Always eager to provide a public service, COMICS 101 is pleased to provide the following, a quick beginner’s guide to the dozens of new faces populating the Justice League Watchtower these days. Ready? Let’s begin.

THE ATOM:

One of the more familiar faces for comics fans, the Atom is a Justice League member in long standing in the comics. Ray Palmer uses a costume made from a white dwarf star fragment to alter his size and weight at will. For the full scoop on DC’s Mighty Mite, just click here. For some of the classic Atom appearances, I recommend THE ATOM archives, Volumes 1 and 2. Atom will be getting a spotlight episode written by comics writer Warren Ellis, currently scheduled for broadcast in mid-November.

ATOM-SMASHER:

As discussed in parts Four and Five of our look at the Justice Society of America, Atom-Smasher is Albert Rothstein, the nephew of the Golden Age Atom, and can grow to colossal size, with corresponding strength and toughness as well. For the best Atom-Smasher material, check out the “Darkness Falls” trade paperback from Geoff Johns’ current JSA series.

AZTEK THE ULTIMATE MAN:

For my money, the most underrated, overlooked and cancelled-too-soon comic book of the last decade. The creation of writers Grant Morrison and Mark Millar and artist N. Steven Harris, Aztek was trained since birth to be the champion of the Aztec god Quetzacoatl by the mysterious Q Foundation, and adopted the city of Vanity as his home. Aztek is a man at the absolute peak of human potential, and wears a mystic helmet and 4-dimensional power battery that grants him superior strength, flight, and numerous other abilities. His work in Vanity gained him the respect of the Justice League, who inducted him as a member in AZTEK #10, the final issue of his series. Unfortunately, Aztek had no idea he was merely a pawn of Lex Luthor, as he would come to find out in Grant Morrison’s stellar JLA run. There are only 10 issues of AZTEK out there, and one would hope that both Morrison and Millar’s popularity in recent years will soon prompt DC to collect the series.

BLACK CANARY:

Dinah Lance, the daughter of the original Golden Age Black Canary, has also been a longtime member of the Justice League, as well as the revived Justice Society. Aside from being one of the world’s most accomplished hand-to-hand combatants, the Canary possesses a devastating “Canary Cry,” a sonic scream that can render opponents unconscious. The Canary has long been involved in a relationship with Green Arrow, which explains why he’s always giving her the eye in the new episodes. You can find the Canary fighting alongside Oracle every month in the excellent BIRDS OF PREY

BLUE DEVIL:

Dan Cassidy is a Hollywood stuntman trapped in his cybernetically enhanced “Blue Devil” stunt suit after an encounter with the demon Nebiros. The happy-go-lucky Blue Devil had his own solo series in the mid-‘80s, and has been floating around in DC limbo ever since, never quite making it to the big time. Recent revamps have converted him into an actual demon, but none of those have made the character any more popular. Personally, I always liked the original concept by writers Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin and artist Paris Cullins. If you want to know more about the character, the first few issues of BLUE DEVIL are your best bet.

BOOSTER GOLD:

Anybody who saw the recent Booster Gold spotlight episode “The Greatest Story Never Told” knows pretty much all you need to know about Booster. He’s a disgraced football star from the future who swiped a few superhero relics and a time machine and came back to the past in an attempt at fame and fortune. Booster had his own series by creator Dan Jurgens from 1986 to 1988, and is nowadays probably best known as the Blue Beetle’s partner in hijinks in the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League International days. Booster was most recently seen in the FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE reunion miniseries, but my favorite Booster appearance was always JUSTICE LEAGUE #4, in which Booster faces off against the Royal Flush Gang solo in an unwitting audition for the League.

B’WANA BEAST:

Now we’re talking obscure. Game warden Mike Maxwell discovers a sacred helmet and elixir at the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro, which allows him to communicate with animals, grants him enhanced strength and reflexes, and gives him the bizarre ability to combine animals together into freaky mutant hybrids. B’wana Beast appeared twice in SHOWCASE back in the 1960s, and since then was used by Alan Moore in his SWAMP THING run, and more memorably by Grant Morrison in his first ANIMAL MAN storyline. You can pick up the first ANIMAL MAN trade paperback if you want to see B’wana Beast in action.

CAPTAIN ATOM:

Captain Atom was one of Steve Ditko’s earliest superhero creations, introduced by he and writer Joe Gill in Charlton Comics’ SPACE ADVENTURES #33 in March 1960. Ditko later returned to the character, a fairly standard nuclear-powered super-type, from 1965-1967. When all of Charlton’s properties were purchased by DC Comics in the 1980s, DC recreated the character in their 1986 revival of CAPTAIN ATOM by Cary Bates and Pat Broderick, which rethought him as Nathaniel Adam, an unjustly court-martialed soldier turned reluctant superhero as part of a top-secret government project. The DC Captain Atom has energy powers (“quantum blasts”) and limited invulnerability, while the JLU version seems to be an energy being inhabiting an empty suit, kind of like the Wildfire character form 1970s issues of LEGION OF SUPERHEROES. The Giffen/DeMatteis JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL and JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE runs stand as the best use of the character, as well as the aforementioned FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE miniseries.

