Justice League of America

A collection of superheroes, originally including Superman and Batman, who assembled to fight particularly nasty villans.

The League was introduced in The Brave And The Bold #28 (March 1960), and got their own magazine in the autumn of 1960. The final issue was #261, published in the spring of 1987, and was immediately followed by a new comic titled Justice League. The new magazine was called Justice League International for a short time, and in 1989 the separate Justice League Europe appeared. The Justice League Of America has been re-introduced (circa late 1996) in the JLA series.

One of the founding members of the JLofA is the Martian Manhunter (shown to the right in a recent incarnation), who originally appeared in 1955 (Detective #255). Goulart wrote, in 1993, that the Manhunter "was never a major attraction, but ... was still plying his trade almost 40 years later." The Manhunter became a main attraction in autumn 1998 when DC Comics finally launched a Martian Manhunter series.
The Manhunter's alter-ego is J'onn J'onzz. Compare this with Andy Partridge's pseudonym while a member of the Dukes of Stratosphear, Sir John Johns. Mere coincidence? Of course not!

Sources:

1. Rob Goulart, The Comic Book Reader's Companion: An A-To-Z Guide To Everyone's Favorite Art Form, HarperPerennial, 1993.

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER:
The Justice League Of America, the Martian Manhunter, and all related elements are the property of DC Comics, and the material provided here is for information purposes only.

appears in:

• "Melt The Guns" (found on English Settlement)

further reading:

• Other comic references in XTC songs are dealt with in separate glossary entries (listed in chronological order of their appearance in XTC songs):
  Mr. Ditko, Sgt. Rock, and Superman.
• A pretty good site devoted to The Justice League of America.
• Another Justice League of America site.
• The DC Comics site includes a page devoted to the new Martian Manhunter series.