25 Years Later, Stan Lee's Justice League Remains DC's Most Underrated Hero Team
Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows.
One of the most eccentric versions of DC's Justice League was created by none other than Stan Lee himself. The Justice League differs from the Avengers in both scope and philosophy. Both teams are the last line of defense against apocalyptic threats, and both have constantly rotating rosters. However, the Avengers are often portrayed as a collection of individuals who come together to face threats too large for one hero, while the Justice League are built around the idea of archetypal heroes embodying larger-than-life ideals as a pantheon of nearly godlike figures.
The Justice League has evolved significantly since its origins as the successor to the Justice Society of America in the 1960s. Initially formed to fight threats like Starro the Conqueror, the JLA expanded its roster to include heroes from all across the universe and multiverse. In the Bronze Age, the League became a hub for crossover events as big as Infinity Crisis and Crisis on Infinite Earths. Nowadays, the Justice League Unlimited is a massive network of heroes and cooperative villains who address crises around the globe all day, every day.
The Justice League has been in the hands of countless writers and artists who have put their own spin on the team, including Marvel's godfather, Stan Lee himself.
Stan Lee Created His Own Version Of The Justice League
Stan Lee Tried His Hand At Writing Each Member Of DC's Real Justice League
In 2001, Stan Lee collaborated with DC Comics to reimagine their most iconic heroes in a project that aimed to honor both Stan Lee's legacy and DC’s roster. In Just Imagine, Lee had the freedom to take DC's most famous A-list characters and reinvent them with entirely new origins, identities, and motivations, essentially creating an entire DC Universe all of his own. In Lee’s version, Superman is a Kryptonian police agent named Salden who crash-lands on Earth alongside a villain; Batman is a wrestler Wayne Williams with a bodyguard named Frederick, and Wonder Woman is Maria Mendoza, an activist who gains mystical powers from ancient artifacts found in an Incan holy site.
Other heroes received equally dramatic changes. Aquaman became the scientist Ramon Raymond, who could transform into water. Catwoman was reinvented as Joanie Jordan, who gained feline powers after being struck by green lightning. Sandman is Larry Wilton, who uses advanced technology to fight crime instead of controlling dreams. Robin is introduced as an assassin for Darrk, who assigns him the mission of killing Batman. Meanwhile, the Flash is Mary Maxwell, a young woman who receives her speed through genetic experimentation, and Green Lantern is Len Lewis, chosen by a mystical tree to wield its power.
Stan Lee's Justice League Reinventions Are Quirky, But Ahead Of Their Time
Stan Lee's Style Is Evident In Just Imagine's DC Character Reboots
The mere basic concepts at the heart of Stan Lee's Just Imagine reinventions scream classic Stan Lee. Batman being a wrestler-turned-superhero resembles Spider-Man and Daredevil's origin stories, while Sandman's reliance on tech makes him akin to Marvel heroes like Iron Man and Mister Fantastic. Likewise, the Flash's tinkering with genetic experiments make her akin to the Hulk, and the idea of Wonder Woman and Aquaman gaining their powers from a single event sounds more like Silver-Age Marvel storytelling than DC's Golden-Age mythos. Also, Green Lantern's ties to Norse myth places him right alongside Thor.
That said, Stan Lee's ideas for Just Imagine precede many similar reimaginings. DC introduced the Black Batman Jace Fox in 2021's Future State: The Next Batman, the Latin American Wonder Woman Yara Flor in 2021's Dark Nights: Death Metal #7, a Superman who lands on Earth as an adult in 2024's Absolute Superman, and Robins who are assigned to assassinate Batman in 2026's Absolute Batman. Catwoman's mystical origin was used by McG's infamous 2004 Catwoman movie, and Aquaman mastered hydrokinesis after embracing the Blue as recently as 2026. Even without trying, Stan Lee was always ahead of his time.
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