Batman’s Justice League Gets Shocking New Members

The Justice League is splitting once again, with another team forming specifically to protect the US. The Justice League of America will relaunch at DC Comics in February 2017, and the full line-up was revealed by DC on IGN Friday. Batman will do double duty, working with both the primary Justice League and the new JLA, joining Vixen, Killer Frost, The Atom (Ryan Choi), The Ray, Black Canary, and surprise new member Lobo.

Yes, Lobo, the brash, hard-hitting alien bounty hunter who likes to refer to himself as “The Main Man” is joining the Justice League of America, and reverting back to form. The character underwent some changes in the New 52 era of DC Comics, becoming a svelte, somewhat emo version that fans mostly lambasted, but he’s back to Lobo classic here.

“For some people, Lobo will be a hero. For others, he’ll be an anti-hero. It’s moving past these black and white definitions and realizing that you have to have a malleable idea to serve everyone instead of just the people in the mainstream. Lobo, I think there’s more to him than ever before,” writer Steve Orlando said. As for his reversion to the larger-than-life style, Orlando said, “I like to think that we’re giving people the Lobo that made him famous and as time goes on hopefully we can get into how we got there a little bit more.”

He’ll also be back to his old mayhem, thinking way too highly of himself, and generally “reminding people that they’re taking themselves too seriously.”

Batman’s double-duty will be due to the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad crossover event, Orlando also revealed.

As for the rest of the line-up, it’s an interesting one, and one full of CW DC TV characters. Vixen and The Ray both debuted (or will) as animated characters in the CW, with Vixen now brought to live-action twice. While it’s a different version of The Atom, Ryan Choi, he’s still in the public consciousness because of his role on Arrow and then Legends of Tomorrow. Black Canary may be dead (um, twice) on Arrow, but she lives on in this series. Finally, there’s Killer Frost – and Caitlin Snow just recently had her powers emerge on The Flash. Maybe Frost’s joining the JLA is indicative of Snow using her powers more on TV?

There is notably no Super character on this team, especially given we have at least two Supermans, a Superwoman, a Superboy, and a Supergirl all flying around the DCU right now – the last of which is also written by Orlando right now. Lobo serves that “heavy” role in the roster for now, but the writer did tease he’d like to bring Kara in eventually.

Justice League of America debuts in February, from Steve Orlando and Ivan Reis. See Reis’s full cover (with the full roster) below.