As the first superhero team ever, the Justice Society of America would have had a place in comic book history even if there was never a single good story about them. Lucky for us readers, there are hundreds of amazing stories that feature the JSA, and thanks to reprints, trade paperbacks, and digital, we have more access to them than ever before. But how do we choose which ones to read?

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You could start from the first JSA story in All-Star Comics #3 and go from there, but that's a countless amount to read. And if we're all honest, not every JSA story is good. So how can you be sure you read the best of the best? To help you out, here are the 10 most important JSA stories, ranked.

10 All-Star Comics #37

It took 34 issues before the Justice Society of America was given a serious threat to deal with. In All-Star Comics #37, the Wizard brings together the greatest supervillains of the time to battle the Justice Society, with the fate of the world at risk. This story would be the start of something that seems so obvious now - a team of heroes needs a team of villains to face off against. Without this issue, there would be no Cobra to fight GI Joe, no Decepticons to fight the Autobots, and no Legion of Doom to fight the Justice League.

9 Justice Society of America (1991)

The Justice Society gathers in DC Comics

The Justice Society hadn't appeared in their own series in five years and were last seen in The Last Days of the Justice Society where they sacrificed themselves to save the world. In 1991, writer Len Strazewski told the first new JSA story that took place in the post Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe. Set in the 1950s, each of the first seven issues of the series focused on a different member of the team, before bringing them all together in the eighth and final chapter of the story.

This mini-series proved to be so successful that DC would give the Justice Society their own new ongoing series just a year later. Sadly that series, also written by Strazewski with art by Mike Parobeck, only lasted ten issues before being canceled.

8 Armageddon: Inferno

The second mini-series to come out of Armageddon 2001, Armageddon: Inferno sees Waverider travel through time to take on the interdimensional being Abraxis and his minions. To battle Abraxis, Waverider, with the help of Spectre, gathers together a group of heroes and sends them to four separate points in the past to protect reality.

When it looks like the heroes will lose the fight against Abraxis, Spectre and Waverider decide to free the Justice Society of America from the limbo they have been trapped in for decades (see the next story on this list). The plan works, and with the experience of the JSA, Abraxis is beaten.

7 Last Days of The Justice Society Of America

After Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC comics needed to create a reason why the heroes of the Justice Society were no longer around. Writer Roy Thomas, who oversaw much of the JSA's adventures in the early 1980s, crafted Last Days of the Justice Society of America to answer that problem. The story saw the JSA decide to disband shortly after Crisis, feeling that with the Justice League and the other young heroes running around, they weren't needed anymore.

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It is then that the Spectre appears to the team and sends them back to 1945. It is revealed that in the aftermath of Crisis, Spectre's unchecked power tapped into the Spear of Destiny, giving Hitler what he needed to destroy the world. The JSA take on the Norse gods, defeating all but Surtur. To save the world, the JSA traps themselves in a neverending battle with the fire god.

6 America vs The Justice Society

In the months before Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC chose to close out the story of the Golden Age Justice Society in a spectacular fashion. The four-issue series titled America vs. The Justice Society saw the team of heroes brought before Congress after Batman's diary is posthumously released to the world, revealing that the JSA was actually working for the Nazis during World War II.

The series works as a recap of the history of the Justice Society while showing is parts of the story we never knew before, saving you the trouble of trying to hunt down every issue of their Golden Age adventures. It is also a fantastic story in itself, going so far as to have a scene where the Spectre offers to destroy the universe to free the JSA. That's friendship!

5 Justice Be Done

Introduced in the first half of the 20th Century, the JSA became more popular than ever at the start of the end of the century with a new series by writers David Goyer and James Robinson and art by Stephen Sadowski. In "Justice Be Done," the story that kicked off the new series, the founding members of the team come back together to investigate the murder of their old friend Dr. Fate. Along the way, they pick up some new heroes and together form a modern-day Justice Society of America. This series would go on to become one of DC's biggest sellers and bring a whole new fanbase to the oldest superhero team in the world.

4 Crisis On Infinite Earths

Not just important to the JSA but to all of DC Comics, 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths saw the collapse of the multiverse at the hands of the Anti-Monitor, and the birth of a new Earth by the hands of the Spectre. Written by Marv Wolfman, with art by George Perez, Crisis on Infinite Earths rebooted DC's decades of history, cleaning up some of the mess and condensing the heroes from across the multiverse onto one world. For the first time ever, the JLA and JSA existed in the same timeline, although the JSA wouldn't be around for long.

3 The Golden Age

DC The Golden Age

Originally an Elseworlds series, James Robinson's tale of the final days of not only the Justice Society but all of the Golden Age heroes, made its way into the continuity of the DC Universe. The four-issue series, with amazing art by Paul Smith, is mostly centered on members of DC's other Golden Age team, the All-Star Squadron, but Green Lantern, Atom, and Johnny Thunder all play important parts as well.

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The Golden Age shows a world where the American people began to distrust the masked heroes, questioning why they didn't fight in World War II, and why they refuse to reveal their identities. As the series progresses, we see that the ghosts of the war run deep and that the fight may not be over just yet. When James Robinson began writing a new ongoing JSA series, he used elements of The Golden Age, making it part of DC continuity.

2 Crisis on Earth-One! / Crisis on Earth-Two!

Justice League of America 21

From the moment the two Flashes first met in Flash #123, readers knew it would only be a matter of time before the Justice Society and the Justice League came together. Two years later, fans finally got to see it happen in Justice League of America #s 21-22. The stories, titled "Crisis On Earth-One!" and "Crisis On Earth-Two!" saw the two teams cross the multiverse to battle the Crime Champions. This story was the first of what became a near-annual team-up of the two teams, leading to classic stories like "Crisis On Earth-X" and Crisis on Infinite Earths.

1 All-Star Comics #3

Mentioned above, All-Star Comics #3 is the first appearance of the Justice Society, In the issue, the team doesn't actually work together to fight any form of evil. Instead, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Atom, Hourman, Sandman, Dr. Fate, Spectre, and Johnny Thunder come together to swap stories about their solo adventures.

In time, more heroes, like Wonder Woman, Wildcat, and Black Canary, would join the team. But here at the start are the nine original members of the JSA. It isn't the greatest JSA story ever told, but it is certainly the most important.

NEXT: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Golden Age Batman