There are countless twisted versions of the Justice League throughout the DC Universe, but these are usually opposite or corrupted versions of the League. In the lead-up to one of DC’s most hated series, a Justice League of individually twisted heroes was assembled, and it’s been one of DC’s biggest missed opportunities, as the team has yet to be used again.
DC had a number of series leading up to the massive Final Crisis, one of which was Countdown: Arena by Keith Champagne and Scott McDaniel. During this miniseries, the villain Monarch captures several different versions of heroes across the Multiverse. He then pits them against each other in his arena with the promise of making the winners into his own Justice League.
This eventually culminates in the most brutal of the League variants becoming the winners, such as the vampiric Batman winning out over both the Gotham by Gaslight Batman and a Batman from World War II. Monarch succeeds in assemblinghis own vicious Justice League, but unfortunately, readers haven’t seen much of them after this poorly remembered event.
Why DC’s Justice Lords Are the Best ‘Evil Justice League’
The Justice League have faced many evil versions of themselves over the years but only one team is their true evil opposites.
Monarch Assembles His Very Own Twisted Justice League
Countdown: Arena by Keith Champagne, Scott McDaniel, Andy Owens, Guy Major, Jown J. Will.
Of the members Monarch recruited, not all of them are truly evil, but some of them were genuinely terrifying. This includes Johnny Quick, a notorious member of the Crime Syndicate, who took the place of the Flash on his team. Monarch also gathers the vampiric Batman from the Red Rain universe, a cannibalistic version of the Blue Beetle, and the Red Son version of Superman. Other members include Stargirl, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and a few more, but these characters aren’t evil — just forced to work for Monarch.
The idea of an evil Justice League isn’t new, and DC has explored it a few times in different contexts, but this series is an early instance of a League created with members gathered from across the Multiverse. Vampire Batman was one of the first members of this League, and readers can see his full backstory in the Red Rain trilogy. This is a stark difference from a character like Owlman, whose backstory has rarely been explored, and each time he shows up he’s a different version from the last. This gives Monarch’s Justice League far more depth and a larger variety of powers to play with.
This Evil Justice League Needs to Return to the DCU
With his Justice League assembled, Monarch leads an attack on the Monitors during the much-hated Countdown to Final Crisis. Though the team itself is fairly effective, when Monarch’s armor is ruptured by Superboy-Prime, the resulting explosion obliterates the entire universe, with this twisted version of the Justice League included. Since then, readers simply haven’t seen these characters again. This is a huge missed opportunity: since the team was originally formed in the Bleed, they could be a multiversal threat, even in current comics. Sadly, DC hasn’t revisited this unique version of the Justice League — so far.
Countdown: Arena is available now from DC Comics!
