Classics Revisited

JLA #200

"A League Divided"

by Michael Hutchison

Writer: Gerry Conway
Artists: George Perez & Brett Breeding, with guest artists Jim Aparo, Terry Austin, Brian Bolland, Pat Broderick, Frank Giacoia, Dick Giordano, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane and Joe Kubert

This comic was one of the first I ever bought. Oh, I'd read comics before. Leftovers on a friend's floor with the covers ripped off and the coupons cut out. And I knew all of the Justice League members from comics I'd borrowed and from the "Super Friends." But this was the first comic I'd ever scraped the money together to buy. I saw this on the shelf of the drugstore where my mom worked, with that glorious wrap-around cover of the Justice Leaguers fighting each other, and I just had to have it. I think I was fortunate that my first purchase ever was on such an enjoyable comic.

In fact, I was doubly fortunate that it also retold the origin of the JLA, which I was not acquainted with. The seven elemental creatures from Appellax who travel to Earth, intending to do battle until one is left the winner. Each of these creatures, in turn, is defeated by one of Earth's superheroes. As they gather to defeat the last Appellaxian, these superheroes decide to form the planet's first superhero team: The Justice League of Ameria. Because the meteors are Kryptonite, the JLA bury them in different parts of the globe. This retelling of the origin is not only a fond memory on the JLA's 200 issue anniversary, it is entirely essential to the plot.

The title of this epic issue is taken from Abraham Lincoln's quote "A house divided against itself cannot stand"…and the Civil War allusion is more than appropriate. For you see, the Appellaxians took precautions before departing. Each meteor contained a seed-clone of its occupant, which would be activated when the meteors are gathered in one spot; the meteors also placed a telepathic "sleeper" command in the mind of each person who came in contact. Thus, the conquerors of the Appellax warriors would be mentally summoned at a later date to retrieve the meteors and gather them at one spot. The retrieval of the meteors pits Leaguer against Leaguer.

As the story begins, Firestorm is pulling monitor duty when a confused Martian Manhunter bursts through the hull of the JLA satellite. Firestorm seals the hull breach and does battle with J'onn, who beats Firestorm and grabs the Kryptonite meteor from the (presumably lead-lined) trophy case. We can only assume that J'onn does not cause another hull breach on the way out. (Despite the dramatic appearance, the hull breach is an odd thing for J'onn to do, given that he can make himself immaterial and that a hull breach is likely to kill everyone inside if not for Firestorm's powers)

Firestorm puts out a highest priority alert which draws every team member, even Green Arrow (then an ex-member) and mascot "Snapper" Carr…but none of the founding members show up. Green Arrow (the team's first non-founding member) recognizes the description of Martian Manhunter and deduces that the original members must be retrieving the meteors. Green Arrow also says that the founding members think "it's years ago"…although this reasoning seems rather strange, given that Batman knew Green Arrow at the time of the JLA's founding. More likely, the original Leaguers are so single-minded that it doesn't matter who they're facing. The JLA splits up to tackle each separate burial site (Firestorm, one of their most powerful members, is ordered to stay with Snapper Carr on the satellite for some odd reason).

Red Tornado takes on Aquaman at a volcanic island in the Indian Ocean…and is defeated by the interference of the Phantom Stranger, who has his own mysterious reasons for siding with Aquaman. On Paradise Island, Wonder Woman faces off against her mother and Zatanna, and manages to escape with the third meteorite. The Atom finds himself sorely outmatched as he tries to reason with Green Lantern in Zimbabwe. On Italy's Lombardy Plain, Elongated Man must try to stop his best friend The Flash, but he too is sorely outgunned.

The Flash meets up with the other original Leaguers back at the JLA's old Secret Sanctuary Headquarters, where they have gathered the meteor casings in a lead-lined room. They talk of their experiences meeting these strange people that they don't recognize. Barry Allen wonders why the strange rubber man he met called him by name (Elongated Man didn't meet Flash until shortly after the Starro case).

Green Arrow and Black Canary face off against Batman in the Everglades; needless to say, they lose. And high above Greenland, Hawkman tackles Superman using ancient weapons…knowing that Superman has to use his Superman robots to retrieve them. But halfway through the battle, the real Superman shows up and knocks Hawkman into deep space (it's hard to believe Superman would do this, since it would kill his opponent). Hawkman is retrieved by a passing Zeta Beam and transported across space to Rann. On Rann, Sardath siphons off the Zeta energy and Adam Strange contacts the JLA satellite, warning them to expect Hawkman's body floating nearby. Elongated Man stretches over a mile to retrieve him. In the satellite, the Leaguers begin to wonder what the collection of meteors forebodes.

In the Secret Sanctuary, the seven glowing meteors crack open and the Appellaxian monsters emerge once more. (In the process, the three giants burst through the mountain top. You'd think that this would totally destroy the sanctuary, but it appears to be fine when it reappears almost 50 issues later.) The seven JLA members tackle them and are soundly defeated. When they awaken, the rest of the League has tracked them down. The Justice League of America reunites (with apologies) and they rush off to tackle the Appellaxians, who have resumed their old battle.

The team splits into three groups, each including team-ups of the heroes who fought each other. One team heads for Vermont, another New York City and a third to Ireland (I'd like to know how the monsters got to Ireland so fast…or at all, given that they're on foot). The Justice League emerges victorious. The remains of the monsters and the meteors are sent hurtling into the sun, where they'll never bother the planet again.

Back on the satellite, the JLA bids farewell to J'onn J'onzz and Snapper Carr. Green Arrow decides to rejoin the team. And Firestorm finds that he can't stop snapping his fingers.

This issue is one of the all-time greats, gathering fifteen of the DCU's greatest heroes in one extra-large issue. Each of the confrontations is given a splash page by one of the guest artists. And this was the last time such a gathering would be possible; the ensuing years saw these character quit, die, change and be rewritten.

If you haven't read JLA #200, it's still possible to find it in some back issue bins.

A word about Retroactive Continuity: At the time "A League Divided" was written, Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman were founding members of the team, and Black Canary wasn't. Also, Martian Manhunter was not a member of the team, having departed the JLA over a hundred issues previously to live with the Martian people on Mars II. Since then, Wonder Woman has been rewritten so that she didn't appear until the Legends era, Superman was rewritten so that he never joined the classic JLA and it has been stated that Batman wasn't a founding member (and if Denny O'Neil had his way, never a member…but the JLA Secret Files timeline made it clear that Batman certainly did join at some time shortly after their founding). And the Martian Manhunter mini-series established that there never were any other Martians on Mars, as J'onn J'onzz was transported across time as well as space, so we can assume that J'onn never left the League; this helps to fill the gap of Superman's absence. To make up for the absence of Wonder Woman, Black Canary has been moved back into her position.

What does that mean for this story? Well, the two obvious changes are that the original members vs. new members ratio has moved from 7-8 to 5-7. Superman DID fight an Appellaxian but did not join the JLA, so he could still appear in this story, making it 6-7. Thus, we can assume that the confrontational match-ups are different. Also, this means that six members have to retrieve seven meteorites. And on the subject of meteorites, they were originally buried because they were made of Kryptonite. Now that Superman was never a member and Kryptonite isn't as abundant, the reasoning behind burying them in several locations is questionable. Perhaps they weren't intentionally buried. Maybe they were never retrieved, except for the one kept on the satellite as a souvenir. Regardless, this story should still be in continuity, albeit substantially changed.