5 Times the Justice League Broke Their Own Rules (Including Batman’s Ultimate Betrayal)

The Justice League are truly the best of the best and have been for their entire existence. The group brings together not just the most powerful heroes, but the best kinds of heroes. These are people willing to make any sacrifice to save the day, giving up their lives to make sure that the sun rises again. They are the top of the food chain, the team that everyone respects and they’re held to a higher standard than the others. They enforce the rules; when things get out of hand, the League shows up to have a talk with you about maybe following the rules. That’s what happens when you’re at the top (or at least should; looking at you corporate America and US government); you have to make sure everyone follows the rules that you established for them.

However, just like in the real world, the League has often taken a “rules for thee, not me” approach. They may set the rules, but they don’t always follow them. Over the years, some of the most trusted Leaguers have thrown out the rules, doing the kind of things that they wouldn’t allow others to do. These are the five most egregious times the Justice League has broken the rules, including that one time Batman betrayed everyone (and another where he got betrayed).

5) Maxwell Lord Spying On the Heroes

There have been numerous versions of the Justice League, with the Justice League International being one of the most popular. This team gave readers the ultimate superhero comedy, with Maxwell Lord, the wealthy financier who was the ’80s personified, helping set up the new team. Lord was a key part of the book’s humor. He was smarmy, sure, but there was something seemingly harmless about him. However, the whole time, he was hiding secrets from the group. He was a member of Checkmate and used his connection to the Justice League to spy on every hero in the world. He gave the organization all of the information they needed, forming a plan that would see him fake his own death and work with the Brother Eye satellite to attack the superhero community using everything that he learned. Spying on everyone is a big no-no and if any team had the same thing happen, the League would give them a stern talking to. However, when it happens to them, it’s just par for the course.

4) Vixen Lying About Her Powers

Vixen joined the Justice League for the first time during the Detroit League era, one of the worst times in their history. Mari McCabe was empowered by the Tantu Totem, tapping into the Red to take on the abilities of any animal out there. She would become a solid B-list hero for years, and would eventually rejoin the League after Infinite Crisis. During this time, her powers changed and she gained the ability to take the powers of her teammates for herself, since they were also connected to the Red. However, she kept this a secret from the rest of the team, tapping into their powers when they weren’t paying attention. Not being completely open and honest is a big no-no when it comes to superhero teams; everyone has to be able to trust each other and everyone has to know what their fellows can do. This secret could have gotten people killed and she kept it for much longer than she should have.

3) Batman’s Anti-Justice League Plans

Batman doesn’t have superpowers, but he’s earned his place with the League thanks to his tactical wherewithal. He can make plans for anything, allowing the team to defeat even the most powerful enemies out there. He’s been able to survive for so long because he can come up with a way to beat anyone. He’s a pragmatist who likes to be ready for everything, including the Justice League going evil. This makes sense, of course; they battle against mind-controlling enemies all the time and no one wants to fight an evil Superman. Batman made contingency plans to destroy the Justice League, which isn’t a problem on its face until you bring up the fact that he didn’t tell anybody about it. It’s one thing to do it with everyone’s consent, but to do it unilaterally is a huge problem. At the very least, the team did kick him out for a while, but he came back and has remained a key part of the group ever since.

2) Wonder Woman Killing Maxwell Lord

Wonder Woman is one of the League’s foremost members. She’s led the team a few times and is looked up to by everyone. She is also the team’s greatest warrior, having been trained by the soldiers of Themyscira. She was molded into a killer, able to take life with weapons or her bare hands. When she came to Man’s World, she did her best not to kill but doing one’s best doesn’t really mean not killing. If it came right down to it, everyone knew she would take a life, they just didn’t like it. Eventually, she was forced to make that hard choice by Maxwell Lord. Lord used his mind control powers to take over Superman and try to make him kill Batman. Wonder Woman eventually stood between the two of them and was able to break Lord’s control with her Lasso. Max told her that the minute she took the Lasso off Supes, he was going to take control of the Kryptonian again. So, she killed him. Killing is something that the League usually wouldn’t tolerate and while the team did break up for a time, she was invited back to help make the new version of the group.

1) The Justice League Mindwipes

The Justice League was always looked at as the most pure team ever, but all of that changed with one of DC’s darkest stories, Identity Crisis. This story opened with the murder of Sue Dibney, the wife of Elongated Man, and ended up revealing the darkest moment in the team’s history. Doctor Light was able to sneak onto the Justice League Satellite and ended up sexually assaulting Sue. The League showed up and were able to beat him down and seven of them – Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Zatanna, Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Atom, and Hawkman – voted to mindwipe him. Then Batman showed up and he got some of that mindwiping too. However, this wasn’t even the first time that they did this; they had to do the same thing to the Secret Society of Supervillains. When the truth was discovered, the superhero community was shocked. No one ever thought the members of the League would do such a thing.

What do you think is the darkest thing the Justice League did? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!