- Unforgivable Acts by Justice League:
The Justice League serves as Earth’s final line of defense. They protect the planet and sometimes, even the universe, from devastating catastrophes. They are champions of righteousness in the DC Universe. But they are far from being believers in the phrase “Practice what you Preach”. Believe us when we say this, even the Justice League has done some terrible, inhumane acts. The billions of fans that keep idolizing the League need to know about this. Our heroes are not at all what they seem to be.
1. Became part of the Regime
The Regime was the result of Superman going the dark route in an alternate universe timeline. In this universe, Superman is tricked by the Joker into killing Lois Lane, Superman’s then-pregnant wife. Superman finally goes mad with rage, kills the Joker and decides that the only way to stop tragedies like these from occurring is if he takes control. Collecting a large group of super-villains and superheroes who agreed to his cause, Superman starts the Regime – a council of superhumans that take over the planet and control everything. Most of the Justice League decides to join Superman except a select few like Batman and Firestorm, who form the Insurgency and try to overthrow the Regime.
2. Lobotomized Doctor Light and brainwashed Batman
After the Identity Crisis storyline, the Justice League’s credibility was in really bad shape. To make matters worse, there was the brutal attack by Doctor Light on Sue Dibny, the wife of Elongated Man. When the League got to know about this, they unanimously voted to use Zatanna’s mystical powers to destroy the psyche of Doctor Light as punishment for doing such a heinous act. Everyone except Batman agreed to that decision. The Dark Knight, always a proponent of proper law and justice, vehemently opposed Doctor Light’s magical lobotomy, fiercely fighting for a fair trial. To stop Batman from doing any more damage, Zatanna was asked by the League to erase Batman’s memories of the incident. When Batman eventually got back his memories, his mistrust for the league led to the Tower of Babel storyline.
3. Led illegal covert missions in international territory
Justice league possessed several superheroes that joined forces and acted as the covert military arm of the League. Most of the missions they did were completely illegal and unsanctioned. Many of the missions even ended up creating problems. Batman was a part of such secret task forces formed under Justice League supervision that acted on the League’s instructions and did missions that suited their personal interests. Justice league even invaded countries on occasions to do their bidding. They have also joined forces with Project Cadmus and Checkmate – two powerful secret paramilitary organizations in the DC Universe.
4. The assassination of Prometheus in Cold Blood
There have been many enemies that the League has vanquished with much ease. But none have come close to getting under the skin of the league members and all at the same time as Prometheus has managed to. Born into a family of criminals, Prometheus blamed the superheroes for everything he lost as he came of age. He then used advanced technology to learn the weaknesses and strengths of each Justice League member and developed a fool-proof plan to get back at the League. He is so well-trained and prepared that even Batman finds no way of countering him. Prometheus holds several cities under hostage and when the League does not bow down to his demands, he blows up Star City, post which the League is forced to let him go. But Green Arrow, under league orders, eventually tracks Prometheus down and kills him in cold blood instead of bringing him to a court of law.
5. Use of Space-Based Weaponry
The Justice League Watchtower is not just a glorified space resort. It is one of the finest pieces of technology that humanity has to offer. It holds several superheroes that could be unleashed within moments on Earth, who collectively hold the power to wipe out an entire nation. But that is not all. The Watchtower also possesses a massive laser-based cannon, as shown in the Justice League Unlimited animated series. The cannon can fire energy beams so strong that they are powerful enough to destroy a whole city in seconds.
6. Conquered the World
In an alternate universe storyline, the Justice League takes over the world and decides it is best that human beings are ruled over by them. We are talking about the Crime Syndicate of America – an alternate universe Justice League which is just as powerful as the Justice League of the mainstream DC Comic Book Universe. The Crime Syndicate operates just like the mafia. There is a self-imposed martial law enforced by the superheroes and whoever opposes the Syndicate is literally killed on sight. The Crime Syndicate shows us how easily the Justice League could destroy the sanctity of the planet if they wanted to.
7. Responsible for almost causing World War 3
The Identity Crisis story arc really did a number on the Justice League. After Identity Crisis, the superheroes were either missing or decided to take a year off of all the super-heroics. But evil does not take a vacation. There were always bad guys to take care of. So Firestorm formed his own Justice League with lesser-known heroes like the Ambush Bug and Super Chief. They miserably failed a test created by Booster Gold’s robotic AI assistant called Skeets and were later disbanded. With a vacuum left in the wake of the Justice league’s disbandment, the situation all over the globe became so dire that it created circumstances that could have easily lead to the next World War.
8. Told lies to Disabled kids
We know that comic books can be really dumb and insensitive sometimes. There are cases of subtle racism and stereotyping reported in comic books even today. But this one really takes the cake. In the Silver Age of Comic Books, Superman and Batman visit a hospital for handicapped children. The objective was to tell the readers that disability does not mean the end of life. There is still they could do a lot more. But it ended up being a crap fest. As the pages of the comic book issue unfold, you will see that Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, and the likes are not actually inspiring the disabled kids but blaming them for their disabilities and asking them to “do something with their lives”. Thank you, guys!!
9. Let Super-Villains join the team as full-time members
It is okay to be diverse. But not so diverse that you start recruiting your very enemies. Throughout history, the Justice League has accepted several super villains into their ranks. The recent most additions are Lex Luthor and Captain Cold. These guys literally are part of a supervillain team called the Injustice League. That should have been a good enough hint for the league to reject them. Despero, Killer Frost and Maxwell Lord have also been part of the League in the past. It really makes us wonder what does the HR department in the League really does?!
10. Torturing hostages
After Batman and Martian Man-hunter are mercilessly killed at the end of Final Crisis, the Justice League is in utter disarray. Green Arrow and Green Lantern, both prominent members of the League, decide to call it quits and start their own superhero team who would be more violent and aggressive in their methods to vent out justice. Both Green Arrow and Green Lantern, in the Cry for justice mini-series, reveal that they have already kidnapped and incarcerated several hostages that they ‘think’ have critical information regarding super villains and they are more than willing to use barbaric torture techniques to get that information out of them. It is during this mini-series that we learn that Green Arrow has become a remorseless murderer when he kills Prometheus in cold blood.
