The Justice League may be mythic heroes, but they’re not the first team to try and protect the DC Universe. Others, like the Justice Society of America, came from an older generation, protecting the world and establishing a legacy for the League to honor. But what if that passing of the torch was more literal, and a previous Justice League had been made up of the current heroes’ parents?
This artwork shared to Instagram by Wintersink celebrates the idea of a Justice League created by the parents of the usual members, led by Hippolyta, Jor-El and Thomas Wayne. While this specific idea isn’t comic canon, many Justice League heroes did have adventurer parents, while others have met vigilante versions of their mothers and fathers in alternate realities – for instance, Flashpoint’s troubled Thomas Wayne Batman.
This awesome idea is the kind of thing blockbuster alt-universe stories are made of, especially as each parent gets a costume that echoes the hero their child will become – though generally with a darker, more troubled twist than the icons they raised.
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Many of the characters pictured were actually superheroes at one point or another – Hippolyta even replaced Wonder Woman on the Justice League during the ’90s. Aquaman’s mother Atlanna was a powerful leader and adventurer, and Sha’sheen J’onzz would have had all the powers of the Martian Manhunter fans know and love. Of course, Thomas Wayne’s Batman is easily the most famous example of this, having fought his alt-universe son for control of Gotham and later joined the multiversal Justice League Incarnate. It would be incredibly easy to have Thomas travel from world to world, gathering his own parental Justice League. In fact, with DC resurrecting its Elseworlds line this year, this is exactly the kind of story that fans deserve.
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Given that dinosaur and mech pilot versions of the Justice League have debuted over the last few years, a League of Super-Parents doesn’t just sound possible – it’s actually a less extreme transformation than fans have seen in series like Jurassic League. It’s also the perfect opportunity to explore each hero’s lore and play around with their origin stories – Wintersink’s speedster Nora Allen alone is begging for a backstory.
Generational relationships are a big part of superhero stories, and most of DC’s most prominent heroes now have kids who are also crime-fighters, from Batman’s son Damian to Wonder Woman’s newly introduced daughter Trinity. However, the themes that make the next generation so interesting can also be applied to the last. Over the years, DC has explored the parents of the Justice League in great detail – what they taught their heroic kids, what they stood for, and how they eventually passed away. This awesome fanart shows DC exactly how to capitalize on that lore by giving fans a Justice League made up of the classic roster’s parents.
