Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities What if the JLA had been the children of the JSA?

Mattropolis and I brainstormed a bunch of ideas for this recently, but I thought it might make a fun topic here.

So, according to Roy Thomas, there were proposals for introducing a "children of the JSA" team as early as the 1950s. As I pointed out in the Gay Male Harlequin thread, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense timeline-wise, as, if they are adults, they would have had to have been born in the late '30s, before the JSAers had begun their crimefighting careers, which creats massive continuity issues. But it got me thinking, "What if the Silver Age characters had been introduced as the children of the JSA?"

So, in a slightly different world, we imagine the JSAers all retiring at the end of WW2. They go home get married and contribute to the baby boom. Their kids grow up and become super-heroes themselves starting in the late 60s. Barry Garrick's speed is inherited, but only activated once a freak lightning bolt causes a chemical explosion. Hal Scott receives a ring from a dying Green Lantern, whom he soon discovers is his own father. Later, he learns something his father never knew, which is the connection between the ring and an intergalactic police corps and the Guardians. Ray Pratt finds that the energy exposure that was responsible for his dad's "atomic punch" has mutated him with the ability to shrink. Carter and Shiera Hall, who had died in an accident shortly after the war, find themselves reincarnated on the planet Thanagar and strangely drawn to the planet Earth when they have an opportunity to be stationed there.

Matt and I worked out brief backstories for the Leaguers up through the Detroit era, but I thought it would be fun to toss the idea out and see what you guys might come up with.

Awesome ideas from you and Matt, EDE! Thanks for sharing. Here's one from me:

Firebrand and Shining Knight have a daughter, Lorraine Reilly, who becomes Firestorm.

Seven strange glowing meteorites fall from the heavens...

One of them is followed to its point of impact by a caped figure. From Strange Adventures, young astronaut William Knight, Starman, uses the cosmic energy that transformed him, to battle diamond creatures in Tokyo. He feels the pain of the transformations having gone through a similar event. That experience allows him to defeat his diamond foe, before being taken over.

(Readers of Strange Adventures will have seen his father, Ted Knight, looking to grant another gift of energy to mankind, by setting up the capture of cosmic energy in space. As always, he took his son and legacy on his adventures. Sadly, his foe Dr Doog and his Brotherhood of the Electron, sabotaged his equipment, opening Will and his father to a cosmic fissure.)

Having seen a further 6 meteors enter Earth's orbit, Starman knows that other creatures could be on the loose. Starman tracks their energy trails, only to find himself without the strength to fight off a second transformation.

In Denver. the population are turned into statues.

In Nepal, robed attendants rush into an ornate chamber. One that also has an Emerald glow from something that fell from the heavens. They decide to summon the chosen one once again.

Across the Western seaboard, coastal communities are transformed into glass.

Cairo - The population are turned into hawk-like creatures, preying on others. In the Egyptian museum, a grown Katar Hall overcomes his own child like response to once again don the Helm of Nabu. He does have an affinity with hawks after all. The helm opens his mind to his ancestors, including his parents. He defeats the giant hawk behind the invasion. With his parents worrying about him through the helm, it's revealed that Nabu accelerated his age, as was done to Kent Nelson (see Brave and the Bold). But Nabu was thwarted. The wood creature his powers reveal is not defeated, and Doc Fate is transformed.

In Denver, Superman falls to green kryptonite beams emitted from a giant stone creature. As an alarmed Army try to decide their next action, a crimson flash races through them. From Showcase 4, another chosen one battles the creature. With her cry of "Sez Me!" Peach Blossom Thunder, with the aid of her Thunderbolt Shocko, reduces the creature to rubble. The army alert her to another meteor, and she races across the sky, only to be transformed into wood on her arrival.

In Nepal, Jenni-Lynn Scott, The Green Lantern makes the mystic chant that grants her powers for 24 hours (See Showcase 22). Once again, the emerald power breaks through a dark, almost sentient, void to reach her.

On Paradise Island, Queen Hippolyta sees her subjects transformed into mercurial blobs. Desperate, she activates a device she used to show her daughter versions of themselves across the multiverse. Flitting past Wonder Girls and Wonder Tots, from an impossible tale, arrives Hyppolyta Trevor. Managing to boil away her foe, Lyta uses a viewer to find that other meteors have landed. She encounters a Wooden creature, and is transformed.

