History ComicBook / JLAActOfGod

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A Creator/DCComics Creator/{{Elseworlds}} storyline by Creator/DougMoench about heroes everywhere losing their powers and learning to live with it. This story was somewhat different from other DC Elseworlds, which normally recast the heroes in completely different times and places, rather being set in a copy of the then current DC Continuity (similar to the ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' stories at Creator/MarvelComics).

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A Creator/DCComics Creator/{{Elseworlds}} storyline by Creator/DougMoench about heroes everywhere losing their powers and learning to live with it. This story was somewhat different from other DC Elseworlds, which normally recast the heroes in completely different times and places, rather being set in a copy of the then current DC Continuity (similar to the ''What If'' stories at Creator/MarvelComics).

ComicBook/{{Superman}} becomes despondent, seemingly traumatized over the last disaster he was unable to prevent as his powers were fading, and is seen doing nothing but moping all day, to the point that Lois leaves him, causing him to go mope with Franchise/WonderWoman, until she converts to Catholicism and gets a job as a stock broker. Green Lantern can't get over his defeat by Sonar and, after months of rampaging around his apartment, begins channeling his aggression into a boxing bag looking for a rematch. The tech-based heroes, consisting of Steel, ComicBook/BlueBeetle and ComicBook/BoosterGold, each in turn lose their tech or have it stolen. ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} (Linda Danvers) tries joining the police force, but is frustrated with all the paperwork that comes with fighting crime "by the book."

* WolverinePublicity: It's not really a JLA story but at the time, Creator/GrantMorrison's extremely successful revival of the Franchise/{{Justice League|of America}} made anything with JLA in the title sell well.

* AuthorAppeal: It's evident that the story really, ''really'' likes Batman, considering how many characters gush about how great he is.
* AuthorAvatar: The Martian Manhunter serves as one for Doug Moench. His praising the Batcave as reminding him of something out of pulp fiction makes this clear, not to mention his rant about how the heroes' loss of their powers was "deserved". Plus he's the most philosophical about what happened.
* AuthorTract: The overall message of this comic is "superpowers bad, [[BadassNormal Badass Normals]] good."

* BrokenAesop: There is an underlying implication that the superheroes were being punished for their arrogance. Even though people like Franchise/{{Superman}} and Franchise/WonderWoman are fairly humble in normal continuity (not to mention all the characters who are nothing ''but'' humble, such as [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]), while Franchise/{{Batman}} in this story is ego tripping and denigrating the contributions of his formerly powered friends even as they kiss his ass. This requires the aesop not to apply to Batman, because he's the single most arrogant person in the story.
** Also, there's a comment about Supergirl's actions as a superhero was an abuse of power, acting outside the law, only to disregard this and comment about how inefficient police work is and how much more effective she was as a superpowered vigilante and how she should go back to being a vigilante. Then it breaks that aesop because standard police work (like forensics) did more to uncover what happened to ComicBook/TheAtom than vigilantism.

* CharacterShilling: Clark outright claims that Batman "has always been the best of us" because he never got superpowers. Nevermind that he's not the only BadassNormal and other heroes have abilities besides their powers. Under LostAesop and BrokenAesop we discuss what the moral of the story seems to be as the other heroes try to figure out where to go from there, but it seems the real point Moench was trying to make was "Here's why ''my'' favorite is a million times superior to everyone else!" Between everyone talking about how great he is and his teaching them how to fight his way being their only hope for getting back in the game, the story pretty much outright worships him for being better than all those arrogant powered heroes because he alone has figured out how to do the same job as a normal human from the minute he shows up, ignoring the facts that (A) there are a lot of non-powered heroes, and the powered ones have all been depowered at times before, so it's ''not'' like Bats is the only one who has the courage to fight without powers, (B) it's not like the powered heroes ever ''did'' see themselves as superior to the rest of humanity,(C) Batman uses as many high tech devices as anyone considered to have "powers" because of their tech, (D) Batman is only able to do most of the things he does because he's rich.

* DeusExMachina:
** The story's repeated {{Title Drop}}s is the closest it comes to an explanation of the Black Light Event. In other words, the ''story's title'' calls its divergence point a DeusExMachina.

* GooGooGodlike: Superman and Wonder Woman's child was born with superpowers.
* InformedFlaw:
** The superpowered beings' "arrogance." It's frequently brought up that they deserved to lose their powers because they held themselves above everyone else because they had power... which doesn't make any sense because they used their powers to '''save''' people.
** Not to mention, many of these characters lived secretly among normals bearing humiliations that they could have easily addressed in their heroic identities. And, as Linkara pointed out, Franchise/WonderWoman even once worked as a fast food employee when she needed work, with no shame. Hell, people like Superman and Martian Manhunter don't technically ''have'' superpowers. Their abilities are based entirely around their species, making them essentially [[PunyEarthlings "normals"]] already.
** Depowered Superman praises the group of former League members who join Batman for "risking [their] lives without any powers", implying that the Justice League never faced anything dangerous to them when they ''had'' powers.
* LostAesop: Is the moral of the story that powers leads to arrogance? You're only a real super hero if you don't have super powers? You should work inside the system? It's never really clearly told.

* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords: The heroes tried to sound deep but ended up sounding strange and confusing.
-->'''Franchise/WonderWoman''': Two "Gods" humbled by an act of God... with no one else to turn to. But together will our humbling be canceled or doubled?
* OnlySaneMan: Billy Batson, of all the other superheroes, is the only one to act realistically and maturely in this situation despite his age.
* OutOfCharacterMoment:
** In Part 3, Wonder Woman is seen in a Catholic church, praying to the Christian God for a sign/answers as to why she's lost her powers. Being a servant, avatar, and occasionally a member of the Greek pantheon, there's no reason for her to be doing this.
** Martian Manhunter describes their lost powers as "abnormal", which seems to include his own. This is unusual for him since his telepathy and shapeshifting are natural abilities for his species.

* PowerLossDepression: The story has every single superpowered hero becoming complete wrecks after losing their powers. Particularly sad cases are Superman who becomes drunk and homeless after his relationship with Lois ends; Wonder Woman who [[DrivenToSuicide nearly commits suicide]]; and Kyle Rayner who obsessed with Sonar, a villain Kyle failed to stop when his ring was deactivated. This is in stark contrast to how these characters normally behave when affected by power loss. Superman in particular is losing his powers ''constantly'', and his only reaction is sadness at the fact that he can't help people any more; as often as not, he kind of ''enjoys'' being able to just be regular guy Clark Kent, instead of always "on call" as Superman.

** The story later implies that {{God}} (Yes, ''that one'') caused this whole mess in order to teach the DC heroes a [[LostAesop "lesson of humility"]] or something like that. The same God directly responsible for creating, powering, and directing several of 'em.

* WriterOnBoard: It seems the primary purpose of this story is to exalt {{Badass Normal}}s like Batman who don't need powers to take down criminals. Not that any non-powered heroes ''outside'' of Batman's crew ever show up, while tech-based superheroes all screw up or are killed. And apparently "tech-based" heroes are solely the ones that wear PoweredArmor, completely ignoring the vast amount of technology that Batman uses (which at times HAS included PoweredArmor).

* PowerLossDepression: The story has every single superpowered hero becoming complete wrecks after losing their powers. Particularly sad cases are Superman who becomes drunk and homeless after his relationship with Lois ends; Wonder Woman who [[DrivenToSuicide nearly commits suicide]]; and Kyle Rayner who obsessed with Sonar, a villain Kyle failed to stop when his ring was deactivated.

* OutOfCharacterMoment: In part 3, Wonder Woman is seen in a Catholic church, praying to the Christian God for a sign/answers as to why she's lost her powers. Being a servant, avatar, and occasionally ''member'' of the Greek pantheon, there is absolutely no way she would be doing this.
** Martian Manhunter describes their lost powers as "Abnormal" seeming to include himself. This makes no sense since his telepathy and shapeshifting are natural abilities for his species. Without those traits he should consider himself disabled.

* DrivenToSuicide: Diana contemplates suicide after a week of praying and nothing happening... [[spoiler:[[FridgeHorror while also pregnant]]]]. Clark shows up in the nick of time to stop her.

* EmptyPilesOfClothing: The cover of Book 2 (pictured above), though it's because everyone took off their costumes rather than the usual InferredHolocaust of this trope.

[[caption-width-right:295:Note the [[NakedPeopleAreFunny naked superheroes]] in the top right corner.]]

* OnlySaneMan: As noticed by Linkara, Billy Batson, of all the other superheroes, is the only one to act realistically and even '''maturely''' over all this situation. Keep in mind Billy is twelve!

* PlotHole: The Black Light is said to only affect heroes with powers bestowed upon them, making [[BadassNormal Badass Normals]] and [[GadgeteerGenius tech-based heroes]] such as Booster Gold the only heroes left. Yet at the same time, heroes with powers as a part of their DNA (Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman) and even other tech-based superheroes (Kyle Rayner, The Atom) are affected.
** It (mostly) makes sense if you treat the Black Light as not "removing powers" but rather "transforming everyone into a baseline human" (and just consider Green Lantern and The Atom as goofs resulting from an author who didn't check his facts). However, this itself then does not makes sense on its own merits.

* UngratefulBastard: Superman is holding back a broken dam when he loses his powers and the dam breaks, flooding a nearby town; the townspeople ''immediately'' start chewing him out as if he did it on purpose, despite the fact that he's clearly injured and disoriented. As Linkara points out, this sort of thing could only occur via bad writing, since in that situation the average (ie not stupid) person would realize something was wrong with Superman and try to help him.