THE CREEPER:

Another Steve Ditko creation, the Creeper is really TV newsman Jack Ryder, who gained the ability to transform into the manic, super-strong Creeper while guarding a defecting Soviet scientist, who exposed Ryder to the serum in order to save his life after being stabbed. Since his debut in 1968, the Creeper has had several short-lived solo series, and mostly appears as a guest-star from time to time. He’s also appeared previously in the BATMAN animated series, where his origin was revamped to tie him in to the Joker, so as to account for his insane smile and erratic behavior. There’s not a lot of Creeper material currently in print, but you can check the back issue bins for the six Ditko issues of BEWARE THE CREEPER.

CRIMSON AVENGER:

Batman gets all the press, but this was DC’s first masked crimefighter: the Crimson Avenger, a.k.a. newspaper publisher Lee Travis, who with his mask, fedora, cloak and Asian chauffeur, bore more than a slight resemblance to the radio hero the Green Hornet, but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. The Crimson Avenger and his sidekick Wing appeared in DETECTIVE COMICS from 1938 until 1944, when he made his last appearance in DETECTIVE. In an effort to boost his popularity, DC’s editors changed the Crimson Avenger’s costume in 1940, eschewing the fedora and cloak for a more in-vogue tights and underwear ensemble, but it only put off the inevitable. Nowadays, DC’s superheroes consider the Crimson Avenger to be the first of their tradition, while a mysterious successor to the name has appeared in recent issues of JSA.

CRIMSON FOX:

Never would’ve expected to see this one. The Crimson Fox first appeared in the pages of JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE in 1989, a mysterious French superheroine who eventually earned membership in the League. The twist was that the Fox was actually two women, identical twins Vivien and Constance D’Aramis, co-heads of a Parisian perfume company who put off pheromones that allowed them limited control of males. Both Crimson Foxes are currently no more, having been separately killed in the line of duty. If you’re looking for the Crimson Fox, JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE is pretty much your only option.

THE DEMON:

A creation of the great Jack Kirby, the Demon Etrigan is also Jason Blood, a centuries-old sorcerer who’s been serving as a kind of human prison for Etrigan since Merlin cursed him with it back in the days of King Arthur. When absolutely necessary, Jason speaks the incantation, (“Change, change, form of man! Rise the demon Etrigan!”) and the fire-breathing, immensely powerful Demon is loose. If you can’t find the Kirby originals, pick up the first of Alan Moore’s SWAMP THING trade paperbacks for an excellent Demon guest-shot. Moore, by the way, originated the idea of the Demon speaking in iambic-pentameter couplets, a very cool notion accomplished with varying success by later, lesser writers.

DR. FATE:

Dr. Fate is Kent Nelson, who wears the Helmet of Nabu, and is pretty much the top dog when it comes to magic and sorcery in the DC Universe. That’s kind of all you need to know, as the character in the comics has gone through far too many revisions and replacements since his debut in 1940 to be covered in this small space. Currently, the most recent incarnation of Dr. Fate can be seen in the pages of JSA, which you can read all about right here.

DR. LIGHT:

No, not that one. This is Kimiyo Hoshi, the second Dr. Light, who first appeared in the landmark CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS in 1985, when she gained light-based energy powers as a result of the Monitor looking to create new allies to further his plans to save the multiverse. Kimiyo had a brief but honorable stint as a Justice League member in the 1990s, but is now presumed to be retired.

ELONGATED MAN:

Ralph Dibny was the “stretchy guy-in-residence” for decades in the Justice League of America, and while he didn’t have quite the versatility of Plastic Man, he made up for it with deductive abilities second only to Batman, and a truly bitchin’ wife. You can read a little more about it here. For some of the best Ralph and Sue stories, check out his JLA run from the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, their appearances in JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE and their starring role in FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE. Or, the more sadistic among you can watch Ralph’s life fall apart in current issues of IDENTITY CRISIS.

FIRE AND ICE:

Under their original codenames Green Flame and Icemaiden, the Brazilian Beatriz da Costa and Norwegian Tora Olafstadder (possessing, logically enough, flame and ice powers) first made the scene as members of the international superhero team the Global Guardians, before petitioning JLI leader J’onn J’onzz for membership in the Justice League. Under the new names “Fire” and “Ice,” Bea and Tora served admirably in their lengthy tenure with Justice League International, until Tora’s death in the line of duty in 1994. Look for the Giffen/DeMatteis JLI run for the best Fire and Ice appearances (a favorite storyline from JLI involved the boorish Guy Gardner’s hapless crush on the innocent Ice), as well as the recent FORMERLY KNOWN series for the most recent Fire sighting.

