WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the short story Green Lantern: Alan Scott by James Tynion IV and Stephen Byrne, featured in Infinite Frontier #0, available now.
The Justice Society of America's place in the DC Universe has been in flux since Flashpoint rebooted the timeline almost ten years ago. During the New 52 most of the characters related to the JSA were either drastically changed or isolated in the Earth 2 franchise. Although the process of reintegrating them into the main DC Universe started early in the Rebirth era it's been a long, winding road to actually doing so, but as the Infinite Frontier era starts it seems the JSA have finally returned to their status quo as the elder statesmen and women of the DCU. A short story in Infinite Frontier #0 confirms this and goes further, reestablishing the importance of the JSA's descendants with a reference to forgotten superhero team Infinity Inc.
The Green Lantern: Alan Scott short story from Infinite Frontier #0 is mostly about the titular character admitting to his children, Todd Rice/Obsidian and Jennie-Lyn Hayden/Jade, that he's gay but it also references Todd and Jade's history with Infinity Inc. In Todd's internal monologue the character looks back through his complicated history, one of the bright spots of which was serving as a member of Infinity Inc. alongside his sister. A picture of the original Infinity Inc. team is also framed in the JSA headquarters.
Created by Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, and Mike Machlan, Infinity Inc. first appeared in All-Star Squadron #25 in 1983. The team consisted of children and other descendants of JSA members who requested to join the JSA but were rejected, as well as Sylvester Pemberton, the Star-Spangled Kid, who left the JSA to mentor the new team. The original roster, which is the one pictured in Infinite Frontier #0, consisted of Al Rothstein/Nuklon, godson of the original Atom, Hector Hall/Silver Scarab, son of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Lyta Trevor/Fury, daughter of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, Norda Cantrell/Northwind, a family friend of the Hawks, alongside Obsidian and Jade.
An Infinity Inc. ongoing comic started soon after and later additions to the team included Power Girl, Huntress, and the Rick Tyler Hourman, among others. Initially Infinity Inc. was set on Earth-2, until Marv Wolfman and George Perez's Crisis on Infinite Earths merged that world and Earth-1 with others to create New Earth. This necessitated changes to several members of the team. Lyta was now said to be the daughter of the Golden Age Fury, Helena Kosmatos, and Huntress, who on Earth-2 was Batman and Catwoman's daughter, Helena Wayne, did not exist, with the separate character Helena Bertinelli occupying the role, without ties to Infinity Inc. The series ended in 1988 following Sylvester's death and the team disbanded.
Many of the team members continued to be important players in the DC Universe. The ongoing JSA comic that started in 1999 featured Al and Hector as main characters from the beginning, with Al now going by Atom Smasher and Hector taking on the role of Doctor Fate as members of the new iteration of the Justice Society. Power Girl and Hourman soon joined the JSA and other Infinity Inc. members like Northwind and Fury also made appearances.
The team's reunions were not always happy, as several of them wound up going down dark paths. Having inherited a tendency towards mental health problems from his mother, Obsidian was corrupted by Ian Karkull and battled Alan and the JSA several times before they were able to help him. Al befriended Black Adam while the latter was a member of the JSA and eventually joined his team of superhuman vigilantes that also included Northwind and brought a more brutal form of "justice" to Adam's home country Kahndaq, although Al eventually broke away from Adam and worked to redeem himself for this. Jade served as a supporting character in Green Lantern, during which time she dated Kyle Rayner and temporarily became a Green Lantern herself.
With the JSA still gradually returning to prominence, it might be a while before Infinity Inc. is back in the spotlight in comics. But the Infinite Frontier scene is a welcome tribute to their legacy and some individual members are being adapted in other media. Obsidian appeared in the second season of DC's Legends of Tomorrow as a member of the Arrowverse's JSA, where he was portrayed by Dan Payne and Lance Henriksen. Rick Tyler, played by Cameron Gellman, is a main character on Stargirl and Ysa Penarejo has been cast as Jade for the show's upcoming second season. Meanwhile, Noah Centineo will play Atom Smasher in Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam film, in which he'll be part of the first cinematic version of the Justice Society.