28 Years Ago, DC Comics Published an Elseworld Story the Justice League Still Can’t Top

DC Comics is going through a renaissance lately, and as a long-suffering DC fan I say that it’s long past time. The publisher is putting the spotlight on various parts of their universe that have been underserved in recent years, with 2024’s DC All-In #1 kicking off a whole new saga for the superhero community. One of the most important part of this status quo was the return of the Justice League. If you look back over the history of DC Comics, you can see that every time things are going good, the Justice League is there at the center of it all. They are the assemblage of the greatest heroes in the multiverse; when they are strong, the rest of DC is strong.

While there have been several popular periods for the team in the 21st century, it was their mid ’90s return in JLA that kicked off a period of amazing Justice League stories that lasted until the early ’00s. DC in the ’90s was on fire and the Justice League getting big again saw them start to pop up in different places, including Elseworlds titles. We got the fantastic Kingdom Come, a story that showed that the League could still be cool again in the ’90s, and another Elseworlds that is nowhere near as fondly remembered, when anyone even thinks about it at all. It came from one of the greatest talents that England ever created and gave us a very different look at the Justice League, with a twist that is still mindblowing all these years later: JLA: The Nail.

MAJOR Spoilers Ahead for JLA: The Nail #1-3

JLA: The Nail Showed What the DC Universe Would Look Like Without a Superman

Writer/artist Alan Davis has had quite a career in comics. Coming to prominence in the UK comic scene of the early ’80s, working on classics like Marvelman and Marvel UK’s Captain Britain with Alan Moore. He was soon noticed by the American industry, working with writer Chris Claremont on Uncanny X-Men and later Excalibur at Marvel and Batman and the Outsiders and “Year Two” at DC. Davis jumped back and forth between the two companies, writing and drawing numerous characters. As the ’90s went on, he was doing covers for numerous DC books and was announced for a new Elseworlds series, one focusing on the Justice League of America.

In this book, Davis began, as you should in DC, with the coming of Kal-El and what would have happened if the Kents got a nail in their tire, missing the young Kryptonian’s landing. We flash forward to a Metropolis in love with its new mayor Lex Luthor, who ran on an anti-metahuman platform. The Justice League – Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, the Atom, Green Lantern, the Flash, and Hawkgirl – and their allies have been having a hard of times, with an attack by Amazo costing Green Arrow his arm and Hawkman his life. The team’s PR is at its worst and they hire Lois Lane to smooth things out. They’re soon pulled into a mystery that involves an attack on Arkham, the death of major villains, the Earth being cut off from the universe, and the truth behind Luthor’s campaign, all leading to the last person anyone would imagine.

That’s the rough synopsis of the book, hitting most of the major points. Davis gives readers a DC Universe that is basically stuck in the Silver Age for the heroes, but without Superman, there’s no one that every person looks up to. Without their star smoothing things over, history has diverged wildly. Davis is able to mix these two feels with aplomb; his vision of this DC Universe feels classic, all while going in some insane directions, none more so than the twist of the book. Things start to look very Kryptonian, leading readers to believe that maybe it’s Superman at the center of all of this and it is, but not in the way you think. Luthor was able to find the empty rocket and used Kal-El’s DNA to experiment on someone who would have been Superman’s best friend – Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy Olsen is the big bad.

JLA: The Nail is a fun look at a different DC Universe with some of the most gorgeous art you can imagine (every character gets a flawless one page splash in action), but it’s this twist that really defines the book. By the time we get to meet Kal-El – who had been found by the Amish – Davis has taken readers on the wildest rides you can imagine. JLA: The Nail is one of the best Justice League stories of the ’90s. Much like JLA, it trades on the triumphs of the past but takes them in new directions. Davis is one of those creators that never really gets as much credit as he should. His Excalibur run as a writer/artist is mostly forgotten, a lot of people hate “Year Two” (I’m not one of them; I read that book in 2nd grade and have loved it ever since), and he doesn’t really have that killer story everyone knows. However, JLA: The Nail should be that story (Fantastic Four: The End is also amazing; Davis really shines on alternate universe stories); it’s a fantastic new look at DC that is both comforting and shocking. I think the fact that its sequel Another Nail underperformed hurt the book’s legacy. However, since they’ve been collected together, the book’s reputation has gotten light years better, as the sequel works better if you read it immediately and not, say, six years later.

JLA: The Nail Is One of the Best Justice League Stories You’ve Never Heard Of

I discovered JLA: The Nail after I fell in love with “Rock of Ages” and started snatching every book I could find anywhere with “Justice League” on the cover. Davis was already a favorite because I was a massive fan of his Excalibur run, his classic, quirky style of art and writing appealing to me. Seeing his vision of a world without Superman was a massive treat and I’ve been evangelizing about this book for years. JLA: The Nail is a comic that’s a completely unique take on the Justice League that is able to remind you of the greatest eras of the team. This world without a Superman felt familiar and boldly new at the same time.

It’s been nearly 30 years since Davis introduced readers to this amazing tale and it’s aged better than nearly every other Justice League story out there. A big part of that is the timeless quality of the story. I will tell everyone to go and read Morrison’s JLA or Meltzer’s Justice League of America or Snyder’s Justice League or Justice League International any chance I can, but each of them is of their time; you’ll have to have a basic understanding of what was going in the DC Universe to truly appreciate them. The same thing could even be said of Kingdom Come. However, JLA: The Nail is a book that you can hand to anyone at any time in the team’s history and they’ll fall in love. Elseworlds books are perfect for this sort of thing and JLA: The Nail is one of the finest examples of that.

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