It has been 15 years since DC Comics finished its rollout of the New 52, and in the final week of new-issue releases, the company created its darkest team of heroes in what became the best version of the Justice League. The New 52 was a full company revamp and relaunch for DC following the events of “Flashpoint.” While this was seen as shocking and polarizing to many fans, it was nothing new. DC had done the exact same thing after “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” and readers loved it at that time. However, the complaints about the New 52 were that the comics were a mixed bag and not every release was the same quality as others.
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One of the new books that was great was a new take on the Justice League. While the main Justice League comic had relaunched with a new origin story for the team surrounding Darkseid, a different team also debuted 15 years ago today. This team was called Justice League Dark, and the comic debuted on September 28, 2011.
Justice League Dark Brought Vertigo’s Mystical Heroes Into the DC Universe
Peter Milligan and Mikel Janín brought Justice League Dark to life using many of the occult and offbeat characters who were a huge part of Vertigo into DC. Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics, decided to publish mostly new creator-owned content, which opened the door for characters like Constantine to officially make his way into DC proper. This actually started before the New 52, as Constantine made his jump in the miniseries The Search for Swamp Thing, which followed “Brightest Day” and led up to the New 52 relaunch. This series had Constantine searching for Alec Holland as the new Swamp Thing, and he worked with Batman, Zatanna, and Superman.
Milligan also wrote the Flashpoint: Secret Seven miniseries, which included the Enchantress and Shade, the Changing Man, while also introducing a new character named Mindwarp. By the time the New 52 launched, the Justice League Dark had been set up and was ready to roll. The first story arc saw the Enchantress defeat the Justice League, which made it necessary for the world to have a supernatural team to help out when these events happened. The first issue featured a team that included John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Shade, the Changing Man, Deadman, and Zatanna, with the Enchantress as the villain and her alter ego, June Moone, making her debut as well.
The team began to have members come and go as needed through its first 10 issues, while it also featured a crossover with another New 52 series, I, Vampire. By Justice League Dark #9, Jeff Lemire replaced Milligan as the writer, and the team began to experience changes, with Andrew Bennett and Black Orchid joining and the group officially going by the name Justice League Dark for the first time. The series remained successful, and it ended up running for 40 issues before coming to an end.
Justice League Dark Remains a Popular Spinoff of the Justice League
A big reason for Justice League Dark’s popularity was that it wasn’t the same old Justice League team. It was similar to what made Justice League International so popular decades before, with a team that wasn’t all about the Trinity and other A-list heroes teaming up as the best of the best. While JLI was a team of misfits, Justice League Dark was a team of mystics who barely liked each other and didn’t fit in anywhere else in the DC Universe thanks to their connections to the dark side of humanity. With breakout stars like Constantine, the team ended up shaking up the DC Universe.
After Justice League Dark #40 (2015) by J.M. DeMatteis and Andrés Guinaldo ended the team’s New 52 run, the team remained dormant until 2018, when “Rebirth” brought back Justice League Dark with a new lineup that included names like Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Swamp Thing, Detective Chimp, and Man-Bat. This just wasn’t the same as the first run of the team, although it did run for 29 issues and ended with mostly the same lineup, with Doctor Fate in and Swamp Thing out.
However, Justice League Dark expanded beyond the world of comics. John Constantine had a live-action TV series, a pair of animated movies, and he was brought into the Arrowverse. As for the team itself, it had its own animated movies, including Justice League Dark (2017), in which Batman teamed up with Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman, Etrigan the Demon, Swamp Thing, and Black Orchid. Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020) came out three years later and saw them team up with the regular Justice League and Teen Titans to beat Darkseid. Before the New 52, this team didn’t even exist, but 15 years ago, DC made Justice League Dark the hottest new team in comics.
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