Of course, after the Justice League of America (JLA) began back in 1960 times have changed and new characters were added to the mix of the original seven.

Green Arrow – The Emerald Archer. Oliver Queen was a millionaire who was on a yacht when he was tossed overboard (on purpose or accidentally) . Ollie landed on a deserted island where he taught himself archery in order to survive. Upon returning to the main land and civilization, Ollie kept using his unsurpassed archery skills to fight against injustice.

The Atom – The Mighty Mite. Physics Professor Ray Palmer discovered a chunk of white dwarf star matter that could shrink items for a time, unfortunately everything he shrank turned unstable and exploded. Forced to use this technology to save a group of college students, Ray discovered that for some reason his body did not turn unstable. Donning a size changing belt and gloves to control his size and weight Ray became The Atom. The Atom is married to a lawyer named Jean Loring.

Hawkman – The Winged Wonder. Katar Hol is a police officer from the planet Thanagar. He and his partner/wife, Shayera, came to Earth in pursuit of a shape changing criminal. Once on Earth they decided to stay to assist Earth in its protection. Wearing a harness with wings, a uniform tinged with an antigravity metal called Nth Metal, and using ancient Earth weapons Katar took the earth name of Carter Hall and became a curator in a museum during the day and fought alien menaces at night.

Black Canary – The Blonde Bombshell or The Pretty Bird of Prey. Dinah Drake Lance is an extremely accomplished martial artist possessing a sonic scream called The Canary Cry. Dinah is in a relationship with Green Arrow. I am omitting a bit about her origin, trust me we will cover it later, but for right now, that’s all you need to know.

Elongated Man – The Ductile Detective or Stretchable Sleuth. Ralph Dibny was fascinated with the “Rubber Men” at circus sideshows and he discovered that each of them drank the extract from a plant called the Gingold. Ralph was able to concentrate the Gingold down to the point where he could stretch far beyond what normal rubber men could. Ralph is also an extremely accomplished detective, perhaps second only to the Batman. He is unique at this point in super hero story telling as Ralph has elected to not have a secret identity. He is married to a lovely socialite named Susan Dearborn Dibny.

Red Tornado – The Android Elemental. John Smith is an android construct of a Justice League villain, mad scientist T.O. Morrow. Unfortunately Reddy’s construction was such that John began to feel, form morals, and he rejected T.O. Morrow’s programming and eventually joined the Justice League. Red Tornado’s android body houses the Tornado Champion, an elemental that fuels his massive wind powers. Tornado is in love with a woman named Kathy Sutton and desires to be a father figure to a young girl he saved named Traya.

Zatanna – The Mistress of Magic. Zatanna Zatara is the daughter of a hero from World War II called Zatara and a woman named Sindella who is a member of a race of magicians called Homo Magi. While questing to find her missing father Zatanna came into contact with most of the JLA and eventually was offered membership. She speaks her spells backwards. Example: “Llaw fo htrae tfil pu hgih! Tcetorp su mrof eht taerht taht seilf!” translates to “Wall of earth lift up high! Protect us from the threat that flies!”

Firestorm – The Nuclear Man. Firestorm is actually two men caught in the midst of a nuclear experiment gone wrong. High School Student Ronnie Raymond and Professor Martin Stein were fused together into a being that possessed flight and control over the molecular structure of objects. Ronnie is the main physical entity while Dr. Stein hangs around Ronnie as an invisible head that only Ronnie can communicate with. This frequently makes other characters think that Firestorm is talking to himself, mostly for comical effect, but it also leads to the other heroes not taking him all that seriously.

What’s that Ralph? Does your nose smell a mystery? Well fear not gentle readers for we will be discussing the story in which the above event occurs in depth when next we meet.

JLA #200 – A League Divided