* MagicAIsMagicA: Done inconsistently with the main characters of the story violating of the rules of the black light event. Metahuman powers go away, magic-users vanish, tech remains the same, right? Well, in that case, Superman and Martian Manhunter should be completely unaffected (Martian Manhunter's powers are normal for Martians, Superman's are normal for Kryptonians under a yellow sun; they don't have powers by their races' standard.) Magic-powered Wonder Woman should have vanished instead of being depowered. Green Lantern should be unaffected, since the ring is alien technology.

* AgeAppropriateAngst: Billy Batson, an actual kid, is naturally frustrated when he doesn't turn into Captain Marvel when he yells "Shazam!"

* AuthorAvatar: The Martian Manhunter serves as one for Doug Moench. His praising the Batcave as reminding him of something out of pulp fiction makes this clear, not to mention his rant about how the heroes' loss of their powers was "deserved". Plus he's the most philosophical about what happened.

* PlotHole: The Black Light is said to only affect heroes with powers bestowed upon them, making [[BadassNormal Badass Normals]] and [[GadgeteerGenius tech-based heroes]] such as Booster Gold the only heroes left. Yet at the same time, heroes with powers as a part of their DNA (Superman, Martian Manhunter) and even other tech-based superheroes (Kyle Rayner, The Atom) are affected.

** It (mostly) makes sense if you treat the Black Light as not "removing powers" but rather "transforming everyone into a baseline human" (and just consider Green Lantern and The Atom as goofs resulting from an author who [[CriticalResearchFailure didn't check his facts]]). However, this itself then does not makes sense on its own merits.

* DerailingLoveInterests: Lois Lane. Big time. The story suggests that Lois can't love Superman without powers, even though in this continuity, she fell in love with Clark Kent before learning he was Superman, and on top of that, [[ComicBook/SupermanTheWeddingAlbum she married him]] after he had lost his powers during the ''ComicBook/FinalNight'' storyline. This suggests that Moench is basing his characterization of Lois off of either UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} comics or the movies. What's worse is, if the story needed Lois to leave Superman, it could have easily been justified by his behavior.

* ReturningTheWeddingRing: Lois gives Clark back their engagement ring because she (in this universe, at least) only ever loved him for his powers.

* ReturningTheWeddingRing: Lois gives Clark back their engagement ring because she (in this universe, at least) only ever loved him for his powers. Most people think it ''should'' have been because she couldn't stand anymore of his {{Wangst}} about his depowering.

* AgeAppropriateAngst: Billy Batson, an actual kid, is naturally frustrated when he doesn't turn into Shazam when he yells "Shazam!"

* AuthorAppeal: It's evident that the story really, ''really'' likes Batman, considering how many characters gush about how great he is to the point where it feels like an...
* AuthorTract: The slightly-more-subtle-than-D-Day message of this comic is "superpowers bad, [[BadassNormal Badass Normals]] good."

Comicbook/{{Superman}} becomes despondent, seemingly traumatized over the last disaster he was unable to prevent as his powers were fading, and is seen doing nothing but moping all day, to the point that Lois leaves him, causing him to go mope with Franchise/WonderWoman, until she converts to Catholicism and gets a job as a stock broker. Green Lantern can't get over his defeat by Sonar and, after months of rampaging around his apartment, begins channeling his aggression into a boxing bag looking for a rematch. The tech-based heroes, consisting of Steel, ComicBook/BlueBeetle and ComicBook/BoosterGold, each in turn lose their tech or have it stolen. Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} (Linda Danvers) tries joining the police force, but is frustrated with all the paperwork that comes with fighting crime "by the book."

Eventually, Comicbook/{{Aquaman}}, Comicbook/MartianManhunter, ComicBook/TheFlash, and Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} all decide to go to Batman, concluding that the BadassNormal school of crimefighting is the only option they have left. And thus a new generation of heroes is born.

* AuthorAppeal: It's evident that the comic really, ''really'' likes Batman, considering how many characters gush about how great he is to the point where it feels like an...

* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: [[spoiler: The ending, with Superman and Wonder Woman's kid]].
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Steel, who also fell victim to TheWorfEffect, since right before he dies a reporter [[TemptingFate is explaining how he's the most powerful hero left]]. During the original release of the series, this seems to have been the moment when most readers said "ThisIsGonnaSuck."

* DerailingLoveInterests: Lois Lane. Big time. The story suggests that Lois can't love Superman without powers, even though in this continuity, she fell in love with Clark Kent before learning he was Superman, and on top of that, [[ComicBook/SupermanTheWeddingAlbum she married him]] after he had lost his powers during the ''ComicBook/FinalNight'' storyline. This suggests that Moench is basing his characterization of Lois off of either UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} comics or the movies. What's worse is, if the story needed Lois to leave Superman, it could have easily been justified [[{{Wangst}} by his behavior]].

