “The Obsidian Age”). Justice League Elite sees members of the Justice League — Wally West, Green Arrow, Manitou Raven, Manitou Dawn, and Major Disaster — team with the Elite, a group of more proactive and violent heroes under the command of Manchester Black’s sister Sister Superior. The JLE acts as a black ops team, but eventually get pulled into a revenge scheme with nothing less than the fate of all reality at hand. Justice League Elite is twelve issues of Justice League action unlike anything you’ve seen ever before. The book has some excellent twists and turns, and Mahnke’s art is never anything less than brilliant throughout the story.
9) “Crisis of Conscience”
“Crisis of Conscience”, by Geoff Johns, Allan Heinberg, and Chris Batista, ran through JLA #115-119. The story spun out of Identity Crisis, with members of the League dealing with their mindwiping sins. Those sins come back to haunt them when the Secret Society of Supervillains returns. They know what the Justice League did to their minds and are out for revenge, ready for the world to know the truth about the League. Hal Jordan, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Zatanna, and Batman have their work cut out for them, as the secrets of the League are finally revealed, which has disastrous consequences. “Crisis of Conscience” is an outstanding story, taking the best part of Identity Crisis and using it to push the League forward. The end brought readers at the time a massive shock — and a clue to Infinite Crisis — that still holds up. This is honestly Johns’s finest hour writing the Justice League, a story mostly forgotten in the years since it dropped.
8) Justice League of America (Vol. 2) #12
Justice League of America (Vol. 2) #12, by Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes, is the final issue of Meltzer’s run on the team. It’s titled “Monitor Duty”, and gives readers a look at a day in the life of the Justice League, as various members take up shifts on monitor duty, dealing with their problems and making friends (looking at you Hawkgirl and Red Arrow). Meanwhile, two legends of the League discuss the newest roster, weighing its pros and cons. It’s an issue that focuses on the characters instead of the action, and it’s so much fun. It’s funny and touching, the perfect ending to a run that’s entire purpose was to make fans fall in love with the Justice League again. It really doesn’t get the credit it deserves in Justice League history, and hopefully that will change.
7) Justice
Justice, by Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, and Doug Braithwaite, is basically what would happen if SuperFriends was written with a more modern sensibility. The villains of the Earth are given visions of the end of the world as the heroes fail to stop disaster. This leads to them coming together as the Legion of Doom. Brainiac has a plan to “save the world”, on that involves the Legion working to make the world a better place. Of course, there’s more to it than that, and they begin systemically defeating the Justice League, and eventually a rift in the Legion of Doom forms as the Justice League digs deep to defeat them. Justice is classic Justice League, with twists and turns that will drop readers’ jaws. Kruger and Ross, who worked together on the Earth X trilogy at Marvel, make a sensational writing team, and the cherry on top if the combination of Braithwaite’s pencils and Ross’s paint. Justice is an amazing story, and it will make anyone remember why they loved the Justice League so much.
6) “The Tornado’s Path”
Brad Meltzer made quite a splash at DC in the ’00s, writing “The Archer’s Quest” and the now maligned Identity Crisis. After Infinite Crisis, Meltzer was tapped to reboot the Justice League along with artist Ed Benes, and their opening story was “The Tornado’s Path”, which ran through Justice League of America (Vol. 2) #0-7. As Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman decide to start a new version of the League, a group of disparate heroes — Vixen, Black Lightning, Hal Jordan, Black Canary, Red Arrow, and Red Tornado — find themselves enmeshed in a scheme from the suddenly smart Solomon Grundy. It’s an excellent story, a story that feels like a Justice League classic while also being thoroughly modern. It gave readers an idea of where the League would go in the days to come, and is an all-around excellent story.
5) “World War III”
“World War III” is the last story of Grant Morrison and Howard Porter’s run on JLA. The story began in 1999, but most of its came out in the year 2000, which is why it’s considered an ’00s comic for the purposes of this list. Lex Luthor is back with an all-new Injustice Gang — the General, Queen Bee, and Prometheus — to attack the League. However, it’s all part of something much better, as a weapon of war from the distant past makes it way towards the Earth, with nothing less than universal destruction on its agenda. “World War III” is an awesome JLA story. It’s the culmination of Morrison and Porter’s run on JLA, tying up all of the loose ends and paying off the teases of earlier in the book. It’s Morrison madness at its finest.
4) Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis, by Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, George Perez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, is the biggest DC event book of the ’00s. Some would question whether it counts as a Justice League story, as the team had disbanded at this point, but I’ve always felt it was. The story sees a group of forgotten heroes return at the darkest hour, but two of them have been engineering events in the background in the quest for the perfect Earth. With the heroes outwitted at every corner, they have to figure out a way to overcome their differences to save the universe. Infinite Crisis is awesome, an event book that was built over a span of years, with multiple twists and turns. It’s an all around amazing story, and it shows why the Justice League is so important to the superhero community. This is peak DC, and this story is still as good as it was twenty years ago.
3) “The Lightning Saga”
“The Lightning Saga”, by Brad Meltzer, Geoff Johns, Shane Davis, Fernando Pasarin, Ed Benes, and Dale Eaglesham, is the first Justice League/Justice Society crossover of the post-Infinite Crisis DC Multiverse. The story ran through Justice League of America (Vol. 2) #8-10 and Justice Society of America (Vol. 3) #5-6. When Karate Kid, a member of the Legion of Superheroes, appears in the present day, the two teams join together to figure out what’s going on as more Legionnaires show up. The group has a mysterious purpose, one which will change the Justice League forever. “The Lightning Saga” is an old-fashioned Justice League/Justice Society team-up, taking readers across the length and breadth of the DC Universe, from Gorilla City to Gotham, and shows how well the two groups work together. This is an outstanding story, a little taste of the Bronze Age in the modern era.
2) The New Frontier
The New Frontier, by writer/artist Darwyn Cooke, is a love letter to Silver Age DC. This is another story that some out there wouldn’t consider a Justice League, but it’s all about the heroes of the DC Universe teaming up against a threat that has been in the making for ages; basically, it’s a Justice League origin story. Cooke shows the growing pains of the superhero community, giving readers a story that shows just how great the old DC Silver Age really was. Cooke is a marvel, and the book’s art and characterization are all on point. The New Frontier has been a classic since it was released, wowing readers with every new issues that hit shelves. It’s still an amazing DC story all these years later, and every DC fan of any stripe needs to read this if they haven’t already.
1) Final Crisis
Final Crisis, by Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, and Doug Mahnke, showed readers what happens when evil wins. Final Crisis is a masterpiece, a multi-layered story that follows the League as they deal with a rash of related mysteries. Detective Dan Turpin learns the truth — Darkseid and his Elites have come to Earth with the Anti-Life Equation and have enacted a plan to destroy the superheroes and conquer the Multiverse. The Justice League has to figure out a way to defeat the God of Evil, who has completely stacked the deck against them. Final Crisis has a certain reputation for being complicated and inscrutable, but it’s definitely worth the work of trying to figure out where the story’s going. Morrison does their big idea superhero stories with aplomb, and the art of Jones, Pacheco, and Mahnke really sets the scene for this amazing book. Final Crisis is in a League all its own, which is quite fitting.
What’s your favorite Justice League story of the ’00s? Sound off in the comments below.
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