Green Lantern matches her emerald fire with fire beings, and their master. But she will find herself over confident, and very susceptible, to the wooden alien.

The captured heroes combine their powers to defeat the Wooden alien. Subsuming his mind into his uncontrolled helm, Fate stumbles into Knight, scraping off a tiny part of the wooden coating around Starman. A small cosmic burst reveals Lyta's side. Lyta uses the lasso on that side to clear Green Lantern's hand. An Emerald beam reveals Thunderbolt's mouth and her Thunderbolt frees them all.

New York - Terrified residents flee the midnight spawned creatures that reflect the streetlights with an eerie, unatural glow. Using sonic devices from his crime fighting arsenal, The Sandman helps end the glass nightmares of those under his protection. The others arrive to see the finale of the battle, against a deadly sharp glass alien that rose from the depths with it's horde. Having chaffed under the mentorship of Charles McNider, Sanderson Hawkins is not a team player...for now.

Background
I've gone with this being set around the time of the release of #9 following the JLA schedule.

I preferred to add a couple of off-panel things from the short golden age anthologies. That's rather than launch them in the mid to late 60s when the JSA had come out of retirement and the JLA was already well underway, and all of that continuity. Age changing things are already tropes in the cast, so some of those got used too.

I've also kept the six members of Larry Ivie's Justice League (combining two), that was pitched in the 50s. Alter Ego indictates the the "League" could have been from Shelly Mayer, and that Ivie also had his creations in a parallel world. Ivie also called it Justice Legion of the World at one point. So, the aliens land across the globe and there's wider ethnicity in this cast.

Larger casts got in the way of Infinity Inc. Both JSA and JLA kept that limited. and with Superman and Batman appearing briefly, if that early on. This has a similarly small starting cast, with a Superman guest and nods to some others. There are genre nods to humour, DC sci fi, romance, hard boiled crime etc style, and early super hero angst and counter culture.

Peachy Pet was already a precocious child in Johnny Thunder adventures, even having her own Thunderbolt. She replaces the Flash and Johnny Thunder, and years after her GAcappearances, is a headstrong stubborn counter to some of the others.

Nabu advanced the ageing of Kent Nelson. Prior to this appearance, the same has happened to the son of Carter and Shiera Hall. He has lots of memories. But they aren't his, and he has a child's eye view of complex motivations. He inherits both the Doctor Fate and Hawkman roles.

Infinity Inc had a confused Alan Scott not knowing how he could have had children. Here, he's had an early encounter with the Harlequin, resulting in the birth of twins. Jenni Lynn is spiritually orientated. In a more realistic story, she'd have a lot of sympathy with the history and people in south east Asia. She'd be in a gap year age here.

Starman is the logical move for GA Starman combining the Schwartz science fiction books with the sources of the Fantastic Four. He is younger, a mid teen prodigy. But he's made his Starman form slightly older. That's also a nod to Ivie who had his Hawkman hide his youth beneath his mask. His science counters Lantern's mysticism. Between the two, there's room for any cosmic Spectre moments required.

Wonder Woman had a number of tales where the queen would have fun with the ages of the cast. They got separated out a bit more later, into the likes of a distinct Wonder Girl. Here, there's an extension of Ivie's heroes of multiple worlds, but with Wonder Woman. Her strength replaces Wonder Woman and Superman. Lyta has a full history from her parallel world, where she had already inherited the mantle of her mother.

The Sandman could have been Batman. Or rather Richard Grayson. I did note that in JLA 9, GL was in Rhodesia fighting the giant yellow bird. That's where Grayson ended up being an ambassador. But Ivie had The Sandman, and I got to add in some Doctor Midnite in there too. Ivie's text had the others admire the work of the Sandman. He's a very capable scourge of the underworld here. Just more of a Midnite/ original Sandman outfit, than the yellow boiler suit. Already a very young side kick at the end of the GA, he's the senior member of the team here. He takes on the Batman, Dr Midnite and Sandman roles.


Thunderbolt - Peach Blossom Thunder
Green Lantern - Jenni-Lynn Scott
The Sandman - Sanderson Hawkins
Doc Fate - Katar Hall
Starman - Will Knight
The Fury - Lyta Trevor

Making an extremely rare appearance just to say how much I love all these ideas.

Always good to see you Mattropolis!

Seconded!

Thank you both!