** The story's repeated {{Title Drop}}s is the closest it comes to an explanation of the Black Light Event. In other words, the ''story's friggin' title'' calls its divergence point a DeusExMachina.
** DeusAngstMachina: Mostly for Superman and Green Lantern, but Wonder Woman also gets it pretty bad.
* DrivenToSuicide: Diana was thinking about suicide after a week of praying and nothing happening. She was stopped by Clark. Oh yeah, [[FridgeHorror she was also pregnant]].
* DrowningMySorrows: Superman went to the bottle after losing his powers.

* AuthorAppeal: Doug Moench apparently really, ''really'' likes Batman, considering that he practically turns into a MartyStu[=/=]CreatorsPet hybrid and how many characters gush about how great he is, to the point where it feels like an...

* AgeAppropriateAngst: Billy Batson, an actual kid, is naturally frustrated when he doesn't turn into Shazaam when he yells "Shazaam!"

* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter:
** [[spoiler: The ending, with Superman and Wonder Woman's kid]].

* BrokenAesop: There is an underlying implication that the superheroes were being punished for their arrogance. Even though people like Franchise/{{Superman}} and Franchise/WonderWoman are fairly humble in normal continuity (not to mention all the characters who are nothing ''but'' humble, such as [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]), while Franchise/{{Batman}} in this story is ego tripping and denigrating the contributions of his formerly powered friends even as they kiss his ass. Apparently the writer thought the superheroes WERE being arrogant because they weren't bowing at Batman's feet and worshiping him as the greatest superhero of them all. This requires the aesop not to apply to Batman, because he's the single most arrogant person in the story.

* DerailingLoveInterests:
** Lois Lane. Big time. The story suggests that Lois can't love Superman without powers, even though in this continuity, she fell in love with Clark Kent before learning he was Superman, and on top of that, [[ComicBook/SupermanTheWeddingAlbum she married him]] after he had lost his powers during the ''ComicBook/FinalNight'' storyline. This suggests that Moench is basing his characterization of Lois off of either UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} comics or the movies. What's worse is, if the story needed Lois to leave Superman, it could have easily been justified [[{{Wangst}} by his behavior]].

* LostAesop: Is the moral of the story that powers leads to arrogance? You're only a real super hero if you don't have super powers? You should work inside the system? It's never really clearly told. (And no, the aesop is not "Never let Doug Moench write an Elseworlds story ever again.")
* MagicAIsMagicA: failed ''hard,'' with the main characters of the story being huge walking violations of the rules of the black light event. Metahuman powers go away, magic-users vanish, tech remains the same, right? Well, in that case, Superman and Martian Manhunter should be completely unaffected (Martian Manhunter's powers are normal for Martians, Superman's are normal for Kryptonians under a yellow sun; they don't have powers by their races' standard.) Magic-powered Wonder Woman should have vanished instead of being depowered. Green Lantern should be unaffected, since the ring is alien technology.

* OnlySaneMan: As noticed by Linkara, Billy Batson, of all the other superheroes, is the ONLY ''ONE'' to act realistically and even '''maturely''' over all this situation. Keep in mind Billy is twelve!

A Creator/DCComics {{Elseworlds}} storyline by Creator/DougMoench about heroes everywhere losing their powers and learning to live with it. This story was somewhat different from other DC Elseworlds, which normally recast the heroes in completely different times and places, rather being set in a copy of the then current DC Continuity (similar to the ''What If'' stories at Creator/MarvelComics).

** There is no MetaOrigin that encompasses all or even a majority of the DC Comics superheroes, making it highly unlikely that any phenomena could depower all of them. For example, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Starfire and Aquaman all have innate abilities (caused by how their DNA is made up, no less) that are somehow stripped. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, normally, but there is serious inconsistency; a few characters that have ties to mysticism ([[FridgeLogic and could probably explain the whole thing]]) have conveniently vanished, while characters who get their powers from the gods, like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, or are mystical in nature, like Red Tornado, just lose their powers. It's even inconsistently applied with regards to tech heroes. Booster Gold's future tech keeps working while ComicBook/GreenLantern's ring, which is explicitly a technology made by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, stops working. Hank Henshaw is somehow still able to use his powers, despite the fact that the only reason he can be Cyborg Superman is the result of a superpower that allows him to inhabit and control machines. The list goes on.

** Lois Lane. Big time. The story suggests that Lois can't love Superman without powers, even though in this continuity, she fell in love with Clark Kent before learning he was Superman. This suggests that Moench is basing his characterization of Lois off of either UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} comics or the movies. What's worse is, if the story needed Lois to leave Superman, it could have easily been justified [[{{Wangst}} by his behavior]].