DC Comics created the superhero and Marvel Comics refined it, leading to the version that we have today. Superheroes first became a part of pop culture during the days of World War II, becoming a right of passage of sorts for children of all ages. In other countries, sequential storytelling would be used for a variety of genres, but in the United States, superheroes were the kings of the panels. Eventually, it was decided that if one superhero was great, then a bunch of them would be even better, leading to the creation of the superteam. The superteam changed the superhero comic forever, leading to moments across publishers that would come to define the medium.
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Superteams are big business in the 21st century, with the most popular of them being at the heads of multibillion dollar empires. However, popular and influential are two different things. Some superteams are the ones that have blazed the trails for the others, showing everyone how you do it when you bring together a group of heroes. These five superteams are the most influential in comic book history, each of them laying the groundwork that would make superteams so important over the decades.
5) The Teen Titans
I debated whether I should put the Legion of Superheroes here, because they are the first modern teen team. However, the Teen Titans represent something else, something that would become a key part of teen comics in the future. See, the Teen Titans weren’t just the young heroes, they were the sidekicks. The team became a place where they could come together and be on their own, learning how to work with their fellow heroes and getting experience without the grown-ups around. It was the training team, where young heroes went to learn how to be better.
The Teen Titans have had some amazing adventures over the decades, and have changed the way that readers look at teen comics. They’ve also become something of a cultural phenomenon, especially the New Teen Titans version of the team. Not only did its success help change DC Comics forever, but adaptation like Teen Titans and Teen Titans GO! have made the team a big part of the childhoods of millennials, zoomers, and Gen Alpha. In fact, every generation going back to the boomers has had the Teen Titans. They are the teen team, having created a legion of imitators and a multimedia empire.
4) The X-Men
The X-Men are about to become the centerpiece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, automatically vaulting to the top of a juggernaut. It’s been a long time coming, because Marvel’s merry mutants have spent the last 51 years creating an empire all their own. It all started in 1975, when Giant-Size X-Men #1 took Marvel’s failed teen mutant team and made them into an international allegory for civil rights and oppression. While the early X-Men’s message of peace was always sound, the team itself was the problem; they just weren’t all that interesting compared to DC’s teen heroes. Giant-Size solved that problem and comics’ greatest soap opera began.
The X-Men are used to jumping to the head of the class, overtaking the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Justice League, Teen Titans, Justice Society, and Legion of Superheroes. They became a huge part of pop culture in the ’80s, became even more ubiquitous in the ’90s, and conquered the multiplex in the ’00s. They birthed an entire mini-Marvel Universe, with its own heroes, villains, teams, spy agencies, secret organizations, corporations, government officials, alien species, viruses, super soldier projects, and basically everything you could imagine. Honestly, sometimes, it feels like calling them just influential isn’t really enough.
3) The Fantastic Four
If you’ve ever enjoyed anything Marvel, you should thank the Fantastic Four. In 1961, Marvel hadn’t been doing superheroes since the ’50s, instead putting out romance, Western, monster comics, horror, sci-fi, and the like. DC’s successes since 1956’s Showcase #4 were noticed by the publisher but it wasn’t until Justice League of America in 1960 was a smash that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were allowed to return to superheroes. They took ideas from Kirby’s DC team the Challengers of the Unknown (it’s basically the same time and vibe), added superpowers to it, and the First Family of the Marvel Universe was born.
The Fantastic Four became the most popular thing in the comic industry almost immediately. The team’s stories followed a family through the universe and fans fell in love with these realistic heroes. Since then, the team’s fortunes have risen and fallen, but every hardcore Marvel fan has a love for the team. Their best stories are the definition of crowd-pleasers, superhero sci-fi epics that never skimp on the humanity. Comics were going one way before the Fantastic Four came around, and they helped change the direction of the industry entirely.
2) The Justice League of America
The Justice League of America wasn’t the first superteam to bring together all of the greatest heroes in a company; that had been happening for decades by the time they turned up. However, they popped up at the perfect time. DC had started the Silver Age with Showcase #4, introducing a new constellation of stars. They brought them together for the first time in 1960’s The Brave and the Bold #28 and they had their own book by year’s end. Justice League of America eventually became the epicenter of the DC Multiverse, as the greatest threats from infinite Earths found themselves challenged by the greatest heroes of them all.
The best way to describe Justice League of America is that every issue was basically the equivalent of the yearly events we get now, stories that brought together the greatest heroes of numerous Earths to battle universe-shaking threats. The team was constantly changing as the years went by, morphing into the Justice League International and perfecting the superhero sitcom. In the late ’90s, JLA was the home of the biggest stories you could ever imagine and the team has become an amalgamation of all of its era in the present day, the perfect chameleon, changing as the DC Multiverse does. It’s the epicenter of DC Comics again, an integral piece of the whole superhero puzzle.
1) Justice Society of America
The Justice Society is the first superteam. It brought together the heroes of Golden Age DC – Hawkman, Starman, Sandman, the Atom, Hourman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Mister Terrific, Doctor Mid-Nite, Doctor Fate, Black Canary, Wildcat, and Johnny Thunder – to face off against threats that no one could face on their own. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman would join up as well and they would become the ultimate Golden Age superteam, the icons that started a legacy of justice that would reach into the modern day. If that was the extent of their story, they’d still be the most influential superteam ever, but that was just the start.
The return of the Golden Age Flash meant the return of the Justice Society and they became what amounts to co-stars in Justice League of America. Earth-Two would become an important part of DC’s publishing schedule, birthing All-Star Comics, All-Star Squadron, Infinity, Inc., and various miniseries and back-up stories. They’d fade away after Crisis on Infinite Earths ended the multiverse, but came roaring back in the wake of JLA, becoming one of the most beloved teams of the 21st century. The Justice Society are the best of the best, their legacy stretching all the way back to the beginning of the superhero and every team that came after them owes their existence to them.
Do you think the Avengers should have been on this list? Should the placement be different? Who doesn’t belong? Leave a comment in the comment section below.
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