GREEN ARROW:

Come on, who doesn’t know Green Arrow? Oliver Queen served as the Justice League’s hotheaded archer and in-house contrarian for decades, especially after Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams gave the character a much-needed overhaul in 1969. With a new liberal viewpoint and a much improved costume and snazzy beard, Green Arrow became one of the more popular Justice League members, and even took up residence in Green Lantern’s series for one of the most well-remembered comic-book runs of the 1970s, in which Ollie went off to “look for America” with Hal Jordan, and began the romantic relationship with Black Canary that would continue for decades. Ollie was killed off in 1995 and replaced with his heretofore unknown son, Connor Hawke, but popular demand won out and in 2001 Oliver Queen returned in a new series written by Kevin Smith, in some of his best comics work ever. Fans looking for more Ollie Queen goodness should pick up the two GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW trade paperbacks and Kevin Smith and Phil Hester’s GREEN ARROW: QUIVER hardcover.

GYPSY:

Gypsy joined the League during the much-criticized (and for good reason) JLA: Detroit run, in which most of the “big guns” of the Justice League left the team, with the membership consisting of Elongated Man, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Zatanna and four rookies, one of whom was Gypsy, a young runaway with the ability to blend into her surroundings, rendering her essentially invisible. Due to her youth, J’onn and Gypsy formed an almost father/daughter-like bond that continues to this day.

HAWK AND DOVE:

What do you get when you combine Vietnam-era political rhetoric with tights and capes? You get Steve Ditko’s 1968 creation “The Hawk and the Dove,” which featured the aggressive Hank Hall and his pacifist brother Don, given superhero powers and costumes by a mysterious mystical force. The frequently feuding brothers had their own solo series, which only lasted six issues, but the characters didn’t age so well out of the Vietnam milieu, and after a few guest appearances in TEEN TITANS, they faded into obscurity. Dove was killed off in CRISIS ON INFINTE EARTHS, and replaced with a female Dove in a revival series in the late 1980s, but after that failed as well, Dove was killed again and Hawk was revealed to be the mysterious supervillain Monarch in DC’s ARMAGEDDON 2001 event, which you can read all about down below in the WAVERIDER entry. Surprisingly, Hawk and Dove’s recent appearance on JLU actually seemed relevant again in today’s political climate.

HOURMAN:

When Rex Tyler swallows his secret formula Miraclo, he’s gifted with superhuman strength, speed and toughness, but for one hour only. A founding member of the Justice Society of America, Rex was discussed in our JSA column, as was his son and costumed successor Rick, who can currently be seen in the pages of JSA. Based on the costume design, it looks like it’s Rick Tyler who’s hanging out in the Watchtower, but until he gets some dialogue, it’s anyone’s guess. The most recent issue of JSA, #65, is beginning the climax to a great story about both Hourmen, Rex and Rick.

THE HUNTRESS:

As originally conceived, the Huntress was the daughter of Earth-2’s Batman and Catwoman, but editorial revisions at DC forced the character to be reconceptualized as Helena Bertinelli, the daughter of an organized-crime kingpin who decides to devote her life to making up for the sins of her family. Grant Morrison’s JLA run used the Huntress to excellent effect, and she can currently be seen every month as Oracle’s newest agent in BIRDS OF PREY.

JOHNNY THUNDER:

Another Golden-Age JSA member, Johnny Thunder was a likable enough doofus who just happened to find himself in command of a genie-like magic Thunderbolt, who would make his every wish come true when he said the magic words “Cei-U.” Nowadays, the elderly Johnny has merged with the Thunderbolt, and follows the orders of his successor in the JSA, young Jakeem Thunder. Look in the ALL-STAR COMICS ARCHIVES editions for some classic Johnny Thunder, and the JSA trade paperback STEALING THUNDER for a good spotlight on Johnny and Jakeem.

METAMORPHO:

Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon’s 1968 creation, Rex Mason found himself permanently transformed into a mutated multi-colored freak after being exposed to the Orb of Ra, an ancient magical artifact he was attempting to retrieve for his less-than-trustworthy boss, Simon Stagg. Rex also gained the ability to transmute his body into any of the elements, and to liquid or gas as well. Despite the efforts of his former employer, Rex continued his relationship with Stagg’s daughter, Sapphire, eventually marrying her. Metamorpho’s longest publishing run came with his membership in the 1980s superhero team the Outsiders, and he’s also died and come back to life more often than any other DC superhero, thanks to his unique chemical composition. They keep blowing him up, and he keeps coming back…

We’re only half-finished, folks, so come on back next week for the skinny on the rest of the Justice League’s Class of 2004. If you have questions about the JLA, the JLU, the JLI, the JLE, or even JL: Detroit, you can send themhere.

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