Of course you don’t believe it. Of course I don’t believe it. On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the “Death of Superman” event, DC will kill the Justice League. To show they’re serious, they’re cancelling Justice League with April’s issue #75. Except, of course, we know better, and this is at least the 10th comics series called Justice League.
DC communicated this to their affiliated publication Entertainment Weekly. It does appear that at least six of the seven founding members will be killed off for at least three months, including Superman. But maybe not.
What writer Joshua Williamson actually told the website:
“It’s very serious. It’s an interesting opportunity to do this on the 30th anniversary of ‘The Death of Superman,’ which happened in Superman #75. We get to take Justice League #75 and do ‘Death of the Justice League.’ We want people to understand, this is serious and this is gonna have a major impact in the DCU moving forward. I remember the experience of reading the build-up to ‘The Death of Superman’ and then waiting in the rain for my copy of issue #75. I think one reason that story was so powerful was that after the ‘Funeral for a Friend’ story, there were no Superman comics for three months. That’s part of what led us to make the decision that this is the last issue of Justice League. But then three months later, there’s still not gonna be a Justice League comic. It’s gonna be a while, and that’s gonna be a major part of what the DCU looks like after this story: There is no Justice League.”
If you’ve walked into a comics shop lately — and I hope you have — it’s hard to say what exactly the DCU looks like before this story.
Many DC books feature familiar characters but take place in their own continuity. After Infinite Frontier and Future State (rightfully) defaulted to more of a Hypertime approach — the stories you like are the stories that matter — we’ve seen a future Justice League that’s the next generation. We see I Am Batman already changing the dystopian future of Gotham City implied by Future State, while both Batman and Superman have their next generation lined up. But there’s still an upcoming Batman and Superman book on the horizon, which may be great.
Williamson continued, “Ever since Infinite Frontier #0, we’ve been building to this story. Last year was a lot of fun and games, but when this story starts, it’s the beginning of the third act. We’re going to see things get darkest before the dawn. The Justice League gets called in to fight this Dark Army that’s been building on the edge of the multiverse. They go up against this Dark Army and they lose. We’ll get to see what the ramifications are of losing the Justice League. You’ll get to see how the new heroes react, how some of the heroes that have been around for a while react, you’ll see how people on the ground react to this idea of the Justice League dying, and then you’ll get to see how all the villains react. What happens when they know the Justice League is gone?”
That does sound like a good story, assuming that the villains believe the League is dead. They have done a great job setting that next generation — there are Aquamen, and Yara Flor, Wonder Girl, is a great character ready to become Wonder Woman. Or maybe it will be Nubia stepping into the role. I’m sure I’m missing some. The question is… which Leaguers survive?
My money’s on J’onn J’onnz, who was killed in Final Crisis and resurrected within a few months. Maybe even more than three.
