The Justice League has had countless members over the years, but the core seven have always remained strong in everyone’s minds. Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, the Flash, Aquaman, the Green Lantern, and the Martian Manhunter are all staples to the Justice League. Having been around each other so long, these seven members of the team have become close friends.
However, they’ve also fought against one another multiple times, on a variety of occasions, and for a vast collection of reasons, both good and bad. Some of those reasons really weren’t worth it, and relationships were damaged. In the end, the Justice League have done some truly horrible things to one another.
10 Batman Tried To Kill Superman On Misinformation
In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Ben Affleck’s Batman, and Henry Cavill’s Superman met for the first time. Fans were hoping they would grow to be the close friends that they knew from the comics, but this was still a long way off. Instead of getting best pals Superman and Batman, Dawn of Justice showed DCEU audiences a Superman and a Batman who seemingly couldn’t stand each other. Despite the fact that Batman is being fed misinformation and being manipulated, he still creates kryptonite weapons and tries to kill Superman before he even really knows him.
9 Wonder Woman Killed The Huntress
For a long time, the Huntress was a valued member of the Justice League. She had been sponsored by Batman, and the Justice League deeply appreciated her work and enjoyed fighting by her side. A lot of things changed, however, with DC’s Injustice universe, offering a lot of twisted new takes on classic superheroes.
A compilation of video games and comics, Injustice also features a lot of fights between a great deal of famous superheroes. One of these fights is between Wonder Woman and the Huntress, a battle during which Wonder Woman lassos the Huntress’ neck and ends up snapping it, instantly killing her. Though Wonder Woman insists she didn’t mean to do this, she still did it, killing one of her own in battle.
8 Superman Drops Atlantis In The Middle Of The Desert
Even — and perhaps especially — Superman has his dark moments in Injustice, including in Injustice: Gods Among Us #12. Written by Tom Taylor with art by Mike Miller and Tom Derenick, Injustice: Gods Among Us #12 shows readers Aquaman unleashing Atlantean armies on coastal cities around the globe as a way to show Superman that he would not let Atlantis be taken. Superman takes this as a threat, much as Batman knew he would; Aquaman being Aquaman refuses to back down, and Superman decides to teach him a lesson. Rather than directly attacking Aquaman, Superman enlists the help of Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern to literally lift Atlantis from the ocean and set it down in the middle of the Sahara Desert — i.e., as far from water as humanly possible on Earth.
7 Wonder Woman Uses Her Powers To Decimate The Justice League
When it comes to power and ability levels, Wonder Woman is arguably the strongest member of the Justice League. Characters like Superman and Martian Manhunter may have incredible power as aliens, and Superman especially may well be the most powerful hero of all, but Wonder Woman is basically a deity. She’s one of DC’s most powerful heroes, if not their most powerful hero, and she has to keep her abilities and powers in check accordingly.
However, in the one-shot JLA: A League of One, written and illustrated by Christopher Moeller, Wonder Woman realizes the Justice League are holding her back. She realizes that the entire Justice League will be destroyed if she doesn’t stop them herself, and so she takes each member of the Justice League down on her own so that she can act individually. Though understandable, this is still an initial betrayal and major hurt. Luckily for Wonder Woman, her team does forgive her.
6 Superman Gets Alfred Killed On His Birthday
After Bruce Wayne loses his parents, Thomas & Martha Wayne, and is orphaned as a young boy, only one person can truly take care of Bruce Wayne. This person is Alfred Pennyworth, the Wayne family butler. However, Alfred becomes a second father to Bruce Wayne, raising him to adulthood and caring for him throughout his life. He also cares for Bruce’s children, a grandfather (and sometimes even more of a father than Bruce) to them, as well. Alfred is incredibly important to Bruce, and probably the only family the man truly has left. In Injustice: Year Five #23, Alfred is spending his birthday alone at Wayne Manor. Unbeknownst to him, Superman has sent the supervillain Victor Zsasz to interrogate him, an altercation that will result in Alfred’s death.
5 Superman Loses His Mind
Being as powerful as he is, it’s important that Superman keeps a tight grip on himself and his powers. A huge part of the reason that Clark Kent trusts Bruce Wayne with shards of kryptonite is that Superman knows he could be used as a weapon; in that case, he wants Batman to stop him, using the kryptonite he has entrusted to him. However, when Superman goes too far, sometimes nobody’s actually there to stop him. In Injustice: Gods Among Us #11, when the Green Arrow is trying to distract Superman, he fires an arrow that glances off of Superman and instead hits his father, Jonathan Kent, in the shoulder. Superman is so enraged that he flies at Green Arrow and immediately beats him to death in a furious rage.
4 Wonder Woman Turns On Mera And Becomes A Conqueror
The Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert crossover series Flashpoint showed readers a twisted side to many of their favorite characters. Because a lot of these characterizations wouldn’t have gone over well if they were pitched in the main DC Comics storyline, they ended up in stories like Flashpoint, where the plots could be more openly explored without affecting the main continuity.
One of the heinous things about this, of course, is that characters can do some truly horrible things to one another without main timeline consequences. One of these terrible things is that Wonder Woman kills Queen Mera of Atlantis, having an affair with Aquaman, and thus beginning a war between Themyscira and Atlantis.
3 Superman Betrayed Aquaman
Aquaman keeps getting betrayed and hurt by his fellow Justice League members. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Superman dumped Atlantis in the middle of the Sahara Desert in Injustice, he continued to torment Aquaman during DC: Rebirth. Aquaman: The Drowning, by Dan Abnett and Brad Walker, reintroduces Aquaman in the new rebooted DC Universe. In this story, though, Superman and Aquaman are discussing problems between the government and Atlantis. The Navy is attacked by Atlanteans during this discussion, unbeknownst to Aquaman, and the government dissolves talks until Aquaman and Superman are fighting. Superman sided with the government against Aquaman and, frankly, the rest of the Justice League – he only let Aquaman and the Atlanteans go with a warning when things turned dark.
2 Batman Made Fallout Plans For Every Justice League Member
Famously — or, perhaps, infamously — Bruce Wayne kept files and tools to destroy each and every member of the Justice League (if necessary.) Though Clark Kent wants Batman to have this ability, as he fears himself if he grows too powerful or gets manipulated while his powers are unchecked, the other Justice League members have not given Batman such freedoms or information. In JLA: Tower of Babel, by Mark Waid and Howard Porter, Batman is shown to keep secret records on how to completely destroy each member of the Justice League. These records are taken by Ra’s Al Ghul and used to decimate the League, proving an ultimate betrayal on the part of Bruce Wayne.
1 Superman Exposes Batman On Social Media
A partly-humorous, partly-tragic betrayal between the two best friends in all of DC Comics came in Injustice: Gods Among Us #10. In this story, all the superheroes fight viciously against one another and hurt each other in a vast variety of ways. One of the worst things Superman does here is give away Batman’s secret identity. The one thing Bruce Wayne wants nobody to know is that he’s Batman, and Superman simply posts it on the Internet. Joining the modern world, Superman tweets: “Batman is Bruce Wayne.” This, of course, goes viral, everybody learns the truth, and Batman is effectively destroyed by his own best friend.