The Justice League of America has actually gone through various versions over the years. When you hear the name you think of the big names of DC Comics, coming together as a group. And yeah, they did that. Except there was a period of ten years when the team was, weird for lack of a better word. First came the Justice League "Detroit" era, which would have been find if the team had a different name. Much like how Batman spun off into Batman and the Outsiders that's what this strange version of the JLA should have been.
Then came the Keith Giffen/Mark Maguire era, when Justice League International was the name. At least the heroes weren't lame no names but it wasn't the big tier names either. The series didn't start out as funny, just witty banter, but it become humorous after awhile. Sadly, to a point where the book was almost nothing but satire and jokes.
Thankfully the book would get a relaunch with Dan Jurgens which helped get things on track, before the book was cancelled and Mark Waid returned the Justice League to full form. Before that, we had some real goofy things. So goofy, they were just plain stupid. Here are five characters introduced during that era that I just did not like. These are all examples from the 90's era, and of course just opinion here as always.
G'Nort
To be fair this character has stuck around and gotten better. I give credit to the creators for taking a character designed to be a joke and making something more of him. But he always bugged me. According to Hal Jordan G'Nort had no business being a GL, but he had an influential uncle who was in the Corps and pushed him through. G'Nort had heart but was a dumb screw up and talked weird, sort of the Jar Jar of the JLA.
Manga Khan
Sort of what the Ferengi in TNG would be, Manga Khan was an intergalactic trader who would trade anything for profit (or other goods in this case). Even if what he was bartering with was stolen or never his to begin with. He is a gaseous being who talked out loud to himself. Not the worst creation, but I never cared for him. He had a robot assistant named L-Ron who would actually become an interesting character later on that I kinda liked.
General Glory
This one just drives me nuts...and I am not exactly sure why. This was a Captain American parody though the similarities are slim. Glory gets his powers Captain Marvel style by saying a phrase and turning into Glory. He is all about patriotic pride and doing the right thing at all times. His code on manners would put Steve Rogers to shame. He was so over the top he never felt real, which is a problem when he's supposed to be interacting with characters who very much do.
Mr Nebula
I was trying to find a more frustrating character (who I can't find, did I make them up?) when I got reminded of this stupidity. This was a sendup of Galactus but instead of devouring worlds he redecorates them. Yes, you read that correctly. And since he was a decorator, well you can take a guess what stereotypical personality type he had. This was so dumb. Justice League Quarterly was a series of specials featuring the JLA in stories that probably would have been to silly for the main book. This one especially! Did I mention the Silver Surfer analog called The Scarlet Skiier? Groan.
The Beefeater
Sigh. If General Glory was a parody of American pride than this guy was a parody of British snooty-ness. He was all decked out in the British decor of the Yeoman Warder with a stereotypical English accent and was essentially a Fawlty Towers knock off who protected England with a cosmic rod. Anyway he tried to join Justice League Europe but due to shenanigans they thought he was a villain instead. He was stupid and I have nothing else to say about him except he did appear later in a Batman comic where he was taken quite seriously.
But wait, there's one more! I did it. I found the most insane villain ever. The reason I had trouble looking him up was that this character appeared in Mister Miracle, not Justice League. Though the two books were connected, MM basically being a spin-off JLI book at the time (the issues in fact being a crossover with them), so the confusion was easy. Who is this character so obscure I can barely find any info on him?
Supreme Magnificence
First of all it's clear they couldn't come up with a real name for this character. This is a telepathic noodle monster from an alternate dimension where pasta is sentient and determined to take over the world. I am dead serious. He also releases noodles that when ingested, gives him control of people. How was he defeated? They boiled him of course. Whatever, sure.
As I said eventually the books got overhauled and the silliness was replaced with more genuine superhero stuff. Before the book was cancelled and relaunched back into the JLA proper. While some of the goofy stuff from those days was to much, overall I did enjoy those books and some the stuff was genuinely funny and memorable. You can see it was popular with the spin-off's, specials and quarterlies that came out around it. The JLI days were odd, but well worth remembering.
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