Today, we look at how the Joker pushed the Justice League off of Earth entirely!
In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.
Reader Dan Q. wanted to know when the Justice League's satellite headquarters debuted. The story is a fascinating one, Dan!
HOW THE SECOND GENERATION OF COMIC BOOK WRITERS SHOOK THE DC UNIVERSE UP
Starting in the mid-1960s, the second generation of comic book writers started working at Marvel Comics and then DC, as well. These were the first fans who grew up reading comic books. So they had a whole other perspective than the first generation of guys who wrote comics during that period who had, themselves, grown up with pulp fiction and comic strips as their main source of entertainment. The earlier generation just didn't see comic books as being as important. Now, though, with Roy Thomas and Denny O'Neil's generation, we have a group who DID see comics that way. And suddenly, this new group were addressing the sort of stories that comic book fans always thought about. Denny O'Neil, though, was a bit different than those other writers, as he wasn't as devoted of a comic book fan as a Roy Thomas or a Len Wein or a Marv Wolfman. So while those guys would do a lot of stories that were essentially addressing stuff that fans had always brought up themselves since they WERE fans, Denny O'Neil instead just took an entirely different look at things because he wanted to see a different approach taken with the superhero genre. This led to the many comic book stories that he did about the politics of the era.
One of those stories was 1969's Justice League of America #77 (art by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella), which saw Justice League's mascot, Snapper Carr, being turned against the League by a populist named John Dough....
WHO WAS THE MYSTERIOUS JOHN DOUGH SUPPOSED TO BE BASED ON?
John Dough is a clever riff by O'Neil on the famous Frank Capra film, Meet John Doe, about a newspaper columnist who has lost her job. She comes up with a way to keep from being fired by inventing a man named "John Doe," who plans on killing himself in protest to the evils of modern society. John Doe becomes a sensation and she is forced to hire a drifter to pretend to be John Doe and then she uses him as basically a pulpit for her views about corruption and stuff like that and John Doe soon becomes a major populist movement in the country (the columnist's boss then plans to exploit the people's love of John Doe to help his own political ambitions).
So here, a John Dough has started a movement in the country pushing for the "average" person ahead of the superheroes of the world, and Snapper is turned against the Justice League (O'Neil's sensibilities were such that he did not want Snapper Carr, the wacky teen member of the Justice League who was really just their mascot, on the team anymore and so this was his way out) along with a number of other people. The Justice League looks at the state of the world and a number of them understand the sentiment...
Meanwhile, Dough has captured Batman and is now impersonating him (because this is comic books in the Silver Age, no one pays attention to anyone, so you can easily impersonate anyone).
A WORLD TURNED AGAINST THE JUSTICE LEAGUE
An anti-Justice League rally (that was pitched to the Justice League as a way for them to make up with Snapper) soon turns violent and the Justice League find themselves clashing with protesters in a way that makes them look really bad, so they beat feet (later learning that the tickets to the rally were traps that messed with their nervous systems, forcing the riot to occur)...
Things were not looking good for the Justice League, especially when Congress asked them to testify over whether they were responsible for the riot starting.
THE JOKER IS REVEALED!
"Batman" is about to testify that the Justice League planned on overthrowing the American government when the REAL Batman shows up and reveals that John Dough is a bad guy. Dough escapes, but when the League return to their headquarters, Doe is there to attack them, as Snapper told him how to get into the Justice League base.
He is defeated and we learn that John Dough is actually the Joker in disguise!
After this, the Joker would go on one of the longest hiatuses in his comic book career before O'Neil and Neal Adams brought him back in a revamp of the character. Snapper would be out of the book, although the League ostensibly forgave him for betraying them. Amusingly, O'Neil would soon be off the book, as well, with fellow second generation writer, Mike Friedrich, took over the book, doing it in the same vein as O'Neil's work, as well.
THE JUSTICE LEAGUE WAS FORCED TO LEAVE EARTH ENTIRELY
With their headquarters now exposed, the League is forced to head into outer space with a brand-new satellite headquarters in the next issue...
I love how confident the Atom is that the satellite will be too hard for anyone to attack, as we all know now that the satellite was seemingly destroyed three or four times over the years. The satellite was a major part of the League for the next decade and a half, though.
Thanks for the suggestion, Dan!
Okay, folks, if anyone has a suggestion for/question about a notable comic book first, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!