Justice League: Last Ride reveals that one hero’s tragic death disbanded the Justice League, although the circumstances of this death are unclear.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Justice League: Last Ride #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Miguel Mendonca, Enrica Angiolini & Andworld Design, on sale now.
The Justice League has often been defined by the relationships between its heroes. The core members of the Justice League have grown to be much closer than just teammates. For this reason, in Justice League: Last Ride #1, by Chip Zdarsky and Miguel Mendonca, the death of Martian Manhunter utterly destroys the team.
At the beginning of this story, the Justice League is in a state of disrepair. Even though they’ve disbanded, DC’s biggest heroes agree to one last job. The Justice League will keep Lobo alive until he can face trial for killing the New Gods. With this job, it seems that the Justice League will be finished, and the Green Lantern Corps will oversee the protection of Earth instead. At first, Batman doesn’t agree with this mission. It takes a conversation with Superman to convince him to work with the league again.
During this discussion, Superman reveals that the death of J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, broke up the Justice League. It makes sense that J’onn’s death would be the inciting incident since he’s often been considered the heart of the Justice League.
At this point, however, the circumstances of J’onn’s death and the falling out between Superman and Batman are unclear. When the league is called into the Watchtower, The Flash wonders if Superman and Batman will even show up, indicating a major dissolution of Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent’s partnership.
Even when Superman and Batman do show up to the Watchtower, they get into a bitter argument, which hints at the circumstances of J’onn’s death. Superman takes issue with Batman taking the lead again, hinting that Batman’s leadership is what killed J’onn in the first place.
Even so, Batman retorts that Superman isn’t the best at making decisions, which might mean Superman failed to make a decision that would save J’onn. Later on, when Superman is speaking to Batman, he says he can’t be everywhere at once, an idea with which Batman emphatically agrees.
This riles Superman up, further teasing that it was Superman’s inaction that led to J’onn’s death. Still, Clark chastises Bruce, saying it was Batman’s call that sent J’onn to his demise. One major hint at J’onn’s death came in the last panel of the issue when Batman tells Superman that they have to go back to Apokolips. This moment is emphasized dramatically, probably because Apokolips is the worst place in the DC Universe.
Still, there could be a larger reason for emphasizing Apokolips, especially since Batman says they must go “back” to Darkseid’s world. Implying that the league has been there earlier, Batman could be hinting that this was the site of J’onn’s death. Batman could have sent J’onn on a mission to Apokolips, which resulted in his untimely demise. Superman could also have failed to save J’onn, unable to reach Apokolips in time.
This idea is supported at the beginning of the issue when Clark is having a nightmare. In this nightmare, fire is raining down from the sky, similar to the fires of Apokolips. Simultaneously, Superman is trying his best to save everyone in Metropolis, but he can’t.
This nightmare could represent the Justice League’s previous encounter with Apokolips, which could have killed J’onn and disbanded the team. It’s likely that The Man of Tomorrow couldn’t save his teammate, since he was trying to save others.
Of course, the fire in Clark’s dream could just be a way of portraying Superman’s fear of impending disaster, rather than fire from Apokolips. Even so, Superman is probably still harboring the guilt from J’onn’s death, manifesting itself in his dreams. In the future, J’onn’s death will probably be elaborated upon, explaining just how this tragic event tore the Justice League apart.
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