Justice League

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

Following the carnage of World War I, horrified European politicians appealed to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to help them ensure that the carnage of 1914-1918 would truly be "the war to end all wars." His solution: the Justice League. Founded in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the League's goals included thwarting Vandal Savage, preventing Gorilla Grodd from raising an army of evil, sentient apes, and opening diplomatic relations with Atlantis.

The member nations each contributed a superhero to the League: The Flash had had been renowned for running away from battlefields while fighting for France, so he became that country's representative; England, long known for its tradition of truly insane aristocrats, fielded Batman, reasoning that it would keep a leather fetish out of the House of Lords for that much longer.

A chastened Germany offered up their Ubermensch, but the Mann des Stahls quickly defected to the U.S.

The League never got ratified by the U.S. Senate, and so was cancelled due to poor ratings. After World War II, the ideals it espoused were revived by Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern and others in the Justice League Unlimited. Kofi Annan is currently secretary-general of the League; his superpower is making large sums of money disappear around his friends.