The Debut of Superman:
To cap off her 250th anniversary celebrations, the city of Metropolis
had arranged with NASA to have their experimental space plane Constitution
land at Metropolis International airport. During the Constitution's approach
a small civilian plane had managed to slip through the security cordon and
collided with the space plane. The crowd watched in horror as the two
planes spiraled to their doom, then in awe as a flying man caught both
aircraft and guided them safely to the ground.
Though he flew away from the scene without a word, this was not the
last appearance of the mysterious "Superman." The name Superman
was coined by Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane and was used by other news
media for their stories of the incident and the name stuck. After the
space plane incident Superman began appearing all around Metropolis, and
later the world, in his trademark costume, fighting for Truth, Justice,
and the American Way.
Superman's debut was but the first as a horde of new heroes began
appearing across the country from Gotham City, New Jersey to Coast City,
California. Throughout the years Superman has remained one the most public
and popular heroes in the world. From his spectacular debut to his
miraculous return from the dead and his brief transformation from Man of
Steel to Man of Energy, Superman remains, as always, one the world's
finest heroes.
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The Debut of the Batman:
In direct contrast to the very public debut of Superman were the
shadowy beginnings of Gotham City's "Bat-Man." The first
confirmed reports of a criminal being assaulted by the mysterious
vigilante occurred several weeks after Superman's debut, but unconfirmed
reports may place his debut before that. The first confirmed use of the
name Bat-Man comes from police reports from a few weeks after the first
assaults took place, at the time when the police began to realize the
dozens of attacks on criminals were apparently the actions of a single
person.
To this day there are many in Gotham and beyond that deny a Batman
exists. These people are few and it is generally accepted that yes,
Virginia, there is a Batman. Though his appearances in public before the
media have been few and far between, his membership in several
incarnations of the Justice League is proof enough of the Batman's
existence. Who or what the Batman may be is another matter entirely.
Descriptions of the Batman's abilities are varied, some claim he just a
man, though a highly skilled and driven one; others say he is a
machine, a robot or cyborg dedicated to destroying evil wherever he may
find it; and there are a few who claim that there is a reason he is only
out at night, that the Batman is no mortal man but a creature of the
night, a supernatural being. Whatever the truth may be, it is best to
think of the Batman in the same terms as the people of Gotham do: to the
criminals he stalks he is the devil bat, striking in vengeance out of the
darkness; to the good citizens he is a guardian, a protector, glimpsed as
sudden motion against the Gotham skyline, a Dark Knight in every sense of
the word.
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The Debut of the Justice League:
The Justice League of America was founded when five of the new heroes
that had recently debuted joined forces to combat an alien invasion. Seven
warriors from the planet Appellax had selected Earth as their battlefield to
choose the new ruler of their world. The five heroes had each defeated one
of the aliens (a sixth was defeated by Superman), but it was only by combining
their efforts that the five were able to defeat the final Appellaxian.
Realizing that there would always be threats too great for any one of them
to battle on their own, the group decided to make their one-time team-up a
full-time commitment as the Justice League of America. The League has gone
through many incarnations in the years since its founding and in every case
has been a stalwart defender of planet Earth, saving the world more times
than can be counted and on more than one occasion a member has given their
life in the process. The founding members
of the Justice League were:
- Flash II*
- Green Lantern II*
- Black Canary II*
- Martian Manhunter
- Aquaman
* denotes that these were the second heroes to use these names. With the
exception of the Black Canary, there is no known connection between these
heroes and the originals.
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