Justice Society of America

Justice Society of America
Cover of Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #1 (February 2007). Art by Alex Ross.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	All Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940–1941)
Created by	Gardner Fox (writer) E. E. Hibbard (artist) Sheldon Mayer (editor)
Roster
See: List of Justice Society of America members

The Justice Society of America (JSA) is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It was conceived by editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox during the Golden Age of Comic Books. It first appeared in All Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940–1941), making it the first team of superheroes in comic books. Its original members were Doctor Fate, Hourman, the Spectre, Sandman, Atom, the Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman.

The team was initially popular, but after superhero comics waned in the late 1940s, the JSA's adventures ceased with issue #57 of the title (March 1951). During the Silver Age of Comic Books, DC Comics reinvented several Justice Society members and brought many of them together in a new team, the Justice League of America. Other JSA members remained absent from comics for ten years until Jay Garrick appeared alongside Barry Allen, his Silver Age counterpart, in The Flash #123 (September 1961). The Justice Society was established as existing on "Earth-Two" and the Justice League on "Earth-One", different versions of Earth in different universes. This allowed for annual cross-dimensional team-ups of the teams between 1963 and 1985. New series, such as All-Star Squadron, Infinity, Inc., and a new All-Star Comics, featured the JSA, their children, and their heirs and explored the issues of aging, generational differences, and contrasts between the Golden Age and subsequent eras.

The 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series merged all of the company's various alternate realities into one, placing the JSA as World War II era predecessors to the company's modern characters. A JSA series was published from 1999 to 2006, and a Justice Society of America series that ran from 2007 to 2011. As part of DC Comics' 2011 relaunch of its entire line of monthly books, an unnamed version of the team appears in the Earth 2 Vol 1 (2012-2015), Earth 2 World's End (2014-2015), and Earth 2: Society (2015-2017).