Justice Lords
The Justice Lords are a supervillain team that features in DC Comics.
Contents |
History
Origin
The Justice Lords were a team of superpowered beings that were alternate reality counterparts of the Justice League where they came from another Earth in the Multiverse. In that universe, Lex Luthor was elected President of the United States, causing an unidentified large-scale calamity. This created a divergence from that of the world of the Justice League when Lex Luthor is elected President and establishes policies resulting in the prediction that a nuclear war between the League and the government could destroy the entire Earth. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman try to stop the war, storming the White House and confronting Luthor. When Luthor tells Superman no matter how many times he sends him to prison, he would find a way back to power. This resulted in Superman killing Luthor with his heat vision, and decides he liked this new form of 'justice'. Similarly, the other members of the League also began to lose their faith in humanity and decide to rule the world as a global police state. For two years, the Justice Lords seize the world's governments and begin ruling with an iron fist. Using their satellite base for surveillance, they ban free speech, limit elections, and eliminate crime by lobotomizing criminals and supervillains through Lord Superman's heat vision, although they justify their behavior as 'temporary' and for the people's own good. Lord Superman has also imposed severe restrictions on his girlfriend Lois Lane's way of life, forbidding her from making phone calls, having unauthorized guests, or leaving her home.
Two years later, the Justice Lords came to learn of their mainstream counterparts when Lord Batman during an experiment came to view alternate universes in the Multiverse as well as a means to travel to them. Bored with their own world, the Lords decide to 'assist' their counterparts by having their tyranny on the League's world, and trick them into going to the alternate Earth. When the League arrives, they are imprisoned and rendered unconscious. They are later transferred to cells designed to neutralize their powers, and Lord Batman stays behind to keep watch over them. When the rest of the Lords arrive on mainstream Earth, they meet Doomsday, a monstrous fighter who challenges Earth's mightiest combatants and goes on a rampage. The Lords, especially Lord Superman, are happy to fight him. After a hard fight, Lord Superman lobotomizes Doomsday with his heat vision. Lois Lane is surprised by this, and knowing the real Superman, deduces that the Lords are not the League.
The League escapes from the holding facility when the Flash accelerates his heartbeat to make Lord Batman think that he has flatlined. Lord Batman opens the Flash's cell door, is quickly locked in the cell by the Flash and the League escapes. Most go to Arkham Asylum to retrieve Hawkgirl, although Batman goes to the Batcave to get the dimensional transporter. There Batman and Lord Batman fight, and Batman convinces Lord Batman that the Lords' methods are wrong, after sarcastically saying if his parents were alive, they would be proud of his actions. Lord Batman saves the League from the alternate Earth's security forces and sends them back to their reality. On mainstream Earth, Superman approaches Lex Luthor for help against the Lords, who agrees in exchange for a presidential pardon, and so the League distracted the Lords to allow Luthor to use a power disruptor to permanently strip them of their powers. This left the Justice Lords' without their powers leaving them angry but defeated. As a result, the Lords were sent back to their Earth, whilst Luthor expressed his intention to enter politics.
Legacy
Death Metal
After the release of Perpetua, she came to re-order the Multiverse according to her vision where she offered a place to those that followed her. Among those that sided with her were the Justice Lords of Earth-50 where they set about eliminating any resistance to her. (Dark Nights: Death Metal Multiverse's End v1 #1)
Overview
In appearance, the Justice Lords were a team of superpowered beings from Earth.
Members
- Superman :
- Batman :
- Green Lantern
- Hawkgirl
- Martian Manhunter
- Wonder Woman
Notes
- The Justice Lords were created by Bruce Timm where they made their first appearance in the DC Animated Universe's Justice League.
- In The Multiversity Guidebook v1 #1 (2015), Grant Morrison listed the world of the Justice Lords as being Earth-50 in the New 52 DC Multiverse.
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
- In Justice League Unlimited, the Justice Lords were first created for the animated television series set in the DC Animated Universe where they made first appeared in the episode "A Better World".
Appearances
- Justice League: "A Better World" (Parts 1 and 2) (2003)
- Justice League Unlimited: "Question Authority" (2005)
