DC’s Most Interesting Justice Society Legacy Team Deserves Another Chance

DC Comics originated the superhero in the Golden Age. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman became massive right off the bat and were able to mold the superhero world in their image. However, they were just the vanguard of Golden Age DC’s heroic spear. Behind them was the Justice Society of America, the first major superhero team in comics. It combined Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, the Spectre, Doctor Mid-Nite, Mr. Terrific, the Atom, Starman, Black Canary, Hourman, and Sandman, with Supes, Bats, and Wondy fighting along their side at times. This team began the legends of numerous mantles, including Green Lantern and the Flash, and paved the way for everyone that came after them. After the Silver Age changed everything, the team would return, acting as the main heroes of Earth-Two.

The Justice Society has built an impressive legend, with the various members of the team build their own legacies. Some of them had sidekicks and some of them had successors, but Earth-Two was missing something that Earth-One had – its own teen team. The sidekicks of Earth-One banded together as the Teen Titans, starting a legend that would lead to the amazing New Teen Titans and is still around today in books like Titans and the upcoming Teen Titans reboot. Slowly but surely, DC would start to change that, though. In the ’70s, the publisher started bringing back the sidekicks of the Golden Age heroes, re-introducing Robin and Star-Spangled Kid, and introducing Power Girl and Huntress. Marvel legend Roy Thomas would start working on Earth-Two stories around this time and it led to the Justice Society finally getting their own Teen Titans – Infinity Inc.

Infinity Inc. Introduced Readers to An All-New Legacy

While Stan Lee gets a lot of credit for making Marvel, well, Marvel, Roy Thomas deserves massive amounts of credit for running with Lee and Jack Kirby’s creations. Thomas had grown up reading Golden Age comics, so he ended up re-introducing many of the characters he loved when he was young. He created the Invaders for Marvel, retconning their Golden Age continuity. Eventually, Thomas would move over to DC and start working on All-Star Squadron, writing the characters he grew up with. This book brought back numerous Golden Age legacies and eventually Thomas would introduce a new generation of heroes to Earth-Two in the form of Infinity Inc.

The team first appeared in All-Star Squadron #25, with Star-Spangled Kid, who had just showed up in the present with the Seven Soldiers of Victory, Batman and Catwoman’s daughter Huntress, and Power Girl, the Supergirl of Earth-Two, joining with the son of the Hawks Silver Scarab, the Atom’s godson Nuklon, Green Lantern’s daughter Jade, and Brain-Wave II, the son of a villain. The team wasn’t as young as the Titans, but they were the next generation of heroes on Earth-Two. Soon, even more members would join the group – Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor’s daughter the Fury, Green Lantern’s other child Obsidian, Yolanda Montez as Wildcat II, Beth Chapel as Doctor Mid-Nite II, Rick Tyler taking his father’s place as Hourman II, Hawkman’s Feitheran godson Northwind, and reformed villain Mr. Bones.

Huntress and Power Girl would leave the team by the time of Crisis, Fury and Silver Scarab would fall in love, and the discovery of Obsidian would lead the team into battle to redeem the darkness inside of him (the only Obsidian story we ever get). Star-Spangled Kid would become Skyman and die in battle with Solomon Grundy, Rick’s addiction to Miraclo would become a concern for the team, and the team would move to Hollywood for a time. They even had their own nickname – the Infinitors. In the years before Crisis on Infinite Earths, they weren’t as popular as the New Teen Titans, but they were having a run that is honestly the creative equivalent.

Thomas’s pedigree is one of the greatest in comics. While we can all agree that he tries to take credit for too many things, much like his mentor Stan Lee, it’s impossible to deny just how great he was. He didn’t create the Avengers, but he created the version of the team that would be the basis for nearly everyone that came after it. This was a man who was an expert at Lee-style character dynamics and Kirby-style bombastic action. He’s created many of the greatest characters you’ve ever heard of and his work on Infinity Inc. is some of the best of his time at DC.

However, the Infinitors had another parent, a creator who has also become a legend – Jerry Ordway. Ordway is a student of the DC house style of the day, his simple, clean linework giving readers amazing detail and fluid action. Ordway is, in my opinion, a Perez-level creator and his work on Infinity Inc. is some of my favorite work of his. There’s an early story in the run, the Generations saga, where the Justice Society attacks the Infinitors that I love, with Ordway lovingly rendering the battle between the two teams. Infinity Inc. was Thomas’s baby – he would often share writing chores with his second wife Dann – but without Ordway’s excellent art, it never would have soared as high as it did (Todd McFarlane drew it in its later days). It’s classic superhero action at its finest.

Infinity Inc. Is the Perfect Team for DC’s Future

In 2026, if you’re a DC fan, you probably recognize several Infinitors – Power Girl and Huntress (although she’s not the one you thinks she is) definitely, maybe Jade, possibly Obsidian. Nuklon has become Atom-Smasher, Silver Scarab and Fury were in The Sandman before returning in JSA in the ’00s for a short period. Recent years have seen Beth and Yolanda brought back to life after their deaths at the hands of Eclipso, joining the Justice Society. Hourman II has had a surprising deep story over the 21st century, fighting his demons, marrying Jesse Quick, and separating from her. Mr. Bones runs the DEO and played a big role in the build-up to Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths. DC has tried to bring back Infinity Inc. several times over the years, usually using the name and trying to give them a new roster, constantly failing. Their success was far in the past, but that doesn’t mean that it has to stay there.

Right now, DC is rebuilding itself after years of dropping the ball. They started at the center with the A-listers and have worked their way outward, with teams like the Doom Patrol and the Legion of Superheroes showing back up, characters like Firestorm, Lobo, the Demon, Batwoman, Deadman, and others getting new series, and the big Teen Titans reboot. JSA is winding down, freeing up several Infinitors and I think it’s about time to give the classic team a chance to live up to their potential. Let them be like the Titans are right now, a team of adult heroes out to prove themselves, fighting alongside each other, living their lives together. If DC is serious about rebuilding their old school pre-Crisis superhero universe – a process that they’ve been working their way through for two decades – we need the return of the Infinitors. They form an important link between the past and the future, with so much story potential it’s not funny. DC is on fire and Infinity Inc. could make flame that burn forever.

The First 10 Members of the Justice Society of America, Ranked by Legacy